WATER.

Just as the Law of Judaism was a type, or shadow, of good things to come (Christianity), and not the very image of those things (Heb. 10:11), so is Nature.

Water is a type of the word of God, as every one acquainted with the Scriptures knows.

Apparently God has chosen the commonest things in Nature-water, light, food, etc.-as types of the more fundamental truths which are of vital importance to the sinner; while those which are more for the edification and enjoyment of the saint are found in the less common things-precious stones, fabrics, dyestuffs, etc. Thus the vital truths are, as it were, forced upon the attention of all.

If this be true, then we should expect to find in water truths of the first importance. Let us compare the prominent characteristics of water, and see how many details exactly match their spiritual counterpart-the word of God.

Life-giving.-Water is one of the few elements absolutely necessary, not only for all minimal and vegetable life, but also for the formation of minerals:there could be no crystallization of rocks without it. In the case of animal life, there can be no digestion or assimilation of food without it. In the vegetable world, no absorption or transfer of food, and no growth. It is water that starts into activity the dry, dead-looking seed, that may have lain dormant for many years, and without which it could never grow.

Just so, in the beginning it was the word of God that called into being all that was made, and brought
life into a scene of death. Now it gives life to those who are spiritually dead, and it is the only means of growth and development. The seeds are only apparently dead; souls are really so (Eph. 2:1).

From Heaven.-To guilty man heaven is indeed a far country, but it is the source of the word of God; and fresh water–its type-comes from thence also. See Prov. 25:25; Isa. 55:8-11. As to the expression "returneth not thither," it returns not until it has accomplished its mission; then it evaporates, and returns invisibly to repeat the story-visibly coming down.

Composition.-Water is a chemical compound-two parts hydrogen, and one part oxygen. Both are gases, suggesting heaven as their native place. Oxygen is the life-giving element in air and water, and answers to the Son, in whom is life, who gives and sustains it (John i:4; Acts 17:25; Heb. i:3). It burns with an intense white light. Hydrogen is the lightest of gases, burning with a nearly invisible blue flame, and easily suggests the Holy Spirit. Blue is not only the color of heaven, but the blue and ultra blue rays are the chemical parts of light, though invisible, that make the photograph, as the Holy Spirit is the effective, unseen worker in the soul. The elements of water, then, are two gases with nothing of earth-no solids. So the living Word, in its activities, combines the second and third persons of the Trinity, with nothing of man (John 3:5; i Peter i:23; i Cor. 2:13).

Power in Blessing.-"As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth:it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:10, 11)

Adverse Power.-All solids and gases are contracted by cold and expanded by heat. Water is a remarkable exception to the rule:it is contracted by cold until 39 F. is reached:then it expands with an energy that is, as far as I know, irresistible, but irresistible in destruction. Water-pipes stretch, or burst, in freezing. Quarrymen stop work before cold weather, because, if any sap remains within the stone, and freezes, the stone bursts, no matter how large or strong it may be. Water is a principal agent in the disintegration of rocks, by infiltration into the cracks, then freezing and slowly forcing them open.

God, in reversing at a certain point (39) the universal law of contraction by cold and expansion by heat, in a most wonderful way has described this most important truth-the adverse power of the word of God. Incidentally He has also taken occasion to display His wisdom in the economy of nature. If it followed the law of contraction below this point, all our seas, lakes and rivers would long ago have frozen solid from the bottom upward, and with no possibility of thawing; and animal and vegetable life would have been impossible. This has often been commented on, and the wisdom of it admired by many who would deny the parallel spiritual truth.

But, if cold suggests opposition and destruction, warmth, on the other hand, suggests friendship, affection, and a beneficial power. Heated water, or steam, represents the power of the word of God for blessing. Practically, all the useful power in the world is water. Railroads, steamboats and factories are run by steam, and even the electric current is generated by steam, or water-power. Not a single one of all our eternal blessings have we apart from the word of God. We are born again by the word of God (i Pet. i:23); we are sanctified by the word of God (John 17 :17); we grow by the word of God (i Peter 2:2); we are furnished unto all good works by the word of God (2 Tim. 3:14-17), etc., etc.

Mastery.-Six, in Scripture, seems to denote mastery, either in evil or good. Three times expressed, it is the number of the name of the beast (Rev. 13:18), in whom is found the climax of evil. But six is also the number of this irresistible power of water, before which nothing can abide. Every drop of water crystallizes at angles of 60, or one-sixth of a circle :snowflakes are either six-pointed stars or bundles of six-sided prisms, like lead-pencils, or combinations of these forms. No matter how great the variety is -and no two are alike-the six is conspicuous in the structure when viewed under a magnifying glass. This may be seen to advantage if a saucer of water is left partly to freeze, and is poured off before it becomes solid.

Thus the highest powers of evil must fall under the irresistible power of Him '' out of whose mouth goeth a sharp two-edged sword " (Rev. i:16)-the word of God. Notice that when Pharaoh despised and refused the word of God, he was overthrown in water-type of what he had defied. He still has to face the reality. Would judgment in any other form have been so fitting in such defiance as his?

Incompressibility. – Under a pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, the bulk of water is reduced but one twenty-thousandth; that is, if a non-elastic pipe one half a mile long were filled with water, and pressure applied at one end, it would squeeze it together about one-eighth of an inch. Even under enormous pressure, it is practically un-yielding; and this is why it is used in hydraulic presses. By way of comparison, cast-iron, the strongest of metals, is reduced about one-fifteenth of its bulk in the process of manufacture into wrought-iron, which would be equal to about 170 feet in half a mile.

Water is not absolutely incompressible, and for a very good reason-types always fall short of their antitypes.

This passive power of resistance is different from the active energy displayed in freezing. Thus the vicious and relentless attacks made upon God's word by the enemy throughout the centuries past, and now more than ever by means of "Higher Criticism " and other covert ways, to belittle and destroy it, have only brought out its faultless accuracy and perfection:its resistance to man's attacks is marvelous:none but God's word could have resisted thus. "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken " is passive resistance; "but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder " is its active and crushing power displayed in judgment (Matt. 21:44).

We have, then, three directions in which its power is manifested:in blessing, in passive resistance, and in active opposition. Each picture is perfect, and differs from the others. T. M.

(To be continued, D. V.)