The Indianapolis Journal

PREACHED TO SOLDIERS.
The Rev. Virgil W. Tevis at the Fair Grounds Camp.
Rev. Virgil W. Tevis, of Fletcher-place M. E. Church, preached to the soldiers at the fair grounds last night from John iii, 1-3. Dr. Tevis said, in short:
"There is apparently not much connection between these verses. Nicodemus is speaking in complimentary tone of the miracles Jesus had performed. The Master emphasizes the necessity of the new birth. Really the subject between them was the kingdom of God. Christ teaches Nicodemus that his kingdom is spiritual, and that a new birth is necessary to its apprehension.
"Men do not comprehend the kingdom of God when they limit it to creeds. It is broader than any creed. Greater than all combined. Now and then a man gets hold of an idea and thinks he has it all, as one might think himself the master of the piano because he can play one tune. Subscription to a creed is no inference that the subscriber is in the kingdom of God, any more than a subscriber to a library is necessarily a literary man.
"Men do not comprehend the kingdom of God when they view it from the standpoint of flesh and blood. How, then, are we able to apprehend these higher things? Only by a process of birth. After all, in a sense life is a succession of births. Birth is an awakening to realities hitherto unknown. The flowers were here before our tiny fingers clutched them, but we had our first experience with them. At first a child is satisfied with kite and marbles, but ambition is born. Possibilities crowd upon him. He forsakes his marbles for the study table and his game for the realities of life. There comes a time when love is born. The world is transformed to him and he to the world.
"No man can come to his highest nature without the aid of the Holy Spirit, and it requires the development of our highest nature to see the kingdom of God. We cannot find our highest mental development without the aid of teachers. We could not even talk until we were taught.
"When we are born from above our horizon is broadened. Insignificant things appear great. Spiritual meanings are wrapped up in material things. Types and symbols fall away like the ugly shell of the seed when the flower first blushes at the sun. If religion is good for anything, it must be good for two worlds. Materialism will not fit the next. Spirituality fits both this life and the life to come. Who of us apprehends the kingdom of God? Behold its wondrous beauty, its symmetrical proportions? I preach to the man down. You may come up. I preach to the heart whose music is hushed. You may have divine harmonies, but only by being born from above."