Classic baptism. An inquiry into the meaning of the word [Greek Character], as determined by the usage of classical Greek writers

Front matter

V

\SS

-A

I. Course Of Inquiry

Introductory.

Discussion has continued through centuries. Baptists claim to have reached demonstrated and absolute truth. Truth, unmixed with error, when presented, has power to compel conviction. If already discovered, no apology for rejecting or neglecting, and originating renewed inquiry. Obligation to examine and determine the value of Baptist results.

Baptist Writers.

Their principles. Their translations. Their practice.

Baptist Postulates.

— *

1. Ba-~{'Cw, through all Greek literature, has but one meaning; which meaning is definite, clear, precise, and easy of translation.

2. Ba-ziZu) and fid-no have precisely the same meaning, dyeing excepted, and, in all other respects, whether as to form, or force, or effect, they differ nothing.

3. Ba-riXu) expresses an act, a definite act; mode, and nothing but mode, — to dip. Ed-rat, primary, expresses an act, a definite act ; mode, and nothing but mode, — to dip.

4. BaatriZto has the same meaning in figurative as in literal use, always referring to the act of dipping.

Counter Propositions.

1. Bd-rw, in primary use, expresses a definite act, characterized by various and essential limitations, — to dip.

VI COURSE OF INQUIRY.

2. Bdnrw, dip, in secondary use. expresses a limited force, with a correspondingly limited effect,

3. Ba7TTt^a), in primary use, expresses condition, intusposition, without limitations,

4. BaxTiZa), in secondary use, expresses condition effected by controlling influence, without limitation of intusposition, or otherwise.

Meaning of the "Word.

Baptist Yiews expressed by Koger Williams and u A. E., r ' A. Barber, Gale, Booth, Cox, Carson, Fuller, Dagg, Stovel, Jewett.

Dip, Plunge, Immerse, used, at will, as convertible and equivalent terms. Is this true ? Can it be tolerated in assigning a definite, critical, and controversial meaning to a word?

Booth says, .No. " The substitution of these words for one another makes sentiment and practice ridiculous." Dagg says, No. And sharply discriminates between dip and immerse in a long list of definitions; after which he turns his pen and blots the distinction made. Fuller says, No. And by his negation makes a way of escape from difficulty; but soon denies his denial, in order to escape from equal difficulty on the frther side.

Immerse,, a Kefuge prom the Difficulties of Modal Action,

Modal action the sine qua non, heretofore, of the Baptist theory.

Dr. Fuller, A. E., Baptist Confession of Faith.

Doubt arising about "the definite act" theory. Parties among the Baptists.

1. Some affirm the theory absolutely (Carson). 2. Some doubt (G-ale). 3. Some deny (Fuller). 4. Some non liquet (Conant).

Carson earnestly condemns Gale and Cox as abandoning the point at issue. Morell, dissatisfied with Carson's defence, frankly declares that he does give up the point. " Immersion may be by pouring" (Cox, Morell, Fuller),

COURSE OF INQUIRY. Vll

Dr. Conant.

His labors great and valuable ; but do not meet the severe demands of the Baptist system. Do not sustain modal meaning, — to dip, to plunge. Introduce submersion, condition. Affirms act of passing from one element into another. Sea-coast baptism. No such act of passing in it. Carson says there is such act expressed. Gale and Fuller deny. The one contradicts common sense; the others contradict Baptist principles.

Dr. Conant's Definition: Act is made a vanishing quantity; condition is brought into high relief. Secondary or analogous meaning, — state of life. Cannot be founded on the form of an act.

Second Definition. — Seven denning words. Inconsistent with Baptist principles. Bound to define by a term of absolute unity. Carson acknowledges the obligation; attempts to meet it; and presents dip, and stumbles at the threshold against u or." Conant rejects dip almost as utterly, as Carson maintains it exclusively. Makes it one of seven defining words, yet excludes it from more than six-sevenths of the cases. Objections to the seven defining words, — to immerse, to im-merge, to sub-merge, to dip, to plunge, to whelm, to imbathe. Form of act abandoned. Words compounded with prepositions should not, unnecessarily, translate uncompounded words. Never means dip. Confounded with fid-raj.

Metaphorical Use. — Not based on act, but condition. Wine-cup, perplexing questions, opiate drop, and such like, familiar agencies of baptism. If Dr. Conant will accept condition without " the image of the act," he will agree with us, and differ from Baptists.

Immerse as a Latin Derivative.

Growing disposition to use immerse as a shield against the difficulties of argument, while dip is held in reserve as a necessity for practice. No confession of past error.

Duplex Use. — 1. The Latin preposition in expresses, sometimes movement, sometimes position. In im-mergo it expresses position and not movement. Under the plea of Latinism,

Vlll COURSE OF INQUIRY.

movement is, erroneously, introduced, and the translation, to dip, to plunge, grounded on it, and applied to cases of baptism in which the object is moved.

2. Im-merse, in English, does not express movement; hence, in other cases of baptism, where no movement of the object takes place, and dip or plunge will not answer to the facts, this word can be slipped in.

Bury, and such like words, do not express movement. " Bury into" does not give power of movement to bury. The duplicity of use which characterizes Baptist usage in employing immerse must be guarded against.

Failure.

Baptist writers fail to show : 1. One clear, precise, definite, easily translatable meaning. 2. That fid*™ and fta-~iZu> have the same meaning, form, and force. 8. That fta.K~i^w expresses act, definite act, mode and nothing but mode — to dip.' 4. That panT^o), in secondary use, pictures the act of dipping. 5. That any English word daguerreotypes the Greek word.

Administration of the Eite.

How is the rite of baptism to be administered ? Baptist Confession of Faith says : " Dipping or plunging the whole body." "Immersing the subject in water" (Booth). Candidate placed under the water (Bipley). "Immersing of the body in water" (Wayland). " Immersion or burial of the body in water" (Curtis). " Immersion of the subject in water is essential;" "commanded to perform the act represented by the word baptize" (Jewett). "Not sprinkling or pouring; the motion takes place in the man, and ceases when the man in baptized in water", (Stovel).

The Act.

" Commanded to perform the act" What act ? " The act of immersing the subject." What is the act of immersing? " The act which we are commanded to perform by the word baptize." Very clear and very precise ! " The act is to move

COURSE OF INQUIRY. IX

a man until he is baptized." And "to move" expresses an act so clear, so precise, and so definite as to need no elucidation ! The Confession of Faith uses no enigmatical terms j with frankness and perfect explicitness it declares, — "the act is dipping or plunging." With such statement, nothing is left but to inquire, Does God command us to perform one or the other of those well-defined acts, — to dip, to plunge ? If so, which? They differ essentially; dipping is not plunging, plunging is not dipping.

The Object.

What is the object of the act ? " The man " (Stovel). " The subject" (Booth, Jewett). "The body" (Wayland, Curtis). " The whole body" (Conf. of Faith). Xo discord in the utterance of this element of Baptist sentiment. Practice, however, antagonizes sentiment. " Baptism does not take place until after the greater part of the body has been put under water by the act of walking" (Ripley). This is practice. What, now, becomes of the sentiment which announces "the act of dipping," as specifically the divine command, and "the whole body" as the object of that act?

The End.

What is the end of the act? "The act ceases when the man is baptized in the water" (Stovel). "In plunging the whole body under water" (Conf. of Faith). " Emersion is not in the word, simply puts into or under the water" (Conant).

Eemarkable confessions. 1. Abandons the definition, to dip. 2. Puts a living man under water, with, confessedly, no provision to take him out. Beyond all credibility that any such act should have been commanded. To substitute /Sr/rrw for j3a-Tgaj, overtly, none dare to do ; to retain, verbally, ^a-r^w, and give to it the meaning of jld-rco, is to do covertly what none venture to do overtly.

Validity.

What are the requisites to valid baptism ? 1. Immersion of the subject. 2. Immersion of the subject in water. 3. Im-

X COURSE OF INQUIRY.

mersion of the subject in water by the act commanded in baptize.

1. "Immersion." In immersion there is no limitation of time. Is this a divine injunction? 2. "The subject." As the subject is never immersed by Baptists in their ritual service, but the head and shoulders, only, they hereby destroy their own baptism. 3. " The act commanded." The act, universally, performed in practice is dipping ; but men high in Baptist authority now admit that the word does not always mean to dip. How do they know that it means to dip here ? Besides, to dip is, now, rarely found in any Baptist translation of the word ; its appearance is becoming more and more rare ; how do they know that fiaTzzi^u) ever means to dip ?

The foundations of Baptist baptism, in its validity, are shaken by its friends.

Eesults.

We gather from Baptist records :

1. As to the Word. The disagreement between one writer and another, and the disagreement of every writer with himself, shows either an imperfect understanding of the word, or a failure to find any word in the English language to expound their conception.

2. As to Ritual Administration. Sentiment and practice are in irreconcilable contradiction.

3. As to Validity of the Rite. Honesty in stating the elements which are essential to valid baptism is unquestionable, inasmuch as they destroy their own, no less than that of all others.

4. As to the Propriety of Renewed Investigation. "Want of accord with principles, and want of agreement between writers, show some radical error, and require a new investigation.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XI

II. Renewed Investigation

Z?^/777Z£— What is its Meaning.

Advantage of a simultaneous and comparative examination of the usage of @&izrm and pami£u> — tingo and mergo — dip and

IMMERSE.

Yerbs demanding Condition for their Object, bury. drown. whelm.

Bury demands covered condition for its object, without limitation in the form of the act by which such condition may be effected.

Brown demands: 1. Covered condition. 2. Condition resulting from such covered condition — suffocation. 3. Condition resulting from controlling influence without any covering.

Whelm demands : 1. Covered condition. 2. Irresistible influence without covering.

Form of act is demanded by none of these words.

j

PLUNGE.

Plunge demands the execution of an act of definite characteristics. This word belongs to a class widely separated, in nature, from the preceding.

Bd-ro) belongs to the same class with plunge; pa-zi^a) to that class represented by bury, drown, and whelm.

Farther Explanation.

1. Form of act does not belong to fio-riZuj. 2. Intusposition, within a closely investing medium, essential to the primary use. 3. Indefinite continuance in such condition equally essential to the word. 4. Feeble influence, the result of superficial entrance and momentary continuance, excluded. Carson insists, unqualifiedly, on a definite act. Gale doubts. Conant leans to Gale. President Hallcy, of England, and Professor

Xll RENEWED INVESTIGATION.

"Wilson, of Ireland, adopt state, condition, in opposition to act. Form of act, whether in primary or metaphorical use, must be abandoned.

Intusposition. Condition of intusposition carries with it the idea of completeness. 1. Complete investiture, simply, as of a rock. 2. Complete influence resulting from such investiture, as in a ship sunk. 3. Complete influence induced by other causes than an investing element. Exigencies of language require such modification. 4. Frequent and perpetuated use expressive of a definite influence begets a specific meaning; as in the case of water, to drown, and in the case of wine, to make drunk.

As paxriXui has for its starting-point a condition of intusposition, complete as to extent and indefinite as to duration; while pdxTcu sets out from a trivial act of superficial entrance and of evanescent continuance in an element; these words may be well expected to have a development broadly divergent.

Eepresentative Word.

Baptists have failed to present a representative word. Now, they offer one, now another, and now a third, each differing in form and in force.

No English word, in its radical thought and development, squarely correspondent with the Greek word.

To drown, to whelm, to merse, to steep, to inn, each may present some specialty of claim. The Greek word having but one form throughout its usage, it is desirable that there should be, if possible, but one English word used in its translation. In a controverted issue, it is especially desirable to avoid the shifting from one word to another, even at the expense of using, sometimes, unfamiliar forms of phraseology. We choose, from among other imperfect terms, Merse.

Definition.

1. To intuspose, to merse; specifically, to drown.

2. To influence controllingly ; specifically, to make drunk.

The facts of usage must sustain this definition, or it is erroneous. Every known case of classical usage adduced. The period covered by the quotations is about a thousand years.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. Xlll

BAHTn— ITS MEANING.

To Dip.

To dip expresses a gentle, do.wnward movement, entering slightly into some diverse element, with immediate return.

Dip and plunge are evidently separated in nature. Plunge expresses movement characterized by rapidity and force, entering into some element without return. To dip passes on from its special, primary use, to express to wet, to moisten, to wash, without involving the form of the act.

iElian, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Constantine, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Euripides, Iamblichus, Lycophron, Theocritus, Aratus, Herodotus, Plutarch, Suidas.

To Dye.

Gale says, this word is used in the art of dyeing, but always implying the act to dip. Carson denies that the act is preserved in dyeing; and all Baptists, now, adopt his doctrine, and admit that dipping (retaining one word throughout the modifications of meaning, as does the Greek) may be by sprinkling.

To dye, in the progress of usage, becomes to stain, to smear, to gild, to temper, to imbue, or tincture.

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Aristophanes, Eustathius, Hippocrates, Iamblichus, Julius Pollux, Menander, Plato, Antoninus, ^Eschylus, Aristotle, Epictetus, Eupolis, Helladius, Homer, Sophocles, Strabo.

Bd-zm : 1. Dips, putting momentarily into a fluid.

" 2. Dips, by dipping into a coloring fluid, — dyes.

" 3. Dips, without dipping, by means of coloring matter, — stains.

" 4. Dips, without dipping, without dyeing, without staining, by communicating uncolored quality, — tinctures.

BdT-w, dips, without the modal act of dipping. " dyes, without imparting the quality of color.

XIV RENEWED INVESTIGATION.

Bd-ro), to dip, takes as its syntax efc, with the accusative; fid-Ta>, to dye, takes as its syntax the coloring matter in the dative, usually, without a preposition.

TINGO— TO DIP.

The meaning of this word is uncontroverted. It is in remarkable harmony with ftdxru) in all its phases. It means, to dip, to wet, to moisten, to wash, to anoint. Celsus, Juvenal, Ovid, Perseus, Propertius, Yirgil.

TINGO— TO DYE.

It means, to dye, to stain, to paint, to temper, to imbue, or tincture.

Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Ovid, Perseus, Pliny, Yirgil, Seneca.

Tingo: 1. Dips, putting momentarily into a fluid. " 2. Dips, by putting into a coloring fluid, — dyes. " 3. Dips, without dipping, by means of coloring matter, — stains. 4. Dips, without dipping, without dyeing, without staining, by communicating uncolored quality, — tinctures.

DIP.,

The English dip corresponds, in all radical features, with fidnzm and tingo. It means to put in superficially and momentarily, to dip, to wet, to bathe slightly, to examine superficially, to engage in limitedly, to mortgage, to take out a small quantity.

Booth, Chalmers, Dryden, Sir A. Clarke, Clover, Milton, Sir Thomas Moore, Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Shakspeare.

DIP = DYE.

It means to dye, to stain, to imbue or tincture. Coleridge, Cowper, Milton, Pope, Scott, Spenser, Warburton, Young.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XV

Conclusion. — Bd-rio, tingo, dip, each represents a form of act characterized by limitations as to — 1. Force. 2. Extent of penetration into an element. 3. Duration of continuance in it. 4. Magnitude of its objects. 5. Degree of influence.

In using one word to translate pa-riZu) : it should be borne in mind, that the Greeks and Latins used but one word to express the modal act of dipping, and the quality of color by dyeing, as well as all the subordinate modifications of each of these terms. Were we to translate in these cases, throughout, by the one word expressive of the primary meaning, we should have to use such phrases as — Dip the pastures with dew; Dip the face with tears; Dip the grass by sprinkling blood upon it.

Such breadth of usage, and such widely divergent, not to say contradictory, meaning in the use of these terms, affords but a poor basis whereon to ground the anticipation of finding in i3a-ziX(o " a, definite act, mode and nothing but mode, one meaning through all Greek literature."

But the facts of usage, only, have authority; let us hear them.

First, let us inquire into the testimony of the corresponding English and Latin words, Immerse and Mergo.

XVI RENEWED INVESTIGATION.

III. Immekse

Immerse and dip are confounded together by Baptist writers, and interchanged at will. There is no authority for so doing.

Meaning: To cause to be in a state of intusposition without limitation of depth, or time, or force, or object, or mode of accomplishment.

In all of these particulars it is in irreconcilable contrast with dip. Dip performs an act upon its object transitory and limited in all directions. It does not put its object in a new state or condition.

Immerse makes no demand for the performance of any definite act. It does demand state, condition, intuspositiom This state is of indefinite continuance ; it may be changed by the intervention of foreign influence, but it is never changed by immerse.- In mersion, brevity of continuance is an accident, not belonging to the state ; in dipping, brevity of continuance is of the essence of the act, and is always present. The accidental feature of brevity, cannot convert a state of mersion into an act of dipping. The compounding preposition "in" denotes position only, and not movement. Immerse is used to express thorough influence of any kind.

Booth, Chalmers, Cowper, Current Literature, Dr. Kane, Pope, Sir Walter Scott, Young.

Bdnratj tingo, dip, touch at all points; immerse is separated from each at all points.

MEKGO.

1. Mergo expresses no form of act. 2. It is alike indifferent to the movement of the object or the element. 3. Its object may be a grain of sand or a world. 4. The time of its mersion is without limit. 5. The force it may call into action has no bound. 6. It demands intusposition for its object, and with this is satisfied-.

Secondary Use. — 1. It expresses a condition resultant from

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XV11

some controlling influence. 2. Absolutely, it expresses (generally) destructive influence. 3. Specifically, it means to drown, to make drunk.

Catullus, Curtius, Horace, Juvenal, Livy, Lucan, Lucretius, Martial, Ovid, Pliny, Statius, Quintillian, Valerius Flaccus, Virgil.

Mergo and immerse, with some specialties of use, are in perfect harmony. Mergo is in broad contrast, throughout all its usage, with /3<*7rro>, tingo, and dip.

BAnTIZQ.

What is its Usage?

Use is of supreme authority, and the rule in the language.

Baxri^u) expresses intusposition without influence.

Aristotle, Archias, Julian the Egyptian, Lucian, Orpheus, Plutarch, Polybius, Porphyry, Strabo.

1. Ba-Ti'ai is without limitation as to power, object, duration, and form of action.

2. Expressing no form of act, it accepts of all forms of act competent to effect its demand.

3. The confusion of pdxziD and ^aizri^a) is a grave error and without excuse.

4. The corner-stone of the Baptist system — " Baptizing is Dipping, and Dipping is Baptizing" — is pure error.

5. While some objects are uninfluenced by intusposition within a fluid, most objects will be thoroughly influenced by being placed in such a condition.

2. It expresses intusposition with influence

1. Vessels sunk by storm. 2. Vessels and persons sunk by weight. 3. Animals, &c, mersed by the flowing or uprising of water and of blood. 4. "Drowned" or "drunk" by mersion continued four days. 5. Mersion of the soul.

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Alexander Aphrodisias, Diodorus

XV111 RENEWED INVESTIGATION.

Siculus, Dion Cassius, Epictetus, Eubulus, Heliodorus, Hippocrates, Homer, Plotinus, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, Suidas.

Intusposition for influence.

1. To drown. 2. To saturate. 3. To incrust. 4. To destroy vessels.

iEsop, Achilles Tatius, Alcibiades, Dion Cassius, Heliodorus, Heimerius, Hippocrates, Lucian, Nicander, Polyaenus, Plutarch, Polybius, Strabo, Themistius.

Influence with rhetorical figure.

1. Overflowing wave. 2. Tempest.

Chariton Aphrodisias, Dion Cassius, Libanius, Pindar.

Figurative language.

Figure becomes worn out by constant use. Any word which, originally metaphorical in its use, has secured for itself a well-defined meaning, diverse from literal use, lays aside the character of figure and takes its place among literal we;*ds.

BaTiriZo), through daily and long-continued use, has secured a secondary use, conveying an idea derived, but dissociated, from the primary use, which gives it a status of its own without recurring to the source whence it sprang.

Carson, Blair, Quintillian.

SECOKDAKY USE.

Controlling Influence — General.

Without Intusposition.

Achilles Tatius, iEsop, Alciphron, Alexander Aphrodisias, Demosthenes, Demetrius, Diodorus Siculus, Heliodorus, Heimerius, Libanius, Plotinus, Plutarch, Proclus, Themistius.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XIX

The changes now shown to have taken place in fiazrt"t viz., 1. Intusposition without influence; 2. Intusposition with influence; 3. Intusposition for influence; and 4. Influence without intusposition — find a complete parallel and vindication in those changes which have been shown to take place in the usage of fid::™, viz., 1. Dipping without dyeing; 2. Dipping for dyeing; 3. Dyeing without dipping.

Bdr-io — 1. Dips without dyeing. 2. Dips for dyeing. 3. Byes without dipping.

Da-ziXco — 1. Merses without influence. 2. Merses for influence. 3. Influences without mersing.

So, Steep — 1. Intusposes. 2. Intusposes for influence. 3. Influences without intusposing.

Ba—c^io, used absolutely, or with appropriate case, in unphysical relations, exj^resses, directly and not figuratively, controlling influence. The modality of position, out of which this idea grows, has disappeared.

Controlling Influence — Specific.

Without Intusposition.

Some things exert over certain objects a definite and. invarvino; influence. Water exerts over all human beings, mersed in it, the specific influence of suffocation — drowning.

"Wine freely drunk, makes drunk. An opiate swallowed, stupefies. When tSa—^io is used to express the condition resulting from these influences (as it very frequently is), it no longer expresses controlling influence generally; but expresses, from the necessity of the ease, that specific influence which belongs to water — to drown; or to wine — to make drunk; or to an opiate — to stupefy.

Whatever breadth of meaning any word may be possessed of, if it be persistently used to denote a condition, such as results from wine drinking and kindred influences, deeply marked and of unvarying uniformity, it cannot but be, that the idea of such condition becomes incorporated in the word. Tt> drink has a very broad application; but persistently used to express the drinking of intoxicating liquors, "a drinking

XX RENEWED INVESTIGATION.

man" comes to express a drunken man. The Greek word has great breadth of application; but used familiarly, and long, to express the condition induced by wine-influence, it comes to express directly the state of drunkenness.

Some of the specific conditions expressed by this word, and which render its translation by an appropriate term justifiable, if not compulsory, are as follows :

1. To bring into a condition of stupdr — to stupefy ; by swallowing an opiate.

2. To bring into a state of drunkenness — to make drunk; by drinking wine.

3. To bring into a state of coldness— to make cold; by pouring water on hot iron.

4. To bring into a state of bewilderment — to bewilder; by asking sophistical questions.

5. To bring into an unintoxicating state — to temper wine; by pouring water through it.

6. To bring into a state of pureness — to purify; by using sea- water in any way.

Achilles Tatius, Athenaeus, Conon, Evenus, Homer. Alleg., Lucian, Plato, Plutarch.

From such usage, figure (dipping!) has irrecoverably disappeared.

Parabaptists. a class of persons of defective character.

Implied contrast with persons who are Baptists — persons of decided character, who are under some controlling influence.

Arrian.

General Eesdlts.

1. Certain old and long-cherished errors have been corrected and abandoned.

2. Other errors yet remain to be corrected.

3. Usage has spoken freely, and been, I trust, reported truly.

RENEWED INVESTIGATION. XXI

Usage declares :

1. Bd-rw. tingo, and dip to be equivalent terms in their original import, and, also, that they run parallel, in a remarkable degree, in all the variations of their development.

2. Usage bears the same testimony to the common nature and kindred development of ^a-rc'^w, mergo, and mers'e.

3. As the former class of terms agrees, essentially, in all its members, so it is in essential disagreement with all the members of the latter class.

1. Puts its object into a simple fluid element, and withdraws it promptly.

2. Changes the state or quality of its object, as to color, by putting into coloring liquid.

3. Changes the state or quality of its object, as to color, by pressure, sprinkling, or otherwise.

4. Changes the state or quality of its object where color is not involved.

BaTzri^ui.

1. Intusposes its object within a fluid element without providing for its removal

2. Influences, controllingly, its object by intuspositior. I

3. Influences, controllingly, its object without intusposition.

4. It drowns. It makes drunk.

Ba.Tzzi*ui expresses any complete change of condition by whatsoever agency effected, or in whatsoever way applied.

TEST OF TRUTH.

A master key proves its character by throwing back the bolts of every lock to which it is applied.

The meaning assigned to ^ar.zi^oi gives proof that it is such a master key. Applied to every passage of classical Greek in which the word is used, a clear and adequate solution is at once revealed.

XX11 RENEWED INVESTIGATION,

Try the opposing meaning — a definite act — and fashion a key after that principle (of what model yon will), dip, plunge, sink, overflow, or what not, and each must, in turn, be thrown aside in utter disappointment. The usage of $a-ri%(i} cannot be "mastered" by any effort in that direction.

Abandon all such endeavor, and apply the meaning — Condition :

(1.) Condition of complete intusposition ;.

(2.) Condition of complete influence ;'

And we have a key which opens every passage, "as on golden hinges turning."

The meaning assigned throws light upon the origin of the conflicting views so long maintained, and their relations to the truth.

1. On the one side we have dip. The origin of this meaning is traceable, most unmistakably, to fidizTio. It is an intruder within the domain of fianri^io, and, as such, should be unceremoniously dismissed.

2. Plunge, sink, overflow, are traceable to pam'to as among the accidents of form through which it secures its essential demand of condition; while the attributing of such accidents to the essence of the word, involves the absurdity of making the same word express many definite acts diverse and contradictory in form.

3. On the other side we have pour and sprinkle. These forms of action are not the most natural servitors of flairrtZto. And yet their competency to fulfil this duty, under favorable circumstances, is admitted by some of the ablest Baptist writers. But it is in baptisms of influence where these words have their just and appropriate use.

To say that baptism may be by such acts, is to declare a truth; but to make $a-ri%ui mean to pour or to sprinkle, is an error similar to that inta which those of the other side have fallen.

The explanation of the protracted conflict would seem to be a repetition of the history of the struggle beneath "the shield with its golden and silver side."

All the truth has not been in view.

WITH A VIEW TO ITS BEARING ON

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM,