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XXIV.

HOLY BAPTISM.

'Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily, I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."-St. Mark x. 14, 15.

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REFACED by a brief and succinct, yet comprehensive Exhortation to the Sponsors, the second division is the BAPTISMAL VOW, made by them in behalf of the child, putting the latter in the same state of authoritative tutelage and direction in spiritual. things as in things secular and social. From earliest times some form of interrogation has been employed in Baptism, as in the case of St. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and of St. Timothy's "profession before many witnesses." The parties to the Covenant are, through their natural and commissioned representatives, "God and a little child," and the Vow required is a threefold one of renunciation, faith and obedience, the same as in the other Sacrament. This vow, though made for an unconscious infant by the lips of others, is binding on that infant when come to riper years, because every intrinsically right act is binding in itself, and would be so whether promised or not. The vow entails thus no added burden on weak human nature, but, on the other hand, prepares its maker for a true spiritual grace and gift. It is brought home individually to

the conscience of each of the Sponsors (or sureties), who are here called by the good old Anglo-Saxon names of Godfather and Godmother.

Corresponding to the triple temptation of our first parents in Eden, triumphantly resisted by Our Lord in the wilderness after His Baptism, the vow of renunciation is also threefold-of the devil, the world and the flesh; that is, of those vain, covetous and carnal desires to which all fallen humanity is subject, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The question was divided into three, with separate answers, in the First Book, but then and now that answer in the English Book is only the first clause of our own. It was anciently accompanied by a gesture of abjuration of Satan alone, facing the West as the quarter toward which heathendom worshipped.

The vow of faith is in both the English Books also threefold (in the First Book the questions have a thricerepeated answer). There it is the Apostles' Creed in its earliest Western form (which was interrogative for this Office), and under its three clauses; which with us are unfortunately only referred to as "all the Articles of the Christian Faith." After the expressed desire for Baptism, the First Book proceeds immediately to its administration without the vow of obedience and the succeeding Prayers (though obedience is implied in belief). This vow is to walk in God's holy will and Commandments all the days of life, and is given "by God's help," which latter words are omitted in the English Book. Now, as anciently, the vows are made facing the East (or Sanctuary), and are of course to be responded to audibly by each Sponsor.

The first four of the Petitions following are derived from

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the Gallican Church, and were originally part of the Service called the Benediction of the Font. They are, on behalf of the candidate, for the burial of sin, growth in grace, victory and final reward. The fifth is in all ancient Offices both Eastern and Western, and is a Benediction of the water and an Invocation of blessing on the ordinance itself, appealing to the mystery of Our Lord's Redemption and His abiding mission to His Apostles. Though no sacramental change is effected in the element of water, this corresponds to the Consecration Prayer in the Communion Office, both in position and significance. Fresh water must of course be blessed at each Service, which act is customarily symbolized by the Sign of the Cross made in the element itself.

What has preceded is only preparatory to the actual BAPTISM, which is made in every way significant. Taking the child, if an infant, upon the left arm of the Priest, or by the hand as he kneels if older, is a token of the arms of God's mercy; and the bestowing upon it of a Christian name (indicated by the Latin N. for Nomen or name) gives it henceforth a separate Christian individuality. In the English Book partial Immersion (or dipping) and Affusion (or pouring) are separately directed according to the child's strength as certified by the Sponsors. In the First Book the former was administered by dipping alternately the right and left side and then the face toward the Font, so it be discreetly and warily done." As has been said, the ordinary mode is now that of pouring, from the right hand or from a shell, upon the top of the head freely, making sure of actual contact with the water. The Priest's hand should be filled before the words are spoken, and a

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separate pouring from the Font at the name of each Person in the Trinity into which the child is baptized is better, this being called "Trine Affusion."

As enunciated in the Catechism, this act makes its recipient "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." The Reception that follows and completes this section of the Office was not in the First Book, which preserved here the ancient symbolic ceremony of putting upon the child by the Priest "his white vesture, commonly called the Crisome," with a proper form of words. This was a token of Innocency, and was followed by Anointing on the head, with a Prayer for the Unction of the Holy Spirit. Our own form of Reception has no sacramental character, but betokens Acknowledgment and Dedication, it having preceded Baptism in the First Book. The natural and beautiful Signing of the Cross upon the forehead comes from very early times, as in the Holy Eucharist and in Confirmation, and the permission to omit it, which arose from the violent opposition of the Puritan party, is practically never claimed by Sponsors, and is not to be found in the English Book.

The POST-BAPTISMAL section is, in its construction, not unlike the Post-Communion. The Declaration upon the Regeneration which has just been accomplished, likens it to the Ingrafting upon a living Vine, having now within it the germ of grace and sanctification, which shall develop in proportion as the child matures in the faith and obedience of his vow, as well as in outward stature. He has changed his condition, assumed a new state, been born into a Kingdom of grace and enrolled as Christ's faithful soldier and servant. As such he indubitably receives a

sacramental grace not otherwise promised-a grace which will be continued as long as on his side the conditions of Christian effort are met. His original sin is done away and he is justified, for none can doubt that baptized infants are surely saved. Sanctification, however, is a constant growth and requires the assent of the human will; but the allegiance of the young soldier now challenges and commands the peculiar protection of His Almighty Captain, though he may never be able to appeal to experiences of conversion, save in the normal method of many turnings away from sinful courses.

Neither this Declaration nor the Lord's Prayer was in the First Book, but here the latter has a most honourable position, at the words of which the Priest and congregation kneel. The Thanksgiving (also absent from the First Book), is also a Prayer for continued perseverance in well-doing, that the child, now adopted into Christ's Church, may by the virtue of His Resurrection become finally an inheritor in actual possession of His everlasting kingdom. The Service closes with a specific Exhortation to the Sponsors to see that, so far as they are concerned, nothing is left undone in the child's behalf. He is to know the nature of his vow the better by hearing godly instruction by the Priest through Sermons, but chiefly by learning the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. He is to be trained up to lead a godly and a Christian life, and is to be presented for the further grace of Confirmation at the hands of the Bishop, so soon as he has mastered these elements of Christian education and is thus sufficiently appreciative of the distinctions between right and wrong.

From the weighty nature of these obligations, some