BAPTISM, the initiatory rite, or the act of entering the church, is a command. All commands must be preceded by faith. The divine authority, requiring baptism, must be recognized, before the command can be obeyed; and the divine authority can only be recognized by faith. How, then, can a command be obeyed by one without faith, without a consciousness of divine authority, or even the knowledge that the command exists? Such a practice subverts the command of God in every case where it obtains, and if it should become universal, would set aside and annihilate all obedience to the command to be baptized. In every case, where an infant is baptized, and prevailed upon, in after life, to be content with its baptism and infant membership, one person is effectually prevailed upon never to obey the command to be baptized, and never, personally, to bow to the authority of Jesus in voluntarily entering into covenant with him. The person is deceived, and made to think, when come to the years of accountability, that two things have been done that never have been done, viz: 1. That the command to be baptized has been obeyed. 2. That the requirement to enter into the church has been complied with. Neither the one nor the other has been complied with at all.
[THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY
BEFORE BAPTISM.]
SOME person,—name not known—writing from Ripley, Ohio, inquires whether persons baptized when very young, under excitement, having but little understanding of the import of baptism; and, after coming to mature years, become dissatisfied and desire to be baptized over again, should he then be baptized again? This question is entirely outside of the New Testament, and purely a question of opinion. Among the many thousands baptized by the apostles, there were many, evidently, who had but an imperfect understanding of the whole matter, not only of very young persons, but many very illiterate persons. Yet there is no account of any, on coming to a fuller understanding, who desired to be baptized in the name of the Lord. It matters not how little understanding persons have, if they believe in the Lord, repent of their sins, confess and obey the Savior. Nor is the circumstance that a person afterward understands the matter more fully, a reason why such an one should be baptized again; but simply an evidence of a proper growth in knowledge. There has been much said about the measure of understanding that must be had before baptism, that would cut off one half of the apostolic converts. Conversion is simply turning to God, and there are but few who aim not to do this.
[PAUL AND JAMES,
ON JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.]
THE difficulty in this case is not to be solved in dreams about different kinds of faith. Writers may speculate upon different kinds of faith till doomsday, and neither extricate themselves from the difficulty, nor their readers. James and Paul were speaking of precisely the same kind of faith; but Paul’s “deeds of the law” are not the same as James’ “works;” or no man can avoid a contradiction. Paul and James are both speaking of the faith that justifies man, but neither of them are speaking of faith alone. Paul and James were speaking of the faith of Christ, by which the heart is purified, “without the deeds of the law” of Moses, and both would have agreed any time, that by the deeds of the law of Moses, no man could be justified in the sight of God. But the deeds of the law of Moses and the deeds of the gospel—the “good works which God has ordained that we should walk in them”—as mentioned by Paul—Eph. ii. 10—and the works of James, are not the same by any means. Paul was arguing against opposing Jews, who contended that men could be justified by the works or deeds of the law of Moses, and maintained in opposition to them, that, by the deeds of their law, no man could be justified in the sight of God; but man is now; justified by the faith of Christ, that works by love and purifies the heart—through the deeds of the gospel—the good works of the gospel—not the deeds of law, but the works of faith, like the works of Abraham, of which James speaks.
Neither Paul nor James believed that justification was by faith alone. Neither of them believed, or taught, that justification was by the deeds of the law of Moses. Neither of them believed that a man could be justified by faith, without the works of the gospel. Justification is by faith, not in the law of Moses, but in Christ; not alone, but, as Paul has it, in the “good works (of the gospel) which God hath ordained that we should walk in them;” or, as James has it, in the case of Abraham, his faith, wrought with his works, and through the divine appointment of both his faith and his works, the Lord justifies those who come to him. It is neither faith nor works, either of law or gospel, that justifies the sinner. It is God that justifies; but he only justifies those who come in a proper spirit, to his appointments.