The taking away the sin of the world by the Lamb of God, who is the
resurrection and the life, is through death. Through death, to our
faith and hope, he has destroyed "him who hath the power of death,
that is the devil." The washing away of all sin, by the power of God,
is through death and the resurrection. _Then_ and not till then shall
the song of triumph be sung by redeemed millions--"O death! Where is
thy sting? O grave! Where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law", &c.

All the figures of baptism point to _death_--all the sacrifices for
sin, slain under the law for 4000 years, point to death, declaring
that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. There the
reality lies. There we are called upon to anchor our faith and hope
even within the veil. And it must be a _certain truth_ that our sins
are to be washed away through the Jordan of death, before we can be
called upon to believe it. It must be a _certain reality_ that sin is
there to be purged away, before we could, with any propriety, use
baptism in water as a shadow of it; because the _shadow_ cannot create
the _substance_.

We have now shown that as man is naturally born into this world, so he
shall be spiritually born into the kingdom of God. We have shown by
comparison that except a man be born of a woman, he cannot see this
world; and as this does not mean that he must be born twenty days
before he comes forth from the womb, as a preparation for entering
this world, so the expression, "except a man be born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God," does not mean that he must be born twenty
days before death as a preparation for entering a future existence.
The new birth, no more means a _reality_ that is to transpire _here_,
than natural birth means some change we underwent prior to our being