192 



REV. JAMES GOSSET-TAXXEE, M.A., ON 



So the threefold nature of man has the closest possible connec> 

 tion with conversion. "\Mien the great awakening takes place, 

 the man is said to be born of the Spirit." or born from above," 

 and the spirit in man is what is reached and quickened by the 

 Holy Spirit of God. Our Lord expressly tells Xicodemus, " that 

 which is born of the Spirit is spirit " : it is not soul. 



The efltect of the Fall is seen in this. A natural or psychic 

 man has no sense to understand or explain spiritual things : 

 they are to him simply as sounding brass or a tinkhng cymbal. 

 He does not know the real nature of sin, nox its desert. And he 

 cannot grasp the only way of salvation. Xot till the Ithuriel 

 touch of the Holy Spirit has awakened his dormant faculty, 

 do the scales fall from his eyes. Many remain for a long time, 

 like Wesley and AMiitefield in their Oxford days, imder the 

 bondage of the law. But when they emerge into the Hberty 

 wherewith Christ sets His people free, the shackles are broken. 

 There is a great conflict at first, such as St. Paul describes in 

 the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, when the 

 partially-awakened man is " brought into capti^^ity to the law 

 of sin which is in his members." At last he is able to say, " The 

 law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me 

 free from the law of sin and death " (Rom. ^^iii, 2). Bengel 

 makes the valuable remark that the word rrvev^a is seldom used 

 of imbehevers. He would doubtless remember that it describes 

 wicked spirits. 



" AMien the new or pneumatical nature begins to stir under 

 the old or psychical nature, it asserts its rights and claims our 

 whole being, spirit, soul, and body, as the temple of the li^^Jlg 

 God."* So the pneumatic or spiritual man means a man filled 

 with the Spirit. How else can we understand Gal. \\, 1 ? 



Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, 

 restore such an one in the spirit of meekness." Xone but those 

 who hve in the presence of God can carry this out. Let us look 

 a little more closely at the passage with which we began, in 

 1 Thess. V. 23. Auton he o 0eo9 t?)^ elpi^vrj^ a^jiaaai ufta? 

 o\oT6\eZ?, Kai 6\6k\i]pov vfMoyv to irvevfia Kal ?; "^v^V '^■^i- '^^ 

 awiia a/ie/i-TTTO)? iv rfj irapovaLa rov HvpLov J]fi6)v ']r/aov 

 Xpto-ToO T-qpTjOeh]. " The word oXoreXi]^, which occurs nowhere 

 else in the New Testament, is clearly contrasted with the follow- 

 ing oXoKK-qpov, and the contrast is that between totus and integer, 



* Tripartite Nature of Man, p. 219. 



