Bertha and Her Baptism | Page 2

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 a horn of oil. He
invites Ahaz to ask of him a sign of his promise: "Ask it," he says,
"either in the depths, or in the height above;" and, when that man
refuses, God gives him a sign. Emblems, seals and types, in the early
dispensation, burst forth like images in the waters of everything along
the banks, and even of things far off. Everything has its memorial, its
rite; are the children, is the parental relation, forgotten?
Here let us consider that God began with the first parents and the first
children of the human race to set forth that great law of his

administration, the connection of children with parents for good or evil.
Every descendant of Adam is an example under that law. Thus it was
for nineteen generations,--from Adam to Abraham.
When, therefore, God reëstablished his church at the call of Abraham,
it was no new thing to connect parents and their children in covenant
promises and blessings. It had its origin in the very nature of man.
Abraham, and the covenant made with him for all believers and their
children, are, indeed, a striking illustration of a principle recognized
and applied by the Most High; but the principle itself is older than
Abraham,--it is coëval with the moral constitution of man. In making a
covenant with Noah, God included his children; so with David, making
mention of his house, "for a great while to come."
As soon, therefore, as religion was established in the earth, by securing
its perpetuity through the conservative influences of one selected line
of descent, the child was taken, as being the object of the covenant, and
the means of its perpetuation, and received its seal. God designed to
perpetuate religion in the earth, thenceforward, chiefly by means of the
parental relation; for the parent represents God to the child more than
any other fellow-creature, or thing, can do,--more than any instituted
influence, whether of prophet, priest, church, or ritual. Setting up his
church for all future time, with Abraham for its founder, God included
children with parents who covenanted with him, as the objects of
special regard and promise, and he appointed a rite to mark and seal
that covenant. Thus it was from Abraham to Christ, during three times
fourteen generations.
But the day of types and symbols was succeeded by another era, in
which the church of God comes forth with the glory of God risen upon
her, and all the nebulous matter of types and ceremonies is gathered
together into two permanent sacraments; for human nature was not
beyond the need and help of outward signs. Now, in the earlier of the
two ages of the church, the child was recognized by a rite of the church;
the child, with that rite inscribed on him, was the sign-bearer of the
church's perpetuity. Yet, in the age following, the child was as dear to
the parent as ever; the Christian parent was as much concerned to have

religion flow through his seed, as were his predecessors; the salvation
of the child was regarded with the same solicitude, and the principle of
perpetuating religion by the family constitution was still the same.
But did God withdraw from the children of his servants, from the most
hopeful of all the sources of his church's increase on earth and in
heaven, all token of his regard in any sacramental act? Is parental
affection, under the reign of Immanuel, debarred the enjoyment of one
of its most valuable privileges, the sealing of the child to be the Lord's
by the use of a divinely-appointed symbol? Had no ordinances and
symbols been allowed after the institution of Christianity, this question
would not arise; the inference would have been that human nature,
under the Gospel, will no more need the aid of rites in religion. But
there are Christian rites, expressly and solemnly instituted. Is not that
most important relation of a believer's child to God perpetuated; and is
it not still to be sealed by the use of one of the Christian ordinances?
In considering this question, and the many interesting topics connected
with it, the writer will be allowed to take his own way, following an
historical order in the occurrences which may be supposed to have
made the subject interesting and clear to the minds of two parents.
Chapter Second.
THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.
THE NATURE, GROUNDS, AND INFLUENCE, OF INFANT
BAPTISM.
If temporal estates may be conveyed By cov'nants,