4b And they came to Jericho : and as he went out of Jericho with bis disciples and a great number of people, blind BartimaeuB, the son of Timseus, sat by the highway side begging.
47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of Da- vid, have mercy on me.
48 And many charged him that he should hold his peace : but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David have mercy on me.
49 And Jesus stood still, and com- manded him to be called. And they
call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise ; he calleth thee.
50 And he, casting away his gar- ment, rose, and came to Jesus.
51 And Jesus answered and said unto Him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might re- ceive my sight.
52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way ; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
We read in these verses an account of one of our Lord's miracles. Let us see in it, as we read, a vivid emblem of spiritual things. We are not studying a history which concerns us personally any more than the exploits of Caesar or Alexander. We have before us a picture which ought to be deeply interesting to the soul of every Christian.
This is a point that ought to be remembered in interpreting some of the passages in the Epistles where the words " baptism" and " baptized" are used. In such texts, for instance, as " baptism doth save us," (1 Peter hi. 21,) or " as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ," (G-al. hi. 27,) it is clear that something more is contained than any mere outward ordinance. In both cases, the baptism of water is undoubtedly meant, but it is no less evident that something is implied also of deeper moment than any ordinance administered by man. In both cases it is a baptism which is accom- panied by true faith, and a heart-reception of Christ, such as was the baptism of the Philippian jailer. To quote such texts in support of what is commonly called the baptismal regeneration of infants, is to wrest and pervert them from their proper meaning. The conclusion of the text in St. Peter, for example, seems to place this beyond ques- tion. He emphatically warns us not to suppose that he means nothing more than the washing of water, or bodily reception of a sacrament, by the word baptism.
It has been a wise act on the part of translators of the New Tes- tament to adhere to the Greek words "baptize" and "baptism" in rendering the Bible into the vernacular tongue of each nation. No other words could possibly imply all that the two Greek words