CHILDREN'S BAPTISM 167 



stowal of a special grace of resistance, but not 

 the entire removal of the enemy." Hillary had 

 to warn his readers against supposing that bap- 

 tism would restore them to the innocence of child- 

 hood. Baptism in the second century was re- 

 garded as a peculiarly strong form of exorcism. 

 "Just as the Ked Sea drowned Pharaoh, so bap- 

 tism drowns the devil out of a man.'* 



In general all these teachers and Churches, 

 which taught infant baptism, regarded confirma- 

 tion, or some other step to be taken when the 

 child came to years of responsibility, as a neces- 

 sity, which in effect is a substitute for believers' 

 baptism. 



It is little wonder that a custom that has been 

 defended by an appeal to such absurdities and 

 unfounded necessities, by such conflicting argu- 

 ments and disregard of personal history, should 

 fail of general acceptance and understanding, and 

 be assailed with such sarcasm as this custom has 

 met. And yet Christianity would be of little 

 value if these attacks upon the custom were in- 

 vincible.. If Christianity is not for the child, then 

 one-half of the human race are cut off from its 

 benefits at a stroke: for one-half never grow up 

 to be adults. But this is not the worst aspect of 

 this opposition ; it will have only a disputed value 

 for the other half. If Christianity is not for the 

 child, it is hardly adjustable to normal humanity, 

 and will ever remain a little ' ' lean-to ' ' to life, the 

 worth-while-ness of which will be dubious. If 



