3io THE OLIVE LEAK CHAP. 



Through the death of the old man there is the resur- 

 rection of the new man. All that is connected with 

 the old life of sin and unbelief is taken from us and 

 carried down to the Dead Sea. The body of sin is 

 drowned in the waters of forgiveness, and shall no 

 more rise up against us. Like the stones in the bed 

 of the Jordan, there is no resurrection for that which 

 was connected with our former dead sinful selves. 

 And how precious is the significance of the buried 

 stones when looked at in this light ! It is not a 

 truth that pleases the intelligence by its ingenuity 

 only ; it is a truth that satisfies the heart by its suit- 

 ableness to its wants. The Israelites could not have 

 understood the full meaning of the symbolic rite to 

 which they were parties. They had a partial com- 

 prehension of what the memorial stones placed in 

 the bed of the Jordan indicated. But Christ has 

 come, and the Spirit has taken the things that are 

 Christ's and shown them to us; and now the Gospel 

 sheds its light back upon the strange stones, and 

 shows to us the link which was not seen under the 

 law, between the waters that cleansed and the waters 

 that overwhelmed in destructive judgment. It was 

 not manifest to the Israelites what has been re- 

 vealed to us by the death of Christ that cleansing 

 by means of death was God's appointed way. Jesus 

 came not by water only but by water and blood. He 

 came to purify men from their sins by His own blood ; 

 and Christian baptism, Christian conversion, combines 

 the two things, judgment and life, death and resur- 



