If a person of mature age is converted and baptized in a church where sprinkling is the form of baptism employed, and then lives a life of surrender to God that demonstrates the power of the Spirit to cleanse from the old sins, would such a one, upon being led to a conviction of further truth and of the inadequate symbolism of sprinkling for baptism, be naturally called to go through the ordinance of immersion? In the text, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,” can not the water be regarded as symbolic of the cleansing power of Christ’s redemption as applied to the past life? s. First, the question really answers itself. It may be remarked, however, that one who is sprinkled is not baptized. He may believe that he is, and in that belief conscience is satisfied; but the word “baptize,” which is the Greek word, means not to sprinkle, but to “dip,” to “whelm,” to “immerse.” It is the only baptism there is; and when one learns that his baptism was “inadequate,” and the symbolism was “inadequate,” there is but one thing for him to do, and that is to walk in the light. The life of the Christian, if it be a progressive, faithful life, is one constant revelation of the inadequacy and imperfection of the old things. That Christian life is to be pitied which does not see greater advancement, and does not have a constant reaching out for more light, for greater victories, for clearer vision. This does not mean that the works of the past, even though mistaken, may not have been wrought in God. This wonderful truth is expressed by our Lord in John 3:20, 21: “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” The man whose moral life has been from wrong motives, does not want to come to the light. He hates it. He fears that his deeds will be reproved. He does not want to know that which will condemn him in the past or that which will involve a cross in the future. His neighbor, whose life, so far as outward appearance is concerned, seems to be about the same in every respect, works from a different motive. All that he has done has been done with a desire to glorify God and do His will, and therefore in heart he has been doing truth. He always seeks more light. He comes to the light, that all the deeds that he has wrought in the past, mistaken though they may have been, are “made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” And so the one who may have been sprinkled—with conscience satisfied at that time, because he believed he was doing the truth—demonstrates that he was doing the truth, by following in the greater light when it comes to him. That would, of course, lead him to be immersed. Immersion is truly expressive of faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, while sprinkling has no such symbolism. The last question: Water and the sprinkling of water are used as a symbol of cleansing, because the unclean in Levitical times was sprinkled with water; but that was not with the idea that the water itself cleansed. It was simply an accompaniment of the judicial sentence of the priest that pronounced the sinner clean. See Lev. 14:1-7; Ps. 51:7; Eze. 36:25.