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 The chief work in regeneration—by far the most difficult part of this work—consists not in learning or understanding, but in doing, the truth. And we are not in, or members of, the Lord's true church unless we religiously live the truth we understand, and so bring our hearts into conformity with its requirements.

We have abundant authority, then, for believing that it is the state of each one's heart or the nature of his ruling love, which settles the question of his being in or out of the true church—a child of the kingdom or a child of the wicked one. And since no eye save that of the all-seeing One can penetrate beneath appearances and look upon the heart, therefore He only can know who are his people, or who really belong to his church for the members of his true church are not and cannot be known to men. People often appear so different outwardly from what they are inwardly. Outwardly they appear righteous sometimes, while within they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Very good works (outwardly viewed) may sometimes spring from base and selfish motives; in which case they are good only on the outside—like fruit decayed and rotten at the core. How, then, can the Lord's kingdom be so organized as to exist in a distinct and visible form here on earth?—and the New Jerusalem is his kingdom (See A. C. 402, 940, C. L. 431.) Societies and