plunge as a physical act. This fundamental position of the author is very feebly supported. The chief argument offered is the alleged presumption that a derivative would not take the principal meaning of the parent word. He says: "That any language should give birth to a word which was but a bald repetition of one already in existence is a marvel that may be believed when proved.” But in assuming this Dr. Dale is plainly in error; for, as a matter of fact, derivative words in Greek often take the main signification of the parent word, because the derivative has a stronger form, and is on that account preferred. Cremer's Lexicon will furnish any Greek scholar with numerous examples of this. Thus, katharizo, derived from kathairo, to cleanse; rantizo, from raino, to sprinkle; methusko, from methuo, to be drunk,-these are all derivatives which, in whole or in part, displaced the parent words, but which retained, as their most common meaning, precisely the signification of the radical form. These are only a few instances of many that might be adduced, and the Dale theory thus utterly fails, even in its initial proposition. Nor is he more successful in the passages cited in support of this novel definition, for none of them require the proposed sense of "a thoroughly-changed condition;" on the contrary, most of them imperatively demand the primary sense of bapto as the fundamental idea. Thus, a drunken man is described as "baptized in wine," where the man may indeed be conceived as placed in "a thoroughly-changed condition " by the wine; but it is far more natural to interpret the expression as a figure, in which he is represented as overborne, overwhelmed, under the influence of wine. A person "baptized in debts," "in sleep," "in night," "in grief," may possibly thereby come into "a thoroughly-changed condition," but this would be equally true if he were overwhelmed, im

mersed, enveloped, in these, yet no one would thence infer that the words overwhelm, immerse, envelop, signified simply "to thoroughly change the condition." Plainly, in all these cases the verb expresses not only a condition produced, but the form in which that condition is produced; and, indeed, Dr. Dale virtually admits this view when he affirms that the act by which this change of condition is effected usually involves an "intusposition," or the placing of the baptized within some element.

2. BAPTO and BAPTIZO, he further assumes, belong to distinct classes of active transitive verbs, the one expressing action, the other condition. Bapto belongs to the first class, always expressing the act by which a condition is produced; baptizo belongs to the second, always expressing a condition produced, and never the act or the form of the act producing it. Baptizo, therefore, always expressing condition only, never means to dip, to plunge, or any other definite form of an act; it always expresses the condition which results from an act, without reference to the form of the act effecting it. This distinction the author insists on with special emphasis, denying in the most positive manner that "baptizo expresses a definite act of any kind." The same distinction, he holds, exists in the Latin and the English. Thus, the English words dip and plunge represent the first class; but the words whelm, soak, wet, bury, belong to the second, and describe a result or a condition effected, but do not indicate the act by which the condition was effected. In this distinction, however, Dr. Dale is singularly unfortunate, for what he affirms of bapto is true of it only in the active voice, since in the passive it often expresses condition only; and what, on the other hand, he affirms of baptizo is true of it only in the passive, since in the active it commonly expresses action, and a definite form of action. Thus, bapto, in Rev. xix. 13,

"clothed in a garment dipped (bebammenon) in blood," certainly does not express the act of dipping, but the condition or state, as having been dipped. On the other hand, when Plutarch says, "Baptison seauton, Plunge thyself into the sea,"* and Chrysostom praises David because "he did not (baptisai) plunge in the sword nor sever" the head of Saul,† both clearly indicate an act of definite form. To translate these passages, Thoroughly change thyself into the sea; He did not thoroughly change the sword into Saul's head, would make the veriest nonsense. A multitude of similar examples might be cited. The classification is equally untrue as applied to English words. Thus, it is said plunge belongs to the class always denoting action, and never condition. But the slightest attention to the English usage suffices to disprove this. Our author himself furnishes the needed examples. Thus:

"Plunged in the deep for ever let me lie,
Whelmed under seas,"

"Or plunged in lakes of bitter marshes lie,
Or wedged whole ages in a bodkin's eye."

We may also add the familiar couplet of Watts:

“Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,

We wretched sinners lay."

It is evident that in these examples, as in many others, the word plunged does not denote the act of plunging, but a condition, or state, as plunged. This fundamental position of the theory, therefore, utterly fails when tested by actual usage.

3. "BAPTIZO," according to Dr. Dale, " in its primary use, expresses condition characterized by complete intusposition, without expressing, and with absolute indifference to, the form of the * On Superstition, iii. † Discourse, iii., 7.

a com

act by which such intusposition may be effected, as also without other limitations-TO MERSE. It will be observed here the author admits, as he needs must, that baptizo, in its primary sense, expresses a condition which involves plete intusposition," or the putting the person baptized into some element; but he contends that the manner of the intusposition is not indicated. He further insists that, while an intusposition is implied, the taking out of the baptized from the element is not implied; so that, in the case of a human being, the intusposition implied in baptizo would involve drowning. Here, however, it must be noted that all we affirm of baptizo is—what the author here admits-that it involves an actual intusposition: the manner of effecting the intusposition is immaterial. And, in regard to the taking of the baptized out of the element, it is not necessary that the word should, in itself, express this part of the act of baptism, since the circumstances, in each instance of its use, sufficiently indicate the fact. Thus the word immerse does not, in itself, either in Latin or English, express the emersion of the person or thing immersed; nevertheless, it is used in numberless instances for a momentary immersion, wholly equivalent to dip or plunge. As a matter of fact, however, baptizo is often used to express a momentary immersion. Plutarch describes the soldiers of Alexander as dipping (baptisontes) with cups from large wine-jars and mixing-bowls, and drinking to one another; where Liddell and Scott define its meaning, "To draw wine from bowls in cups," and add, “of course by dipping them." Hippocrates, describing the respiration of a patient, says: "She breathed as persons breathe after having been immersed (ek tou bebaptisthai).” * And Achilles Tatius, speaking of the manner in which the Egyptian boatman drinks water from the Nile, says: "He

* Epidemics, book v.

lets down his hand into the water, and dipping (baptisas) it hollowed, and filling it with water, he darts the draught toward his mouth and hits the mark."* In all these cases, as in a multitude of others, the word is plainly used, as the English word dip, to express an action which includes not only the putting of an object in or under some element, but also the immediate withdrawing of it. When, therefore, Dr. Dale concedes that an intusposition, or the putting within an element, is involved in the primary use of the word, he has conceded the main point insisted on by us: the manner of the intusposition, and the withdrawal of the baptized out of the enveloping element, are decided necessarily by the circumstances and the relations in which the word is used.

4. "BAPTIZO," the author adds, "in secondary uses, expresses condition, the result of complete influence, effected by any possible means, and in any conceivable way." By this he means, as he further explains, that no form of the act effecting the condition is implied, but that baptism expresses a condition resulting from complete influence, irrespective of the form in which that influence is exerted. Thus, a man under a sense of his sins says: "Iniquities baptize me❞— that is, he is in a condition thoroughly under the influence of iniquities. A sleeping man is "baptized in sleep "that is, he is in a condition thoroughly under the influence of sleep. Baptizo, the author insists, is not here used figuratively, but has its literal, natural sense: it simply expresses the condition of these men as under a complete influence, the one from iniquities; the other, from sleep. On this construction of the word the theory of Dr. Dale chiefly rests, but precisely here is one of his fatal mistakes. The figurative usage of baptizo he treats as a secondary literal usage; this word, however, has no secondary literal

* Story of Clitophon and Leucippe, book iii., chap. i.