> 
 
 /■^ / 
 
 ■ 'yA-'^'-M'^.'''' 
 
 KC^^I''^ 1^ 
 
 yf.^^< .f-A< ■ 
 
 if^- 
 
 /, 
 
 ^;/' 
 
 '/^ 
 
 
 
 / «- -^ -' ^/ ^ 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 . xy ,? If? 
 
 rc^ ^-^^ 
 
 ^; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ --4 
 
 '.yy'.y' 
 
 
 
 '.yiLl/'' 
 
 
 yy 
 
 '^ -^ ^y^ :v/ y 
 
 'r^.nf 
 
 ^f^ 
 
 r ^ 
 
 w 
 
 
 
* FEB 14 1901 ■^ 
 
 ■^S/CAL 
 
 BV 813 .W583 
 
 White, Erskine Norman, 1833 
 
 1911. 
 Why infants are baptized 
 
WHY INFANTS 
 ARE BAPTIZED 
 
 AN ESSAY BY 
 
 ERSKINE N. WHITE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 
 
 • 1900 
 
Copyright, 1900, by the Trustees of 
 
 The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- 
 School Work. 
 
To 
 
 The Abiding Memory 
 
 OF 
 
 One whose Faith in the Covenant 
 
 HEREIN portrayed 
 
 She LIVED to see abundantly rewarded. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 npHE substance of the following essay 
 was published a number of years ago 
 in the Princeton Review. 
 
 It has been revised and enlarged and is 
 now reprinted in the hope that it may 
 prove of service to some who, while valu- 
 ing on account of ancestral tradition and 
 tender associations the privilege of pre- 
 senting their infant children for baptism, 
 are yet troubled with doubts as to the 
 meaning of the sacrament in such cases 
 and its value to the recipient. 
 
 It is hoped that it will be sufficiently 
 evident even to those who dissent from 
 the views expressed that they are not ad- 
 vocated in any controversial spirit. 
 
 E. N. W. 
 
 New York, September i, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction ..... i 
 I. One Baptism ... 6 
 
 II. The Teaching of the Scrip- 
 tures . . . .TO 
 
 III. Scripture References . 52 
 
 IV. Position in the Church . 55 
 V. Objections ... 58 
 
 VI. Importance of Right Views 70 
 VII. Responsibilities and Privi- 
 leges .... 76 
 VIII. Encouragements . . .82 
 Appendix 
 
 ^ Note A. History . . .88 
 Note E. Definitions of Regen- 
 eration .... 90 
 Note C. Elect Infants . . 92 
 Note D. The Mode of Baptism 94 
 Note E. Meaning of Anglican 
 
 Baptismal Office . . 98 
 
WHY INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED 
 
 Introduction 
 
 WO sacraments only, baptism 
 and the Lord's supper, are ac- 
 cepted by Protestant Christen- 
 dom as of divine appointment. 
 In regard to one of these, the Lord's 
 supper, it is universally admitted that a 
 certain degree of knowledge and therefore 
 of conscious preparation upon the part of 
 the recipient are necessary. Not unnat- 
 urally therefore a question arises, and to 
 some minds assumes grave importance, 
 whether the same is not true in regard to 
 the other sacrament, namely, that of 
 baptism. It is true that a marked dis- 
 tinction is immediately obvious: in the 
 one sacrament the disciple is the active 
 participant; in the other he is the passive 
 (9) 
 
10 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 recipient. Yet inasmuch as even in the 
 latter case there may be either a voluntary 
 or an involuntary recipiency the question 
 still remains. 
 
 The experience of all pastors will doubt- 
 less agree that they find in their congrega- 
 tions parents who are earnest and consci- 
 entious in their desire to fulfill their duty 
 to the children whom God has committed 
 to their care and who recognize the fact 
 that the standards of the Church instruct 
 them to present their infant children for 
 the sacrament of baptism, but who con- 
 fess that doubts disturb their minds as to 
 the meaning and efficacy of the sacrament 
 when administered to newborn babes. 
 They are still further disquieted by the 
 knowledge that many excellent Christians 
 composing, at least in this country, a large 
 and influential branch of the Church uni- 
 versal, unhesitatingly deny the propriety 
 of such administration and assert that the 
 baptism of infants is a meaningless form. 
 How shall such questions be met ? 
 
W/iy Infants Are Baptized ii 
 
 It must be frankly admitted that many 
 who accept the practice assign reasons for 
 it which tend rather to increase than allay 
 the doubts of inquirers. There can be 
 little question that whether from this 
 cause or from the failure of adequate 
 direct instruction there is a wide diversity 
 of opinion as to the significance of the 
 sacrament when administered to infants 
 and consequently as to the relation of 
 baptized children to the Church. That 
 this should tend to neglect in practice is 
 not strange, and a comparison of the 
 number of such baptisms with the number 
 of communicants, at least as reported in 
 the statistics of the Presbyterian Church, 
 seems to indicate that neglect is far from 
 uncommon. 
 
 The popular misapprehension upon this 
 subject is also manifest in the frequency 
 with which the first approach of baptized 
 children to the communion table is de- 
 scribed as their *' joining the Church" or 
 "uniting with the Church;" phrases 
 
12 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 which by their common use, even by 
 teachers and pastors, have doubtless had 
 much to do with obscuring the plain 
 teaching of the Scriptures and the stand- 
 ards of the Church. In short, so long as 
 the significance of the baptism of infants 
 is in dispute among those who advocate it 
 and the position of baptized children is 
 looked upon as anomalous and undeter- 
 mined, so long our church members and 
 especially the more intelligent and 
 thoughtful among them will be tempted 
 to look upon the sacrament lightly and to 
 be careless in regard to its administration 
 to their children. 
 
 Nevertheless, wxre a growing diver- 
 gence of theories the only result of such 
 misconception it would be a matter of 
 comparatively small importance and one 
 which the present writer would feel far 
 less interest in discussing. The mere 
 question of the prevalence or neglect of 
 the practice as an ecclesiastical rite sinks 
 into insignificance unless the sacrament is 
 
IV/ijy Infants Are Baptized ij 
 
 seen to be symbolical of most profound 
 truths and of precious spiritual privileges. 
 But as a fact the whole question of the 
 manner in which our children shall be in- 
 structed and trained is determined by 
 the views held as to the significance of 
 their baptism and their consequent rela- 
 tion to the Church. It is because of its 
 important bearing upon the teaching of 
 our pulpits and the Christian nurture of 
 immortal souls that this subject should at- 
 tract earnest and prayerful consideration. 
 It is with such convictions that the 
 present writer hopes that a simple restate- 
 ment of the grounds upon which, in accord- 
 ance w^ith the teaching of the Scriptures, 
 the sacrament of baptism is to be admin- 
 istered to infants, may prove timely and 
 of interest to those to whom God has com- 
 mitted the care and nurture of the chil- 
 dren of the Church. 
 
One Baptism 
 T is not proposed at the present 
 time to enumerate the various 
 conflicting views which in the 
 supposed interests of spiritual 
 Ufe have been advanced in our Protestant 
 non-ritualistic churches. 
 
 It is sufficient to say that both the 
 history and the experience of the Church 
 abundantly prove that any theory that as- 
 signs to the sacrament of baptism in the 
 case of infants a different significance 
 from that in the case of adults, or that 
 admits that baptized children are not in 
 the full sense of the words ' ' members of 
 the Church " will be found unsatisfactory 
 and, if consistently acted upon, will inevit- 
 ably lead to indifference to the privilege 
 and irrepressible doubt as to the propriety 
 of baptizing infants at all. 
 (/5) 
 
W/ij/ Infa7its Are Baptized i6 
 
 The reason is obvious. Such a view, 
 making baptism in the case of the infant 
 to mean something other and different 
 from baptism in the case of the adult, and 
 assigning the baptized adult to one posi- 
 tion and the baptized child to another, 
 necessarily assumes either that such dis- 
 tinction, which virtually establishes in the 
 Church two baptisms, is enjoined in the 
 Scriptures, or that we have no divinely 
 expressed warrant for administering the 
 sacrament to infants, and must depend 
 upon analogy, tradition, precedent, or an 
 apostolic example, which is in dispute, to 
 justify our practice. 
 
 As the first position is obviously unten- 
 able, the second is to a great extent prac- 
 tically accepted. Indeed, it is frequently 
 admitted, with prompt ingenuousness, 
 that the Bible contains no direct command 
 to baptize infants. After this concession, 
 however ingeniously such baptism may be 
 defended upon the grounds of "time-hon- 
 ored custom," the ''authority of the 
 
JV/i_y I uf a I Its Are Baptized J 7 
 
 Church," the "edification of parents," or 
 the " beauty of a consecratory rite," the 
 way, among Protestants, to carelessness 
 and neglect is very short and easy. 
 
 In contradistinction to this we find two 
 classes of believers whose practice invari- 
 ably accords with their doctrine; upon 
 the one side those who hold that infants 
 are regenerated, ex opere operate^ by bap- 
 tism; upon the other, those who believe 
 that baptism concerns only conscious be- 
 lievers. In each of these cases the prac- 
 tice is the necessary logical result of a 
 definite and pronounced theory, and the 
 theories, though antipodal, agree in the 
 position from which they start, namely, 
 that the sacrament of baptism as found in 
 the Scriptures is single, that its signifi- 
 cance is in all cases the same, and that 
 the inspired statements concerning quali- 
 fications in the recipient apply alike to. all 
 candidates. 
 
 llLi the conviction that, however wrong 
 the conclusions, this fundamental position 
 
i8 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 is sound and essential to any tenable view 
 of the significance of this sacrament, it 
 will be attempted, in consistency with it, 
 to show, upon the one hand, that the 
 Scripture precepts as distinctly command 
 the baptism of infants as that of adults; 
 and, upon the other, that this position, 
 involving, as it does, the church member- 
 ship of such infants, can be held without 
 embracing the ritualistic views of the 
 Romish or the High Anglican party. 
 
 In taking this position no novel ideas 
 are advanced. It is believed to be the 
 only position that is consistent with the 
 history of our Church* and with its stan- 
 dards. 
 
 *The Presbyterian Church, of which the writer is a 
 member. 
 
II 
 
 The Teaching of the Scriptures 
 
 T would be aside from the pres- 
 ent purpose and is unnecessary 
 to the argument to review the 
 history of the controversy in 
 regard to the original practice of the 
 Church.* Acknowledging the Scriptures 
 as the only rule of faith and obedi- 
 ence they must be made the sole standard 
 of appeal in regard to the purport of this 
 sacrament and the character of those to 
 whom it is to be administered. 
 
 Admitting, then, that the sacrament of 
 baptism in the Christian Church is a posi- 
 tive ordinance, and that as such we have 
 no right to tamper with its significance, 
 we turn to the great commission : — 
 
 *'Go ye therefore, and teach [/xai^reo- 
 
 * See Appendix, Note A. 
 
 (/9) 
 
20 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 (Tare, disciple) all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you." Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 
 
 The command ixaf^riTtbnazt^ ''make dis- 
 ciples of " is explained by the latter clause, 
 "baptizing them," etc. The verb signi- 
 fies the end, the participle the means. In 
 regard to this scholars are virtually 
 agreed* Nothing is said of qualifications 
 either of character or of age. These are 
 to be determined by other expressions of 
 Scripture. As ''all nations" necessarily 
 include many who are not to become dis- 
 ciples, so, of course, they include infants, 
 and the question whether infants are to be 
 "discipled" must be decided upon the 
 
 * The verb, ficf&yjTevELV ^ signifies to make disciples ; it 
 includes baptism and teaching, — BengeL 
 
 The fia'&TjTeveLV consists of two parts — the initiatory, 
 admissory rite, and the subsequent teaching. — Alford. 
 
 The two p.^rticiples, (^aTrri^ovreg and dtddaKovre^, are 
 precisely what constitute the fiad-rfreveiv. — Olshausen. 
 
 '" Disciple all the nations, immersing them," etc. — Version 
 of Bib. Union. 
 
W/ij Infants Are Baptized 21 
 
 same grounds as the question in the case 
 of adults. 
 
 Obviously the answer in both instances 
 depends upon the conditions that the 
 Scriptures elsewhere make prerequisite to 
 the reception of the sacrament of bap- 
 tism and the possibility of such conditions 
 being- fulfilled in infants. 
 
 Two questions, then, cover the whole 
 ground of our inquiry : — 
 
 What conditions in the recipient are pre- 
 requisite to baptism ? 
 
 Are these conditions in any case fulfilled 
 in infants ? 
 
 I. What conditions in the recipient 
 
 ARE prerequisite TO BAPTISM ? 
 
 These conditions depend upon the sig- 
 nificance of the sacrament. 
 
 What, then, is its significance ? 
 
 I. Baptism is the official initiatory rite 
 of the visible Church. 
 
 This is its significance as an external, 
 formal ceremony, and as such it is to be 
 
22 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 disting-uished from certain other outward 
 acts that may or may not be coincident in 
 point of time. 
 
 Thus baptism is not necessarily that 
 pubHc confession of Christ before men 
 which our Lord so pointedly commands. 
 Of course, it may, and often does, involve 
 a public confession, just as in many cases 
 does the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
 but this public confession does not belong 
 to the essence of either sacrament. The 
 solemn words : ' 'Whosoever therefore shall 
 confess me before men, him will I confess 
 also before my Father which is in heaven. 
 But whosoever shall deny me before men, 
 him will I also deny before my Father which 
 is in heaven," cannot refer to baptism, be- 
 cause at the time they were spoken the com- 
 mission to baptize had not been given, and 
 because the confession upon earth is par- 
 allel to the confession in heaven. In not 
 one of the eight or ten passages in the 
 Scriptures descriptive of baptism is there 
 any reference to such public confession. 
 
IV/i^ Infa7its Are Baptirjcd 2j 
 
 So, too, the distinction between the 
 '■' initiatory rite'' 2,n6. the ^^door'' of the 
 Church is to be observed. Entrance may 
 be, indeed, coincident with baptism, but 
 it is not necessarily so. The Church, as 
 we shall see, antedates the present dis- 
 pensation,^ and the first Jewish converts 
 were already within its fold. The corre- 
 sponding sacrament under the former dis- 
 pensation was administered to those who 
 were already of the number of the chosen 
 people. The men at Ephesus whom Paul 
 baptized are distinctly called '' certain dis- 
 ciples. " 
 
 The door of the Church stands always 
 open to those who would join themselves 
 to God's people. He who has openly de- 
 clared himself upon the Lord's side has, 
 in reality, entered the visible kingdom of 
 God, even though he does not, upon the 
 instant, receive the formal initiatory sac- 
 rament. To insist, as the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church does, that only by baptism can 
 the Church be entered, requires logically, 
 
24- Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 by a consistent interpretation of Scripture, 
 the further assertion, which she also does 
 not hesitate to make, that only by this 
 sacrament can there be regeneration. The 
 figure used b;/ the late Rev. F. W. Rob- 
 ertson, of Brighton, in reference to re- 
 generation, is equally applicable to mem- 
 bership. He says: " * In baptism .... 
 I was made a child of God. ' Yes, corona- 
 tion makes a sovereign; but, paradoxical 
 as it may seem, it can only make one a sove- 
 reign who is a sovereign already. Simi- 
 larly with baptism. Baptism makes a 
 child of God in the sense in which corona- 
 tion makes a king." * 
 
 But though baptism does not necessarily 
 and always first introduce the recipient 
 into the visible Church, i. e., "among 
 those who profess the true religion and 
 their children," it is, as the official initia- 
 tory rite, the '* sign and seal" of his mem- 
 bership. 
 
 This is sufficiently shown by the form 
 
 * Sermons. Second series : Sermon IV. 
 
IV/if Infants Are Baptized 2^ 
 
 of the commission: ''Go ye therefore, 
 and disciple all nations, baptizing- them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost." We have already 
 spoken of the explanatory nature of the 
 second clause. Thus discipleship was to 
 be sealed. It is also approved by the appa- 
 rently universal practice of the apostles 
 and evangelists of baptizing "straight- 
 way" all who became disciples. 
 
 2, Baptism symbolizes and thus pre- 
 supposes that radical change in the soul 
 which we commonly call ''regeneration. " * 
 
 " Except a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- 
 dom of God." John iii. 5.f The symbolism 
 
 •■■ " By a consent almost universal the word regeneration 
 is now used to designate not the whole work of sanctifica- 
 tion, nor the first stages of that work comprehended in 
 conversion, much less justification or any mere external 
 change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual 
 death to spiritual life." — Hodge s Theol., Vol. iii, p. 5. 
 See Appendix, Note B. 
 
 f It has been disputed whether there is any reference 
 in this passage \o baptism. Calvin says: " They are in 
 error in imagining that there is any mention of baptism in 
 this passage, merely because the word water is used. Nico- 
 
26 Why hifants Are Baptized 
 
 is sometimes of cleansing, sometimes of 
 burial and resurrection. 
 
 The most prominent passages are: — 
 
 ''Repent, and be baptized every one of 
 you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
 remission of sins." Acts ii. 38. 
 
 ''Arise, and be baptized, and wash 
 away thy sins, calling on the name of the 
 Lord." Actsxxii. 16. 
 
 "Know ye not, that so many of us as 
 were baptized into Jesus Christ were bap- 
 tized into his death ? Therefore we are 
 buried with him by baptism into death: 
 that like as Christ was raised up from the 
 dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life." 
 Rom. vi. 3, 4. 
 
 demus, after our Saviour had explained to him the corrup- 
 tion of nature and the necessity of being born again, kept 
 dreaming of a corporeal birth, and hence our Saviour inti- 
 mates the mode in which God regenerates us, viz.: by- 
 water and the Spirit ; in other words, by the Spirit, who, 
 in irrigating and cleansing the souls of believers, operates 
 in the manner of water. By ' water and the Spirit,' there- 
 fore, I simply understand the Spirit, which is water." — In- 
 stitut., IV., xvi, 25. 
 
IV/iy Infmits Are Baptized 2y 
 
 *' For as many of you as have been bap- 
 tized into Christ have put on Christ." 
 Gal. iii. 27. 
 
 ** Buried with him in baptism, wherein 
 also ye are risen with him through the 
 faith of the operation of God, who hath 
 raised him from the dead." Col. ii. 12. 
 
 "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek 
 those things which are above." Col. iii. i. 
 
 ** According to his mercy he saved 
 us, by the washing of regeneration, 
 and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Tit. 
 iii. 5. 
 
 In regard to the meaning of '* believ- 
 ing," once coupled in a general statement 
 with baptism, namely, " He that beliereth 
 and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 
 xvi. 16), it is to be said that it must be inter- 
 preted in the light of the foregoing pas- 
 sages. It must refer, not exclusively to a 
 conscious conviction of the intellect, but 
 also to a state of the soul, to what was 
 formerly termed the " spiritual habit." If 
 it involves necessarily a conscious convic- 
 
28 Why Ivfants Are Baptized 
 
 tion of the mind, no infant dying before 
 years of understanding can be saved, 
 for it is added, "He that believeth not 
 shall be damned." 
 
 There is no escape from this conclusion, 
 excepting in the singular and startling po- 
 sition of one prominent opponent of the 
 baptism of infants: "The gospel has 
 nothing to do with infants. ' ' 
 
 The passages that have been cited, and 
 indeed all texts that speak of the signifi- 
 cance of baptism, seem to agree that an 
 inward change is symbolized. It is not to 
 be assumed that such inward change has, 
 as a matter of fact, invariably and in every 
 case taken place. Under the most search- 
 ing examination of adults there would be 
 doubtless received some who were hypo- 
 crites or self-deceived ; but none the less 
 the change is symbolized and presumed. 
 This is generally admitted, even though 
 there is a difference of opinion as to the 
 nature of the change, or an intimation 
 that there may be another use and signifi- 
 
W/ij/ Infants Are Bal^thcd zg 
 
 cance of baptism not specified in the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 So distinct indeed are these utterances 
 of the word of God that many Christians, 
 mistaking, as we contend, the very com- 
 mon figure by which the properties and 
 effects of the thing signified are attributed 
 to the sign^ have assumed that baptism, 
 ex opere operate , imparts regeneration. It 
 has been already intimated that the inter- 
 pretation which makes baptism necessarily 
 the door instead of the sign of entrance 
 must logically make it also the means in- 
 stead of the sign of regeneration. 
 
 3. Baptism, as a sacrament, is an instru- 
 ment and medium through which the Holy 
 Ghost conveys to those by whom it is wor- 
 thily received spiritual grace. 
 
 This is clearly taught in all the symbols 
 of the Church, Reformed as well as 
 Roman, although there is not always a dis- 
 tinction made between the act of the Holy 
 Ghost in transforming the soul, which act 
 may or may not be synchronous with bap- 
 
JO Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 tism, and the further spiritual gift of en- 
 lightenment and enlargement which is 
 conveyed to those who rightly receive the 
 sacrament. This latter is parallel to the 
 spiritual grace received by those who wor- 
 thily partake of the Lord's supper. ** Thus 
 Luther observes that the grace of bap- 
 tism is not a thing transient and confined 
 to the moment, but which, if cultivated, 
 remains and renovates through the whole 
 course of life. ' ' * 
 
 That baptism is such an instrument and 
 medium of the Holy Ghost is to be inferred 
 from the frequent connection in the Scrip- 
 tures of the ideas of baptism with water 
 and with the Spirit. 
 
 The words of John the Baptist, *' I in- 
 deed baptize you with water unto repent- 
 ance: but he that cometh after me is 
 mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
 worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with 
 the Holy Ghost, and with fire " (Matt. iii. 
 1 1), seem to refer to the distinction between 
 
 * Expos. Thirty-nine Art., Browne, p. 644. 
 
W/iy Infants Are Baptized ji 
 
 a *' baptism unto repentance " and the sac- 
 rament of Christian baptism which was to 
 be a sign and a seal of the baptism of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 Repentance [ixtrdvota) depends upon the 
 regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit; 
 yet Peter, upon the day of Pentecost, said, 
 '' Repent, and be baptized every one of you 
 in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
 sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost.'' Acts ii. 38. 
 
 Again, after the preaching of Paul at 
 Ephesus, certain disciples who had long 
 believed ' ' were baptized in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid 
 his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost 
 came on them." Acts xix. 5, 6. 
 
 *' For by one Spirit are we all baptized 
 into one body." i Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 That grace of some sort is conveyed to 
 those who worthily receive baptism is de- 
 nied only by those who hold the very 
 lowest view of the sacraments. 
 
 Baptism, therefore, is not only a sign 
 
J 2 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 and seal, "it is also a means of grace, be- 
 cause in it the blessings which it signifies 
 are conveyed, and the promises of which 
 it is the seal are assured or fulfilled to 
 those who are baptized, provided they be- 
 lieve. Unless the recipient of this sacra- 
 ment be insincere, baptism is an act of 
 faith ; it is an act in which and by which 
 he receives and appropriates the offered 
 benefits of the redemption of Christ." * 
 
 If our view of the significance of bap- 
 tism is correct; if it is the offieial initia- 
 tory rite of the visible Church, the symbol 
 of regeneration and a sacramental inediiini 
 of spiritual grace, then it follows that the 
 conditions in the recipient prerequisite to 
 its administration are :^ 
 
 1. Member sJiip in the visible ChiircJi. 
 
 2. Presumptive regeneration. 
 
 3. Capability of receiving spiritual grace. 
 
 * Hodge s Theology, Vol. iii, p. 589. 
 
U7if Infants Are Baptized 
 
 jj 
 
 II. Do INFANTS IN ANY CASE FULFILL 
 THESE CONDITIONS ? 
 
 Upon the answer to this question the 
 controversy in regard to the baptism of in- 
 fants turns. If infants do not fulfill these 
 conditions, then the special commands in 
 regard to baptism have no relation to them. 
 If in any case they do fulfill the conditions, 
 then in such case they are numbered 
 among those whom we are directly com- 
 manded to baptize. As a matter of fact, 
 those Christians who reject infant baptism 
 (technically so called) baptize children as 
 soon as they give satisfactory evidence 
 that they have fulfilled the necessary con- 
 ditions — thus making fitness^ not age, the 
 test. 
 
 That children of believing church mem- 
 bers may from earliest infancy fulfill these 
 conditions is, in our view, the ground upon 
 which it is to be argued that they are en- 
 titled to receive the sacrament of baptism. 
 
 First Co7idition — Membership in the visi- 
 ble Church. 
 
 3 
 
j^ W/if Infants Are Baptized 
 
 The children of church members have 
 a birthright in the visible Church. 
 
 This is to be inferred : — 
 
 I. From the divine institution of the 
 family. 
 
 [a] The family, not the individual, is 
 the unit of the race. 
 
 The ho7no — man — is not male or female, 
 but represents the male and female in 
 their mutual interdependence — the germ 
 of the family. "God created man in his 
 own image, in the image of God created 
 he him; male and female cre2ite6.h.e them." 
 Gen. i. 27. Children at birth and in in- 
 fancy are wholly dependent upon their 
 parents. Literal independence of the in- 
 dividual is unknown and impossible. 
 
 (b) Justly or unjustly, in all ordinary 
 cases, as a matter of fact, the children's 
 position at birth is determined by that of 
 the parents. It is necessarily so in the 
 family and in the State, which with the 
 Church make up the three organizations 
 among- men that are of divine appoint- 
 
W/ij/ Infants Are Baptized 35 
 
 ment. It is so, largely in physical and 
 mental gifts, in moral aptitudes, in social 
 position, in political status. 
 
 (c) In the most momentous transaction 
 — excepting the atonement — that the world 
 has ever seen, this unity of the family was 
 divinely announced. " By one man sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin; 
 and so death passed upon all men, for that 
 {iip' <l) all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. 
 
 It is natural law — we may say '* common 
 law" — in God's arrangement of human 
 society, that antecedent to their own ac- 
 countability, the position of children is 
 largely determined by that of their parents, 
 and if no statute law is found making an 
 exception, the common law holds good in 
 reference to the Church. 
 
 2. The birthright in the visible Church 
 of such children is to be inferred from 
 their position under former dispensations. 
 
 [a) The Church of God is one in all ages. 
 
 (i) From its constitution. God and man 
 are always the parties concerned. Faith is 
 
j6 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 always the condition of salvation. The 
 sacraments are of like signification. The 
 one Son of God, the one sacrifice for sin, 
 the one glorious destiny, are always the 
 central facts. 
 
 (2) Historically. Prophecy declares 
 that the Church shall be enlarged, not 
 changed — e.g., "Sing, O heavens; and 
 be joyful, O earth; and break forth into 
 singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath 
 comforted his people, and will have mercy 
 
 upon his afflicted Lift up thine 
 
 eyes round about, and behold: all these 
 gather themselves together, and come to 
 thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou 
 shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as 
 with an ornament, and bmd them on thee, 
 
 as a bride doeth The children 
 
 which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost 
 the other, shall say again in thine ears. 
 The place is too strait for me : give place to 
 
 me that I may dwell Behold, I will 
 
 lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set 
 up my standard to the people: and they 
 
W/iy Infants Are Baptized 37 
 
 shall bring- thy sons in their arms, and thy 
 daughters shall be carried upon their 
 shoulders." Isaiah xlix. 13-22. So also 
 the whole of the chapter (Isaiah Ix.) com- 
 mencing "Arise, shine; for thy light is 
 come," and many other passages that 
 might be cited. 
 
 Christ was crucified before the old dis- 
 pensation had passed away. 
 
 (3) Scriptiirally. " Christ hath redeemed 
 us from the curse of the law, .... that 
 the blessing of Abraham might come on 
 the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that 
 we might receive the promise of the Spirit 
 through faith." Gal. iii. 13, 14. "And 
 this I say, that the covenant that was con- 
 firmed before of God in Christ, the law, 
 which was four hundred and thirty years 
 after, cannot disannul, that it should make 
 the promise of none effect." Gal. iii. 17. 
 That is, the Jewish polity may come and 
 go, but cannot affect the covenant. " So 
 then they which be of faith are blessed 
 with faithful Abraham." Gal. iii. 9. 
 
j8 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 Paul elsewhere teaches distinctly that 
 the Church, instead of being abrogated, 
 remains the same through all change, the 
 Jewish branches being cut off, the Gentile 
 branches being grafted in ; and that here- 
 after the Jews are to be restored, not to a 
 new body, but to their own " olive-tree." 
 Compare Rom. xi. 18-24; Eph. ii. 11-22. 
 To the same effect is the whole tenor of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 {p) Children are distinctly declared to 
 be members, with their parents, of the 
 Church under former dispensations. 
 
 So far as the Church was organized and 
 developed in the earliest ages, we find 
 this apparently true, and when, in the 
 time of Abraham, it was specifically set 
 apart from the world, we find the principle 
 established by direct statute: *'I will 
 establish my covenant between me and 
 thee and thy seed after thee in their 
 generations for an everlasting covenant^ 
 to be a God juito thee, and to thy seed 
 after thee.'' Gen. xvii. 7, The seal of 
 
IV/iy Infants Are Baptized jg 
 
 that covenant was circumcision, and by 
 the administration of this sacrament the 
 children were publicly proclaimed mem- 
 bers of the household of faith. 
 
 The same principle was again and again 
 announced when the children of Israel, 
 under the Mosaic law, were still more 
 definitely separated from the rest of the 
 world. The law of circumcision was more 
 than a mere civil regulation. The act 
 was a religious transaction belonging to 
 the Church, of which the terms of mem- 
 bership (viz., faith) were the same as 
 under the later dispensation. " He re- 
 ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of 
 the righteousness of the faith which he 
 had yet being uncircumcised." Rom. iv. 
 II. '' For the promise .... was not to 
 Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, 
 but through the righteousness of faith." 
 Rom. iv. 13. 
 
 The question has been sometimes 
 raised why this sacrament should have 
 been so ordered as to be administered 
 
4^ W/Jiy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 only to males. The reason seems to be 
 that in a day when the leadership of the 
 family was so distinctly emphasized, it 
 was enough that the man, as the repre- 
 sentative of his family, should receive the 
 seal of the covenant. Male infants were 
 prospective representatives of families. 
 That, under the present dispensation, the 
 sacrament should be administered to both 
 sexes is simply in accordance with the 
 change that all admit has taken place 
 under the gospel in the social position of 
 women. The argument does not here 
 turn upon the fact that infants were cir- 
 ciuncised^ but upon the anterior fact, proved 
 by their circumcision, that they had a 
 birthright in the Church. This, of course, 
 was as true of female as of male children. 
 If then the Church is identical in all 
 ages and under all dispensations, and if in 
 former days the children of believing par- 
 ents had a birthright in the Church, the 
 argument is a fortiori that such children 
 still enjoy such birthright. Presump- 
 
W/i_y Infants Are Baptized -// 
 
 tively the Church under the gospel would 
 not be narrower than under the law. The 
 only ground upon which this conclusion 
 can be obviated is that they are deprived 
 by express statute of their ancient privi- 
 leges. 
 
 3. That the children of church members 
 have a birthright in the visible Church is 
 implied in direct Scripture statements. 
 
 It is self-evident that such statements 
 are capable of being .differently inter- 
 preted or misunderstood, or there would 
 be no conflict of opinion among honest, 
 intelligent students. We cite : — 
 
 {a) All of the very numerous statements 
 that children are blessed for their parents' 
 sake, e. g. , the second commandment: 
 ''showing mercy unto thousands (i. e., 
 generations) of them that serve me." 
 
 ''O that there were such a heart in 
 them, that they would fear me, and keep 
 all my commandments always, that it 
 might be well with them, and ivitJi their 
 children forever!" Deut. v. 29. 
 
^2 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 '' For they are the seed of the blessed 
 of the Lord, and tJicir offspring with 
 them" Isaiah Ixv. 23. 
 
 "They shall remember me in far coun- 
 tries; and they shall live with their chil- 
 dren^ and turn again. " Zech. x. 9. 
 
 ''And they shall dwell therein, even 
 they, and their children, and their chil- 
 dren's children forever: and my servant 
 David shall be their prince forever." 
 Ezek. xxxvii. 25. 
 
 "For the promise is unto you, and to 
 your children." Acts ii. 39. 
 
 {b) Such suggestive statements as that 
 Jesus blessed little children Q3pi<p7] new 
 born babes), (Matt. xix. 14; Luke xviii. 15, 
 16) ; that he said, " Of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven," i. e., the visible Church under 
 the new dispensation; that he directed 
 Peter to feed the " lambs" as well as the 
 sheep. John xxi. 15-17. 
 
 (c) The distinct announcement: "For 
 the unbelieving husband is sanctified by 
 the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sane- 
 
PV/ijf ///faults Are Baptized 43 
 
 tified by the husband : else were your chil- 
 dren unclean; but now are they holy {ayui). 
 I Cor. vii. 14. 
 
 "Ayio^ and aytot. are the common designa- 
 tion of Christians, referred to as Church 
 members. Acts ix. 13, 32 ; xxvi. 10 ; 
 Rom. i. 7 ; i Cor. i. 2, etc. In the text 
 under consideration the same term is ap- 
 plied to the children. 
 
 It has been objected with apparent force 
 that as the " unbelieving wife " or '' hus- 
 band " is said to be sanctified {rjiaffzal) 
 that the same reasoning would involve the 
 church-membership of the adult unbeliever. 
 It is to be remembered, however, that the 
 force of the passage for our present pur- 
 pose lies in the fact that the reference to 
 the children is only incidental. The 
 apostle is not discussing the position of 
 children nor arguing that they are ayid. 
 He assumes it as a fact universally ad- 
 mitted, and from it argues that the unbe- 
 lieving wife or husband must be, in this 
 regard, considered as standing in the same 
 
44- Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 relation to the believing partner as if 
 sanctified. Their union is as truly in the 
 Church as if both parties were members. 
 ''There is no need," he says in effect, 
 "to put away the unbelieving wife, for 
 she must be in some sense sanctified 
 by her marriage relation, inasmuch as it 
 is an admitted fact that the children are 
 ayia^ holy — i. e. , church members." 
 
 The passage seems, therefore, to be 
 perfectly clear in regard to the position of 
 the children, and doubtful only as to what 
 is implied in regard to the unbelieving 
 wife or husband. 
 
 Thus, from the divine appointment of 
 the family relation, from the position of 
 children under former dispensations, and 
 from the distinct Scripture statements, we 
 conclude that the children of church mem- 
 bers fulfill the first condition prerequisite 
 to baptism: they have membership as a 
 birthright in the visible Church. 
 
IV/iy Infants Are Baptized /j 
 
 Seeond Condition — Presumptive Regen- 
 eration. 
 
 Baptism, as we have seen, symbolizes 
 regeneration, but presumptive regenera- 
 tion is all that we can predicate of any 
 candidate whether old or young. God 
 only reads the heart, and we have reason to 
 believe that all churches contain unworthy 
 members. Among the apostles, called even 
 by the Lord himself, there was a Judas; 
 Paul was forsaken by Demas; and this 
 experience has been repeated in every 
 age. 
 
 Thus in regard to the children of be- 
 lievers, it cannot be asked that their regen- 
 eration shall be proved as an invariable 
 fact, but only that there shall be proved to 
 be in its favor a presumption such as we 
 deem necessary in the case of adult candi- 
 dates for the same sacrament. 
 
 That there is warrant for such presump- 
 tion, and that the children of believers are 
 to be treated as regenerate, we argue 
 from the following considerations: — 
 
^6 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 I. The regeneration of infants is pos- 
 sible. 
 
 (a) Regeneration is a work of the Holy 
 Ghost, transforming the soul. It is the 
 divine side of that great change of which 
 the human side is ''repentance " (/xszd^^ota) 
 or conversion. Logically, the act of God 
 must precede the act of man, although in 
 point of time they may be often coincident. 
 The Holy Ghost can change the heart of 
 the confirmed bigot and persecutor Saul; 
 he can transform, if it pleases him so to 
 do, the moral nature of an infant. 
 
 (b) A conscious acceptance of Christ at 
 the moment of regeneration is not a 
 necessary accompaniment. We believe 
 that all children dying in unconscious in- 
 fancy are saved. They enter heaven only 
 as redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, 
 and as with a moral nature transformed 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost. Their 
 first conscious thought must be in har- 
 mony with the will of God, but the 
 great moral change — their regeneration 
 
IV/if Infants Are Baptized // 
 
 — preceded it while they were still un- 
 conscious.* 
 
 2. This moral change wrought by the 
 Holy Ghost is credible in the case of the 
 children of believers. 
 
 {a) Because it is spiritually parallel to 
 church membership, the proof of which in 
 their case has been already cited. If the 
 external relationship is permitted, the 
 higher spiritual relationship that alone 
 gives it value may be expected. 
 
 (b) Because of the reiterated promises 
 that children shall be blessed spiritually as 
 well as temporally with their parents. 
 
 {c) Because there is no limit to the spirit- 
 ual blessings that God vouchsafes in an- 
 swer to the prayer of faith. 
 
 Certainly it would be an incomparable 
 spiritual blessing were our children re- 
 
 * " Moreover infants who are to be saved (and that some 
 are saved at this age is certain) must, without question, be 
 previously regenerated by the Lord. For if they bring in- 
 nate corruption with them from their mother's womb, ihey 
 must be purified before they can be admitted into the king- 
 dom of God, into which shall not enter anything that de- 
 fileth." — Calvin, [nstitut., iv. xvi. i. See Appendix, Note C. 
 
4-8 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 generate from the very hour of birth. 
 There is no spiritual gift which is possible 
 for which we are not encouraged to pray 
 in hope of a response from on high. As 
 this blessing is plainly possible^ it becomes 
 a duty to pray for it, and if we do thus 
 pray in faith, have we not every assurance 
 that our prayer will be heard ? 
 
 (<^) Because faithful training, which is 
 one of the divinely appointed means of 
 grace, can be foreseen by God and re- 
 sponded to by an anticipatory blessing. 
 
 (^) Because in no other way under 
 human instrumentality can the growth of 
 the Church be so certainly assured as by 
 the nurture within her bosom of a godly 
 seed. 
 
 3. Not only. is the regeneration from 
 earliest infancy of the children of believers 
 possible and credible^ but Scripture expres- 
 sions encourage us to expect it. 
 
 "Thou art he that took me out of the 
 womb: thou didst make me hope when 
 I was upon my mother's breasts. I was 
 
ly/ij/ I) if ants Are Baptized 4g 
 
 cast upon thee from the womb : from my 
 mother's womb, my God art thou." Ps. 
 xxii. 9, lo. 
 
 "Thou art my trust from my youth. 
 By thee have I been holden up from the 
 womb." Ps. Ixxi. 5, 6. 
 
 ''And did not he make one ? Yet had 
 he the residue of the spirit. And where- 
 fore one ? That he might seek a godly 
 seed." Mai, ii. 15. 
 
 ''And, ye fathers, provoke not your 
 children to wrath : but bring them up 
 {ixrpiiftz-) in the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord." Eph. vi. 4. 
 
 Of John it is said, "He shall be filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, even from his 
 mother's womb" (Luke i. 15); of Jere- 
 miah, "Before I formed thee .... I 
 knew thee ; and before thou camest forth 
 out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I 
 ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." 
 Jer. i. 5. 
 
 4. Facts in the Church favor the belief 
 that the children of believers are to be 
 
jO Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 presumed regenerate till the contrary 
 appears. 
 
 {a) Scripture examples are many. We 
 read of Samuel (i Sam. i. 27, 28; ii. 11, 
 18, 26; iii. i); of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 5); of 
 John the Baptist. Luke i. 15. 
 
 {l?) Where parents pray in faith for the 
 presence of the Holy Spirit upon their 
 children, are watchful in Christian nurture 
 and look for the evidences of a spiritual 
 change, ordinarily they are not disap- 
 pointed. They do not indeed find their 
 children free from temptation, folly, and 
 sin, any more than they find the adult 
 Christian perfectly sanctified ; but they do 
 fiot ordinarily find their children com- 
 mitted to the service of the devil. On the 
 other hand, they find their earliest emo- 
 tions drawn out toward God with sincere 
 desire to do his w411. There is no Chris- 
 tian who has not seen such instances and 
 rejoiced in them. The reason, alas! that 
 they are not more frequent is that very 
 seldom do parents have such faith; and 
 
IF/ij Infants Are Baptized 51 
 
 still more rarely do they train their off- 
 spring as young Christians within the 
 Church of God. 
 
 (r) The great majority of those who con- 
 fess Christ before men are children of 
 Christian parents. So true is this that, 
 notwithstanding the want of faith upon 
 the part of parents and their neglect of 
 true Christian nurture, there is little risk 
 in saying that the spiritual condition at 
 twenty years of age, of any given number 
 of children of Christian parents, would 
 compare favorably with the condition, 
 twenty years after baptism, of the same 
 number of persons presumptively converted 
 and baptized in adult years. 
 
 5. All Churches that baptize infants do 
 so upon the ground that they may be re- 
 generated in infancy. 
 
 This is of course true of those Churches 
 (the Roman and Greek*) which hold that 
 
 * The Greek Church baptizes infants, but at the same 
 time insists upon immersion as the proper mode, thus in- 
 dicating that there is no necessary connection, as some 
 seem to think, between restriction in reference to the sub- 
 
^2 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 the sacraments convey spiritual grace 
 ex opere operato ; but it is equally true 
 of the different branches of the Reformed 
 Church which most earnestly deny that 
 any such efficacy is inherent in the sacra- 
 ment itself. 
 
 The Protestant Episcopal Church 
 teaches (Art. 27) : '' Baptism is not only a 
 sign of profession and mark of difference, 
 but is also a sign of regeneration or New 
 Birth." In the Baptismal Office the words 
 are used " Seeing that this child is regen- 
 erate,* and grafted into the body of 
 Christ's Church. " This is often construed 
 to mean more than we have maintained ; 
 it certainly means no less. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church re- 
 peats essentially (Art. 17) the 27th Article 
 of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Hibbard, in a work that 
 has the endorsement of the Methodist 
 Book Concern, says: "In the following 
 
 jects and restriction in regard to mode. See Appendix, 
 Note D. 
 
 * See Appendix, Note E. 
 
IV/ij/ Infants Are Baptized SJ 
 
 treatise I have assumed that infants are 
 in a regenerated state," (p. 5) and again, 
 *' Infants are in a gracious state. . .' . . 
 Baptism is an outward sign of an inward 
 work of grace, .... a token of confirma- 
 tion that the subject belongs to the spirit- 
 ual family of God. All who belong to 
 the spiritual family of God are entitled to 
 baptism " (p. 89). 
 
 The Lutheran Church holds that ''The 
 regeneration or new life implanted by 
 means of baptism in the case of an infant 
 is the gracious presence and activity of 
 God in the Holy Ghost. The infant does 
 not resist the work of the Holy Ghost, and 
 when therefore grace is offered in baptism 
 there is divinely wrought a receptivity of 
 grace. The baptismal grace bestowed on 
 infants, however, first comes into exercise 
 through self-conscious repentance and 
 faith." Standards, as quoted in the Lu- 
 theran Cyclopcedia. 
 
 The Church of the United Brethren 
 (Moravian) teaches in the Litany at Bap- 
 
5-J- Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 tism of Children : ' ' Baptism is the an- 
 swer of a good conscience toward God, 
 who hath saved us by the washing of re- 
 generation and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost, which is shed on us abundantly 
 through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Chil- 
 dren, also, may be made partakers of this 
 grace. " The Heidelberg Catechism teaches 
 (Ques. 74) : " Are infants also to be bap- 
 tized ? Yes ; for since they, as well as the 
 adult, are included in the covenant and 
 Church of God, and since redemption from 
 sin by the blood of Christ and the Holy 
 Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to 
 them no less than to the adult ; they must, 
 therefore," etc. 
 
 The Dordrecht Confession of Faith 
 teaches (Art. 34): ''And indeed Christ 
 shed his blood no less for the washing of 
 the children of the faithful than for the 
 adult persons; and, therefore, they ought 
 to receive the sign and sacrament of that 
 which Christ hath done for them. ' ' 
 
 The Westminster Confession of Faith 
 
W/ij^ Infants Are Baptized jj 
 
 having explained (Chap. 28, Sec. I) that 
 *' Baptism is a sacrament of the New Tes- 
 tament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only 
 for the solemn admission of the party bap- 
 tized into the visible Church, but also to 
 be unto him a sign and seal of the coven- 
 ant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, 
 of regeneration . . . . , and of his giving 
 up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk 
 in newness of life," proceeds to say (Sec. 
 IV): ** Not only those that do actually 
 profess faith in, and obedience unto 
 Christ, but also the infants of one or both 
 believing parents are to be baptized." 
 (Sec. VI) "The efficacy of baptism is 
 not tied to that moment of time wherein 
 it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, 
 by the right use of this ordinance the 
 grace promised is not only offered, but 
 really exhibited and conferred by the Holy 
 Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) 
 as that grace belongeth unto, according to 
 the counsel of God's own will, in his ap- 
 pointed time." 
 
^6 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 In the Directory for Worship in the 
 Presbyterian Church, the minister is en- 
 joined to explain before baptism ''That 
 it is instituted by Christ ; that it is a seal 
 of the righteousness of faith: that the 
 seed of the faithful have no less a right to 
 this ordinance, under the gospel, than the 
 seed of Abraham to circumcision, under 
 the Old Testament; that Christ com- 
 manded all nations to be baptized ; that 
 he blessed little children, declaring that 
 of such is the kingdom of heaven; that 
 children are federally holy^ and therefore 
 ought to be baptized ; that we are, by 
 nature, sinful, guilty, and polluted, and 
 have need of cleansing by the blood of 
 Christ, and by the sanctifying influences 
 of the Spirit of God." 
 
 These quotations will suffice to show 
 that among the standards of all churches 
 which baptize infants there is a virtual 
 agreement in regard to the significance of 
 the sacrament in their case, and the as- 
 sumption upon which it is to be adminis- 
 
W/ty hifants Are Baptized 57 
 
 tered. This assumption, be it remem- 
 bered, is not that in every instance regen- 
 erating grace has been certainly accorded. 
 This supposition is as impossible as in 
 the face of facts to assume that all adult 
 candidates will prove to have truly re- 
 ceived the grace of God, or that all pro- 
 fessors will be literally ''saints'' (dyioi — 
 holy ones) ; but as sacraments and ordi- 
 nances are framed for a Church in its 
 normal condition, so the children of be- 
 lievers may as properly be treated as regen- 
 erate, which they certainly would be were 
 their parents in the full sense of the 
 word "holy," as the parents themselves 
 may still be called, even by apostolic wis- 
 dom, '' saints y 
 
 Inasmuch, therefore, as the regenera- 
 tion in earliest infancy of the children of 
 believers is not only possible but credible ; 
 as the presumption of it is implied in cer- 
 tain Scripture statements^ and in many in- 
 stances manifests itself as a fact ; and as 
 it is, in the ways indicated, assumed in the 
 
jS Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 standards of such Churches as permit the 
 baptism of infants, the conclusion is a just 
 one that the children of believers fulfill 
 the second condition prerequisite to bap- 
 tism, — they 2,XQ presumptively regenerate. 
 
 Third condition — Capability of receiv- 
 htg spiritual grace. 
 
 If the conclusions already reached are 
 just, it is unnecessary to argue at length 
 that infants may be made recipients of 
 spiritual grace. There have been many 
 discussions concerning the nature of 
 original sin and the possibility of innate 
 guilt, but the generally received Catholic 
 view always has been that every soul 
 possesses a moral character of some kind 
 antecedent to its actual conscious choices. 
 Thus by changes wrought in that moral 
 character every soul, even before self-con- 
 sciousness, is capable of receiving spiritual 
 grace ; and infants, when brought by be- 
 lieving parents to the sacrament of bap- 
 tism, may receive or may have already re- 
 
IVky Infants Are Baptized J^ 
 
 ceived that promised grace which, in the 
 words of the Westminster Confession, is 
 '' not only offered but really exhibited and 
 conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such 
 (whether of age or infants) as that grace 
 belongeth unto, according to the counsel 
 of God's own will, in his appointed time." 
 
 Any objection to this view, that special 
 blessing, even in the case of infants, may 
 be connected with the actual reception of 
 baptism, applies equally to any conception 
 of the sacraments that looks upon them as 
 more than simply memorial rites. 
 
 If special ordinances have been estab- 
 lished by the great Head of the Church, 
 and with them certain blessings promised, 
 it will not do to say that, because these 
 blessings are spiritual, it is a matter of in- 
 difference whether or not the external or- 
 dinance is observed. This is to insult God 
 by dishonoring his commands. 
 
 And if the blessing is the free gift of 
 the Holy Spirit, vouchsafed in response to 
 the prayer of faith and the act of obedi- 
 
6o Why Infa7its Are Baptized 
 
 ence, it may be as certainly looked for 
 when the believing parent, trusting in the 
 abundant promises of God, brings his child 
 to receive the appointed seal of his mem- 
 bership in Christ's Church, as when the 
 full-grown sinner, repenting and turning 
 from the error of his ways, listens to the 
 invitation of the gospel and bows to accept 
 the offered sacrament. 
 
 Thus the children of believers fulfill the 
 third condition prerequisite to baptism, — 
 they are capable of receiving spiritual 
 grace. 
 
 If, then, it is true, as we have endeav- 
 ored to prove, that the infant children of 
 believers fulfill all the conditions prerequi- 
 site to baptism— namely, membership in 
 the visible Church, presumptive regenera- 
 tion, and capability of receiving spiritual 
 grace — then it follows that ive have as dis- 
 tinct divine command to baptize such in- 
 fa?its as to baptize adult believers. 
 
III. 
 
 Scripture References. 
 
 c^m^^^^' ^o^cl'^sions at which we thus 
 "^ arrive from the study of the 
 
 meaning of the sacrament and 
 of the qualifications of its re- 
 cipients, as revealed in the Scriptures, is 
 confirmed by the incidental references in 
 apostolic history and in the inspired epis- 
 tles. 
 
 There are but seven cases recorded of 
 baptisms of individuals designated by 
 name. In tzvo instances, those of Paul 
 and the Ethiopian eunuch, there could 
 have been no question in regard to chil- 
 dren. In three of the remaining in- 
 stances — namely, Lydia, the Philippian 
 jailor, and vStephanas — it is expressly 
 stated that with the head of the family the 
 
62 Wliy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 ^^ honsehold'^ was baptized, while in the 
 cases of Cornelius and Crispus, though no 
 express statement is made, the narrative 
 leads us to the same conclusion. It is, of 
 course, possible to assume that in none of 
 these households were there young chil- 
 dren, but this is not the natural inference. 
 This specific and repeated mention of the 
 baptism of ^^households " leads rather to the 
 conviction that the facts are thus empha- 
 sized with the express purpose of estab- 
 lishing the propriety of baptizing the chil- 
 dren of believers. 
 
 It is to be noticed, too, that Paul, in epis- 
 tles addressed specifically to "saints/' in- 
 cludes admonitions to the children. Eph. 
 vi. 1-3; Col. iii. 20. 
 
 Indeed, upon any other ground than the 
 apostolic sanction, it seems impossible that 
 the baptism of infants could have obtained 
 the position in the Church that confessedly 
 it held as early as the middle of the third 
 century. See Neander's Ch. History, Vol. 
 i, pp. 311 et seg. 
 
Why Infants Are Baptized 6j 
 
 There would be at least some record of 
 its introduction and of opposition to the 
 innovation. 
 
IV. 
 
 Position in the Church. 
 
 T may also be safely affirmed 
 that the position in the Church 
 of children baptized in in- 
 fancy is in all respects as fa- 
 vorable to growth in grace as that of 
 those who first enter in adult years. 
 Both alike enter at the hopeful beginning 
 of Christian life. The Church is not 
 simply the home of the sanctified, but of 
 those to be sanctified. It is the place 
 w^here babes in Christ are to be nurtured 
 and developed until they ''come in the 
 unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
 the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
 the measure of the stature of the fullness 
 of Christ." 
 
 The adult no more than the infant is a 
 5 (65) 
 
66 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 perfected saint. The one question is 
 whether he believes upon the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He is welcomed, even though he 
 be ignorant in regard to many points of 
 doctrinal belief, very imperfect in moral 
 character, and entirely undisciplined in the 
 duties of Christian life. Indeed there is, 
 humanly speaking, greater risk involved 
 in undertaking his future Christian nur- 
 ture than that of the child born of Chris- 
 tian parents, guarded and cherished by 
 their watchful love, strengthened by their 
 prayers, and thus developing and growing 
 up from tender infancy within the sacred 
 pale of the Church. 
 
 We may add. that the principles which 
 we believe thus to establish the duty of 
 infant baptism also apply in their general 
 form to those cases where children are 
 presented by Christians who, though not 
 the parents, are willing and able to take 
 their place — to stand in loco parentis — and 
 assume to the full extent the obligations 
 of the Christian nurture of the infant dis- 
 
Why Infants Are Bapti::^ed 6y 
 
 ciple. This quasi-parental relation is the 
 true foundation of what is sometimes 
 termed " household baptism." 
 
 It seems also to be the ground upon 
 which orig-inally sponsors were required. 
 The custom had its rise in the time of perse- 
 cution, when Christian parents were liable 
 to be torn away from their infant children, 
 and some assurance was needed that those 
 thus bereft of their natural guardians 
 would not be allowed to lapse into idola- 
 try. In the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 where this custom is still continued, it is 
 assumed that the sponsors are themselves 
 true believers and are willing and able to 
 care for the spiritual nurture of the child 
 in whose name they have confessed the 
 Christian faith. * 
 
 * See Office for the " Ministration of Public Baptism of 
 Infants," Prot. Epis. Prayer Book. 
 
Objections 
 
 ^^ T seems proper, in order to com- 
 cl%r plete the consideration of this 
 J^ subject, to refer somewhat in 
 detail to objections that, with 
 more or less force, are urged against the 
 baptism of infants. 
 
 The following include those most com- 
 monly proposed : 
 
 /. Baptism can do an unconscious babe 
 no good. 
 
 With equal truth it may be said, bap- 
 tism does the dAvW, '^ no good.'' Immedi- 
 ate moral effect upon the recipient is not 
 the prime end and object of the sacra- 
 ment. In the case of the infant, as in that 
 of the adult, it indicates a relationship to 
 the Church and symbolizes a spiritual state. 
 (69) 
 
fo Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 So far as spiritual grace is imparted in 
 the sacrament, it may be as truly' con- 
 ferred in the one case as in the other, and 
 so far as promises of Christian life are 
 concerned, the parents speak for the child. 
 
 2. The Church is a voluntary associa- 
 tion. It is not fair to put children therein 
 without their consent. 
 
 The question whether the Church is 
 necessarily in every case a '^voluntary 
 association " is at issue. The great ma- 
 jority of Christians do not believe that 
 it is. If it is not fair that children should 
 be so placed without their consent, still it 
 is just what God permits in every other 
 relation of life. Under the working of 
 the great natural laws that for the wisest 
 purpose he has ordained, one is born here, 
 another there ; one in a palace, another 
 in a hovel ; one in a Christian family, an- 
 other in the home of a profligate or a 
 criminal. Strangely enough, as some may 
 think, children are not even consulted as to 
 whether they shall be born at all. God 
 
W/if Infants Are Baptized Ji 
 
 orders our lives in accordance with far- 
 reaching" plans, often far beyond our com- 
 prehension. 
 
 3, The view presented makes a distinction 
 between children equally innocent in the 
 sight of God. 
 
 It does not hold that the children of be- 
 lievers are by nature, aside from the ope- 
 ration of the Spirit, any better than other 
 children. 
 
 It simply acknowledges /"^r/j" that must 
 be faced. The children of a Christian 
 certainly are, ordinarily, born to the en- 
 joyment of special advantages and privi- 
 leges. If the parents are sincere, the chil- 
 dren have their prayers, their faithful train- 
 ing, their tender counsel. Nurtured amid 
 all the advantages of the associations of the 
 Church, the probabilities, humanly speak- 
 ing, of such children developing as Chris- 
 tians are almost infinitely greater than if 
 they were children of heathen or of godless 
 people. Is any greater distinction made in 
 saying that they are born within the pale of 
 
7-? JV/ij/ Infants Are Baptized 
 
 the Church ? The expression simply sums 
 up the facts. 
 
 </. This view savors of "■ baptismal re- 
 ge7ierationy 
 
 On the other hand, it teaches just the 
 opposite doctrine. The theory commonly 
 called that of '' baptismal regeneration*^ 
 holds that by virtue of the application of 
 water in the name of the Trinity the sac- 
 rament becomes, ex opere operato, the 
 efficacious means of regeneration. 
 
 The view here presented looks upon the 
 application of water in the sacrament as 
 symbolizing the change already presump- 
 tively accomplished by the power of theHoly 
 Spirit. Here adults and infants stand upon 
 precisely the same ground. While in both 
 cases regeneration is the presumption, in 
 neither case is it assumed as invariably or 
 certainly accomplished. Nor do we in the 
 one case more than in the other rebaptize 
 those who, having lapsed into sin, are in 
 after years, as they suppose for the first 
 time, hopefully converted. 
 
Why Infants Are Baptized 7; 
 
 5. Whether a ehild shall grozv np a 
 Christian depends largely upon his train- 
 ing. Hoii\ then, can he be regenerate 
 antecedent to sticJi influences ? 
 
 The whole course of each life is from 
 the beginning in the hand of God. The 
 future training as well as the present 
 prayer of faith is known to God. There 
 is no greater mystery involved here than 
 in any other case where God and man are 
 coworkers. It is also true of the adult 
 Christian that his future faithfulness de- 
 pends largely upon the associations into 
 which he shall be thrown. 
 
 6. Under such a system there are church 
 members who have 7iot all the privileges of 
 membership. 
 
 Of course; just as there are infant mem- 
 bers of a family under tutors and gover- 
 nors; just as there are infant citizens of a 
 State. That under certain circumstances 
 there may be members of the Church who 
 are not entitled to all its privileges must 
 be admitted under any theory, e.g., mem- 
 
7/ W/iy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 bers suspended from communion but 
 not excommunicated. Infant church 
 members, like adult, are entitled to all the 
 privileges they are capable of enjoying. 
 Should an adult member become insane or 
 idiotic he would not cease to be a member 
 because he might be for the time incapable 
 of enjoying all the privileges of the Church. 
 
 Our Directory says of children of the 
 Church, ''When they come to years of 
 discretion," and are otherwise qualified, 
 " they ought to be informed " {iiot that they 
 then come into any new relationship, but) 
 that "it is their duty and their privilege to 
 come to the Lord's supper." 
 
 7. Many persons are assumed to be mem- 
 bers of the Church zuho in after years give 
 little proof of being Christians. 
 
 Very naturally ! while among those who 
 have their children baptized there is such 
 a lamentable want of knowledge, faith and 
 fidelity in training; but the number is 
 much smaller than is frequently alleged. 
 The great majority of the children of the 
 
W/ij Infants Are Baptirjcd 75 
 
 Church, and especially of those whose 
 spiritual culture has not been plainly 
 neglected, do sooner or later manifest a 
 living hope in Christ. It may be added 
 that many such children, doubtless Chris- 
 tians from infancy, being wrongly in- 
 structed, wait, before avowing them- 
 selves as such, for some further conscious, 
 sudden change or mysterious experience 
 which never comes, and gradually they 
 fall into the position of backsliding Chris- 
 tians. If the Church were in its normal 
 condition there would be none such, either 
 old or young, for the case of such chil - 
 dren finds its precise parallel in that of 
 many baptized in adult years. Some are 
 false to their vows, or were self-deceived 
 What has their baptism availed ? 
 
 8. If church members y children who do not 
 live as Christians should be disciplined. 
 
 In effect they are. If, when of sufficient 
 years, they refuse to confess Christ, they are 
 virtually suspended from communion. A 
 State might require that all children upon 
 
j6 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 reaching maturity should take the oath of 
 allegiance. If any refused to do so their 
 rights as citizens would lapse. We have 
 many adult Christians who neglect their 
 privileges as communicants through mis- 
 conception, morbid self-consciousness, or 
 indifference, remaining for months and 
 even years away from the sacramental 
 table. Ordinarily, if their lives are not 
 scandalous and they seem honest in their 
 misconception, we must content ourselves 
 with advice and private expostulation. 
 
 That the children of the Church are 
 often neglected and allowed unrebuked to 
 forget their responsibilities and wander 
 away from spiritual influences is too true, 
 and is a shame and a reproach to the office- 
 bearers of our congregations. 
 
 p. By his baptism in infa?icy the child is 
 defrauded of his privilege of freely choosing ^ in 
 later years, his position, a7id thus confessing 
 Christ for himself. 
 
 His choice is none the less free because he 
 is surrounded by good influences, because 
 
W/ij Infants Are Baptized 77 
 
 he receives the blessings of a Christian nur- 
 ture, because from earliest childhood he 
 feels the sweet attraction of Jesus and 
 recognizes the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 In almost all churches, if he becomes in 
 due time a communicant, he does then 
 publicly confess Christ and openly accept 
 for himself the position into which he was 
 born. 
 
 10. False hopes are encouraged. FormaJ- 
 ism takes the place of spiritual life. 
 
 Any doctrine may be misunderstood or 
 abused, but under proper instruction just 
 the opposite is the case. Children are not 
 taught that they are better^ but that they 
 have greater privileges and responsibili- 
 ties for which they must render account. 
 For privileges neglected there is heavier 
 condemnation. Their spiritual condition 
 is not determined by any assumption that 
 they are regenerate. If they bring not 
 forth fruits meet for repentance, so much 
 the worse for them. 
 
 With equal force it might be said that 
 
^S Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 the adult Christian will rest upon the fact 
 of his past experience and church mem- 
 bership. But if he proves by his acts that 
 he is not a Christian, so much the more 
 reason has he to tremble. So is it also 
 with the youthful church member. 
 
 II. Are not the children of Christians who 
 reject infant baptism as frequently blessed as 
 those of parentis who accept it? 
 
 Obviously such questions cannot be defi- 
 nitely answered. Statistics are as impos- 
 sible as they would be repugnant to our 
 tenderest emotions, and the possible con- 
 clusions of interested witnesses are, for 
 manifest reasons, valueless; but such chil- 
 dren might well receive the blessing if 
 their parents v/ere faithful in their nurture, 
 for if the children have a birthright in 
 God's kingdom they would not be neces- 
 sarily deprived of attendant benefits and 
 privileges because of parental misconcep- 
 tion. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be added 
 that it is to be feared that among those 
 
W/ij/ Infants Are Baptized 7g 
 
 who present their children for baptism 
 there are many who have little apprecia- 
 tion of the significance of the sacrament, 
 and consequently little expectation of any 
 resultant blessing. 
 
 Inasmuch, however, as blessings are 
 granted in response to faith, if such diver- 
 gent views were reflected in a consequent 
 attitude of the parents, we should not look 
 with the same confidence for early mani- 
 festations of piety in the children of those 
 who believe that some degree of knowl- 
 edge, education and maturity must 7ieces- 
 sarily precede a change of heart, as in the 
 children of those who accept the divine 
 promise of a holy seed, who believe that 
 their children are with them in the Church, 
 who expect to find them growing up in 
 the fear of the Lord, and who labor with 
 them and pray for them in that blessed 
 hope. 
 
 We may add that the experience of 
 churches which, without ignoring the ne- 
 cessity of spiritual life, have emphasized 
 
8o Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 the meaning and importance of the baptism 
 of infant children, fully justifies us in the 
 opinion that it is no vain thing either in its 
 effect upon parents or children. The 
 Church of Scotland, notwithstanding the 
 disturbing influence of the connection of 
 Church and State, which tended to foster 
 formalism, for many years presented a 
 wonderful spectacle of children, generation 
 after generation, growing up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord, and in faith 
 and piety walking in the footsteps of their 
 fathers in the house of God. 
 
VI 
 
 Importance of Right Views 
 
 F the views expressed in this 
 essay are correct, the subject 
 of the baptism of infants de- 
 mands a more important place 
 in the minds of pastors and Christian par- 
 ents than is usually accorded it. As we 
 have already said, this is not a question 
 merely of establishing one theory or 
 another. If, as we firmly believe, there 
 is historically, logically, and scripturally, 
 no tenable middle ground between the 
 position that this sacrament in the case of 
 infants means precisely what it does in the 
 case of adults, and the position that there 
 is no authority whatever for the baptism 
 of infants, then the whole question of the 
 true mode of Christian nurture with its 
 
 6 (8r) 
 
82 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 manifest bearing upon the future growth 
 of the Church, is in our judgment in- 
 volved in this matter. 
 
 Our Baptist brethren very largely owe 
 their success as a denomination to their 
 distinct, unanimous, and consistent utter- 
 ance upon this subject. Though, as we 
 believe, entirely wrong in their theory of 
 the organization of the Church, yet they 
 have distinctly known upon what principles 
 they have rested, and their trumpet has 
 given forth no uncertain sound. Hence 
 their power with many inquirers. Few 
 such have either opportunity or inclina- 
 tion to examine carefully for themselves, 
 the teachings upon this subject of Church 
 history or the Scriptures. 
 
 On the other hand too many of our 
 Protestant and non-ritualistic Churches in 
 their noble protest against that formalism, 
 worldliness, and mere ritualism, which tend 
 to sap spiritual life, and which in New 
 England culminated in the system known 
 as the ^' half way covenant,'" have assumed 
 
JV/iy Infants Are Baptized Sj 
 
 a position that, while nominally retaining 
 the practice of baptizing infants, really 
 emasculates the meaning of the sacrament, 
 or so belittles it that it no longer com- 
 mands respect. 
 
 "The abolition of the abuses of the 
 doctrine of infant church membership, 
 has been accomplished in a manner and 
 in circumstances which have led to the 
 forgetting, ignoring or disowning of that 
 precious truth itself, and the loss of not a 
 little of the sanctifying influence and fruits 
 of holiness that cluster upon it. The con- 
 sciousness and recognition of the church 
 membership of baptized children have 
 widely disappeared from the doctrinal and 
 practical life of those churches — a fact 
 deplored by some, and denied by none of 
 authority among them."* 
 
 It would be a far less evil and fraught 
 with fewer dangers to the future of the 
 Church, to reject altogether the baptism 
 of infants than simply to tolerate it as a 
 
 * Children of the Church, p. 31. 
 
8^ WJiy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 harmless, edifying, traditional usage, the 
 continuance of which gives periodical op- 
 portunity for an affectionate rehearsal of 
 the responsibilities of parents. 
 
 Yet this last is no caricature of the posi- 
 tion in reference to the sacrament of bap- 
 tism in the case of infants, of hundreds of 
 members of our Presbyterian and other 
 evangelical churches throughout the land. 
 
 On the other hand what gracious fruit- 
 age under the divine blessing might well 
 be expected if throughout the Church 
 there were a deep-seated conviction that 
 when infants receive this sacrament they 
 receive in very deed the '' sign and the 
 seal of their ingrafting into Christ, of re- 
 generation, of remission of sins, and of 
 their giving up unto God, through Jesus 
 Christ, to walk in newness of life" ! * 
 
 Such conviction could not fail to be 
 followed by an awakening of the Church 
 to its special responsibilities in regard to 
 its infant members. Such children are, as 
 
 * Confession of Faith, Chap, xviii, Sec. i. 
 
IV/ij/ Infants Are Baptized Ss 
 
 our Directory expresses it, ''under the 
 i7isp€ction and gover7i7?ient of the Church.'' 
 
 They should be the object of special 
 tenderness and care upon the part of those 
 to whom is committed the feeding of the 
 flock. They should not be expected to 
 grow up to partial maturity outside the 
 '' pale of the Church, ' and avowedly com- 
 mitted to the service of the devil. They 
 should receive special instruction in regard 
 to their privileges and responsibilities, and 
 always be addressed as those who, it 
 is assumed, are conscious of their birth- 
 right and rejoice to own it before the 
 world. They should be encouraged at the 
 earliest possible age to be present at the 
 stated services and prayer meetings of the 
 church, and under direction of pastor or 
 elders to take public part among their 
 fellows in age in such social religious ex- 
 ercises. Above all, they should be im- 
 pressed with the thought that there is no 
 age at which they are too young to be the 
 object of the Saviour's special tender care, 
 
 y 
 
S6 ]Vhy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 or, upon their part, as earnest, loving dis- 
 ciples, to give him their whole heart. 
 
 So soon as they have sufficient knowl- 
 edge, and give evidence of sincere desire 
 to come to the Lord's table, they should 
 be informed that it is their privilege so to 
 do.* 
 
 * Directory for Worship, Chap, x, Sec. i. 
 
VII 
 
 Responsibilities and Privileges 
 
 ^^^CCEPTING the foregoing conclu- 
 ^J^Jl^ sions, it is evident that great 
 and peculiar responsibilities rest 
 upon Christian parents; responsibilities 
 that by no possibility can they delegate 
 to others. To them is committed the 
 nurture of the children of the Church 
 — the infant disciples of Jesus — and upon 
 their faithfulness depend, under God, the 
 Christian life of these little ones, and, in 
 large measure, the future of the Church 
 itself. 
 
 They have no ground because of the 
 baptism of these children for presumptuous 
 self-satisfaction or a careless optimism in 
 regard to them. So far from resting con- 
 tent in the thought that their offspring 
 {87) 
 
8S Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 have received the seal of baptism as an 
 ecclesiastical ordinance, they are never to 
 forget that the solemn rite has meaning 
 only as signifying and presupposing the 
 spiritual relation which it symbolizes, and 
 that such spiritual relationship can be as- 
 sured only by the grace of God who with 
 foreknowledge of their prayers, their love, 
 their watchfulness, their conscientious un- 
 tiring zeal, responds to their faith by an 
 anticipatory blessing, the greatest that 
 can be accorded an immortal soul. 
 
 If, as is alas! too often the case, the 
 parents are so thoroughly absorbed in the 
 secular pursuits of the day — the increasing 
 excitements of our driving business com- 
 munities, or the dissipating follies of our 
 fashionable social life — that they have 
 ''no time" to foster the spiritual life of 
 their children, and no interest in directing 
 their associations and forming their habits, 
 what should they expect under the ordin- 
 ary laws of God's realm, but that in after 
 years they shall have tears to shed over 
 
W/iy Infants Are Baptized Si) 
 
 the wayward youth, the lost manhood, the 
 frivolous womanhood, of those who were 
 committed to their care ? 
 
 There may be also irreparable injury 
 done simply from wrong convictions upon 
 the part of parents. 
 
 If they assume that it is incredible that 
 they should find their infant children al- 
 ready brought by the power of the Holy 
 Spirit into a gracious state, and therefore 
 urge unceasingly the futility of all at- 
 tempts to live a Christian life until some 
 new, sudden, and mysterious change has 
 been experienced, they may lay a burden 
 upon the young Christian life from which 
 it will never be entirely relieved. A 
 sudden and surprising illumination may 
 perhaps be expected in the case of one 
 who, like Saul, has been an open scoffer at 
 the claims of Jesus, and then, like him, 
 suddenly stricken down before the power 
 of the cross; but far otherwise are the 
 natural manifestations of religious life in 
 one who, "born within the pale of the visi- 
 
go Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 ble Church," has been brought up "in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 
 We have known little children who 
 could not remember the time when they 
 did not love their Saviour, pray earnestly, 
 almost agonizingly, for some mysterious 
 revelation, and then pause and wait in 
 breathless expectancy for something to 
 happen. 
 
 We have known men and women who 
 professed to trust in Christ as a Saviour, 
 and who gave every evidence of desiring 
 to walk with him, pass on for years un- 
 willing publicly to avow themselves Chris- 
 tians and take their place at the Lord's 
 table, because they could not escape from 
 the bondage of the conviction of the 
 necessity of some new and violent revolu- 
 tion in feeling, a change that they had long 
 despaired of ever experiencing. 
 
 But if the responsibilities are great the 
 privileges are inestimable. What higher 
 honor can be accorded to devout men and 
 women than to have God's children in- 
 
W/ij/ Infants Arc Baptized gi 
 
 trusted to them to be trained within his 
 kingdom ! What greater privilege can be 
 theirs than to pray with serene confidence 
 for the signs of the Holy Spirit's presence, 
 knowing that they shall not be disap- 
 pointed ! What more fascinating study 
 than that of the peculiarities of temper 
 and disposition of their little ones and of 
 the methods and influences by which they 
 may be counseled and guided aright ! At 
 times these privileges will assume a tender 
 and all-absorbing interest. " Very young 
 children religiously educated, it will be re- 
 membered by almost every grown-up 
 person, have many times of great religious 
 tenderness, when they are drawn apart in 
 thoughtfulness and prayer. The effort 
 should be to make these little silent pen- 
 tecosts and gentle openings Godward, 
 sealing-times of the wSpirit, and have the 
 family always in such keeping as to be 
 a congenial element for such times; and 
 to suffer no possible hindrance or opposing 
 influence, even should they come and go 
 
g2 WJiy Infants Are Baptized 
 
 unobserved. "* Thus guarding with watch- 
 ful care the ripening soul, parents in all 
 ordinary cases will not need to wait long 
 before they will see even their imperfect 
 work owned by God, cheered by the 
 quick blossoming of gracious affections 
 implanted by the Holy Spirit and early 
 crowned by the voluntary consecration of 
 their loved ones to the service of the 
 blessed Master. 
 
 * Bushnell, Christian Nurture, p. 383. 
 
VIII 
 
 Encouragement 
 
 UR Lord and Master, that he might 
 touch all stages of human life and 
 become the perfect example to 
 the infant disciple as truly as to the aged 
 saint, did not disdain to be born a helpless 
 babe with every experience of increasing 
 years still awaiting him. It is of him 
 that the evangelist writes: ^^And the child 
 grew, a?id waxed sf?'o?ig in spirit, filled with 
 wisdom : and the grace of God was upon him.''^ 
 The fullness of the meaning of such 
 words as these when spoken of the Child 
 Jesus we cannot undertake to explain: 
 and yet, as the writer is manifestly speak- 
 ing of the human side of our Lord's per- 
 sonality and his gradual development as 
 a man it would seem that the reference is 
 {93) 
 
p/ W/ij/ Infants Are Baptized 
 
 not to supernatural qualities or gifts, but 
 to that favor and blessing which the heav- 
 enly Father is ever ready to bestow upon 
 all who yield their spirit to his guidance. 
 
 What imagination can picture the su- 
 preme loveliness of this holy Child who 
 with the dew of youth upon his brow, the 
 light of spotless purity in his eye, and the 
 charm of ineffable tenderness in his gra- 
 cious mien, is most vividly portrayed by 
 the words: '' The grace of God was upon 
 him''? 
 
 Once only during these early years of 
 our Lord is the curtain lifted, but it dis- 
 closes a scene that pictures to the world 
 the ideal of youth. It is the scene upon 
 which Mary looked when, anxious and 
 weary with her search, she pressed her 
 way into the porch of the court of the 
 temple and saw her Son sitting in the 
 midst of the teachers, both hearing them 
 and asking them questions. Many artists 
 have attempted to depict the guileless face 
 of the Child illumined with the light of the 
 
IV/ijf Infants Are Baptized (jj 
 
 grace of God; the grave yet wondering 
 countenances of the encircling rabbis, 
 and the tender, anxious face of the mother 
 as she whispers her troubled question in 
 the ear of her Son. But who can portray, 
 either by artist's pencil or by spoken word 
 a scene which is without parallel in the 
 history of the world and which yet repre- 
 sents the Child Jesus as the type and sym- 
 bol of all that youth ought to be, and 
 toward which every child of man may by 
 the grace of God aspire? 
 
 What more would be needed to prove 
 that upon any one of our dear children 
 rested the grace of God than to see devel- 
 oping in his ripening soul those three char- 
 acteristics which in that temple scene are 
 plainly manifest in the radiant person of 
 the Son of Mary: an eager questioning 
 after the truth, a willing submission to 
 parental guidance, a solemn, joyful conse- 
 cration to the service of the heavenly 
 Father? 
 
 The grace of God, which finds its fruit- 
 
p6 Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 age in such results, may be the dower of 
 any child whose heart early goes out 
 toward the divine Saviour and Master. 
 
 Of the tender sympathy of that divine 
 Master what parent can doubt who remem- 
 bers that the Son of Mary in his riper 
 years took little infants in his arms and 
 said : * ' Suffer little children to come unto 
 m and forbid them not: for of such is 
 the kingdom of God. " 
 
 Were the Church in a normal condition, 
 herself answering to the ideal bride of 
 the risen Lord, can we doubt that her chil- 
 dren, upon whom rests the seal of the 
 sacrament of baptism, would, one and 
 all, growing up in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord, develop the rich graces 
 of a consecrated Christian life ? 
 
 Should not parents earnestly question 
 themselves whether they really desire 
 these heavenly gifts for their children ? 
 What thoughts most frequently fill their 
 minds when they forecast the future of 
 their little ones ? Is it that they may be 
 
IV/tj Infants Are Baptized 97 
 
 prosperous and successful in worldly- 
 things, accumulate wealth, move in ex- 
 clusive or fashionable circles of society, 
 acquire position and fame ? or that the 
 grace of God may be upon them, and that 
 they may know the joy of being about 
 their Father's business ? 
 
 If this latter is their sincere desire and 
 earnest prayer, they may be assured that 
 their earnest endeavor thus to influence 
 their children will be owned and blessed 
 on high, and that they will not fail of an 
 exceeding great reward. 
 
 Finally, by such Christian nurture, as 
 truly as by direct conquest from the 
 world, God provides for the growth of his 
 C hurch. 
 
 ' ' Christian nurture, beginning in in- 
 fancy, inheriting traditional influences, 
 and surrounded at the first dawn of con- 
 sciousness by a religious atmosphere, is 
 the normal and divine method for propa- 
 gating the Church. Of this method the 
 baptism of infants is the visible exponent 
 7 
 
9^ Why Infants Are Baptized 
 
 and the mutual pledge between God and 
 his believmg people." * 
 
 He with whom is all power does not dis- 
 claim in his spiritual kingdom the same 
 natural laws of parental influence by 
 which from generation to generation na- 
 tions are enlarged, and arts, sciences, and 
 civilization, made more and more to cover 
 the face of the globe. Because the Church 
 has a glorious aggressive work to accom- 
 plish, attacking in the name of the Lord the 
 strongholds of sin and Satan, and thus con- 
 quering the world for her King, she must 
 not forget that her strength, her vigor, her 
 triumph, depend still more upon her holy 
 care of those whom God commits to her 
 charge, to be cherished in her arms and 
 nourished at her breast. 
 
 «- H. J Van Dyke, The Church, Her Ministry and 
 Sacraments^ p. 114. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Note A. Page io 
 History 
 
 At the present time a large number of very 
 sincere and excellent Christians disapprove of the 
 baptism of infants. But this number, though 
 large in the aggregate, is relatively small, embrac- 
 ing lg5S than one in fifty of the whole body of 
 professed believers throughout the world. 
 
 As we go back in the history of the centuries, 
 we find that the number of those who oppose the 
 practice grows smaller and smaller, until in the 
 sixteenth century they appear to be very few and 
 to be universally regarded as heretics. 
 
 There is, however, a distinct record of the exist- 
 ence, among the Waldenses, in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, of Christians called Petro-Brussians, who 
 denied the propriety of baptizing infants. 
 
 Beyond this date the accounts of alleged dissent 
 from the then universal practice are very obscure 
 {99) 
 
loo Appendix — Notes 
 
 and contradictory. Yet, as the records of the 
 earher centuries were in the hands of those who 
 looked upon all dissent as rank heresy, it is not to 
 be doubted, in view of the reports that have sur- 
 vived, that in every age there were Christians, 
 more or less in number and more or less obscure 
 in their lives, who contended that the baptism of 
 infants was unscriptural and unauthorized. Still 
 the number must have been very small during the 
 earlier centuries, for Augustine, writing early in 
 the fifth century, declares that he " never met 
 with any Christian, either of the general Church or 
 of any of the sects, nor with any writer who owned 
 the authority of the Scriptures, who taught any 
 other doctrine f lan that infants are to be baptized 
 for the remission of sin;" and JPelagius asserts 
 that he had " never heard of anyone, not even a 
 heretic, who denied infant baptism." (See Hall, 
 Law of Baptism, pp. 189, et seq) 
 
 In the third and fourth centuries, although the 
 necessity of baptizing infants was generally ac- 
 knowledged, the practice was not uniform. (Ques- 
 tion at council at Carthage, A.D. 252 ) 
 
 The references to infant baptism, earlier than 
 the third century, are in dispute. When accepted 
 as genuine they are interpreted according to the 
 convictions of the inquirer. On the one side it is 
 
Appendix — Notes loi 
 
 held that the alkisions prove the practice to have 
 been novel and exceptional ; on the other side it 
 is insisted that they indicate its general prevalence. 
 It seems fair to accept the history as indicating 
 such consensus ecclesiae as affords a presumption 
 in favor of the practice. The argument for or 
 against must be founded upon the Scriptures. 
 
 Note B. Page i6 
 Definitio7is of Regeneration 
 
 Misunderstanding frequently arises from mere 
 difference of definition. Many Anglican divines, 
 in supposed conformity to the expressions of their 
 standards, use the word regeneration as signifying 
 solely the change that takes place in the condition 
 of a person who, by the sacrament, is "grafted 
 into the good tree, born into the Church," and 
 who receives "baptismal grace." But they do 
 not deny the possibility of a previous spiritual 
 change wrought by the Holy Ghost and mani- 
 fested by faith and repentance ; only they do not 
 call it regeneratio7i. 
 
 "Here again," says the bishop of Ely, "mis- 
 understanding results from difference of defini- 
 tion. The Church calls the grace of baptism by 
 the name of regeneration, for reasons already 
 
J02 Appendix— Notes 
 
 specified ; but she does not deny that God may- 
 work in the souls of men previous to their baptism ; 
 nay ! she does not deny that there may be true 
 spiritual life in them before baptism. But that 
 spiritual life she does not call the new birth till it 
 is manifested in the sacrament of regeneration. 
 We must remember that the terms new birth and 
 regeneration are images borrowed from natural 
 objects and applied to spiritual objects. In nature 
 we b lieve life to exist in the infant before it is 
 born — life, too, of the same kind as its life 
 after birth. Nay ! if there be no life before it is 
 born there will be none after it is born. So, the 
 unbaptized may not be altogether destitute of 
 spiritual hfe; yet the actual birth may be con- 
 sidered as taking place at baptism ; when there is 
 not only life, but hfe apparent, life proclaimed to 
 the world ; when the soul receives the seal of 
 adoption, is counted in the family of God, and not 
 only partakes of God's grace and mercy, but has a 
 covenanted assurance and title to it." — Browne's 
 Exposition of Thirty-nine Articles, p. 647. 
 
 Robertson of Brighton, after saying in words al- 
 ready quoted, that baptism makes a child a child 
 of God only as coronation makes a sovereign, 
 adds, " Baptism naturally stands in Scripture for 
 the title of regeneration and the moment of it." 
 
Appendix — Notes 
 
 10 
 
 A prominent Lutheran clergyman writes: "In 
 teaching the doctrine of baptism il regeneration 
 our Church most emphatically rejects the error of 
 those, like the Church of Rome, who teach {the ex 
 opere operatd) that the sacraments justify by the 
 outward act. In the case of infants as they do 
 not reject the grace offered in baptism the Holy 
 Ghost works that receptive faith which justifies. 
 In the case of adults our Church most positively 
 teaches that the sacrament does not bestow bless- 
 ings apart from personal faith. Through baptism 
 the believer is ingrafted into Christ, receives the 
 seal and assurance of forgiveness, and is entitled 
 to the full blessings of salvation."— 77/^ Rev. J. 
 B. Rejnensnyder, D.D. 
 
 Note C. Page 38 
 
 Elect Infants 
 
 The ambiguous statement of the Confession of 
 Faith (Chap. X, Sec. 3) that " Elect infants, dying 
 in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ 
 through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, 
 and how he pleaseth " has doubtless in former 
 days been a cause of anxiety and distress to par- 
 ents who have lost infant children, it being inter- 
 preted as implying that there were infants dying 
 
104- Appendix— Notes 
 
 in infancy who were not sav^ed. At the present 
 time it is usually quoted only as an illustration 
 of the alleged narrowness of vision of the framers 
 of the symbol. 
 
 It should be remembered, however, that the 
 statement was undoubtedly introduced into the 
 Confession not with any primary intention of distin- 
 guishing between elect and nonelect infants, but 
 as a protest against the Romish doctrine, that un- 
 baptized infants were lost, and as an emphatic 
 statement of the Protestant view of salvation 
 through Christ alone. The emphasis is not upon 
 the word "elect,'' but upon the words *' dymg in 
 infancy y The chapter in which the statement oc- 
 curs is not treating oi Election but oi Effectual Call- 
 ing, and the antithesis is not between elect and non- 
 elect, but between such of the former as die in 
 infancy and such as live to be " outwardly called." 
 
 While it would be probably too much to say 
 that there were none in that Assembly who 
 doubted in regard to the salvation of all infants 
 dying in infancy, it may be safely affirmed that in 
 making this reference there was no deliberate 
 purpose upon the part of the Assembly to formu- 
 late a dogmatic statement that by necessary impli- 
 cation would teach that any infants dying in 
 infancy are lost. 
 
Appendix— Notes 105 
 
 Note D. Page 42 
 The Mode of Baptism 
 
 To the present writer the question of the origi- 
 nal mode of baptism, whether by sprinkling, af- 
 fusion, immersion, or submersion, has never 
 seemed to have the importance attached to it by- 
 many others. 
 
 Even could it be proved that the sacrament in 
 apostolic times was administered only in one 
 mode, and also, as some affirm, that the word 
 "baptize" (Greek ^oTrr/Cw) signified only immer- 
 sion (or, more exactly, submersion), it would not 
 appear to him conclusively proved that the same 
 mode was essential in all ages to the validity of 
 the sacrament. 
 
 As, however, reasons for this opinion, that to 
 him appear conclusive, would probably be chal- 
 lenged by those who differ with him as to the 
 proper practice, he would add that he by no means 
 admits that it can be proved that in apostolic 
 times the sacrament was administered exclusively 
 by immersion, much less by submersion, which is 
 the contention of a large and influential branch of 
 the Church to-day. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of establishing this 
 contention are obvious, and have been often enu- 
 
io6 Appendix — Notes 
 
 merated. Aside from the proverbial difficulty of 
 proving a negative, and the valid presumption aris- 
 ing from the immemorial practice of the large 
 majority of Christians, the following points may 
 be noted : — 
 
 1. The /^/r/<9r/ improbability of appointing a nec- 
 essary rite in a form that would be frequently in- 
 convenient and at times impracticable, as, for ex- 
 ample, in mortal illness, or in the Arctic regions. 
 
 2. The fact that historically there is no record 
 back to apostolic days of any period in which bap- 
 tism was administered only by submersion. 
 
 3. The earhest delineations, such as the rude 
 pictorial representations in the Catacombs, indi- 
 cate baptism by affusion. 
 
 4. The directions concerning baptism in the 
 Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (AIAAXH), a 
 document dating back to the second century, 
 "possibly as far back as A.D. 120, hardly later 
 than A.D. 160." The seventh chapter reads: 
 " Now, concerning baptism, thus baptize ye : 
 having first uttered all these things, baptize 
 into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Spirit, in running water. But if thou 
 hast not running water, baptize in other water ; 
 and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. But 
 if thou hast neither, pour water upon the head 
 
Appendix— Notes loy 
 
 thrice into the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
 Spirit." (See translation by R. D. Hitchcock and 
 Francis Brown, pages 15, 33.) 
 
 5. The extreme improbability, in view of the 
 absence (aside from public reservoirs) of large 
 pools of water or sufficient streams, that in one 
 day (Pentecost) in Jerusalem three thousand per- 
 sons were baptized by submersion, 
 
 6. That although the ordinary meaning of the 
 Greek word iSairro), and (apart from ceremonial 
 usage) of its derivative jSaTTTi^^u^ is "to dip" or 
 "to immerse" (not necessarily ^///^/^^r;^^), it can 
 hardly be successfully maintained that in the 
 Hellenistic Greek of the Septuagint and the New 
 Testament it so invariably means to stibjiierge 
 completely, that therefore any act short of sub- 
 mersion invalidates the sacrament. 
 
 A few illustrations will suffice. In all of them 
 submersion is very improbable, and in some of 
 them practically excluded. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus (Apocrypha) xxxiv. 25 : " He 
 that washeth himself {,3a7rTii^o/j,evog) because of a 
 dead body" — an evident reference to the ceremo- 
 nial cleansing by sprinkling commanded in Num- 
 bers xix. 18: "And a clean person shall take 
 hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it, . . . 
 upon him that touched .... one dead." It may 
 
io8 Appendix — Notes 
 
 be noticed also that the word " dip," with reference 
 to the hyssop is in the Septuagint " jSaipei,'' which 
 may mean immerse but hardly suhnerge. 
 
 Daniel iv. 33 (Septuagint iv. 30) : " And he 
 [Nebuchadnezzar] was driven from men, .... 
 and his body was wet {i^ad^ri) with the dew of heaven. 
 
 "Mark vii, 4: "And when they come from the 
 maiketplace, except they wash QSaTTTiGuvrai, but in 
 some manuscripts pavnauvrai) they eat not : and 
 many other things, .... as the washing {BawTLG- 
 //oi^c) of cups, .... 2iTi6i oit3h\QS {k^uvcjv— couches 
 or beds.) (Omitted in some manuscripts). 
 
 Luke xi. 38 : " And when the Pharisee saw it, he 
 marveled that he [Jesus] had not first washed 
 (EfSaiTTiadTj) before dinner." 
 
 To the present writer the probabilities seem to 
 be that very early in the Hellenistic usage the word 
 ''baptize,'' when used with ceremonial reference, 
 acquired a ritualistic meaning nearly parallel to 
 "cleanse" or " lustrate," and that the mode of 
 administration in early post-apostolic days, while 
 perhaps more frequently by immersion, was in 
 numerous exceptional cases by affusion or pour- 
 ing, the administrator and the recipient standing 
 together in the stream from which the water was 
 dipped (see Teaching of the Apostles, as above). 
 In the New Testament there is no intimation of_ 
 
Appendix — Notes log 
 
 the mode of baptism excepting as it is inferred 
 from the meaning of the word. 
 
 But as has been already suggested, the question 
 of the mode of baptism is of little importance as 
 compared with that of the proper subjects. There 
 is no branch of the Church that prohibits the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament by submersion, if 
 from conscientious scruples the applicant desires 
 
 that method. 
 
 Note E. Page 43 
 
 Meaning of Anglican Baptismal Office 
 In the Church of England and in the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in this country there has always 
 been a wide diversity of opinion as to the signifi- 
 cance of the expression : " Seeing now that this 
 child is regenerated C. W. Andrews, D.D., re- 
 marks : " This regeneration is pronounced upon 
 the profession oi faith by the child himself which 
 immediately precedes. It is not the sponsor who 
 professes faith, but the child by the sponsor, and 
 this, not that he w///beheve, but that he the7i be- 
 lieves. The faith is adtnitted to be hypothetical, 
 regeneration is the corresponding hypothesis. 
 The faith is as positively professed as the regen- 
 eration is pronounced. The construction of the 
 service upon the hypothetical principle may be 
 unwise, but that it was constructed on that princi- 
 
no Appoidix — Notes 
 
 pie is most certain." — Baptismal Regeneration, by 
 E. Mellor, D.D., Note, p. 64. 
 
 "Of those infants, therefore, who have been bap- 
 tized, we do not hope, but we know, that as they 
 are partakers of the covenant of grace, so they are 
 partakers of the assurance of pardon, and, more- 
 over, have a right to those graces of the Holy 
 Spirit, which if cultivated as they grow up, will 
 surely new-create in them a sanctified nature, 
 mortifying and destroying their old and corrupt 
 nature, and making them sons of God indeed. 
 Hence as they are by baptism entitled to regen- 
 erating grace, we do not scruple to use the lan- 
 guage of Scripture and antiquity, and to call them 
 regenerate in baptism." — Browne on the Thirty - 
 nine Articles, p. 676. 
 
 " Regeneration is a change of our spiritual con- 
 ditio7i, a translation into a state in which our sal- 
 vation is re7idered possible : renovation is that 
 change of heart and life by which salvation is 
 finally attained." — Bishop J. H. Hibart, Works, 
 vol. ii, p. 472. 
 
 "Since then baptismal regeneration confers 
 only a conditional title to the blessings of the 
 Christian covenant, and pledges and conveys 
 only that grace which is necessary to the fulfill- 
 ment of these conditions, it is a misapprehension 
 
Appendix — Notes iii 
 
 or a misstatement of this doctrine which represents 
 it as denying or superseding the necessity of that 
 spiritual change which it sets forth and enforces. 
 — Idem, p. 62. 
 
 "This Babel-like confusion [in interpretation] 
 has resulted from the attempt to make the Office 
 speak what its framers did not intend, and from 
 overlooking the principle on which it is constructed, 
 
 the principle of a legal fiction The infant is 
 
 represented as an intelligent voluntary party to the 
 covenant of salvation — and the conditions of the 
 covenant and the promises and blessings are fully 
 set forth. It is the infant who renounces sin, pro- 
 fesses faith, desires baptism, and promises obedi- 
 ence. It is not the promise and profession of the 
 sponsors." — Bishop Alfred Lee, Review of the 
 Bishop of New York's Pastoral Letter, p. 24. 
 
 The bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 in this country, in the council of the General Con- 
 vention of 1 87 1, made the following declaration : 
 " Being asked to declare our conviction as to the 
 meaning of the word ' regenerate ' in the Offices 
 for the ministration of baptism to infants, we do 
 declare that in our opinion, the word ' regenerate ' 
 is not there so used as to determine that a moral 
 change in the subject of baptism is wrought in that 
 sacrament." 
 
/ 
 
 
 
 
 Date Due 
 
 Mr : - *^ 
 
 ^> 
 
 
 
 Mr 2 
 
 
 
 
 m^ou 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ laiMtMiriin^^ 
 
 
 
 
 !l>^|^^'-^^^^ 
 
 "^^^ 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 ^WMIPM 
 
 ^!fi^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .JD*='«*' 
 
 «-^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -f«*w»w«»W 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
4y/ 
 
 ^/ 
 
 
 // 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 ''-?' 
 
 
 /''^''/ T 
 
 '«?/ 
 
 /r;^-^^ xS* 
 
 :?- 
 
 
 
 /// 
 --// 
 
 
 :" '^.:^ 
 
 /^^ yA 
 
 . '''' y 
 
 
 ^V. 
 
 //--/./^ ;- 
 
 f . /^ 
 
 iA;^.^Ayyf i,?y:^y„^^\yrij^^^^m0^^^^