edgment of the same for our personal salvation. We have seen that proper subjects of baptism are all who give evidence of regeneration. In this connection attention was called to the fact that regeneration is a matter that God will attend to for all who repent of sin and look in faith to Christ for salvation.

We are now ready for a definition of baptism: Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water as a token of his regeneration through union with Christ.

The application of this subject to this congregation will naturally divide itself into two parts, to those who have been and to those who have not been baptized.

First to those who have never submitted themselves to God in this beautiful ordinance. Hear again the text, Acts 2: 38, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you." Here is a plain duty for every person who has reached the years of understanding. The only thing that logically precedes baptism as a Christian duty is the preparation for it. You may say, "I am not fit for baptism," but you ought to be fit for it. And what is fitness, but repentance of sins and faith toward God. Do you believe in God? Do you

believe in his Son, Our Lord? Do you repent of past sin and promise God that in the future. you will trust and obey Christ? Then you are a Christian, and your first duty is to acknowledge it in baptism. You are old enough, you know enough, our Father is waiting to bless you, only your will is in the way. "Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

It is not a question of worthiness, but of willingness. It is not a question of what one may not do and be saved, but of what Jesus did and commanded to be done. It may be that many will be accepted without baptism and it may be that many will be lost because they stumbled at the plain command to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters who may never have professed Christ, or who may never have possessed Christ, listen but once more to the words of the inspired apostle, "Repent and be baptized every

one of you." Will you do it? Will you say, "I won't" to your Father? To your Father in Heaven! May God help you not to do that.

And now, what of the application of this subject to the great mass of baptized Christians present. Baptism marks the putting off of the old life and the putting on of the new. We are to live no longer in the carnal, sinful life, but in the spiritual life. Shall not the memory of our own baptism to-day warm our hearts and strengthen our faltering wills to cast out the old bad life and renew our allegiance to the Saviour. You remember how they sang, "Oh happy day that fixed my choice, on thee my Saviour and my God. Well may this glowing heart rejoice, and tell its raptures all abroad. Happy day, happy day, that Jesus washed my sins away."

Did you ever think that the third commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," applies to many things besides what we call profanity. In baptism we take the name of the Lord our God. We are adopted into the family of the Almighty. We become children of the Heavenly Father. Sometimes some of us do not honor his name. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God

in vain." The world is looking to us for the evidence of our new life. The church looks to us for needed spiritual help. The Saviour looks to us as those who have promised to show in our daily walk his spirit and life. Our Father in Heaven looks to us as the children of his boundless love and pleads with us to cast out all of the old life and to know the great joy of the fullness of Christ. God's forgiving love is great beyond our thought, but in his justice he has said that he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

May the grace of God rest upon us all who are examples to the children and to the unconverted that we may walk worthily of the vocation wherewith we are called in Christ Jesus.

I

IV

"Christ liveth in me."-Gal. 2: 20

HAVE not been asked to tell the church what

its duty to its new pastor is; neither am I to give to the candidate for ordination a charge. It would not be in place for me to preach to you of the preparation and qualifications for the work of the ministry, as I would to a class of theological students. It would not be right to raise questions of fitness of one who has been so recently examined and adjudged worthy and prepared for the Gospel ministry. In fact, my knowledge of what is expected in an ordination sermon is mostly of the negative order, and consists of knowing what ought not to be said. The only suggestion that came with the invitation to occupy this place was that the sermon ought to be short. I never remember having received such a limitation before, and it urges me to take the shortest path across the fields, not pausing to pick flowers, and saluting no man by the way.

Within the past few years much has been said. in the religious papers about the decline in the