66 I III Repent, and be baptized, every one of you."-Acts 2: 38 OFFER no excuse to-day for a sermon on the subject of baptism. Not even the fact that I am preparing a lesson on the subject for the Helping Hand. The preaching of doctrine is not easy, nor popular in these days, when men so often ask for an easy sort of gospel, that has no difference between Christians, and little difference between Christians and men of the world. Doctrine rightly understood can not be preached too much. Doctrinal preaching is the presentation of the truth about the relation of God to man, and of man to man. If this teaching is based upon the Bible and enforced from the Bible, it ought to be welcomed by all men. A discussion of the relations of man to man is usually thought of as "practical," but it is clear that a statement of my relation to God is also practical. The proper basis of right feeling is right thinking. The only true foundation for a religious experience is truth. Whoever shrinks from knowing the truth taught in the Bible does so at great loss. Doctrinal preaching is unpopular because so often we magnify the thoughts and theories of men to the neglect of the words of God. Let us see if the statements of Scripture about baptism can not be made so clear as not to arouse opposition, and so brief as not to incite slumber. I. Baptism is a Christian ordinance. 1. This is shown by the words of the great Head of the church, (Matt. 28: 19) "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." And also where he says, (Mark 16: 16) "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." These and other passages show that Jesus gave the church baptism as a Christian ordinance. 2. The same truth is also taught by the injunctions of the apostles, (Acts 2: 38) "And Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you.” 3. A third evidence of the fact that baptism is a Christian ordinance is found in the statements of the apostles that the New Testament church was made up of baptized believers, (Rom. 6: 3-5; Col. 2: II, 12) where Paul re fers to the church as made up of those who had been baptized, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death." 4. But besides these scriptural proofs we have the evidence of all subsequent history that baptism in some form has been practiced in the church. I know of no body of Christians, beside the Quakers, that do not have the ordinance of baptism. II. Let us now notice whether or not this ordinance is a universal and perpetual obligation, that is, a duty for every one, everywhere, always. I. Hear again the words of Jesus in the great commission, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost;" "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." This looks like a universal and perpetual obligation. 2. The same truth is shown in the fact that Jesus himself submitted to baptism at the hands of John saying, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness," (Matt. 3: 13-17). 3. We read that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, but that the baptizing was done by the hand of the disciples. 4. Attention should also be called to the fact that there is in the Bible not so much as a shadow of a hint that there is to be any repeal or limitation in the application of the duty of baptism. What Jesus said to his apostles; what Peter said to the anxious throng at the day of Pentecost; that God says to you to-day, through this text, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you." III. Right here the question will naturally arise, What is the proper mode of baptism? This again divides itself into two questions, What was the original mode? Are we at liberty to change the form? Almost without exception scholars now agree that the original mode of baptism was by immersion. Neander and Stanley among historians, and a long list of modern scholars from every denomination, concede the fact that New Testament baptism was immersion. They hold that the church for expedience may change the form of baptism, as it did the day of rest. I. That immersion was the original form. of baptism is shown from the Greek word bap tise, which is simply transferred to the English, because a word could not be found that would satisfy the church. The word means "dip" in or under water. Every use of the word in the New Testament would admit of this meaning, and several would seem to require it. 2. The connection in which the word is often used is also suggestive. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan (Mk 1:9) and he "came up out of the water (Mk 1: 10). We also read that John was once baptizing at Aenon "because there was much water there" (John 3: 23). In the account of the baptism of the Ethiopian by Philip (Acts 8: 38, 39), it is said that they both went down into the water and that they came up out of the water. These and other passages show beyond question that baptism was in the water. They do not say that the candidate was placed entirely under the water. This, however, seems evident from the symbolism used. 3. Rom. 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death." Col. 2:12, "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him." Conybear and Howson say that such expressions can not be understood, except |