BAPTIZED.
"He that believeth" (that is, he that hath faith) "and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16), was the emphatic assertion of our Savior. Again we find that man came under condemnation by refusing obedience to this commandment; "But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." (Luke 7:30.) So the world of to-day will, in the end, find themselves under condemnation for refusing to obey this principle of the gospel. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5.)
Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says: "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on unto perfection: not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands." (Heb. 6:1, 2.) Here are four principles all classed together, all equally important, all equally necessary, and all required at our hands by those fixed and eternal laws of truth and justice by which the worlds are governed, and by which we may return back into the presence of God, and dwell with the just, the true and the pure of all ages.
The fourth step necessary for man to take while in this state of probation, is to receive