Bertha and Her Baptism | Page 8

and confidence in him,
in not concealing from him his purpose to destroy Sodom. 'Shall I hide
from Abraham that thing which I do? For I know him that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the ways of the Lord.' So, in order to remind Abraham of what was
expected by the Most High in making his children the presumptive
heirs of grace, and to remind the children of it when they came to years
of understanding, God gave him and them this mark and seal."
"Well, then," said Mr. Benson, "it seems to me Abraham was better off
than we, if he had God in covenant with him for his children, and we
have not. I sometimes wish that I could have God covenant with me
about my boy, as Abraham had about Isaac."
"I should like," said Mrs. B., "to hear him say, 'I will be a God to him,'
and then tell us to do something of his own appointment that should be
like our signing and sealing a covenant together, as the Lord's Supper
enables us to do with Christ."
"If we have no such blessed privilege," said I, "then, as Abraham
desired to see our day, I should, in this respect, rejoice to see
Abraham's day. I cannot forego the privilege of having God in covenant
with me for my children as he was with Abraham for his; and I crave
some divine seal affixed to it.
"You said, Mrs. Benson, that you would like to have God promise to be
the God of your child, and then command you to do something which
would be like God and you signing and sealing it together. But do you
think, Mrs. B., that this is necessary? Why is it not enough for God to
make a promise, and you make one, and let it be without any sign or
seal?"
"People don't do things in that way," said Mr. Benson, with a decided
motion, two or three times, with his head. "They call a wedding a

ceremony, it is true, and some say, 'So long as people are engaged to be
man and wife, the ceremony makes little difference.' But it does make
all the difference in the world,--this mere ceremony, as they call it.
They never like to dispense with it themselves, at least; because, you
see, it makes all the difference between unlawful, sinful union, and
marriage. It makes married life; which could not exist, without the
ceremony, among decent people. It gives a title and ground to a thing
which could not be without it. So, I begin to see and feel, it is with
regard to what some call the ceremony of baptism. But excuse me, wife,
I took the answer out of your mouth."
"Well," said Mrs. Benson to me, "I must wait upon you, sir, to answer
the question further."
"Mr. Benson has the right view of the subject," I replied. "We make too
little of signs and seals, from a morbid fear and jealousy of those which
are invented by man and added to religion. But God's own seals are
safe and good. We cannot make too much of them.
"God never did anything with men, from the beginning, without signs
and seals. The tree of life was one, and so was the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve knew better, at first, than
to say, 'So long as we love and obey God, of what use are these
symbols?' By not regarding symbols afterward, they brought death into
our world and all our woe. Even before that, God had appointed a
symbol of his authority, and a seal of a covenant between him and man
forever, in the appointment of the Sabbath. The mark on Cain's
forehead, the rainbow, the lamp passing between the severed parts of
Abraham's sacrifice, Jacob's ladder, the burning bush, the passover, and
things too numerous to mention, show how God loves signs and seals.
"There are many good people, at the present day, who say to me, I am
willing to consecrate my child to God in prayer, and bring him up for
God; but I do not see the necessity of an ordinance. Why bring the
child to baptism? I can do all which is required and signified, without
the sign."
"What do you say to them?" said Mrs. Ford.

Pastor. I tell them they are on dangerous ground. Will they be wiser
than God? He knows our natures, and what to prescribe to us in our
intercourse with him. I would as soon meddle with a law of nature, as
with God's ordinances. I might as well neglect a law of nature, and
think to be safe and well, as