Baptism of Three Thousand Converts.
IN his "Critical Notes" on the Sunday-school lesson, in the S. S. Times, Dr. Woolsey said of the baptism of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost: "The great rapidity with which baptism must have been performed, and the want of conveniences, if not of water, must have rendered immersion of the whole body impossible." This naturally called forth considerable comment, which the Times, with the utmost fairness, printed. As the above objection is a standing one with those who substitute sprinkling for baptism, we think that a portion of the replies will be read with interest. A Baptist pastor of New York writes thus:— "First, the rapidity. To one accustomed only to the modern and man-made mode, it does seem rather large to baptize three thousand in the likeness of Christ's death all in one day; but to one accustomed to immerse, there appears to be nothing impossible or difficult about it. The difficulty is in getting the three thousand converts. Elder Joseph Knapp immersed sixty in Keuka Lake in twenty-eight minutes, without undue haste. It would not be difficult to get abundance of like testimony. The history of the Telugu Baptist Mission is a standing protest against the 'rapidity' objection. A little practical knowledge of immersing dissipates this objection into thin air. If there is a real question about the possibility of these three thousand being immersed in one day, let the Sunday-School Times open its columns to the testimony of the ministers of the country, who have had experience in immersing converts. In three weeks there wouldn't be a shadow of a question. There is hardly an able-bodied Baptist minister in the country who wouldn't be only too willing to be one of twelve to immerse three thousand almost any afternoon. The one who could not immerse fifty an hour would have two by his side who could more than double the number. And what conveniences could have been wanting? Both the pilgrims and the residents of Jerusalem were accustomed to public bathing, if not private, and were clothed in such a manner that they could easily do it. . . As to water, I always supposed that on any other day than this one day of Pentecost, A. D. 33, Jerusalem183was a well-watered city. . . When the spiritual forces of the new on-coming kingdom of her Lord besieged her, and water was needed for the rites of that kingdom, did the pools and fountains and cisterns, the public and private reservoirs, fail for the first time? Are we to understand that it was a dry time in Jerusalem that day? 'Impossible' seems a large word to use in this connection. Considering the dress of the Oriental, the public baths of Jerusalem, the bathing habits of the people, the number of assistants whom Peter could call to his aid (probably over eighty), and the zeal that filled their hearts that day, it must have been a dry time in Jerusalem, if the immersion of three thousand was 'impossible.' . . . I would say in conclusion: It takes but little longer to immerse than to sprinkle, if each candidate is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." "The Rev. Dr. Downie, of the Telugu Mission, says that it took six persons nine hours to baptize 2,222, and only two were baptizing at a time, they being relieved, when tired, by two others. Let any person go into any Baptist Church, and see the ordinance of baptism administered, and he will see that it takes less than a minute to a person." In addition to these testimonies, the editor of the S. S. Times (who is not a Baptist), gives his own opinion concerning the probable conveniences for such a rite—including an abundance of water—in Jerusalem, in the days of the apostles. He says:— "That ancient Jerusalem was supplied with water to a remarkable degree is evident from a study of its history. Eusebius, writing in the fourth century, quotes a writer earlier than himself as saying: 'The whole city flowed with water, so that even the gardens were irrigated of those flowing waters out of the city.' Tacitus refers to Jerusalem as 'a fountain of perennial water, mountains hollowed out underneath; also fish pools and cisterns, rain-water being preserved.' Canon Williams, a Church-of-England clergyman, long a resident and a careful student of the Holy City, says: 'There is a singular agreement among all authors, sacred and profane, on this fact, that the Holy City had an abundance of water within its circuit, while the neighborhood was scantily supplied, or rather altogether arid;' and he proceeds to consider how this was possible. Dr. Trail, another Church-of-England clergyman, and an editor of the Works of Josephus, declares of Jerusalem, that 'perhaps upon no city of the ancient world had greater cost been bestowed, or more skill shown, in securing for it an unfailing supply of water.' And the modern researches of Dr. Barclay and of Captain Wilson, and others, have shown the ruins of cisterns and pools and aqueducts in and about Jerusalem, which justify the claims of its wonderful water supply in the days of old. That the Orientals are in the habit of bathing in and drinking from the same pools and streams, every traveler in the East can testify; and it is evident from the inspired text itself, that persons were in the habit of stepping or being carried into the pool of Bethesda, and of washing in the pool of Siloam, in Jerusalem, in the days of our Lord. Indeed, it would seem that if there was one place on the face of the earth about which there need be no question concerning the supply of water, and conveniences of its use, for immersion, in the apostolic age, that place was Jerusalem."