hese two all our salvation lies.[5]
So we sing in the most precious of all our hymns,--

Let the water and the blood
From Thy living side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure--
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Although, however, St. John did not perhaps speculate on the reason why
this double outflow took place from the wounded side, others have
occupied themselves with the question.

Some[6] have considered the phenomenon altogether abnormal, and
endeavoured to explain it from the peculiarity of our Lord's humanity.
Though He died. He was not, like other men, to see corruption; His
body was to escape in a few hours, transfigured and glorious, from the
grasp of death. This transforming process, which issued in His
resurrection, began as soon as He was dead; and the spear-thrust,
breaking in on it, so to speak, revealed something altogether unique in
the constitution of His body.

Others, keeping within the limits of ascertained fact, have given a
totally different yet a peculiarly interesting explanation. They have
directed attention to the suddenness of Christ's death. It was usual
for crucified persons to linger for days; but He did not survive more
than six hours. Yet immediately before dying He again and again cried
with a loud voice, as if His bodily force were by no means exhausted.
Suddenly, however, with a loud cry His life terminated. To what could
this be due? It is said that sometimes, under the pressure of intense
mental and physical agony, the heart bursts; there is a shriek, and of
course death is instantaneous. We speak of people dying of a broken
heart--using the phrase only figuratively--but sometimes it can be used
literally: the heart is actually ruptured with grief. Now, it is said
that, when this takes place, the blood contained in the heart is poured
into a sac by which it is surrounded; and there it separates into two
substances--a clotty substance of the colour of blood and a pure,
colourless substance like water. And, if the sac, when in this
condition, were pierced by a spear or any other instrument, there would
flow out a large quantity of both substances, which would by an
unscientific spectator be described as blood and water.

It was by an English medical man that this theory was first propounded
fifty years ago,[7] and it has been adopted by other medical men,
equally famous for their scientific eminence and Christian character,
such as the late Professor