H

XXIII.

HOLY BAPTISM.

“A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness: for being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace."-The Catechism.

“Baptism doth represent unto us our profession; which is, to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him."-The Exhortation to Adults in the Baptismal Office.

AVING completed our analysis of the ordinary and regular Offices of public worship, we come now to the consideration of such as may be termed Occasional. Some of these can never be repeated, and others are more or less private and individual in their nature. The first in order here, as it is first in order and time in the Christian life, is the Ministration of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism; which is set forth under three distinct Offices, i. e., the PUBLIC BAPTISM OF INFANTS, the PRIVATE BAPTISM OF CHILDREN, and the BAPTISM OF THOSE OF RIPER YEARS. These are, of course, essentially, and even verbally in great measure, the same Office, with such variations only as are necessary to suit the exigencies of occasion and circumstance.

The doctrinal aspect of Holy Baptism has been touched upon under the proper clause in the Catholic Creeds of Christendom, of which it is an unvarying constituent. The formula of words and the element applied are of Our Lord's

own specific ordinance, and are therefore always and unalterably binding. Others of our countless and undeserved mercies may be and are uncovenanted; this is a covenanted pledge forever, a Sacrament generally (i. e., where it may be had) necessary to all men in order to salvation. Christ indeed might have chosen another element or another formula, or His sovereign grace might have dispensed with either. But, knowing our human need and craving for a visible sign, He ordained the element of water, administered in the name of the Holy Trinity, to be the essence of the Rite of admission to the Christian Church.

It was not a new Rite, but one already well known to the Jewish Church as the mode of admission for heathen proselytes, in addition to Circumcision. It was therefore not an immediate creation but an adaptation by Our Lord, and an extension to the use and obligation of all mankind. The Baptism of His forerunner John the Baptizer was only to the end of the repentance of the recipient, and its formula, if such it had, is unknown. The Baptism of Christ is through repentance unto salvation by faith, accompanied by the grace of God. He himself, though guiltless, submitted not only to Circumcision but also to John's Baptism, in order to "fulfil all righteousness," and to make Himself in this, as in all else, the Perfect Example. With the dying Hebrew Dispensation Circumcision passed away, but Baptism remains an express ordinance alike to Jew and Gentile.

The Church has never narrowed her demand to an exact mode in the physical application of the element of water, as is insisted on by some Christian bodies; nowhere finding either Scriptural or traditional warrant therefor. The

best historical suggestions derived from drawings on the walls of the Catacombs and from other early sources, seem to indicate that Our Lord went down partly into the Jordan and there received its waters poured upon His sacred head by St. John. Too much stress has sometimes been laid on the Oriental custom of total immersion in the rivers of a sunny climate; which certainly does not convey an unalterable warrant of its obligation by that mode in other lands or under other circumstances. He who demanded mercy rather than sacrifice could never have exacted such an unnecessary and often cruel shock to shrinking susceptibilities, or the endangering of delicate health, as a requisite for admission into His kingdom of grace. Nor can St. Paul's figure of speech, "buried by Baptism," be unwarrantably pressed into service to sustain this view.

The Greek verb "baptizein" is applied in both the Gospels and the Old Testament to the cleansing or ceremonial purification of vessels and tables, which it is not reasonable to suppose were necessarily immersed for that purpose. It is not apparent that Christ Himself baptized, but His disciples immediately did so, beginning with the three thousand converts in the city of Jerusalem, at the preaching of St. Peter on the Day of Pentecost. It is not credible that such a vast assemblage where no body of water existed, or that the converted jailer in the prison at Philippi, could have received Baptism by the mode of total immersion.

The first Gentile Baptism was that of Cornelius the centurion, as that of the jailer just named was the first on the soil of Europe. John's own disciples were baptized

anew "in the name of the Lord Jesus ;" and many of them had not before " so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost"; i. e., they were ignorant up to that time of the universal and normal formula of admission to membership in the Christian body. The mode is regarded by the Church as immaterial to the validity of the ordinance; Immersion (or dipping), Aspersion (or sprinkling), and Affusion (or pouring), have all been practiced with sanction, though the second, from the uncertainty regarding the contact of the water, is irregular; and Affusion is the normal order.

The validity, or sufficiency, of its administration by laymen, or even laywomen, has always been recognized by the Church where the necessities of the occasion justify it. It is as if any might stretch forth a helping hand from the ark of Christ's Church and seize upon suffering humanity perishing in the "waves of this troublesome world," if the act is done in the name of Christ and through His appointed means. Thus is a true priesthood of the laity again recognized, in the possession, if not of the official right, yet of the indubitable power, of rescue. Such recognition is, of course, tacit and confined to cases of virtual necessity. The act itself can never be undone, and can never be repeated without sacrilege. Guilt is therefore incurred by the baptizer, even though good ensues to the recipient, if thus administered without due cause.

The opening words of the Office, both of that for Infants and that for Adults, manifest the Church's careful solicitude not, even through inadvertence, to rebaptize. At the end both of the Private and of the Adult Baptismal Offices is provided a special form, with explanatory rubrics,

for what is called Hypothetical Baptism. This is to be employed when reasonable doubt exists as to the fact of a previous reception of the Rite, and secures its covenant blessing, without a thoughtless repetition. In the present anomalous state of the manifold sects in Christendom, and of the fearful carelessness and indifference which everywhere prevail as to the Sacrament itself, as well as to the safeguards which should have surrounded the reception and registry of such an important act in infancy, these precautions of our careful and Holy Mother, the Church, are abundantly well justified.

Since Baptism is the Rite of admission to membership in the Holy Catholic Church, and since Lay-baptism, or Baptism by other than the hands of a Christian Priesthood, is recognized as valid, it follows that the vast body of baptized Christian believers outside the Apostolic Church are as really members of the Church Universal as those within its fold. As such they are not yet entitled to all the privileges of a full membership, any more than a novitiate in a Lodge of Freemasonry implies full acquaintance with all the degrees of that ancient Order, which has points of similarity to the Christian Church. But members they undoubtedly are, in the one case as in the other, in the sense that no new conditions of entrance can be imposed by any, as none have ever been by the Church.

In the present state of unrest and dissatisfaction which agitates a disorganized and warring Christianity, the thought should strike deep root that to obtain actual present membership in the historic Church whence all Christendom has sprung, absolutely nothing is necessary except to make claim to the heritage and enter at once