Mormon Baptism and Christian Baptism
By Editor
The New York Christian Advocate has the following, which is for the most part sensible:— "A curious practical question arises in Utah, and that is, what Christian pastors should do in the matter of the baptism of persons received on probation who have been baptized only at the hands either of the Mormon Church or of the organized branch called the Josephites. We have no hesitation in saying that the Mormon Church, in either of the branches, is as widely removed from Christianity as Mohammedanism. This judgment is based upon a careful reading of the 'Book of Mormon,' and the historical books of the Mormons, which we obtained from President George Smith in 1871, and from a comparison of Mormonism with Mohammedanism. No ceremonies that the Mormons may perform, whether resembling baptism in the use of water or not, are Christian ceremonies, much less Christian sacraments. If a Mormon had been baptized as a Christian before adopting Mormonism, that is another matter. But if he had received only Mormon baptism, he should be baptized on professing faith in Christ as promptly as any pagan was, or Jew, to whom the gospel was preached by the apostles. In such a case it would not be rebaptism, though a second ceremonial use of water." It is, indeed, true that it takes more than the form to constitute Christian baptism. One of the essential things is a proper candidate. A proper candidate is one who has been converted, has renounced the world, and given himself to God. This is certainly quite as necessary as a properly authorized administration. And only those baptized under these conditions have received Christian baptism. It matters not by whom the ceremony was performed, whether by a Mormon priest or by a Methodist bishop.