themselves into obedience to God and benevolence to man. All these combined constitute religion. Faith, and feeling, and practice, go hand in hand and produce that beautiful harmony which constitutes true religion.

How different is all this from that mystic philosophy which pretends to be an advance on Christianity as it existed in the time of its divine Founder and his apostles-a progressive movement to meet the superior intelligence of the age. To young friends who are preparing for the ministry I would earnestly say, "Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." If you are satisfied that the bible is God's book, take it as your guide, the light of your feet, and the lamp of your path. Seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit in all your Gatscombe House, Portsmouth.

inquiries after truth. The vain jargon of the schools is now what it has ever been, a mist rising from the stagnant pool of human pride, to obscure the simple truth which shines like a sunbeam in the pages of the divine word. Guided by that word you will not only save yourselves but them that hear you. The simple gospel is equally adapted to all states of society. To the learned and unlearned, to the savage and the civilized, it is equally the power of God unto salvation. Be determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is a fearful thing to pander to the false taste of any age or state of society. No refinement in language or thought can atone for the want of the simplicity that is in Christ. A dying moment will convince us all that all preaching that hides the cross is worthless, nay more, ruinous.

THE EFFECTS OF INFANT BAPTISM.

BY THE HON. AND REV. BAPTIST WRIOTHESLEY NOEL, M.A. ITs first effect is to abolish almost entirely in any church and in any nation the baptism of believers. It is not an addition to the baptism of believers, but supersedes it; because when a nation adopts the profession of Christianity, almost all its children are baptized, and there remain no adults unbaptized. The consequence is, that all the effects of the baptism of believers vanish with it. A baptism of dedication, not sanctioned by Christ, and of which no instance is found in the New Testament, has abolished the baptism of profession instituted by Christ, and alone declared to be practised by apostles. The intense emotions with which converts might give themselves in baptism to the service of the Redeemer

VOL. XII.-FOURTH SERIES.

are precluded; and the church, the congregation, the world, lose the impressions which might be derived from witnessing the act by which believers, lately turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, surrender themselves to the service of the Redeemer. Christ's baptism, with all its blessings, is set aside to introduce another baptism derived from false analogies and forced inferences, of which neither Christ nor his apostles have said one word. Through the baptism of unconscious infants, the solemn, affecting, and salutary baptism of repentance, faith, and self-dedication to God, has nearly vanished from the churches

What have the churches gained by

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by his docility and artlessness, by the sacred trust which God has put in the hands of his parents, by the parental love with which he has implored them, are they bound and urged to dedicate him from his infancy to God, to instruct and train him for God, and guide him by precept and example to the knowledge and love of his Maker. Can baptism add anything to these obligations? Does it in fact? Even parents who have sprinkled their children feel the force of these natural motives day by day a thousand times more than they do the influence of that religious sprinkling. Pious parents do not need this new inducement to educate their children well; ungodly parents cannot feel its force. On the other hand, the actual practice of pædobaptist churches too clearly proves that the churches themselves take very little interest in the ceremony. Baptism, except as far as superstition has invested it with imaginary spiritual power, seems to me to have dwindled into a formality.

this substitution? I can find no benefit whatever derived from infant baptism by infants, or their parents, or Infants the churches, or the world. altogether unconscious are thus dedicated to God, falsely by unbelieving parents, and sincerely by parents who believe. In the former case, parents sin by an act of hypocrisy; in the second, they do what they would do But without baptism, and no more. what does the infant gain? Without baptism he might receive parental training, be placed under a pious master, listen to earnest preaching, join in the prayers of the congregation, associate with godly friends, be instructed at a good school, become a member of the pastor's bible-class, and attend the prayer-meetings of the congregation. From what means of instruction is the unbaptized child of Christian parents excluded which would be open to the baptized child? Under the Mosaic economy, which was exclusive, circumcision admitted the child to the templeworship, to the teaching of the rabbins or priests, to the passover and other festivals, to association with the chosen people, to the use of all the means of instruction then in the world, from which the uncircumcised were excluded; but under the Christian economy, churches say of them, that they are which is meant for the world, there is "members of Christ, children of God, no such exclusion. The unbaptized and inheritors of the kingdom of "The · Church Catechism. child has all the advantages which were heaven.”. possessed by the circumcised child, and visible society which God was pleased ... since many more; nay, further, he has all the to institute amongst men advantages possessed by the baptized the day of Pentecost, has consisted of child. In no respect does the first baptized families enlarging to many differ from the second, except that he baptized nations."-McNeile's Lectures, does not bear a name which by itself is 14. "It is undeniable, that in scripture delusive and worse than worthless. the visible number of the baptized is The unauthorized baptism of infants called the church."-Ibid. 18. In the cannot be shown to render to them any baptismal service each Anglican minisservice whatever. It renders no advan-ter says of each child brought to him tage to their parents. By the complete to be sprinkled, "We receive this child subjection of a child to the will of his into the congregation of Christ's flock:" parents, by his imploring helplessness, and adds, "This child is regenerate and

Yet even this formality is fraught with the elements of positive mischief. For since all who are baptized are in some sense disciples (Matt. xxviii. 19), all baptized infants are thought to beChristians. The Anglican become

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grafted into the body of Christ's church." | unknown in the New Testament, which Whereupon he further says, "We yield men call "the visible church," another thee hearty thanks, most merciful body of Christ, another bride, composed Father, that it hath pleased thee to re- of baptized nations. The churches generate this infant with thy Holy which were composed of those alone, Spirit, to receive him for thine own who were in reality, or in appearance, child by adoption, and to incorporate saints and faithful brethren, are now him into thy holy church." Once composed of all who were sprinkled in united in the sacrament to Christ, the infancy without their own consent or child becomes mystically or sacrament- knowledge, of all opinions and of all ally one of that body of which Christ characters. So we hear of Christian is the head. . . . The formal mys- nations and Christian parliaments, withtical union takes places individually at out any reference whatever to character, the moment, and in the act of the or even to any explicit profession, solely mystical washing away of sin."-Hoare in virtue of this infant sprinkling. on Baptism, 262. Sometimes, also, we hear of "good Christians and of "bad Christians." The passages of scripture which urge Christians to separate from the world, have lost their meaning. There is no "world" in England; the "world" is the church; and Christians must not separate from the church. Scripture insists upon the necessity of a new birth; but with what force can its appeal come to those who have been already in baptism "regenerated with the Holy Spirit ?"-Baptismal Service.

All this the children within the Anglican establishment are subsequently taught by the Catechism. Each child in all the parish schools, and in every Anglican family, throughout the whole land, is taught to say, in answer to the question, "Who gave you this name? My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." Hence the children grow up to think themselves Christians, and their parents think them the same. The church and the world are inseparably blended; the church swells into the nation, the nation becomes the church.

"We hold," says Hooker, "that seeing there is not any man of the church of England but the same man is also a member of the commonwealth, nor an member of the commonwealth which is not also of the church of England, . . one and the same multitude may in such sort be both."-Book viii.

The awful warnings of scripture to the unconverted are limited to heathens and Jews; the privileges exclusively belonging to saints are ascribed to all who bear the Christian name. By this unhappy practice of infant baptism all distinctness of warning is banished from many pulpits. I have heard men appealed to in the pulpit as "CHRISTIANS living in known sin; Christians neglecting the bible and prayer; Christians ungodly in heart and life." Addressed as Christians, they could not think that they needed a complete change. A development of latent grace, the revival of a dormant piety, was all that they could require. Already regenerate Christians, enjoying the intercession of Christ for them, and subjects of the common influences of the Spirit, a little improvement at the

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