Bertha and Her Baptism Part 1

Bertha and Her Baptism.

by Nehemiah Adams.

PREFACE.

This book, and that which is also named in the t.i.tle-page, were written at the same time, and as one book; but they were afterward separated, as more properly const.i.tuting two volumes, the part which was the original of the present volume now being greatly enlarged. Thus the two books grew in the author's mind together, from one and the same root,--the death of a little child.

Chapter First.

PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN.

'Tis aye a solemn thing to me To look upon a babe that sleeps, Wearing in its spirit-deeps The unrevealed mystery Of its Adam's taint and woe.--MISS BARRETT.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy.--WORDSWORTH.

It is generally believed that, of those who have gone to heaven from this world, by far the larger part have been infants and young children.

Born here, they were by one man's disobedience made sinners; born of the Spirit, at their early translation to heaven, they hold an important place in the plan of salvation by Christ. Very beautiful, as well as sublime, is the thought of so large a contribution, to the heavenly world, of human beings in the dawn of their existence, enhancing, as we may suppose, the happiness of heaven by such large admixture of exotic, youthful nature, and ill.u.s.trating, by their redemption from a helpless state of sin and misery, the unsearchable riches of wisdom and grace.

Has G.o.d done anything, in this world, to mark his regard for that cla.s.s of the human race const.i.tuting, thus far, the greater part of the redeemed? We naturally look for something reminding the world of his interest in these subsidiaries of his kingdom. Has he confined his notice to those that are full-grown, and who have, thus far, the larger part of them, withheld from him the fruit of his vineyard? G.o.d has a church on earth, with ordinances, symbols, covenant signs: among them is there not some sign, symbol, or ordinance, recognizing those who, more than any other of the race, have, till now, been swelling the numbers of that church in heaven?

Like those elements of astronomical calculation which require and lead men to expect undiscovered planets in a certain quarter of the firmament, a.n.a.logy, and the known intercourse of G.o.d with mankind, and our moral sense, incline us to look for some symbolic recognition of this earthly const.i.tuency of heaven by him who ordained and is redeeming to himself a church from among men. Words of interest and love toward them on the part of G.o.d, we all know, are not wanting in the Bible. Acts of loving-kindness, also, proving the sincerity of those words, and reaching even to a thousand generations of them that love G.o.d, are everywhere seen in sacred history.

But is there no great, conspicuous symbol of these things,--no type, no rite? Symbols appear to be inseparable attendants of G.o.d's manifested favor to men. He cannot enter into covenant with an individual, much less a people, but there is at least a stone set up, or a threshing-floor is bought for him, an altar is built, or they pour out a horn of oil. He invites Ahaz to ask of him a sign of his promise: "Ask it," he says, "either in the depths, or in the height above;" and, when that man refuses, G.o.d gives him a sign. Emblems, seals and types, in the early dispensation, burst forth like images in the waters of everything along the banks, and even of things far off. Everything has its memorial, its rite; are the children, is the parental relation, forgotten?

Here let us consider that G.o.d began with the first parents and the first children of the human race to set forth that great law of his administration, the connection of children with parents for good or evil. Every descendant of Adam is an example under that law. Thus it was for nineteen generations,--from Adam to Abraham.

When, therefore, G.o.d reestablished his church at the call of Abraham, it was no new thing to connect parents and their children in covenant promises and blessings. It had its origin in the very nature of man.

Abraham, and the covenant made with him for all believers and their children, are, indeed, a striking ill.u.s.tration of a principle recognized and applied by the Most High; but the principle itself is older than Abraham,--it is coeval with the moral const.i.tution of man. In making a covenant with Noah, G.o.d included his children; so with David, making mention of his house, "for a great while to come."

As soon, therefore, as religion was established in the earth, by securing its perpetuity through the conservative influences of one selected line of descent, the child was taken, as being the object of the covenant, and the means of its perpetuation, and received its seal.

G.o.d designed to perpetuate religion in the earth, thenceforward, chiefly by means of the parental relation; for the parent represents G.o.d to the child more than any other fellow-creature, or thing, can do,--more than any inst.i.tuted influence, whether of prophet, priest, church, or ritual. Setting up his church for all future time, with Abraham for its founder, G.o.d included children with parents who covenanted with him, as the objects of special regard and promise, and he appointed a rite to mark and seal that covenant. Thus it was from Abraham to Christ, during three times fourteen generations.

But the day of types and symbols was succeeded by another era, in which the church of G.o.d comes forth with the glory of G.o.d risen upon her, and all the nebulous matter of types and ceremonies is gathered together into two permanent sacraments; for human nature was not beyond the need and help of outward signs. Now, in the earlier of the two ages of the church, the child was recognized by a rite of the church; the child, with that rite inscribed on him, was the sign-bearer of the church's perpetuity. Yet, in the age following, the child was as dear to the parent as ever; the Christian parent was as much concerned to have religion flow through his seed, as were his predecessors; the salvation of the child was regarded with the same solicitude, and the principle of perpetuating religion by the family const.i.tution was still the same.

But did G.o.d withdraw from the children of his servants, from the most hopeful of all the sources of his church's increase on earth and in heaven, all token of his regard in any sacramental act? Is parental affection, under the reign of Immanuel, debarred the enjoyment of one of its most valuable privileges, the sealing of the child to be the Lord's by the use of a divinely-appointed symbol? Had no ordinances and symbols been allowed after the inst.i.tution of Christianity, this question would not arise; the inference would have been that human nature, under the Gospel, will no more need the aid of rites in religion. But there are Christian rites, expressly and solemnly inst.i.tuted. Is not that most important relation of a believer's child to G.o.d perpetuated; and is it not still to be sealed by the use of one of the Christian ordinances?

In considering this question, and the many interesting topics connected with it, the writer will be allowed to take his own way, following an historical order in the occurrences which may be supposed to have made the subject interesting and clear to the minds of two parents.

Chapter Second.

THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.

THE NATURE, GROUNDS, AND INFLUENCE, OF INFANT BAPTISM.

If temporal estates may be conveyed By cov'nants, on condition, To men, and to their heirs; be not affraid, My soule, to rest upon The covenant of grace by mercy made.

GEORGE HERBERT,--"_The Font._"

--No finite mind can fully comprehend the mysteries into which his baptism is the initiation.--COLERIDGE,--"_Aids_," &c.

Christian faith is the perfection of human reason.--IBID.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER BERTHA:--I am glad that you think of taking your little namesake to the house of G.o.d for baptism. You wish to know my views about it in full. My new colleague having relieved me of many cares and labors, I shall hope to write more frequently; but not often so long a letter as I fear this will be; for I wish to tell you of some conversations which I have had on the subject in question. This will show you the common difficulties, in which, perhaps, you share, and my way of removing them; and also set before you the privileges and blessings connected with the baptism of your child.

A man and his wife--sensible, plain people--came to our house one evening last July, when the "vines with the tender grape gave a goodly smell," through that trellis which you and Percival have such pleasant reason to remember. We were all sitting there in the moonlight, when this Mr. Benson and his wife came up the door-way, and were welcomed into our little group. After a few words of mutual inquiry and answer, he said:

"Wife and I, sir, thought that we would make bold to come and trouble you a little to tell us about baptizing our boy. He is getting to be four months old, and we are not willing to put it off much longer.

Still, we would like to know the grounds of it a little better. People, you know, do not think much about it till it comes to be a case in hand.

"But I do not know," said he, looking round on your mother and the children, "but that we do wrong to take this time for it. It will be rather a dry subject for these young friends to hear."

_Pastor._ Not at all. They owe too much to what was done for them when they were little children, to dislike it. Besides, there is nothing dry about it, as I view the subject. It is one of the most beautiful things in religion.

_Mrs. Benson._ It is next to the Lord's Supper, I always thought, if people take the right view of it.

_Pastor._ It makes you love G.o.d the Father in some such way as the Lord's Supper makes you love the Saviour. I think, sometimes, that the baptism of children is our heavenly Father's Sacrament.

_Mr. B._ I like that; but there is so much to study and learn about the "Abrahamic covenant," that I feel a little discouraged. I have had books lent me on the Abrahamic covenant, and I began to read them; but they looked hard; so I told my wife that perhaps you would make the thing more clear, and bring it home to our feelings, and that we would come and get your ideas about it.

_Pastor._ How glad I am that you came! But tell me what you take the Abrahamic covenant to mean.

_Mr. B._ I suppose it means that G.o.d told Abraham to circ.u.mcise his children, and infant baptism comes in the place of it, and we must do it if we are Abraham's spiritual children. But I wish to see the use of it.

I am willing to do it, but I should like to feel it more; and I want to know how baptism comes in the place of circ.u.mcision, and a great many other things.

_Pastor._ I think that you may possibly have what may be called some Jewish notions about the Abrahamic covenant, though I trust you are right in the main. That phrase sounds foreign and mysterious, and I never use it except in talking with people who I know have the thing itself already in their hearts.

I called Helen to me, and told her to say the hymn which she had repeated to me the last Sabbath evening.

She cleared her voice, leaned against me, and twisted her fingers in my hair behind, and, with her eyes fixed there, she said this hymn:

"Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme, And speak some boundless thing; The mightier works or mightier name Of our eternal King.

"Tell of his wondrous faithfulness, And sound his power abroad; Sing the sweet promise of his grace, And the performing G.o.d.

"Proclaim salvation from the Lord For wretched, dying men; His hand has writ the sacred word With an immortal pen.

"Engraved as in eternal bra.s.s The mighty promise shines; Nor can the powers of darkness rase Those everlasting lines.

"He who can dash whole worlds to death, And make them when he please, He speaks, and that Almighty breath Fulfils his promises.