"We should mark, lastly, iji these verses, the reality and truth of Chrisfs death. We are told that " one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forth- with came there out blood and water." This incident, small as it may seem at first sight, supplies probable proof that the heart of our blessed Lord was pierced, and that life was consequently extinct. He did not merely faint, or swoon away, or become insensible, as some have dared to insinuate. His heart actually ceas- ed to beat, and He actually died. Great, indeed, was the importance of this fact. We must all see, on a mo- ment's reflection, that without a real death there could be no real sacrifice; that without a real death there could be no real resurrection ; and that without a real death and real resurrection, the whole of Christianity is a house built on sand, and has no foundation at all. Little indeed did that reckless Roman soldier dream that he was a mighty helper of our holy religion, when he thrust his spear into our Lord's side.
That the " blood and water " mentioned in this place had a deep spiritual meaning, we can hardly doubt. St. John himself seems to refer to them in his first Epis- tle, as highly significant. " This is He that came by water and blood." (1 John v. 6.) The Church in every age has been of one mind in holding that they are em- blems of spiritual things. Yet the precise meaning of the blood and water is a subject about which Christians have never agreed, and perhaps will never agree until the Lord returns.
The favorite theory that the blood and water mean the two Sacraments, however plausible and popular, may be reasonably regarded as somewhat destitute of solid foundation. Baptism and the Lord's Supper were ordinances already in existence when our Lord died, and they needed no reappointing. It is surely not necessary