A PARALLEL by W. N. Glenn

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 13, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 15.

A PARALLEL.

By W. N. Glenn

BY W. N. GLENN.

A CORRESPONDENT of the San Francisco Leader, writing from Dixon, Cal., says:—

Some time ago I said to a Catholic priest, "Father, what, in the opinion of the Catholic Church, was the mode of baptism in the days of Christ?" "Why," said he, "immersion, dipping, of course, but the church had authority to change the ordinance and did it." "We as Baptists have always claimed that the Catholic Church changed the ordinance," said I, "and we charge the Pedobaptists with getting their baptism from you, but they deny it." "Well," replied the priest, "they are very inconsistent, for they didn't get it anywhere else." And yet Pedobaptists will try to prove from the Bible that sprinkling is baptism.

Now for a parallel case: In the days of Christ the seventh day was observed as the Sabbath (see Luke 23:56; 24:1). Whatever change has taken place has been by the authority of the church, or some party purporting to be the church. The Catholic Church claims the credit of making the change to the first day, and so far as any history of the change is concerned her claim is just. There is no record of any such change in the Scriptures. Catholics say, and justly say, that Protestants who deny the authority of the church to change the laws or ordinances appointed by the Lord, are very inconsistent in keeping Sunday. Or, rather, they put it this way: Protestants who keep the first-day sabbath are very inconsistent in denying the authority of the church to change or establish ordinances or festivals.

Sprinkling and Sunday keeping stand on precisely the same footing. They are of the same stamp as Easter, Christmas, and the other church festivals. They all stand or fall together. It is noticeable, too, that Protestants are becoming quite lavish in the celebration of Easter, as they have long been in that of Christmas. The indulgence of one apostasy logically leads to the acceptance of others. So long as Baptists practice Sunday observance, they cannot consistently chide pedobaptists for practicing sprinkling.