When the former Chaplain General of the British Army was in this country at the time of the D. L. Moody Centenary meetings, it was my privilege to hear him preach. The sanctuary was crowded with eager listeners, to whom he spoke most solemnly, yet tenderly, about the necessity of the new birth, using the text "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). As a telling illustration, he related the following incident:

On one occasion, he told us, he was preaching in a large cathedral on this same text. In order to drive it home, he said; "My dear people, do not substitute anything for the new birth. You may be a member of a church, but church membership is not new birth. The rector was sitting at my left. Pointing to him, I said, You might be a clergyman like my friend the rector, here, and not be born again. On my right sat the archdeacon. Pointing directly at him, I said, You might even be an archdeacon and not be born again, and 'except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God'."

A day later he received a letter from the archdeacon saying, "You have found me out. I have been a clergyman for over thirty years, but I had never known anything of the joy that Christians speak of. I did not know what was the matter with me, but when you pointed directly to me and said, 'You might even be an archdeacon and not be born again,' I realized in a moment what the trouble was. I had never known anything of the new birth."

It was a striking example of the sad possibility of being deceived with a false profession and going on for years not understanding one's true condition before God.

—H.A. Ironside