ath the baptizing waters, he was
typically dead and buried, as Jesus was in the tomb; when he rose
from the waters into the air again, he figuratively represented
Christ rising from the dead into heaven. Henceforth, therefore, he
was to consider himself as dead to all worldly sins and lusts,
alive to all heavenly virtues and aspirations. "Therefore," the
apostle says, "we are buried with Christ by baptism unto death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we should
walk in newness of life." "In that Christ died, he died unto sin
once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God." "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
This was strictly true to the immediate disciples of Jesus. When
he died, their hearts died within them; they shrank away in
hopeless confusion and gloom. When he returned to life and
ascended to heaven, in feeling and imagination they went with him.
Every moral power and motive started into new life and energy.

"The day when from the dead Our Lord arose, then everywhere, Out
of their darkness and despair, Triumphant over fears and foes, The
souls of his disciples rose."

An unheard of assurance of the Father's love and of their eternal
inheritance flooded their being with its regenerating, uplifting
power. To their absorbing anticipations the mighty consummation of
all was at hand. In reflective imagination it was already past,
and they, dead to the world, only lived to God. The material world
and the lust thereof had sunk beneath them and vanished. They were
moving in the universe of imperishable realities unseen by the
fleshly eye. To their faith already was unrolled over them that
new firmament in whose spanless welkin no cloudy tempests ever
gather and break, and the serene lights never fade nor go down.
This experience of a spiritual exaltation above the sins and
degrading turmoils of passion, above the perishing baubles of the
earth, into the religious principles which are independent and
assured, peace, and bliss, and eternity, is attainable by all who
with the earnestness of their souls assimilate the moral truths of
Christianity, pressing in pious trust after the steps of the risen
Master. And this, after all, is the vital essence of the doctrine
of the resurrection as it makes practical appeal to us. This will