LETTER X.

THE MYSTERY OF BAPTISMAL GRACE.

"Now I shall carry the children,— Little Rachel, and Samuel, and John;

I shall carry the baby, Esther,

For the Lord to look upon.

M

Christ and the Little Ones.

-Elim.

UCH has been said and written among us of late years concerning the doctrine of Holy Baptism. In the American Church, especially, some clergymen have declared that they have serious misgivings concerning the very decided language of our formularies touching the grace of Baptism. They have gone so far as to claim that it is oppressive and unkind to exact of them the affirmation that in Baptism a child is "born again of water and of the Holy Spirit."

One can but ask, What is to become of the Church's doctrine and formularies if they are to be altered from time to time out of consideration for the misgivings of good men ?

The best of the prophets had their times of distrust. A Holy Apostle was for a season doubtful of our Lord's resurrection. Who among us has a faith so strong that it does not waver for a moment in the presence, now of one mystery, and now of another?

There is a story told of one of the Napiers, I think, that at the beginning of his military career, when about to go into fire for the first time, his limbs shook so violently that he could scarce keep his feet in the stirrups. He was overheard to apostrophize them thus: "You will shake worse than that before you have passed where I am going to carry you."

Just so it is in things religious; faith implies misgivings, just as courage implies fear; and just as moral courage overcomes physical timidity, so faith accepts the revealed truth of God, even while the mind quakes with wonder at the mystery of the revelations.

It is not hard to assign a reason for our hesitancy in recognizing the hidden grace of Baptism. This doctrine belongs to that class of truths which is not within the reach of the senses. The

natural man may know and believe much about the Father, for He is manifested in creation and providence. The natural man may know and believe much about the Son, for He has afforded us for inspection an earthly life and history. But "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

The Holy Ghost is viewless, like the wind. His agency cannot be recognized in things material. All His operations are in that spiritual sphere of which the natural man knows nothing, and of which he can know nothing until he has a new or spiritual sense imparted to him. And for the very reason that these spiritual truths are hard sayings, apt to offend, the Church's duty is mildly and firmly to urge them upon us and to insist upon their acceptance. Some, indeed, will go away incredulous; but this is a less evil than to empty our religion, for the sake of peace, of its sublimest mysteries.

It is said that the advocates of Baptismal Regeneration are not agreed among themselves as to the precise meaning of the phrase, or the nature of the gift conferred. Be it so. You cannot name any mystery of our holy religion which orthodox men agree in receiving, about which there is not also among them a variety of

explanation and illustration. Let us rather ask, What is the distinct point at issue? What is the substantial fact to be believed?

All of us agree that Holy Baptism is a decent mode of dedicating our children to the service, and commending them to the care, of Almighty God. All agree that therein the child is born again, in the sense of admission to external privilege and of adoption into a new citizenship. That is, we all agree to believe the facts which we see with our eyes. So far there is no more

mystery than in the consecration of Samuel by his mother, or the adoption of Moses by the king's daughter.

But faith is required to believe that profounder truth which the Church tells us. She says, besides priest and sponsors there is Another here: an awful Person whom you cannot see. He has a share, nay, He is the efficient Agent, in this transaction. While man utters the formula and performs the visible act, the Holy Ghost, in the secret way of mystery, grafts the little one into the true vine.

So, I think, the one question we have to ask is this Is it necessary to believe that besides what we can see there is in Holy Baptism an invisible operation of the Holy Ghost? We may differ as to the precise nature of that operation;

some of us in our zeal may have defined too much. But that there is such an invisible and mysterious act done by the Holy Ghost, this is what the Church persistently affirms, and this is the affirmation (now that the hypothetical theory is generally surrendered as utterly untenable) which gives great offence.

There is no testimony available in the case except that which God has given us. We must resort to the lively oracles. I do not propose to go into a minute discussion of texts, but I would have you take a general and comprehensive view of the teaching of the Bible on this point.

Be it observed, that, with a certain prepossession in our minds, words, however plain, fail to convey their meaning. We think that somehow they must mean something else. The bias of the Apostles is an illustration. Our Lord could scarcely have told them more explicitly than He did tell them, that He was to be crucified and to rise again. Yet they thought He could not mean that, and when St. John saw at last the linen clothes lying, it all at once burst upon him that what he saw was just that which our Lord, over and over again, told him was to happen.

Now, if we take up our English Bible with the idea fixed in our minds that it cannot intend to teach us that an outward washing has any