Part 3

Finally, I appeal to you as _baptized children_; and while I congratulate you on the blessed privilege of having been dedicated to God in your infancy, I would seriously admonish you of the obligations and responsibility which your baptism has imposed. Almost as soon as your existence commenced, you were brought to an ordinance which, like the bow on the cloud, is the sign of God’s better and enduring covenant. When you were almost as unconscious as the cloud on which the rainbow shines, God fixed upon you the sign and the seal of his new covenant righteousness. He did not wait till you had attained to years of maturity, or even of intelligence; but before you could understand, he taught you; before you could hear, he spoke to you; and his significant language was, “You are come into a world of mercy as well as of pollution and sin; and this baptismal water is an emblem of that ‘blood of sprinkling,’ through which mercy may come to you.” That baptism, beloved young friends, has brought you into circumstances of great responsibility. It is an evidence that you were born into the midst of gospel privileges. It is a mark by which you are known to have been dedicated to God. It is a mark which never can be obliterated; which no human efforts can wash out; which you will carry to the grave; and which will be found upon you at the bar of God! With this mark upon you, there you will stand, not as “unclean children” and heathens, but as “the children of the kingdom;” as disciples who have been introduced into Christ’s school, and taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. By that baptism which you have received, and by those commands which you have been taught to observe, you will then be judged. And what will be your end, if you obey not the gospel of God! In your case especially, obedience is expected, because, in your case, it is especially encouraged. If there was much profit in circumcision, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God, how much more profit is there in baptism, because to you are committed, not only the Old Testament oracles, but the New. If he that was circumcised became thereby “a debtor to do the whole law,” and “to fulfil all its righteousness,” how much more are you, the baptized, debtors to believe and to practice “the glorious gospel.” You have been baptized unto Christ, have you put on Christ? You have been ceremonially qualified for church communion, are you spiritually qualified? You have been dedicated to God by others in your baptism, have you dedicated yourselves to God? You have been “born of water,” have you been “born of the Spirit?” “for except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Nay, except you go back to your own infancy, and become spiritually now, what you were naturally then—“except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;” and “VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, WHOSOEVER SHALL NOT RECEIVE THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A LITTLE CHILD HE SHALL NOT ENTER THEREIN.”

* * * * *

* * * * *

PRINTED BY JOSIAH FLETCHER, NORWICH.