CHILDREN'S BAPTISM 165 



met in the history of the subject by the assertion 

 of a sort of vicarious faith, or of unconscious 

 faith on the part of the child. On the one hand, 

 those who were sponsors for the child, parents 

 or god-parents, were supposed to be able to ex- 

 ercise a faith that was available for him. On 

 the other hand, some supposed that a sort of un- 

 conscious faith was exercised by the child. Thus 

 Calvin taught, " Infants may have infused into 

 them a kind of faith and knowledge, though not 

 ours." This, however, as has been pointed out 

 by Harnack, was an abandonment of the Protes- 

 tant view of faith, and has not exercised so very 

 great influence on the practice. 



The High Church idea of baptism, which may 

 be called baptismal regeneration, has had a very 

 great part in the defense of this custom. It is 

 in the realm of the mystical, if not the magical, 

 the mysterious, approaching the superstitious, if 

 it does not actually reach it. It tries to escape 

 the charge of mechanism in spiritual things, that 

 the sheer application of water in itself works the 

 regeneration of the spiritual being. I will not 

 attempt to state the form of this disclaimer, for 

 to me it has no validity. To its defenders the 

 modus operandi becomes a matter of great im- 

 portance. It must be the application of water, 

 and not some other liquid, as milk or wine. Great 

 care must be exercised that it be not repeated. 

 If in doubt about this, one must preface the ad- 

 ministration by the phrase, "If thou hast not 



