Water Baptism | Page 5

well marked connection with Jewish and Gentile ritual.[55]
Baptism by water, the symbol of the initiation of the convert, history traces from the Jewish rite to that of John the Baptist and thence to the Christian ordinance.
As we understand, the Christian ordinance here referred to by Tylor, is traceable through many modifications back to those carnal ordinances, those weak and beggarly elements, which Paul says were imposed until the time of reformation.[56] It has no authority from Christ and is therefore not Christian baptism.
As we read: Pagans of old baptized the face. Under the law of Moses the hands were baptized. John the Baptist baptized the whole body. Our Saviour baptized the feet.[57] Now Christians complete the cycle and again as of old baptize the face.
Some early Christians deferred water baptism to middle life or old age and many were never so baptized. Now Christians insist upon infant baptism.
Some early Christian said: If only one finger remains above water the baptism is not valid. Now Christians say: "A few drops of water are as good as a river."
What shall we say? Wisdom answers. Let us hold to what Christ says: "John indeed baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."[58]
We learn from the Brahmins on the Ganges, and the dwellers by the Nile and from explorers all around the world that water baptism was administered as an ancient religious rite among many so called heathen nations when first discovered.
Some we read baptized to appease the wrath of the Gods and to expiate sin.
Some Christians now claim that by water baptism a child of wrath becomes a child of Grace and sins are washed away.
The similarity of these two ideas, one Pagan and the other Christian, suggests a common origin far back in the ages before man learned that God is love and that Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to little children without baptism.[59]
Augustine who, in the fifth century, formulated from previously conceived theories the dogma of original sin and baptismal regeneration, was himself educated a Pagan and was well versed in that culture, and it impressed itself upon his writings and the church which adopted them.[60]
The little children which Jesus took in his arms and blessed and to whom he compared the heavenly kingdom were Jews, and Jews did not baptize their children.[61]
That, same loving Jesus, who blessed those children in Judea, we do believe now blesses our little ones and is watching over them for good and that to these also the heavenly kingdom is compared. To His tender care and keeping we reverently commit ourselves and them, and we do feel that for us it would be sinful to distrust this loving Saviour and turn to man for carnal baptism.
Justin Martyr, a prominent Christian writer of the second century said to Typho (a Jew)[62]: "John was a prophet among your nation after which no other appeared among you. He cried as he sat by the River Jordan: I baptize you with water to repentance but he that is stronger than I shall come whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
In all the scriptures from Genesis to Revelations we find no intimation of any other Christian baptism, only this one baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Feet washing was administered by Christ [63] and impressively commended to his disciples but it is plainly not the one baptism of the gospel.
From time immemorial some Pagans all around the world baptized with water.
By the law given through Moses the Jews baptized with water.[64]
John the Baptist was sent to baptize Jews with water.[65] But no one was sent to Baptize us Gentiles with water. God sent his son to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. All flesh, Jews and Gentiles, are objects of this one baptism.[66]
This is the one baptism of the Gospel and we know of no other.[67]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 48: Bancroft's Native Races; Vol. 2, P. 260; Vol. 2, P. 269; Vol. 2, P. 282]
[Footnote 49: Vol. 3, P. 370]
[Footnote 50: Under Baptism]
[Footnote 51: Mat. 15.2, 3; Mark 7.5, 9]
[Footnote 52: Mat. 3.5, 6]
[Footnote 53: The Jewish People in the time of Christ Vol. 2, P. 320]
[Footnote 54: Christian Institutions P. 6]
[Footnote 55: Primitive Culture by Tylor Vol. 2, P. 440; Vol. 2, P. 441]
[Footnote 56: Heb. 9.10; Gal. 4.9]
[Footnote 57: Jon. 13.4, 17]
[Footnote 58: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16]
[Footnote 59: Epistle of Jon. 4.8, 16; Mat. 18.2, 4; Mark 10.13, 16; Luke 18.16]
[Footnote 60: Britanica]
[Footnote 61: Mark 10.13, 16; Luke 18.16]
[Footnote 62: Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1, P. 219]
[Footnote 63: Jon. 13.1, 15]
[Footnote 64: Exodus 29.4, 40.12]
[Footnote 65: Leviticus 8.4, 6; Jon. 1.31, 33]
[Footnote 66: Jon. 1.33, 34; Acts 2.17, 18; Acts 10.45; Acts 11.15, 16]
[Footnote 67: Joel 2.28]

JOHN'S BAPTISM.
John the Baptist was sent before Christ to prepare the