This definition we believe will hold good, and apply to any passage in the New Testament where it may occur.  Though some contend that it very seldom has reference to an immortal existence, yet we strenuously contend that there is no propriety in the phrase only in connexion with such an existence.  We cannot enter or be born into the kingdom of God by faith, unless we admit the reality in the first place to have an existence, any more than we could, by faith, enjoy eternal life unless there is such a reality as eternal life beyond the grave.  The above, the reader will please to fix in his mind.

We now perceive that man drops into the sleep of death, and that the resurrection, or new birth is his only hope of a future happy state of existence, and is the only change that can free him from imperfection, and sin, and make him a new creature in a new and immortal existence beyond the grave.

We will here introduce an example to make our argument so far plain.  Suppose you were now in ignorance respecting the doctrine of life and immortality through a resurrection.  You know you must die, and sincerely think that death will terminate your existence forever.  You see your children one after another laid upon their dying bed, and with distraction shake the farewell hand of eternal separation, and with the most solemn melancholy and wo, look forward to the period when you must follow them down to the chambers of eternal silence, and cease to be.

In this moment of dread solemnity and gloom, suppose some kind angel should appear at the bed-side of your expiring child, and kindly inquire, why are you troubled?  You answer, because my children have fallen!—­the last of my infant train lies panting for breath, and the dreadful hour has come when all those silken affections, that build our hearts love, must be rent assunder, and in the awful bosom of death, be extinguished forever!—­Suppose your guardian angel smiling over the ruins of death, should point you far beyond these changing scenes, and with rapture exclaim, you shall meet this darling child again and commingle with your little fallen flock in glory!  You and they and all mankind shall be born from the dead into the kingdom of God, and be new creatures free from sin and pain, and “be the children of God being the children of the resurrection.”  Jesus your Lord “was the first born from the dead,” and you shall pass from death to life and live forever.

Now suppose you positively believed his words; could you not say in the scripture form of the expression that through faith you was already “passed from death to life?”—­that you was born of faith, and by faith was in the kingdom of God?  You certainly could, and it would in every sense of the word be true.  Through faith, you would be justified, through faith sanctified; through faith you would enjoy eternal life—­in fine, through faith you would be saved.  This faith would give love unmeasured to your Creator, and fill your soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  “Faith works by love, purifies the heart and overcomes the world.”