Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 10. (3/11/1909)

Review and Herald

Mar 11, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 11, 1909

A Prayer

By Sylvia Chapin

God, I pray to Thee for patience when the world seems all unfair, When life seems one long injustice, and the end alone despair; When I’m weary, O, so weary! and my tears bring no relief; When I question why Thou sendest to humanity such grief; Grant me faith as well as patience, and forgive me when I pray For some knowledge of the reasons why we suffer day by day. Give me strength to keep on working, cheerfully to do my task, Give me courage, hope, submission; perfect joy I can not ask. Teach me how to give to others something helpful, something true; How to make my life worth living, how to start each day anew. God in heaven, forgive my failures, and uphold me with Thy hand; I am weak, impatient, restless, and I can not understand. I can only hope, believing there are reasons now unknown, Which sometime, somewhere, we’ll master, as we reap what we have sown. God, once more I come imploring Thee with strength to fill my heart; I have failed; wilt Thou forgive me, and Thy love to me impart?

— Sylvia Chapin.

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PRESERVE LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE

By Editor

Speaking of Religious Legislation in America the Spirit of Prophecy says:

“We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience.”

Let Us Work

“Fervent, effectual prayer should be ascending to heaven that this calamity may be deferred until we can accomplish the work; and then let us work in harmony with our prayers.”

“Let us show the people where we are in prophetic history, . . . awakening the world to a sense of the value of the privileges of religious liberty so long enjoyed.”—“Testimonies,” Vol. V, pages 712, 716.

PARTIAL CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS: Frontispiece Cartoon, “Temptation of the Church.” Also 25 Other Illustrations.

EDITORIALS: Our Position Defined—The Federal Council of Churches—Religion by Edict in England—The Truth About Magna Charta, A Reply to Hon. Bourke Cockran—American Church and American Sabbath—Opening of Parliament in Turkey—Possibility of a Roman Catholic President.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES: Lutheran Reply to President Roosevelt’s Letter—Labor Unions and Free Speech—First Catholic Missionary Congress—National Lord’s Day Alliance—Famous Sunday Mail Reports of Congress—The Sunday Law Movement in California.

PUBLIC OPINION: An Impending Peril—Religion in Politics—The True Protestant Position.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE: The Unsettled Controversy—God in Nature—After the Higher Criticism, What?

TEMPERANCE: Alcohol a Chief Cause of Crime—Alcohol and Public Health.

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The Emmanuel Movement

Its Theology and Its Psychology

We have already called attention somewhat briefly to the theological teachings which underlie the Emmanuel Movement. Before passing to the psychical philosophy through which these teachings are developed into a system of therapeutics, it may be well to note further some of the religious views entertained by the founder of this movement. It is possible to do this clearly and authoritatively by quoting some leading statements from “The Living Word,” Dr. Worcester’s latest book. The first sentence in the chapter “Man’s Life in God,” reads thus:—

The secret of all spiritual religion is the union of the human soul with the divine soul, the belief that man’s spirit and God’s Spirit are in their essence one.—Page 105.

This is not an isolated expression of a subordinate idea, but is an essential part of Dr. Worcester’s theological thinking, as is shown by further quotations:—

To realize to the utmost our life in God is simply to realize God in our life. If we are in God, we are in God as parts of his spiritual nature. . . .

But how much more satisfaction may you find in the thought that God lives and feels and acts in you and through you, that you are bound to him by every fiber of your being, and not only to him, but to all the other hosts of finite spirits which constitute his mind, especially to those who are bound to you through laws of association. . . .

But if you are in God and your soul and will part of God’s spiritual nature, your freedom is simply part of God’s universal freedom which you employ and enjoy in him and under him. [Italics ours.]—Pages 120, 121.

It should be remembered that this view of the essential union of the soul with God and of the indwelling of God in man is not predicated only of those who have been “created in Christ Jesus,” or of those concerning whom the apostle Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” but of humanity as a whole, regardless of the personal acceptance of the gift of God in Christ. It should be further noted that this teaching is essentially the same as the philosophy of the pantheist, Fechner, whose God is “that absolutely totalized consciousness of the universe,” “an absolutely universal consciousness.”

This pantheistic philosophy is further developed in the following manner:—

As a Spirit, God has a relation to the material universe, but what that relation is we can learn only through the relation of our soul to our body. God does not draw the world after him like a horse. He does not push it before him like a perambulator. He is in it as the soul is in the body. God as a Spirit also has relation with other spirits. If he is indeed the only infinite, all-comprehending spirit, they can not exist outside him and independent of him. . . . This, then, is the conception I propose to sincere seekers after God, to those who are unsatisfied with a mere Judge, an absentee Deity, a Being throned above the stars, in timeless, changeless idleness; and who desire a real and working God who is present in this world as the soul is present in the body.—Pages 117, 118.

That conception of the nature and being of God which is held up to ridicule by these pantheistic philosophers as “an absentee Deity,” is not derived from the revelation of God made in the Scriptures. There we learn of God as one who has a dwelling-place in heaven, where, as a personal Being, he may be found in a sense in which he is not found elsewhere, but who is also everywhere present by his Spirit. “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” It is just as much a perversion of the truth to represent God as “an absentee Deity” as to make him the “totalized consciousness of the universe,” a mere essence pervading all matter, and of which all matter is the body. Thus Dr. Worcester merely substitutes for one perverted idea of God another idea which is equally a perversion of the truth.

Adopting fully Fechner’s pantheistic teaching that all the heavenly bodies are living beings, the founder of the Emmanuel Movement presents his remarkable philosophy concerning the angels:—

If you think of these bodies as mere dead, inert masses of matter, ask yourself if the being that is the source of all life can be accounted dead. . . . What leads us to believe that the worlds are living beings is the inexhaustible fulness of life which one of the least of these heavenly wanderers [the earth] has brought forth.

Have not men from the earliest times fabled of angels who dwell in the light, and who fly through heaven, needing neither food nor drink? Have they not conceived of the angels as intermediary beings between us and God, who purely and perfectly fulfil the will of God? But here are beings that dwell in light, and that fly through the heaven in absolute obedience to the will of God, without fainting, and needing no earthly food or drink. And if heaven is really the house of the angels, then we must look for the angels of heaven in the stars; for theheavens have no other inhabitants, and the other sort of angels have long since vanished, ceasing to appear altogether when men ceased to believe in their appearances.—Pages 176, 177.

This teaching concerning angels is almost word for word the teaching of Fechner, the pantheist, upon the same subject, as summarized by Prof. William James.

In his chapter entitled “What Is Death?” Dr. Worcester inculcates a philosophy absolutely subversive of the gospel of life through Christ, but quite in line with the spiritualistic conception of the soul as an entity capable of a conscious existence apart from the body. To quote:—

It is because we make such a mystery, such a dark secret of Death, that we hate him. Did we know him better, we might almost love him.—Page 199.

What a picture of man standing and shuddering at the thought of death, which is his second birth!—Page 204.

It [death] transplants us. Like our first birth, it is the beginning of a new life.—Page 206.

To attain that higher and perfect life, to know, to be happy, to be perfect, death is necessary.—Page 210.

Even now the dead are nearer to you than you imagine. Do not shrink from this thought as though it contained something terrible. Emotions do not flow all in one direction; they are reciprocal; they flow from us to the beloved one and from the beloved one to us, just as a blow is felt by the object smitten and the hand that strikes. If you think lovingly and earnestly of the lost one, it is because he is near you. The more earnestly, the more lovingly you think, the nearer he draws.—Pages 215, 216.

The real and important outcome of all I have been saying is this: death is nothing more than a second birth; not figuratively, but literally. We need dread it no more than the child need dread to be born.—Pages 217, 218.

Reviewing his course of reasoning at the close of this chapter, Dr. Worcester himself states the conclusion to which any thoughtful reader must come:—

In reality, the argument I am pursuing is only a new application of the argument of evolution,—the following of the life history of the individual, instead of the history of the race. The one is just as fruitful, just as legitimate, as the other.—Page 224.

From the evidence already submitted, we are warranted in saying that Dr. Worcester’s system of theology may be expressed in three words,—pantheism, Spiritualism, evolution. A system of therapeutics based upon such a system of theology must itself be pantheistic, spiritualistic, evolutionary. It can have no proper basis upon which to rest the claim that it is Christian, or that it is a return to the system of healing practised by Christ and his disciples.

The Emmanuel Movement not only represents the newest of the New Theology, but also the latest developments of psychology, which, according to Dr. Worcester, consist “in the recognition of powers in man beyond those usually employed in his normal consciousness. To this obscure domain of the soul,” he says, “a great variety of names unfortunately has been given,—the unconscious mind, the subconscious, the subliminal, the subjective, etc.” While admitting that all psychologists have not accepted the new theories, the founder of the Emmanuel Movement fully commits himself to them in this statement:—

We believe with Professor James that the subconscious powers of the mind really exist, and that the recognition of them forms the most important advance which psychology has made since the days of Fechner and Weber.—“Religion and Medicine,” page 14.

The nature of this so-called subconscious mind is further defined thus:—

The subconscious mind is a normal part of our spiritual nature. There is reason to believe that it is purer, more sensitive to good and evil, than our conscious mind. . . . Neither should we regard it as a mere generalized mind-stuff without personal characteristics. Though it is doubtless more generic and in closer contact with the Universal Spirit than reason, yet its creations bear the imprint of individual genius.—Id., page 42.

It is more than intimated that in this latest development of psychology may be found the true basis for belief in immortality,—a belief for which evidence must necessarily be found outside the Scriptures. To quote again:—

The subconscious mind is purer than the conscious, and if any part of our being is permanent, we may believe this to be such.—Id., page 38.

The relation which this subliminal self sustains to our material system is thus stated:—

They [examples of the physiological action of the subconscious mind] prove beyond question that our subconscious mind acts through the instrumentality of our whole nervous system, both cerebrospinal and sympathetic, and that through this complex mechanism it can effect important changes in our physical functions.—Id., pages 40, 41.

Before proceeding further with this study, it may be well to cite some evidence tending to show that Dr. Worcester’s theories concerning the subconscious mind are not above question. As throwing some light upon the subject, we quote from an article in the current number of The Hibbert Journal, by Dr. Henry Rutgers Marshall, of New York City, entitled “Psycho-Therapeutics and Religion:”—

Much of the mystery usually felt in relation to this subattentive consciousness (“subconsciousness”) results from our overlooking the fact that it is most intricately systematized, just as the parts of the nerve system, whose activities correspond with it, are intricately systematized. It is fundamentally of the same nature as attentive consciousness, and we should therefore not be surprised to discover that it is affected by elements which appear in the field of attention, nor surprised to find the field of attention affected by influences initiated within it.

Dr. Marshall declares that the claim that “the subconscious mind is a normal part of our spiritual nature” is not well founded, and he further asserts:—

The statement that the “subconscious mind” is “purer, more sensitive to good and evil, than the conscious,” is equally unwarranted, although it seems to have the support of so eminent a psychologist as William James.

Dr. Marshall further opposes an important feature of Dr. Worcester’s psychology in these words:—

We are also compelled to question the statement that the subattentive consciousness (“subconscious mind”) “has more direct control of physical processes than the conscious.” The subattentive consciousness is broader than the narrow field of attention; and its nerve activity correlates are doubtless more numerous, and more thoroughly integrated, than those corresponding to the mental elements in attention; but it is difficult to see how what we call mental control of physical processes can be more efficient in the one case than in the other. . . .

It may be well here also to call attention to the fact that attentive consciousness merges into subattentive consciousness; out of the latter, as it were, appears the flitting field of the former.

While not consenting to Dr. Worcester’s theories of psychology, we are now prepared to understand their application in the Emmanuel Movement. The case may be stated thus:—

1. There is in every man a subconscious mind, which is in one place designated as “the strange power of which we have been so long ignorant, though it resides within us, and manifests itself in so many of the most important acts of our lives.”

2. This subconscious mind is “purer, more sensitive to good and evil, than our conscious mind.”

3. “The subconscious mind has more direct control of our physical processes than the conscious.”

4. “Anything which weakens or depresses our subconscious mind exposes us to disease by rendering us less able to resist its encroachments. And on the other hand, we possess such allies and resources within ourselves that apart from surgical interference, the physician’s chief function is to awaken in his patient the will to live and to employ every element of resistance which the system itself affords.”

5. The subconscious mind “is more generic, and in closer touch with the universal processes of nature than our conscious intelligence,” and is “in closer contact with the Universal Spirit than reason.”

It follows that the one who can control the so-called subconscious mind can,

through such control, have greater power over the physical processes than it is possible to obtain through the operation of the conscious mind, and that the best method of directing the conduct is to eliminate as far as possible the activity of the conscious mind, and having obtained full possession of the will, to impress such instruction upon the subconscious mind as shall afterward be revealed in the life experience.

What these premises mean when developed in their practical application in the Emmanuel Movement will form the subject of the next article.

Testing What Is Christian

CHRISTIANITY as distinguished from other so-called religions is the system of doctrines and precepts inculcated by Christ. The interpretation and application of these doctrines and precepts to the experience of the life are made known in the life of Christ. Any system or movement claiming to be Christian may properly be tested by comparing its doctrines and precepts with the doctrines and precepts of Christ. In doing this, we are to take the teaching of Christ in its primary and obvious meaning, without juggling with his language, or giving a spiritualistic or mystical meaning to terms or expressions whose repeated use in the Scriptures defines their meaning. In view of the work of the higher critics, and the fanciful and mystical interpretations of words and phrases familiar to Christian ears, it is now necessary to know in what sense such terms as God, Christ, angels, faith, salvation, etc., are employed by those who stand forth as religious teachers and leaders. The advocates of liberalism have appropriated such language of Scripture as suits their purpose to be the channel for their new philosophy, and we are therefore compelled to look beneath the verbal forms of a system or the phenomena of a movement in order to determine whether it may be justly designated as Christian. It is important that we remember this.

Religion

RELIGION means loyalty to the principles and laws of the kingdom of God. Anything short of this is mere pretense.

Kept in Evil Times

By C. M. S.

THERE is no limit to the keeping power of God. Our being kept is not a matter of how much mental or physical strength we have, or how conducive our surroundings are to spiritual victories. It is a matter of obedience and faith. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee,” says Inspiration through the prophet Isaiah. As God is not circumscribed by environment, turned aside from his purpose by obstacles, or restricted in his operations because of the strength of the adversary, neither shall we be so long as we are in the direct line of his purpose concerning us. We may often find ourselves baffled, seemingly, when doing what we firmly believe to be God’s will. Such times are times for self-examination and earnest prayer. They show one of two things: we are out of the direct line of God’s purpose, or we are depending too much upon our own strength. We need to tremble when we are depending on our own strength; but the adversary is the one to tremble when he sees the saints of God panoplied with the promised strength of the Almighty.

Far too often we are possessed of a purpose or plan which we feel we must drive through on schedule, or disaster is certain. Frequently God permits such purposes or plans to be completely blocked; but the cause goes on. Often we pin our faith to men, and almost feel that the cause of God itself hangs upon them. They deny the faith, rail at its less conspicuous adherents, or God permits them to be laid away; but the cause sweeps on to higher ground and to new victories.

What is the lesson?—The cause of God is greater than the instruments he uses in carrying it on; the work of God is bound to triumph in spite of every loss, every obstacle, and the culmination of every antagonistic power on earth; and because this is a fact, he can keep and will keep every trusting soul, no matter how discouraging the prospect or how great the opposition. Were this not true, we would have every reason to look with greater dismal foreboding to the experiences that await the people of God. But such foreboding is no part of the true Christian’s business, because the reason for it does not exist.

It is true that the times are ominous; they are full of peril; but the peril is to those who have not fully identified themselves with the cause; it is to those who have not fully learned the secret of complete trust in God. Nothing is surer than that the triumph of God’s purpose over that of his adversary is certain and soon to be. To be fully identified with that work which brings God’s purpose for this earth to completion, is to have a part in that victory ourselves.

To have no other purpose than to serve God, gives the adversary of souls no hold upon us, and lifts us entirely out of his dominion. It is when we divide our affections, tightly clinging to the tinseled glories of earth with one hand and reaching for the things of eternity with the other, that we need to fear for our souls. It is of such that our Saviour speaks in these words: “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 62. And no man, not fit for that kingdom, will ever enter the gates of the city of God.

To be triumphant in spite of the perils of the last days will require a trust that will not tremble, a faith that will not falter, a power not of earth, hands held in his hands who made and upholds the universe, feet that run only at his bidding, and eyes that look neither to the right hand nor to the left to lust after the things of earth. These things are the prerequisites of triumph, and they are every one possible through the help promised of Heaven. Says the Spirit through Paul: “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it.” 1 Thess. 5: 23, 24.

The apostle James, after depicting the perils of the last days, admonishes the children of God thus: “Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. . . . Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5: 7, 8. In view of the near approach of that great event and the perils that precede it, let us pray with David: “Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and from the gins of the workers of iniquity.” While praying that prayer, let us not forget that God himself will not save us so long as our heart’s affections cling to the things of this life, and our eyes wander abroad over the earth, the yielded prey of the tempter.

C. M. S.

Cast Not Away Your Confidence

By F. M. W.

THE church of God has passed through many crises in its history. By persecution, by apostasy, by the spirit of the world, by skepticism and doubt, by influences from without and within, the enemy has sought to subvert souls, and draw them away from their allegiance to God and his truth. This was so in the history of the church in the wilderness, in the days of the apostles, in the time of the Reformation, and it will be emphatically true in these closing days of earth's history.

Speaking with direct reference to our own time, the apostle Paul says: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” It needs no argument to prove that we are now entering upon the time of which this scripture speaks. As never before in all his work of evil, Satan is seeking to unsettle the faith of men in God and in his revelation. The specious, subtle attacks upon the inspiration of the Bible; fanciful interpretations of scripture; the corruption in national, State, and municipal affairs; the degenerating influences working in the church; the moral downfall of society; the broken and dismembered homes, with the rapidly lowering standard of personal piety and individual responsibility, make it appear to human reasoning that the very foundations of faith are being overthrown and swept away.

Truly this is a time to try men's souls. And men are being tried. Souls are hanging in the balance of decision. Some are questioning if there be a God, if he cares for the honor of his name, and if he still remembers his children. Small comfort is afforded such inquirers in the jargon of voices heard on every side to-day. Neither within our own hearts, nor yet in the lives of others, can we find answers to our questioning. But we may find such answer in the Word of truth. In the sure word of prophecy God has forewarned us of these days. From it, and in our personal relationship with God, we may learn that he still lives. The foundation of his throne standeth sure. He has a truth which is going to the world, a work which he recognizes as his own, a people whom he is leading.

In the midst of the turmoil and strife, he is working out his purpose. In the busy marts of men, in the quiet sheltered home, in the hut of the lowly, and in the palace of the king, he is softening hearts and molding lives. He is gathering out

from all nations a people for his name; and he is gathering them out under conditions which will lead them to stand alone, as did Elijah of old. It will be an individual work. The remnant will not be saved by companies, or by families. The husband will not save the wife, nor the parents the children. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, or they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.”

But this standing alone, this dependence on God, will not mean drawing off from our fellows, an alienation of feelings, an independence of judgment and movement. There is danger, in these times, that fancy and feeling will be mistaken for faith; wild imagination, for leadings of the Spirit; and selfish obstinacy, for moral independence. Some, like Munzer and his misguided followers in the days of Luther, are inclined to cry, “The spirit, the spirit,” and, giving loose rein to wild imaginings, rush on, regardless of where their spirit leads, and unacquainted with its source or character. Let us avoid, in the times before us, these traps and pitfalls of the adversary.

The wisdom which descends from above is not contentious for self, not obstinate, self-willed and headstrong, but is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Sometimes vital truth will cause separation. The simplicity of the gospel and the truth of God must be maintained, even if that maintenance separates very friends. Right principles must be upheld at any and every cost to personal interest or human friendship. But let us not confound vital truth with mere personal opinion, or make some personal hobby a test of Christian communion.

While depending wholly upon God, we should seek to draw near to our brethren. Differences should be laid aside, the spirit of warmth should take the place of coldness. With well-directed plans and in hearty accord, with a united front, we should press the battle against the common foe. Let all pull together, and let all pull in even lines. Repress the unkind thought, the cynical smile, the critical word. We are associated here with men and women of varying temperaments, and we should adapt ourselves to their ways, enter into their plans, and prove in their lives a strong, uplifting force of strength and encouragement. If we live with our fellows throughout eternity, we must learn to live with them here. If we enter heaven at last, then the principles of heaven must control our lives in this world.

Let every doubting, trembling soul take hold of God anew. He lives and reigns. If he has left you to stand by yourself, it is that he may teach you dependence on him alone. He loves you, and feels for you. He regards your outstretched hand, your grieving heart, your tears and prayers. Cast not away your confidence. Take hold of God's strong hand. Look not to others for inspiration or power, but to him who alone is able to keep you. He says: “Lo, I am with you alway.” “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

In this great world there are other lonely lives and grief-filled hearts. Seek them out, and speak to them words of comfort and cheer. Your message will gladden their lives, and will come back to you, bringing strength and comfort. Do not live for self, or live in self. Live for others, and in living for others, you will live for God. In saving others, through his grace, you will save your own soul, and bring joy and gladness into all your experience. F. M. W.

The Perversion of Baptism

By W. A. S.

THE word baptism, which the evangelists used by inspiration, signifies a burial. The apostle Paul wrote:—

“We are buried with him [Christ] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Rom. 6:4.

It is a profession of faith in the Saviour, who went into the grave for us, and rose again to life. And it is the great object-lesson to teach the truth that the sinner must die to sin and the world, and have a resurrection by the power of divine grace to the new life of obedience. The ordinance is the sign of an actual experience.

The perversion of the ordinance into sprinkling, and that in infancy, takes away the divinely ordained object-lesson, and substitutes mere ceremonialism for experience; for the innocent babe can have had no experience of believing and repenting, which are the necessary conditions to baptism.

The perversion of the ordinance, like most of the changes that came about in the days of apostasy from primitive faith and practise, was by gradual process. Dean Stanley, in his “Christian Institutions,” says that it is not till the third century, in church history, that “we find one case of the baptism of infants.” On the change to sprinkling, he says:—

What is the justification of this almost universal departure from the primitive usage? There may have been many reasons, some bad, some good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious feeling, already mentioned, which regarded baptism as a charm, indispensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting it to every human being who could be touched with water, however unconscious.

As formalism crept in, men left out the experience of faith, of which baptism was but a symbol and open confession, and assigned to the water of baptism the merit that washed away sin. Then in the case of a dying person, unable to be taken to the riverside or baptistery, we can readily see that it followed naturally enough that water should be brought and poured or sprinkled upon the person, in order that any merit inherent in water so used might be imparted. And if sprinkling water in such a case could regenerate and insure salvation, why, it would be readily suggested, should not the infant be touched with the regenerating water immediately after birth, and so its future salvation be assured? First came the perversion in the doctrine and the misconception of the meaning of baptism, and then the change in the divinely appointed form. But the perversion of the form came into general acceptance much later than most people suppose. Dean Stanley, of Westminster, one of the first scholars of the Church of England, wrote:—

For the first thirteen centuries the almost universal practise of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is the very meaning of the word baptize,—that those who were baptized were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. That practise is still, as we have seen, continued in the Eastern churches. In the Western church it still lingers among Roman Catholics in the solitary instance of the Cathedral of Milan; among Protestants in the numerous sects of the Baptists. It lasted long into the Middle Ages. . . . But since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the practise has become exceedingly rare. With the few exceptions just mentioned, the whole of the Western churches have now substituted for the ancient bath the ceremony of letting fall a few drops of water on the face. The reason of the change is obvious. The practise of immersion, though peculiarly suitable to the Southern and Eastern countries for which it was designed, was not found seasonable in the countries of the North and West. Not by any decree of council or parliament, but by the general sentiment of Christian liberty, this remarkable change was effected. Beginning in the thirteenth century, it has gradually driven the ancient Catholic usage out of the whole of Europe. There is no one who would now wish to go back to the old practise. It followed, no doubt, the example of the apostles and of their Master. . . . But, speaking generally, the Christian civilized world has decided against it. It is a striking example of the triumph of common sense and convenience over the bondage of form and custom.—“Christian Institutions,” pages 21, 22.

It is a very satisfactory statement of the historical facts, with a most unsatisfactory apology for the perversion of a Christian ordinance. For centuries “the example of the apostles and of their Master” was followed generally in the form of the ordinance, and then in the dark days of apostasy this example was set aside. Not only have we the divine example, but the divine command,—“in the very meaning of the word,”—but all this is counted as nothing, and this famous writer and churchman calls it a triumph of common sense. Thus does human tradition embolden men to make void the word of God, and to regard as of no account the example and teaching of Jesus Christ.

However men may fortify themselves with custom and forms, the voice of Jesus still calls: “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”

W. A. S.

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