Letters to a Quaker friend on baptism

Preface

/ vN the eve of my departure from New ^ York for Brazil I received a letter from a Quaker Friend, a personal friend of mine, and a very dear brother in Christ. At the close of his letter he requested me to write him on the subject of baptism.

During my short sojourn in Brazil, opening new fields for Christian workers, I had no time to spare for correspondence with any body outside of my own immediate line of work : but on my return voyage, as a recreation from the study of the Portuguese language in which I was engaged, I snatched the opportunity of responding to the request of my Quaker brother. I meant to make short work of it, but the inspiration came upon me, and what I designed to be a private letter, grew, by a series of letters, into a book for the benefit of others as well. I have not aimed to treat the

4 Preface.

subject critically nor polemically, and much that I have written is merely suggestive, and not exhaustive, and in the familiar style of personal correspondence with a dear friend. I had no book of reference, but the one authoritative Book, which, therefore, was the only one I required.

I have written plainly what I am sure is the teaching of God on the subject of baptism. If it shall have the effect of provoking adverse criticism, let it be kept in mind that my heart is ever full of love for all God's children, of whatever name. If any should wish to debate with me, I beg leave in advance to decline for three reasons: i. No time; 2. No inclination; 3. No conviction of duty to induce me to spend five minutes in debating with any body. I have written all these letters on my knee as I sat on the deck of a deeply laden vessel sluiced daily fore and aft by dashing seas, occasioned by the two hurricanes which sent the Vera Cruz and many other noble ships and their passengers and crews to a watery grave.

William Taylor.

Steamship Bessel, Sept. 1, 1880.

Contents

PAGE

I. God's Covenant with Man 7

II. Covenant Seals 12

I. God's Covenant With Man

My Dear Brother in Jesus: In accordance with your request, I propose to write you a few plain words on the subject of Christian baptism. You will allow me to begin at the beginning.

God is a king; we are his subjects. God is a father ; " we are the offspring of God." Our twofold relation to him involves inherently the mutual obligations growing out of such relationships. Hence the necessity and the fact of a revelation from God, and the inspired record of those revelations, for the benefit of all the successive generations of the human family.

These inspired Scriptures contain the history of our origin, our fall and forfeiture by sin, and of God's provision of redemption and restoration in Christ, and embody a COVENANT of GRACE, with its overtures of love and mercy to a fallen world. God " hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts xvii, 26.

All nations of men, therefore, bear the same natural relations to God ; hence all have the same claims on his paternal regard and sympathy.

As it was "by the disobedience of one" that "judgment came upon all men to condemnation," and that one being the progenitor of the whole race of man, all his descendants stood on the same footing in relation to God ; hence what he would provide essentially for one, he would provide for all. This agrees with the fact as revealed: "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the right-

God's Covenant with Man. 9

eousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. v, 18.

The covenant is one ; the parties are two — God and man.

The covenant embraced the altered mutual relations of the two parties, all God's gracious provisions and promises in Christ, and all man's obligations to God.

Coming down through the patriarchal ages, we see Abraham at the front as a representative of the race — the party of the second part.

Abraham was informed that the promised " seed of the woman," who would bruise the serpent's head, and bring deliverance to the captives of sin and Satan, should proceed through him, and God entered into an everlasting covenant with him, giving the broad significance of his covenant provisions by the declaration, " In thy seed shall all the nations and all the families of the earth be blessed."

The covenant compassed a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom ; the " seed," which was

I o L ettcrs to a Quaker Friend on Baptism.

Christ, its King; a priesthood, and the Anointed of God, its great High-priest.

The covenant with Abraham contained, to be sure, a clause covering certain temporalities pertaining to the Jewish nation, but the covenant proper was purely spiritual, and in its purpose and provisions impartial, universal, and eternal.

The temporalities of the covenant embraced a gorgeous ritual of ceremonies, sacrifices, and types, administered under the Aaronic priesthood, all of which were but " a shadow of good things to come." The substance was in Christ, who did not appear at the beginning but at the ending of all those temporal things. " But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

Abraham in person did not receive the temporal benefits of the covenant, but he did re-

God's Covenant with Man. 1 1

ceive the spiritual, " the righteousness which is by faith," and "the uttermost" salvation promised.

The divinely-attested records of this " everlasting covenant," contained in the two series of Holy Scriptures, called the Old and New Testaments, or covenants, all pertain to the one covenant. The "life and immortality" brought so clearly to light in the " new," contrasted with the receding shadowy types of the " old," give rise to the designation old and new covenants, but the covenant is substantially one.

The repealed portions of the old were merely local, typical, ceremonial, which were in their nature and design temporary, and were not indeed formally repealed, but became obsolete, because, like the scaffolding of the finished superstructure, of no further practical utility. All moral laws and vital principles, being indestructible, survive and take vantageground under the " new covenant."

II. Covenant Seals

Dear Brother : We speak now of the visible " seal " of personal indenture and initiation into covenant relations with God. This seal must not be confounded with the seals by which the covenant itself was attested " both by signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will," and ratified by " the blood of the everlasting covenant." Let us hear God's own words on this subject : " When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face : and God talked with him, saying, As for me,

Covenant Seals. 13

behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham ; for a father of many nations have I made thee. [" Father of a great multitude," the " great multitude which no man can number " who follow Abraham's faith. So we see in him the covenant representative of the human family then, and through all subsequent time.] "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee ; every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin ; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised : and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my covenant." Gen. xvii, 1-14.

Abram more than a quarter of a century before this event " believed God," and entered into spiritual communion with him under the provisions of the covenant, which was rooted in God's " eternal purpose ; " but now Abraham " received the sign of circumcision, a seal

Covena?tt Seals. 15

of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised : that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, . . . but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." Rom. iv, 11, 12.

Circumcision, therefore, is called a " seal," and a " sign," and " a token." If these three names indicate a threefold shade of meaning, it may be in this : the " seal," the tangible act and fact of circumcision in each individual case; the " sign," the signification of this tangible fact, embracing the two parties and their mutual covenant relationship, with all God's covenant pledges to man, and all man's covenant obligations to God ; the third, like the rainbow " token," a reminder of God's immutable fidelity to all who enter into covenant with him, and maintain their covenant loyalty to him.

Let us keep in mind the fact that this covenant, in its high spiritual purpose and provis-

1 6 Litters to a Quaker Friend on Baptism.

ions, embraced impartially all " the nations," and all " the families of the earth," " that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles." For " to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." Gal. iii, 14, 16, 17. Thus for four hundred and thirty years circumcision was the sign pre-eminently of the spiritual part of the covenant ; but when the Jewish nation was organized and the laws of Moses revealed, its significance was naturally narrowed to represent mainly the temporalities of the covenant in relation to the Jewish nation. So at this juncture God instituted baptism to stand as a monumental prophetic " sign " of his covenant in its universal application to " all the nations of the earth."

Covenant Seals. 17

From that time circumcision became more and more exclusively Jewish, till ultimately it was superseded by baptism by order of Him who said to his apostles, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the

end of the world." Matt, xxviii, 18-20. 2

III. Institution Of Baptism

Dear Brother : We come now to speak more directly of this institution. I use this word in its twofold significance: I. Act of establishing ; 2. System established. Neither of us attach much importance to the opinions of mere men on this subject. We want to find out more definitely what the men said about it who " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, institutes a comparison between " the Church in the wilderness " and the Church in Corinth.

The members of the first, after due preparation, were baptized ; so, also, the Church in Corinth. The first were answerable for all the responsibilities to God and man involved

Institution of Baptism. 19

in their baptismal covenant ; so the second. The first had, in an ever-present Christ, an adequate available supply for every demand of each and all the members — spiritual meat, spiritual drink, and every thing requisite ; so the second. The first made a most promising start, and all ran well for a season ; so the second. Later great apostasies occurred in the Church in the wilderness ; so in the Corinthian Church. Those apostasies in the wilderness Church involved most disastrous results, hence the warnings drawn for the admonition of the Church in Corinth, and the exhortation to unswerving fidelity to the obligations involved in their baptismal covenant with God. This point Paul illustrates by his own example, saying, " Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." In the Olympic contests, no matter how well a man ran or fought, if his competitor excelled, number two lost all ; no such uncertainty in the Christian struggle, where all may win, and all certainly shall win, if they follow Paul's example. So he says, " I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection : lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them : and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased." They failed to fulfill their baptismal obligations to God, and hence forfeited and precluded his baptismal

Institution of Baptism. 21

promises to them, and hence " they were overthrown in the wilderness." " Now these things were our examples," recorded for our warning, " to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; . . . neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer." And so on the parallel runs, striking all the covenant derelictions of " some " of the members of the Church in Corinth by corresponding examples of " some of them " who were baptized members of the Church in the wilderness with their solemn warnings, introducing also the parallel between the passover of the first, and the same feast under a new form and name under the gospel. " I speak as to wise men," Paul continues; "judge ye what I say." " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" i Cor. ix, 25-27 ; x, 1-16.

The authoritative-teaching fact, in this parallel of facts, to which I call special attention, is the institution of baptism at the Red Sea. Paul wrote this some thirty years after baptism had become a historic fact in the Church of Christ ; so he knew exactly what he was talking about. Hence, the word " baptized," as used by him, contained its full Christian significance, and the very meaning it had in God's mind when he instituted and administered it at the Red Sea.

God's primary revelations — " his ways " and " his acts," in the form of stupendous, tangible, miraculous facts — furnished a foundation for his subsequent oral teachings and commands, and a reliable key of interpretation

Institution of Baptism. 23

of his oral teachings and metaphorical references.

For example, in God's first message to Israel from Mount Sinai he says, " Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Exod. xix, 4. This beautiful metaphor was readily interpreted by the primary facts so fresh in their minds ; but, without that key of interpretation, the statement might be construed to mean that, in their extremity, the Lord came down into the camp like a great eagle, and the whole host, with their herds, climbed up on to his back, and then he spread his great wings, and, bearing them aloft, flew across the sea. So any figurative allusion to baptism should be interpreted by the primary facts defining it.

IV. Facts Accompanying The Institution Of Baptism

Dear Brother: This letter may be considered an episode from our direct line of investigation, but it will contain illustrative facts bearing on our subject. Let me give you a topographical illustration of the site on which the sublime scene was enacted, from which we shall, in a subsequent letter, gather our facts — God's facts — and learn their teaching force.

On one of my voyages up the Red Sea, in the steamship Australia, of the Peninsular and Oriental line, coming near the crossing place of the Israelites, the master, Captain Murray, called me to stand beside him " on the bridge." Then said he : " Now watch the change in the color of the water, and you will see where Moses and the host passed over." If the captain had been an outside worldling I would have taken it that he was getting off a skeptical jest ; but, knowing him to be a Christian, as well as a gentleman, I gave earnest heed to his remarks as in our progress he pointed to the changing color of the sea and to the surrounding scenery.

Said he : " Eighteen years ago, on my first voyage up this sea, and near this spot, I had my leadsman — a splendid sailor, who had traversed these waters for years before — taking the soundings. I listened most attentively to his report with each throw of the lead. He went on singing out, ' Fourteen fathoms ! fourteen fathoms ! ' for some time, when all of a sudden I heard him call, ' Five fathoms ! ' and then, ' Four fathoms! ' and I was frightened, and shouted, ' What is that you say? four fathoms? '

"'Yes, captain, but no fear, we'll soon get into deep water again.'

" So he went on singing out ' Four fathoms ' for what seemed to me a long time, yet not long in fact, when he reported, ' five fathoms, eight fathoms, ten fathoms, fourteen fathoms,' and so on we went ; but I was so impressed by that incident that I subsequently took boat* and men and made a careful survey of that part of the sea from shore to shore, it being about four miles wide at that point.

" By our soundings we defined a bar extending from that promontory which is the end of Jebel Atakah, or Mount of Deliverance, clear across the sea, on which the water is about twenty-two feet deep at low tide, while north and south of the bar the sea is eighty feet in depth.

" The bar is half a mile in width, and all over about that depth, shallowing with the slope of each shore.* That is doubtless the high-way on which the Israelites marched through the sea, made dry by the miraculous power of God. Of course, he could have divided the deep wa-

* If any body doubts this I refer him to the official charts of Great Britain.

ters just as easily; but for such a host to have gone down eighty feet, and pulled up again on the opposite side, would have made heavy work, especially for the mothers and the little ones ; but a descent of twenty-two feet was easy enough.

" I also explored that mountain, Jebel Atakah, from end to end. It is only about eight miles in length, but so precipitous that, while a man can climb up at almost any part, such a mixed concourse of people could not by any possibility. So there you can see the vortex into which the Israelites were wedged beyond the human possibility of escape. It is about seven miles from the promontory to Suez. As soon as the host passed the upper end of the sea, a little above Suez, they were 'entangled in the land.' Before that, had God permitted, they could have gone into Arabia on dry land, but now their retreat on the eastward was cut off by the sea, and on the westward by that impassable mountain, while the mouth of the vortex, about seven miles wide, was closed in by the advancing war chariots and armies oi Egypt ; so they were forced to trust to God alone for deliverance or to be cut to pieces by their enemies."

I looked and listened, and learned lessons of practical knowledge from that good man of the sea, whose mind had never been muddled by the abstract speculations of theological tinkers.

So much for the site ; now for the scene, with its teaching facts, as recorded by the man of God who witnessed them. That despairing host contained over six hundred thousand men twenty years old and upward, and as many women of that age and upward as men ; oven as " in the beginning" God created man " male and female," and does so still, in about equal numbers, and so, doubtless, all through the intervening ages. There were also about as many boys under twenty as men over that age, and as many girls as boys ; so that four times six hundred thousand will give us, with approximate certainty, the numerical dimensions of the " congregation." I may add that the tribe of Levi and the camp-followers are not included in these aggregates ; so that there were at least two and a half millions of souls under the command and care of Moses, with their herds of cattle and sheep. There we may see them crowded together in the greatest confusion. As they realize their impending peril, their cries of despair become hideous. The darkness of night, apparently their last night, is spreading its mantle over them : the sea, stirred by an " east wind," on one flank, the impassable mountain on the other, and the vengeful forces of Pharaoh advancing in the rear, and no outlet in front. So they cry to God in despair, and cry against Moses in bitter murmurings.

All along the lines the bewildered people are talking to Moses as though he were listening in every part of the camp, shouting in bitter reproach, " Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt ? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians. For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."

Moses tries to reassure them, saying, " Fear ye not ; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to-day : for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Meantime Moses is praying and waiting for God's order to advance, or give some mighty token of deliverance, for his faith falters not.

All this is to prepare the people for a revelation of God. Not a revelation in words about God — you may as well talk to the sea — a revelation of God in mighty deeds. So by God's most effective and understandable method of teaching he is going to convince the whole host together what they had heard with their ears but learned not as a fact, that he is the God of the heavens, of the earth, and of the sea; the Creator, preserver, and Judge of men and of nations. He is about to manifest his justice in the execution of Pharaoh and his heathen hordes of guilty men, and show his sovereign power and grace by the deliverance of his oppressed people, and thus prepare them for baptismal initiation into covenant relations with himself.

So at the command of the Lord, Moses lifts his rod and stretches " out his hand over the sea," when God, by a miracle, divides the waters, and lays bare the highway in the deep, half a mile in width and from shore to shore ; a strong hot wind from the east sweeps through this highway of the king between its towering watery walls, all that night, and dries up the mud, and solidifies the sand, so that his people may cross the sea " dry shod."

Meantime " the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them : and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night."

At the dawn of the morning we see messengers running with orders from Moses to his generals in every part of the vast encampment, while the Egyptians, awed by the overshadowing presence of the angel of the Lord, still remain in darkness and wait for the coming day.

Now we see the standard of Judah moving seaward. Under it are the rank and file of three tribes, aggregating an army of 186,400 soldiers, besides their families and their flocks. This division is under the command of General Nahshon, son of Amminadab. We see them crossing the sea for miles, till the last file of soldiers and herd of their cattle leave the shore of Egypt.

Immediately we see the standard of Reuben, with an army of 151,450 men, with their families, advancing under the command of General Elizur. The afternoon comes before they all clear the near shore.

Next comes the standard of Ephraim, with 108,100 soldiers, with their families and effects, led by General Elishama.

The sun has gone down, the late hours of the night are upon us, but by the bright light of the pillar of fire from the rear we see the standard of Dan, with 1 57,600 men, under General Ahiezer ; this last division of the grand army of Israel falls into line, with their families and bleating herds.

In the dead of the night the pillar of fire

removes to the front ; and now we hear the 3 rumbling thunder of Pharaoh's six hundred war chariots, and " all the chariots of Egypt," and see the king and his troops pursuing, like unchained tigers rushing for the prey. They crowd down into the sea till the whole heathen host are brought between the towering walls of water. The cup of their iniquity is full. Sinners, however wicked, are spared in mercy till they destroy utterly their spiritual susceptibilities. Then as there is no possibility of their salvation, and as their continuance among men is so damaging to others who yet may be saved, justice to them and mercy to the living require their immediate removal to the " place prepared for the devil and his angels," where they can do no further damage to the living ; unless God sees reason for extending the lives of such sufficiently compensative to the world to justify an extension of a hopeless life.

Pharaoh was an example of this sort. God said to him, by the mouth of Moses, " Now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence ; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for [margin, made thee stand] to show in thee my power ; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." Exod. ix, 15, 16.