CIRCUMCISION TO THE RESCUE.
"Let me say," continued the Doctor, "that I have not yet mentioned the strongest reason for infant baptism."
The remark waked new hope in Sterling.
"What is that reason, Doctor?" asked the father.
"It is the argument of circumcision. In the Old Testament times the command was that every male child of Jewish parents should be circumcised. This circumcision made the child a member of the Jewish church and of the covenant of grace. Now in the Christian dispensation, after Christ came, circumcision was done away with and baptism was put in its place, and it is now baptism instead of circumcision that admits one into the church."
"You are getting into deep water for me, but let me make the effort to catch your point. You say that in the olden times—"
"Yes, in the days of the Old Testament."
"Well, you say that in those days every male child of Jewish parents was circumcised and thereby admitted into the Jewish church, and so in the Christian church every male child—"
"No, not simply every male child, but every child, both male and female, who was baptized was admitted into the Christian church."
"Well, why this difference? If they circumcised only the males in the old church, why do you not baptize simply the males in the Christian church if baptism is put in the place of circumcision?"