Infant Baptism.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XV, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 441

Infant Baptism.

■'...■ (Contributed). 'There are some Christians nowadays who object to infant baptism. IS; it right I:---(a) The Church has practised it eversince the time of the Apostles. This should be quite enough proof that it was the intention of Jesus Christ; It is absurd; to say that the Bible does not teach it, for the Church had tieen promising it for

300 years before there was a . N.ew Testament. The New Testament is a collection of writings by reliable men guided by the Holy Spirit; the Bishops auci clergy m the Church met m Council and separated these writings from others which were considered less reliable; and so we got the New Testament m the fourth century. Jesus Christ- did not teach the Gospel through the Ne\v Testament but through tht Church. He gave the Holy Spirit to the Church— "When Hes the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth ' '—. "He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (b) A Jewish child was admitted into the Jewish covenant by circumcision at 8 days old. Is the Christian Church to be narrower than the Jewish Church, and shut out the more innocent part of mankind? (c) Who is more fitted to receive grace- than innocent children ? (d) Even though they cannot understand and appreciate what is being done, does that prevent them from receiving grace? Does a mother refuse to show kindness to her baby because it cannot show appreciation? When Jesus took the children up m His arms and blessed them, they surely received, the blessing, though they did not know they were m the arms of the Son of God. (c) Jesus said of children^ "For of such is the Kingdom of God." This Kingdom, at least m part, refers to His Church on earth, which is to be made up of little children and of those who have the disposition of children. (f) St. Paul m his Epistles addresses children not as outsiders, but as members of the Church. (g) The Testimony of Early Christian Writers. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was martryred A.D.' 155, speaks of his own baptism as m the first year of his life. Irenaeus (A.D. 167) says "Christ came to save all persons by Himself ; all, I mean, who by Him are regenerated into God —^ihf ants, and little ones, and children, and youths, and elders.' '

(h) When the Acts of the Apostles describes how whole households were baptised, is it likely that there were no children? (i) People who oppose infant baptism are those who leave out confirmation j which is the completion of baptism. There the child, having come to years of discretion, takes on his lips the promises to live as a Christian, which the parents made at the baptism. Baptism is a; beginning, not an end: it is a new birth into the spiritual life m Christ. .