As to _baptizo_, enough has already appeared to render it certain that the definition heretofore insisted on by Baptists is untenable, and that the word, in itself, determines nothing as to form. It was formerly maintained as unquestionable, that _bapto_ and _baptizo_ are strictly equivalent; and that the meaning is, “to dip, and nothing but dip.” This assumption may now be considered obsolete. It is definitely abandoned by the ablest representatives of immersion. Dr. Conant having been appointed thereto by the American (Baptist) Bible Union entered into an elaborate investigation of “The Meaning and Use of _Baptizo_.” In a treatise published under that title, he thus states the result. “The word, _immerse_, as well as its synonyms, _immerge_, etc., expresses the full import of the Greek word, _baptizein_. The idea of emersion is not included in it. It means simply to put into or under water; without determining whether the object immersed sinks to the bottom, or floats in the liquid, or is immediately taken out. This is determined, not by the word, itself, but by the design of the act, in each particular case. A living being, put under water without intending to drown him, is of course to be immediately withdrawn from it; and this is to be understood, whenever the word is used with reference to such a case. But the Greek word is also used where a living being is put under the water for the purpose of drowning, and of course is left to perish in the immersing element.”[102] It is of the primary meaning of the word that Dr. Conant here speaks. As we have already seen, he also recognizes a secondary meaning, the importance of which he entirely ignores. As to the former, the admission here transcribed is conclusive, although obscured by ambiguous and impertinent explanations. No verb can “determine” any thing subsequent to the completion of its own proper action. The healed paralytic, “_departed_ to his own house.” “Paul _arose_ and was baptized.” “John _came_ baptizing.” He that should explain that “departed” does not of necessity imply that he never returned, that Paul may have sat down again; and that for all the meaning of “came” John may afterward have gone away, would be held guilty of puerile trifling. Of course, _baptizo_ determines nothing but its own action. The explanation of Dr. C. that the word does not determine whether the object sinks to the bottom or is immediately taken out, is not trifling, because open to a more serious charge. It is a diligent, although undoubtedly unconscious obscuring of the subject, induced by the instinctive recoil of the author’s own mind from the picture drawn by his definition. He is therefore impelled to retire it into the background and veil its nakedness in the drapery of explanations, by which he is as much confounded as are his readers,—explanations wholly impertinent to the question in hand, which is the meaning of _baptizo_. That word, in its primary classic sense, as