The Science of Conversion 67 into a real child of God. Not merely a son of God, but an actually born child, so that by birth he becomes an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ to a heavenly inheritance. That the Divine power is sufficient for such an achievement is not to be questioned for a moment. But does the work fall within the range of scientific investigation and are the methods to be used strictly scientific ? Is the Divine method in applying complete salvation to this awfully degenerate soul really scien- tific? Is it supposable that God is less scientific in this the very greatest of all His works than He is in the lesser things in His government? Does He work by one set of laws in the natural world, and by different laws, or no laws at all, in the higher spiritual realm? But if God is scientific—i f the conversion of the human soul is accomplished by scientific methods—it follows that the work is best done when done by God’s methods, if indeed it can be done at all in any other way. And if God’s method is scientific, has He adequately revealed to us His method so that it can be certainly and successfully used by us as His workers ? And if this revelation is made to us we dare not depart from God’s method, whatever other methods may be suggested. For, if we depart from the methods God has given and by which God Himself works, our work will be a failure entirely or the results will be inadequate and spurious. 4. THE MEANS DISCOVERED God’s proposition being stated and His methods being scientific, we must next discover the means by which the work is to be accomplished. Let it be remembered that in all things pertaining to man in both temporal and spiritual matters God works by means, and usually through human agencies. But in the work of converting the human soul it is evident that the means are twofold. First, those means applied direct
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