Bertha and Her Baptism

Bertha and Her Baptism, by Nehemiah Adams

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Title: Bertha and Her Baptism
Author: Nehemiah Adams
Release Date: January 23, 2007 [EBook #20428]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM.
By the Author of
AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY; or, BEREAVED PARENTS INSTRUCTED AND COMFORTED.
BOSTON: S.K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY, 161 WASHINGTON STREET. 1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by S.K. WHIPPLE & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS, New England Type and Stereotype Foundry, BOSTON.

PREFACE.
This book, and that which is also named in the title-page, were written at the same time, and as one book; but they were afterward separated, as more properly constituting two volumes, the part which was the original of the present volume now being greatly enlarged. Thus the two books grew in the author's mind together, from one and the same root,--the death of a little child.

CONTENTS.

Page
CHAPTER I.
PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN, 9
CHAPTER II.
THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.--THE NATURE, GROUNDS AND INFLUENCE, OF INFANT BAPTISM, 16
CHAPTER III.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BAPTISMS.--THE SUBJECTS AND MODE OF BAPTISM, 76
CHAPTER IV.
IS THERE ONLY ONE MODE OF BAPTISM? 121
CHAPTER V.
SCENES OF BAPTISM.--REASONABLENESS, BEAUTY AND POWER, OF INFANT BAPTISM.--USE OF SPECIAL VOWS.--HUSBANDS AT BAPTISMS.--NEGLECT OF BAPTISM, 130
CHAPTER VI.
TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS.--APOSTOLIC PRACTICE OF INFANT BAPTISM.--MINISTERIAL USAGES IN BAPTISMS, 143
CHAPTER VII.
TERMS OF COMMUNION.--NON-INTRUSION.--DENOMINATIONAL COURTESY AND KINDNESS, 184
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ROAD-SIDE BAPTISM, 198
CHAPTER IX.
THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH.--ARE THEY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH? 216
CHAPTER X.
MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.--CONSTITUTION AND RULES FOR THEM.--A CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S QUESTIONS TO HERSELF, 255
CHAPTER XI.
BAPTISM OF THE SICK WIFE AND HER CHILDREN, 272

BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM.
Chapter First.
PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN.
'Tis aye a solemn thing to me To look upon a babe that sleeps, Wearing in its spirit-deeps The unrevealed mystery Of its Adam's taint and woe.--MISS BARRETT.
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.--WORDSWORTH.
It is generally believed that, of those who have gone to heaven from this world, by far the larger part have been infants and young children. Born here, they were by one man's disobedience made sinners; born of the Spirit, at their early translation to heaven, they hold an important place in the plan of salvation by Christ. Very beautiful, as well as sublime, is the thought of so large a contribution, to the heavenly world, of human beings in the dawn of their existence, enhancing, as we may suppose, the happiness of heaven by such large admixture of exotic, youthful nature, and illustrating, by their redemption from a helpless state of sin and misery, the unsearchable riches of wisdom and grace.
Has God done anything, in this world, to mark his regard for that class of the human race constituting, thus far, the greater part of the redeemed? We naturally look for something reminding the world of his interest in these subsidiaries of his kingdom. Has he confined his notice to those that are full-grown, and who have, thus far, the larger part of them, withheld from him the fruit of his vineyard? God has a church on earth, with ordinances, symbols, covenant signs: among them is there not some sign, symbol, or ordinance, recognizing those who, more than any other of the race, have, till now, been swelling the numbers of that church in heaven?
Like those elements of astronomical calculation which require and lead men to expect undiscovered planets in a certain quarter of the firmament, analogy, and the known intercourse of God with mankind, and our moral sense, incline us to look for some symbolic recognition of this earthly constituency of heaven by him who ordained and is redeeming to himself a church from among men. Words of interest and love toward them on the part of God, we all know, are not wanting in the Bible. Acts of loving-kindness, also, proving the sincerity of those words, and reaching even to a thousand generations of them that love God, are everywhere seen in sacred history.
But is there no great, conspicuous symbol of these things,--no type, no rite? Symbols appear to be inseparable attendants of God's manifested favor to men. He cannot enter into covenant with an individual, much less a people, but there is at least a stone set up, or a threshing-floor is bought for him, an altar is built, or they pour out