Earlier text: GOD'S ABHORRENCE AND TREATMENT OF SINBAPTISMS—ONE OR THREE
By Editor
THOUGHTS ON BAPTISM—NO. 7.
TERTULLIAN mentioned three immersions, by which we learn that such a practice was introduced as early as his day. But Prof. Stuart quotes him as saying on this subject:— "Thence we are thrice immersed, answering, i. e., fulfilling, somewhat more than the Lord has decreed in the gospel."—De Corona Militis, § 3. If we can rely upon the language of the gospel, Tertullian was right in thus saying. Three immersions were never decreed by our Lord in the gospel. To the contrary, by specifying "one immersion," the other practice is positively forbidden. But one more point we will notice, to show somewhat the nature of the proof on which they rely. One of their prominent authors affects to find trine immersion in the supposed fact that the Jewish nation were three times baptized, once at the Red Sea, once by John, and once in the gospel commission. Weak, indeed, is that cause which must put forth such arguments to support itself. We will examine this briefly. 1. The assertion which it contains is not true. The same individuals were not baptized in the Red Sea and by John; nor was the Jewish nation baptized under the gospel commission. Individuals of that nation were baptized in the gospel, but in doing this they renounced all that separated them from the Gentiles. See Rom. 2, and Eph. 2. 2. If they were three times baptized, then again the claim is put forth in favor of three baptisms. But this they deny. 3. If there is no true baptism without three immersions, as they claim, then, inasmuch as Paul says they were baptized in the cloud and in the sea, they must have been immersed three times in the cloud and in the sea. But they were not; and this again proves that one immersion is baptism, according to the Scriptures. 4. If we apply to this text the rule of language which they apply to the commission in Matt. 28, it would read, they were all baptized (once) in the cloud and (once more) in the sea; one baptism for each. But they were not; as it took both the cloud and the sea to inclose them or surround them once. Here, again, their rule is shown to be erroneous. 5. Once more applying both their rule and their definition to this instance, namely, one baptism for each, and three immersions for one baptism, and we then have them baptized (thrice immersed) in the cloud, and baptized (thrice immersed) in the sea—six immersions at the passage of the Red Sea. To deny either branch of this conclusion is fatal to their theory. While we dismiss the theory as one hedged in on every side by its own absurdities, we cheerfully acknowledge our respect for the German Baptists (Dunkers) who teach and practice trine immersion. They are generally found to be a quiet, orderly people. But this should not prevent our exposing the error into which they have fallen. To the contrary, our regard for them, our interest in them, increase our desire to see them set right on this important subject. NON-BAPTISM OF THE FRIENDS, OR QUAKERS.
While noticing prevailing errors on the subject of baptism, we must briefly notice that of the Friends, who ignore the rite altogether. This error is not so much founded on a misconstruction or false exhibition of particular texts, as on the adoption of a false principle, which is applied, professedly, to all that pertains to Christianity. We say professedly, for actually they come far short of uniformly applying the principle. They profess to believe that all true worship is internal, and that the only baptism required is that of the Spirit. Outward forms or externals they regard as being vain, or as carnal substitutes for the internal and the true. Therefore they entirely discard the Sabbath, the Lord's supper, and baptism. They might, we think, with equal propriety, discard public assemblies for worship, and audible prayer. While they reject that which is plainly commanded because it is outward and seen, with a strange inconsistency they attach great importance to a particular phraseology of speech, and even to the cut of a coat or the fashion of a bonnet. They chide us (kindly, it is true) for not using the same forms of speech used by the Saviour, as thee instead of you, seeming not to understand that neither of these forms was used by the Saviour, because he did not speak the English language. A correct translation into any language at a certain time is a translation according to the proper usage of that language at that time. The present method of speaking the English language gives as correct a rendering from the Greek as the form used two or three centuries ago. For a people to plead for either in preference to the other, while they discard explicit precepts given by the Saviour, is like tithing mint and cummin, and omitting the weightier matters of the law. Usage and association have caused us to regard the English language as it was spoken three centuries ago, as the sacred style, only because the sacred Scriptures were given to us by translation into that style. It would seem now to be quite irreverent to address the throne of grace in modern English, in the form of speech commonly used in addressing our fellow-mortals. But if our reverence is fostered by such a discrimination in forms of address, it is proportionally decreased by addressing our fellows in the more solemn style now specially appropriated to devotion. One no more than the other gives the form used by our Saviour; but one is by custom or usage only, adapted to devotion, while the other, being the present form of the language, is properly used in every-day life. We are led to make these remarks on the views of the Friends, as it seems necessary to understand their method of applying the principle which they have adopted. Every principle which conflicts with the plain testimony of the divine word is of a surety a false one. Applied to the subject of the Lord's supper, their principle must be disapproved. The Saviour commanded his disciples to drink the fruit of the vine, and eat the bread in remembrance of him. Luke 22:17-20. Paul corrected abuses of the ordinance, and further explained its use, showing that it should continue till our Lord comes again. 1 Cor. 11:23-26. A principle must be false by which a duty so plainly enjoined is rejected. No matter how much is claimed for spirituality in worship, there is neither spirituality nor worship in disobedience. As if man could better understand what is pleasing in the sight of God than we can learn from his word, which is given as a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." John 17:17. Thus our Saviour prayed to his Father. The closer we cling to the word, the more perfectly we walk in the truth. The more perfect our obedience to his commandments, the greater our sanctity. 1 Pet. 1:22; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3. As in regard to the Lord's supper, so we reason in regard to baptism. Our Saviour commanded it, and his apostles taught and practiced it. The assertion that the baptism of the Spirit is the baptism required in their teachings does not at all meet the case, for both Christ and his apostles commanded baptism. But the baptism of the Spirit is a blessing promised and to be received; while baptism in water is a duty commanded and to be performed. This truth is evident to every reader of the Bible. The spirit is called "the Holy Spirit of promise," because it is purely a matter of promise, and is distinguished, not only in this reason, but by direct Scripture proofs, from baptism in water, which is a matter of precept. The Saviour, in his commission to his disciples, enjoined baptism. The first sermon under this commission, as we argue elsewhere, is recorded in Acts 2. In this sermon, baptism is made a condition of the promise of the Spirit. "The gift of the Holy Ghost" is the blessing promised; repentance and baptism are the duties commanded in order to receive the blessing of the promise. Here is a relation of the two which cannot be ignored without ignoring the commission and its fulfillment, and thereby ignoring the authority of our divine Lord. Philip the evangelist went and joined himself to the chariot of the eunuch by special direction of the Spirit of God. Acts 8. What he said and did was by the inspiration of the Spirit. Having preached Jesus to the eunuch, on their coming to water the eunuch requested baptism. Philip must have preached baptism in the preaching of Jesus. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. And the Spirit, under whose direction Philip had baptized the eunuch, caught him away that the eunuch saw him no more; and the eunuch went his way rejoicing. Peter, also by special direction of the Lord, went to the house of Cornelius. An angel told Cornelius to send for Peter, saying to him: "He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do." Peter preached the gospel to all those assembled, and they believed, and the Spirit fell upon them, even as it had fallen upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Then Peter said: "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." In this instance the heavenly messenger referred to what Peter would tell him as something which he ought to do. And Peter commanded him to be baptized. That which he ought to do was to be baptized in water, for so Peter said, and the baptism of Spirit they had already received. Peter, under inspiration and the direction of Heaven, did not tell them that the baptism of the Spirit was all that was necessary, but gave the receiving of this as proof of the propriety of their being baptized in water. Paul came to Ephesus and found certain disciples who had not been properly instructed in the doctrine of the gospel, who had not received the Holy Ghost. Under his teaching and by his commandment they were baptized; and after they were baptized, Paul laid his hands upon them and the Holy Ghost came upon them. Here this inspired apostle, by whose interposition the Holy Ghost come upon them, required them to be baptized before he laid his hands upon them. The order, in relation to the duty and the gift, here followed, is that laid down by Peter in Acts 2:38, 39. We have now presented five points of Scripture, each plain and positive in its teachings, which show that the apostles, acting under the inspiration of the Spirit, taught and practiced water baptism, and Jesus commanded them so to do. They who reject baptism in water, reject the counsel of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, as shown in the teachings and actions of the Lord and his apostles. The wisdom of such in this respect is not according to the word of the Lord, and therefore cannot be from above. Of this class we say, as of the one last referred to, By a staid and quiet demeanor they have generally won the respect of their acquaintances. But no amount of pious bearing will excuse a departure from the plain requirements of the Scriptures. Our Saviour said, "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." No matter how great the appearance of sanctity, it is quite possible to make all our worship vain by making void the commandments of God by human traditions, or by walking according to the doctrines of men contrary to the precepts of the Scriptures. Believers have rest. God gives them this great comfort. Worry comes from doubt. It nearly always arises from foreboding evils that never come, or doubting promises that are sure. Usually, neither joys nor sorrows are what we anticipate. Why not wait then, till they come! The present is all that we know with a certainty, why then take thought for the future? David says, "I hate vain thoughts." And so should we; and do not most of our fears and many of our hopes and desires, prove to be utterly vain? Our Saviour forbids anxiety when he says: "Take no thought for the morrow." Forecasting is well if seasoned with trusting; looking ahead is proper if we look in hope, and allow for unseen results. Our greatest griefs are unexpected; our highest joys break suddenly upon our hearts. The connection of divine agency with human action is such that no one can forecast the future exactly. Often, what we most fear is changed to blessing, and what promises highest pleasure, drives thorns to our hearts. Will worry make our hair white or black? It whitens hair without cause, excludes peace where the Lord would give it, exhausts life where rest is offered, creates evils out of good, begets fear where no fear is lawful, prevents blessings that are sent to our doors, consumes energies needed to win success, invites enemies that hope would repel, grieves the Spirit and hinders his gracious helpfulness.—Selected. Keep My Commandments, and Live
KEEP My commandments, and live. WHETHER your home be large or small, give it light. There is no house so likely to be unhealthy as a dark and gloomy house. In a dark and gloomy house, you can never see the dirt that pollutes it. Dirt accumulates on dirt, and the mind soon learns to apologize for this condition because gloom conceals it. Flowers will not healthily bloom in a dark house; and flowers are, as a rule, good indices. We put the flowers in our windows that they may see the light. Are not our children worth many flowers? They are the choicest of flowers. Then, again, light is necessary in order that the animal spirits may be kept refreshed and invigorated. No one is truly happy who, in waking hours, is in a gloomy house or room. The gloom of the prison has ever been considered as a part of the punishment of the prison. It is so. The mind is saddened in a home that is not flushed with light, and when the mind is saddened the whole physical powers soon suffer; the heart beats languidly, the blood flows slowly, the breathing is imperfect, and the oxidation of the blood is reduced, and the conditions are laid for the development of many wearisome and unnecessary constitutional failures and sufferings. Once again, light, sunlight I mean, is of itself useful to health in a direct manner. Sunlight favors nutrition; sunlight favors nervous function; sunlight sustains, chemically or physically, the healthy state of the blood. Children and other persons living in darkened places become blanched or pale; they have none of the ruddy, healthy bloom of those who live in light. Lately, by an architectural perversity which is simply astounding, it has become a fashion to build houses like those which were built for our ancestors about two centuries ago, and which are called Queen Anne houses or mansions. Small windows, small panes, overhanging window-brows, sharp, long roofs enclosing attics with small windows—these are the residences to which I refer—dull, red, dark, and gloomy. I am told that their excellence lies in their artistic beauty, to which many advantages that we sanitarian artists wish for must necessarily be sacrificed. I would be the last to oppose either the cultivation of art in design or of art in application, and I do not for one moment believe that such opposition is necessary. But these beetle-browed mansions are not so beautiful as health, and never can be. I am bound to protest against them on many sanitary grounds, and on none so much as on their interference with the work of the sun. They produce shade, and those who live in them live in shadow.—Good Words. The popular adage is, "It makes no difference what a man believes, just so he is sincere." Solomon had a different saying, viz: "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." The words of the wise man hold the truth; the popular adage teaches a hurtful lie. A man's sincerity will not save him from the evil consequences of believing a falsehood. To believe a lie in moral and spiritual things is hurtful to my soul's interests, however sincere I may be. In fact, the more sincere I am, the more I shall suffer. Look at some analogies. A man trusts a rascal with his business. He believes him to be honest, and is perfectly sincere in that belief. But that sincerity did not save him from ruin. The dishonest employe smuggled money, and left his sincere employer bankrupt. We know the result, when the United States troops lately were made to believe a falsehood, and fell into an Indian ambuscade in Colorado. They were sincere but the massacre came. A father believes certain associates fit company for his boy. Too late he sees that he believed a falsehood. He was sincere, but this does not save the boy from dissoluteness and libertinism. A pure woman believed the fair promises of the man who asked her to love. After blighting her faith and affections at the marriage altar she sees her trust was reposed in a villain. She was sincere, but of what avail now is her sincerity? An emigrant from a different climate and latitude is told to sow certain seed at a certain season. He was mocked. Yet he was sincere. But the laws of the season are invariable, and do not turn back to save the sincere from the effects of blind credulity. A whole family in New Jersey were poisoned last summer by eating toadstools, which they sincerely believed to be mushrooms. Now what shall we say? Shall we find it different in things moral and spiritual? If God has so ordered it that, in social life, in temporal things, in the physical world, the belief of a falsehood is hurtful, however sincere one may be, must we not conclude that it is so also in spiritual things? Our first mother believed a falsehood. She was sincere. Paul tells us she was deceived. See the result in the expulsion of the pair from Eden, in the curse fixed upon the apostate world. Did it make no difference what they believed, just so they were sincere? Paul persecuted the church "ignorantly," and was doubtless as sincere as after his conversion. But is there no difference between the red-handed, malice-bearing Saul of Tarsus and the zealous apostle to the Gentiles? Christ told his disciples that some would think it doing God's service to kill them. What a difference between slaying a disciple of Christ and receiving him kindly in the name of his Master; yet there may be as great sincerity in the former case as in the latter. In the last day some will say: "Lord, Lord," and tell of their wonderful works in Christ's name. They are evidently sincere, nevertheless they must "depart;" Christ never knew them. A question of greater moment was never asked than that of Pilate, "What is truth?" It is truth that saves, not sincerity. Christ's prayer was that might be sanctified through the truth, not through sincerity. The truth blesses; falsehood damns. The truth makes free; falsehood brings bonds and shackles. Avaunt, hateful error—that sincerity will answer for truth! God has not so spoken.—St. Louis Observer. Ingenious Robins and Their Basket
A SINGULAR instance of the ingenuity of birds was noticed at Detroit the other day, where two robins were seen to be toiling away at a small toy basket, which had been left in a dooryard. Evidently thinking it would make a palatial nest the birds were pulling and dragging it along over the grass, but were unable to get hold of it in such a way as to fly off with it. They accordingly left it, but soon returned with a string about eight feet long, which they drew through the basket, and each taking one end in its bill, flew briskly away with the basket hanging on its swing between them. On one occasion, out of one hundred and twenty candidates for the ministry, gathered together under one roof, more than one hundred had been borne by a mother's prayers, and directed by a mother's counsels, to the Saviour. The pious watchfulness and earnest prayers of parents may seem for a time to be fruitless; but, in the education of children, experience usually verifies, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The holy impressions made in childhood are seldom erased in manhood. John Wesley Preaching to the Poor
JOHN WESLEY always preferred the middling and lower classes to the wealthy. He said: "If I might choose, I should still, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor." Preaching at Monktown church, a large, ruinous building, he says: "I suppose it has scarce had such a congregation during this century. Many of them were gay, genteel people, so I spoke on the first elements of the gospel; but I was still out of their depth. How hard it is to be shallow enough for a polite audience!" And the statement is good this day. The style and show which clamor for a "star" preacher would be utterly bewildered under anything like a blaze of Gospel sunshine.—Meth. Recorder. Spend Your Last Dollar Like a King
"I do not see," remarked Colonel Ingersoll, "how it is possible for a man to die worth $5,000,000 or $10,000,000 in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that and hold in the clutches of his hand $20,000,000 or $30,000,000 is past my comprehension. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber when hundreds and thousands were drowning in the sea. If you have but a dollar in the world, and you have got to spend it, spend it like a king; spend it as if it were a dry leaf and you the owner of unbounded forests. That's the way to spend it! I would rather be a beggar and spend my last dollar like a king than be a king and spend my money like a beggar." VALUABLE BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS.
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Oakland, Cal. V. But who are these familiar spirits? To this question two answers have been returned. 1. They are the spirits of our dead friends. 2. They are the fallen angels who imitate or counterfeit them. One of these answers must be true; both of them cannot be; which, therefore, shall we except as the truth? If we could believe the familiar spirits themselves, the first answer must be true; for they profess to be the spirits of the dead, and they claim to bring up any of the dead who are called for. But there are some reasons for distrusting their testimony. 1. In the case which the Bible gives at length, as a specimen of their works, the familiar spirit which consorted with the witch of Endor professed to bring up the dead at pleasure, and to enable them to speak; yet we have found this to be a false pretense; for the familiar spirit did all the speaking, and dead Samuel had nothing to say. 2. The Bible warns us against them all as wicked and deceitful. Deut. 18. Their testimony as to their own personality, therefore, is entitled to no weight. But the doctrine that the familiar spirits are the spirits of the dead, in ancient times rested upon the following propositions: 1. That the spirits of the dead are now in a state of conscious existence. 2. That they are now endowed with superior intelligence. 3. That they inhabit a region within the earth itself. In modern times, however, the same doctrine is supported thus: 1. That the souls of men are immortal. 2. That death is the gate to endless joy. 3. That they enter upon their reward at death. 4. That they are in death endowed with superior intelligence. 5. That they are ministering spirits to the living, having their abode, either in Heaven or upon earth, at pleasure. The modern doctrine is an improvement upon the theology of the days of Saul. But the Bible sweeps away this cunningly-devised fable of ancient days, and with it the doctrine that dead men can hold converse with the living. Thus that sacred volume teaches us:— 1. That God made man of the dust of the ground, and gave him life from his own breath. Gen. 2. 2. That he warned him that for transgression he should be deprived of life, and turned again into dust. Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:17-19. 3. That all men are now under the sentence of death, and are both mortal and corruptible. Heb. 9:27; Job 4:17; Rom. 1:23. 4. That those who seek immortality shall receive it at the resurrection, from Him who is its only source. Rom. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16. 5. That death came into the world by sin; that it is the last enemy; that Satan has had the power of it; and that death and Satan shall both be destroyed in the lake of fire. Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:26; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 20. 6. That in death there is no remembrance of God. Ps. 6:5. 7. That in the day of death the thoughts perish. Ps. 146:4. 8. That the dead know not anything; and that their love, and envy and hatred, is now perished. Eccl. 9:5, 6. 9. That the dead do not praise God. Ps. 115:17. 10. That shoel or hades, the under-ground abode of the dead, is a place where there is no work, device, knowledge, nor wisdom; a place of silence, secrecy, darkness, corruption, and death. Eccl. 9:10; Job 14:10-15; 17:13-16. 11. That the righteous are not to be with Christ till he comes back after them. John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:32; 1 Thess. 4. 12. That men are neither rewarded nor punished till they have first been judged. 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 22:12; Matt. 16:27. 13. That the dead, both righteous and wicked, are now asleep. Dan. 12:2; Job 14:12. 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 20, 51. 14. That the keys of death and hades are not in the hands of familiar spirits, but in those of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rev. 1:18. These facts are certainly sufficient to show that the familiar spirits do not come from the dead themselves, and that they do not, and cannot, bring up any of the dead. Who, then, are the familiar spirits? We need not deny their existence, nor can we without denying the Bible. Nor should we pronounce it an inexplicable mystery that our dead friends, whose very thoughts have perished, and who sleep quietly in the silent dust, are by them apparently made to speak in so wonderful a manner. There is an agency competent to do this work. That the familiar spirits are the fallen angels will appear from the following facts:— 1. The Scriptures inform us that Satan, who was once an obedient servant of the God of Heaven, long since raised the standard of revolt against him. John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Eze. 28.235 6. The Old Testament plainly teaches that the work of the familiar spirits is false, deceitful, and ruinous. The New Testament shows who they are that deceive, seduce, and ruin, mankind. It is the fallen angels, with Satan at their head. We cannot, therefore, avoid the conclusion that the familiar spirits of the Old Testament are the fallen angels of the New. And hence it is that the "seducing spirits" of Paul, and the "unclean spirits" of John, are called devils, or spirits of devils. 1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 16:13. We need not, therefore, think it strange that the Scriptures warn us so faithfully against seeking knowledge at their hands.