final act by which persons come into Christ. "So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death." a It is sacred, uniting the names of the Deity. It is the only act required to be performed in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the sacred names invoked upon persons who are baptized into Christ. Again, it is the only ordinance representing both the burial and the resurrection of Christ. The early Christians were immersed, they were not sprinkled or poured. All scholars of note admit that immersion was the primitive practise, and many passages of Scripture will not make sense unless thus translated. All persons, therefore, who came into the primitive church were buried in baptism. Thus we read, "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him . . . from the dead." Again, "we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." There are some who have changed this ordinance and have utterly destroyed its meaning by instituting other things in its stead, which do not represent the burial and the resurrection of Christ. It is distressing, therefore, to see water sprinkled upon a person as baptism in the sacred names of Deity. We feel like exclaiming with Mary at the tomb, "they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him."

b

c Rom. vi. 4, 5.

There are three ordinances or monumental institutions which to-day are proof of the great facts-the death, the burial, and resurrection of Christ, which facts Paul declares to be "the gospel." a First, the Lord's Day, which is now kept, and has been from the first, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. Second, the Lord's Supper, which is observed in memory of the fact of His death. Third, baptism, which represents or typifies both His burial and His resur

rection.

These important memorial ordinances have not been properly emphasized as an argument in proof of the facts which they represent. They are living links in a chain that reaches back to the cross and the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. The ordinances were used in the days of the apostles as proof of these facts. Paul, in writing to the Galatians, says: “O, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you." How could Christ be set forth crucified among the Galatians in Asia Minor unless the fact was shown by partaking of the emblems of His broken body and shed blood. This accords with his statement to the Corinthians when he says, "As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come." So that when the followers of Christ partake of the Lord's Supper they show the fact of His death. When the first day of the week is observed in memory of the resurrection it shows also this great

a

fact. When persons are immersed they show forth both facts-the burial and resurrection of Christ." Divine wisdom has established them all, and they will go on together testifying to the great work of redemption, and the great facts of the gospel until time

shall end.

a Rom. vi. 3-5.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE CHURCH COMPLETE

Was Infant Baptism Taught? The Church Congregational. Cooperation and Extension. Its History Complete in the Scriptures. Duties of Church Members.

We observe in the first place that infant baptism was not taught or practised by the Church of Christ. Jeremiah says, speaking of the new covenant: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." a

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes the

a Jer. xxxi. 31-34.

66

above and identifies it as the gospel covenant, and declares that it has taken the place of the old. One of the distinguishing features of the new is declared to be that those in the new covenant shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest." In this regard it was not according to the old covenant. In the old covenant persons were members by reason of birth-they were born into that relation and, hence, when arriving at the age of understanding they had to be taught to "know the Lord." But in the gospel covenant persons become members by faith in Christ. They are taught to "know the Lord" before they become members, and hence it is not necessary that they be taught again to "know the Lord." The old was a fleshly covenant, its membership resting on a fleshly basis; the new is a spiritual kingdom whose membership rests on a spiritual basis. Membership in the old rested on the fatherhood of Abraham, in the new it rests on the fatherhood of God by adoption through Christ.

During the thirty years' history of the apostles, as given in the Acts, we read of men and women “hearing, believing, and being baptized." In no case anywhere do we read of the baptism of any but believers. It is said that the jailer "was baptized, he and all his straightway." We also read that "he believed in God with all his house." All his house therefore believed with him and then were baptized.

a Heb. viii. 6-13.