170 MOEAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



betrays a needless reservation of the ordinance, 

 as if it had some ulterior benefits. Baptism of 

 infants can mean only two things : First, a, recog- 

 nition on the part of others of the right of the 

 child in the Church. No spiritual benefit can come 

 to it directly from the physical act of applying 

 water, whether in this form or that. The custom 

 of baptizing a child which is about to die is com- 

 parable to the heathen idea of salvation by some 

 utterly non-moral influence. But so long a,s bap- 

 tism is regarded as a rite of entrance into the 

 Church it should not be denied to children. From 

 the beginning they are in the invisible Church, 

 and the visible Church is making good her claims 

 to a vital work in the world when she undertakes 

 with all zeal to have all whom Christ receives 

 enter by some visible ordinance into her fold. 



But in the second place, there are some bene- 

 fits to the child of a more dynamic character. 

 They are none the less because they are indirect. 

 The baptism of the child is an act of the parents 

 by which they acknowledge the divine relation of 

 the child to God already established, the divine 

 origin of the child, the divine ownership of the 

 child, and the obligation laid upon them of se- 

 curing to him a divine destiny. The benefits that 

 come to him are from the vividness and vitality 

 of these impressions upon the minds of the par- 

 ents. Should they be lacking entirely, and bap- 

 tism be given through the influence of some ficti- 



