The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 19, 1883

The Sabbath-School.

Lesson for the Pacific Coast—April 28.

ACTS 2 : 22-47.

“For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off.”—From this text, taken in connection with the preceding verse, it is very commonly argued that infants should be baptized. But this is a very slight inference on which to base a custom, in the absence of direct proof. And we have only to consider the promise to which Peter refers, to see its utter fallacy. The only promise mentioned is the one previously quoted from Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” The term “all flesh” means simply all nations; no distinction is to be made on account of race. Peter’s reference to this promise in verse 39 cannot include any more or less than his quotation in verse 17. “Unto you and to your children,” takes in the whole Jewish race—the Jews then living, and their descendants. “And to all that are afar off,” covers all the rest of the ground—all the other nations. The word “children” in this verse is used in the same sense as it is in Matt. 23 : 37; Acts 13 : 33.