SAMUEL, FALLOWS.
7. Infant Baptism. The great majority of those who call themselves Christians, throughout the world, have been baptized in infancy, so that there is a general denial by Christendom that im mersion is essential to the sacrament of baptism, (1) Early Custom. The word bortizo is not always applied "to acts involving the process of immersion." Reputable authorities in church his tory agree that infant baptism was practiced as early as the second century. Origen (183 233 A. D.) speaks of it as the general practice of the church) and as having been taught by the apos tles, ''for this cause it was that the church re ceived a tradition from the apostles to give bap tism even to infants." Tertullian put an exaggerated value upon the rite of baptism and advised that it should be post poned till later life, holding that "baptism was accompanied with the remission of past sins, and that sins committed after baptism were peculiarly dangerous." His polemic indicates that in his time (160-240 A. D.) infant baptism was com mon.
Justin Martyr, in his elroiegy (138 A. D ) speaks of 'many persons of both sexes, who had been made disciples to Christ from their infancy." And in Trvplio he says: "We are circumcised by baptism. with Christ's circumcision." A rational view of the relation of young chil dren to the Saviour, who said: "Suffer little chil dren to conic unto Inc and forbid them not." (Mark x scents to imply that as the old dis pensation used the designating rite of circumcision to indicate that the Jewish infant was recognized by the national church as belonging to its con stituency, so the new dispensation has a format ceremony by which the church claims little chil dren as its own. i f any choose to quote the in junction of Christ. "Believe and be baptized," as carrying an implication against the right to baptize such as are not yet capable of personal belief, it is sufficient to reply that this command is most certainly for adults, hut that it has no ex clusive meaning as against infants. Moreover, there are inneresiv'e and mandatory words from the Saviour which imply that young children arc recognized by Him as belonging to a very lofty and exemplary sense to the Kingdom of Gad: "Except ye (adults) he converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" t Matt. xviii :3).
(2) Reasons. infant baptism, therefore, as a Christian rite, rests upon the following concep tions It is a sign given by the church that it recog nizes children as belonging to God They arc claimed and taken into its consecrating arms, to be brought within its sphere of nurture and in struction (n) The baptismal vows taken by parents at the font, in the solemn office of this saerament, are a reinforcement of parental obligation to bring up their children as if they were God's, an.1 should never be allowed to believe that they were nat urally aliens from the household of faith.
(b) \s much ma% be said of a infant as of an adult baptized. for in each case this sacrament witnesses. as far as an outward cere monial may do so, that this person is now Christ's and virtually a member of His kingdom. If the child dies, baptized or unbaptized, he is saved, so all rational, modern theologies agree. If he lives and is rightly guided and taught, the saved life, the life of a Christian, is the normal and ra tional (but not inevitable) result of the antece dent influences. If a baptized infant may grow up into recreancy and stray into irreligion, so may the adult, after baptism, voluntarily accepted, "be come a castaway" and deny the faith.
(c) All this may be consistently believed with out making any assumptions that carry the ex treme views of "baptismal regeneration." The wide and gracious purpose of the Redeemer is sufficient to cover the salvation of unsinning in fants, whether or not a few drops of consecrated water have touched their brows. But it is expedi ent and helpful, and tends to sweeten and sanc tify the family order, if, without any claim of re generating grace for the water itself, the little children of the household are "christened" for a fellowship in the great family of God, named for the Redeemer in heaven and on earth.