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XIX. SUMMARY OF RESULTS: GALILEE PROVIDENTIALLY FITTED FOR THE FIRST RECEPTION OF CHRIST AND HIS GOSPEL. After the careful review now closed, we feel justified in saying that Galilee at the time of Christ was one of the finest and most fertile portions of the earth. Stretching from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan and the sweet-watered Merom and Gennesareth on the east; abounding in springs, rivers, and lakes-among which its one hallowed sea was the gem and pride of the whole country, as it is forever dear to Christian hearts; possessing a rare and delightful climate, and scenery of great variety and beauty; its surface never dull or monotonous, but infinitely varied by plains and valleys, gentle slopes and terraced hills, deep ravines and bold peaks, naturally fortified eminences and giant mountains; its soil naturally fertile, but forced by skilful husbandry to the highest state of productiveness, until this province was noted for the perfection and abundance of its fruits; Galilee thus possessed features of richness and beauty rarely if ever combined in so small a country in all the world besides. The surface of the country was covered with wealthy cities and flourishing towns, and crossed in many directions by her "way of the sea" and other great thoroughfares, which were thronged with the caravans of commerce. Its agriculture and fisheries, wine and oil trade, and other industries were in the most flourishing condition, being managed with energy and skill by a people who knew well how to use to advantage the resources of their highly favored country. Its synagogues and other public buildings were built often in splendid style and at great expense. Here money was abundant, and easily raised either for taxes, heavy tributes, military affairs, or for costly dwellings and palaces. Here all matters pertaining to the synagogal service and to the instruction of children were faithfully attended to, and here were found teachers, learned men, missionaries, poets, and patriots of the highest order.

1 Graetz, 3. 394.

In regard to the character of the Galileans, it is claimed that gold and dross were lying side by side.1, But even those who discover in them a great deal of exterior roughness,2 are compelled to admit that beneath this rough surface they possessed a fund of strength and talent which entitled them to the highest regard. But much of a positive character can be said in their praise. Their patriotism in national emergencies; their enthusiastic loyalty to their country's interests; their general adherence to the law of Moses in preference to tradition, which ruled and hampered the public mind in Jerusalem; their interest in the Temple and its solemn feasts; their deep-seated and inspiring hope, which looked with steadfast gaze towards the future "waiting for the redemption of Israel,"-these things show that the Jews of the north, at least equally with, and perhaps far beyond, those who dwelt beneath the very shadow of the Temple, maintained within themselves, in their integrity, some of the noblest traits of the Hebrew nation. But farther, we find the Galileans to have been a moral, intelligent, industrious, and enterprising people, possessed of vigorous minds and healthy bodies "healthy healthy as their own climate and cheerful as their own sky,"4-a people familiar with their own law and history, and not wanting in the finest poetical spirit; 5 with the disposition and ability to appreciate in the main the teachings of Christ; a people among whom were found most devoted men, "Israelites indeed"; among whom also devotion to the national idea reached its highest development, till at last they rose, a solid wall of patriot hearts, to be crushed by the all-conquering power of Rome; both country and 1 Keim, 1. 316. 2 Hausrath, 1. 12; Graetz, 3. 395.

3 The character of the people is seen in the very great honor paid by them to the memory of Elijah; see this eloquently set forth in Hausrath, 1. 374.

Keim, 1. 312.

5 Besides the poets mentioned, Mary the mother of Christ should be named as possessed of the rarest poetical gifts.

Schneckenburger, p. 233, "Das Land fiel als Opfer der messianischen Idee, welche es gegenüber der Weltmacht Rom's realisiren wollte. Es war als ob die ganze Kraft des Judenthums an Einen Ort zusammengedrängt worden wäre, um es mit Einem Schlage zu vernichten."

people, one may say with truth, fitly chosen of God as the training place of those men - Master and disciples - who were to move the world; the proper soil in which first to plant the seeds of that truth which was destined, ere long, to be spoken by eloquent lips in the pulpits of Cesarea, Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome.

ARTICLE III.

BAPTISM OF INFANTS, AND THEIR CHURCH-
MEMBERSHIP!

BY REV. G. f. wright, andover, MASS.

THERE are some who regard the subject of this Article as puerile, and pertaining to the mere externals of religion—a question which is scarce worthy the attention of masculine intellect at any time, least of all after it has been worn so threadbare as this is supposed to have been. If any such read as far as this, we trust they will read two or three sentences more. For we would remind them that it is the part neither of humility nor of wisdom to treat as unworthy of our notice any question which has stirred the Christian world so profoundly as this has done. For oftentimes the importance of a subject does not appear on the surface, but in its connections with truths that are underneath it, and which it represents.

It will be found, on close inspection, that the question of baptism connects itself with one's whole system of divinity. Infant baptism, as we regard it, is a sacrament which has objective significance, and into which is compressed one half the New Testament theology. Theology is taught by it.

1 It is well to caution the reader that the design of this Article is logical and philosophical rather than historical or exegetical. In the succeeding Number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, we will present a comparative survey of the modern views that have prevailed with respect to the connection existing between Baptism and Regeneration. For the early history of the rite, and its exegetical foundation, the reader must be referred to the standard treatises on the subject. VOL. XXXI. No. 122.

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The faith of the church is expressed in it. The favor of God is pledged in connection with it. It is the symbolic language in which the faith of the church may rise to its highest degree of strength. That faith, where it is faith, and not superstition, places the baptized person in such relations to God's plan of operations, that God can wisely, and will, according to his promise, do more to secure his salvation than he otherwise could.

In the economy of grace, prayer for the salvation of men puts them in the way of receiving more abundant ministrations of the Spirit. Infant baptism is, on the part of parent and church, a confession, a prayer, a pledge, and a hope, emembodied in one sacrament. It is a confession of the universal reign of sin, except where grace abounds, a prayer for the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, a pledge of faithfulness in Christian nurture, and a monument of the hope that the prayer will be answered, and that, through the divine blessing, the nurture will accomplish its designed results. As being the most objective and public expression of this faith that can be made on the part of the parent and the church, God, on his part binds himself in this act more than in any other, to fulfil his promise, and bestow peculiar blessings upon the children thus consecrated to him. Not that we can presume upon the conversion of all on the mere fact of their having been baptized. But we can safely presume that where infant baptism is properly defined and held up before the church, and is intelligently practised, children will have, in the first place, on the whole, better Christian nurture, as a result of the influence of this ordinance on the parents and the church; and, in the next place, will, in answer to the baptismal prayer and the prayers that are incited by the rite, have more of the gracious influences of the Spirit. So that where superstition has not taken the place of intelligent faith in the maintenance of the rite, we may address baptized children, as probably resisting greater light than others so long as they remain in their sins.

Our position is not that the baptism of an infant, when

unaccompanied with faith or pledge of faithfulness on the part of those solemnizing the rite, avails anything for the infant. It certainly does not; for that is baptism with baptism left out. Nor do we say that it is impossible to connect with the rite such errors of doctrine as to make it a hinderance, rather than a help, to the progress of the gospel. Nor do we confine the influence of the baptism to the person baptized. But it is, we maintain, naturally adapted to secure a general interest in the religious culture of the young. Its right use makes the conversion of all the children in a community more probable, whether baptized or not, though not in equal degree.

It is to be confessed, however, that infant baptism is a sacrament that has been greatly abused. There is, in many quarters, a dangerous tendency to ascribe a magical effect to the rite. It is to be hoped that the Baptists will not cease their protest against this tendency, till it shall have entirely disappeared. In their attempts to give an intelligible significance to the sacrament of baptism we bid them a hearty God-speed.

At the same time, we cherish the hope that some of us can give, and have given them valuable assistance, and still have maintained the propriety and importance of applying the rite to infants. We do not yet despair of harmonizing all parties on what may be called for convenience the New England view of infant baptism. But in speaking of our view as the "New England view," we do not mean to imply that it has not prevailed in other places, or that it originated here, but only that here it has had its typical development, and has had freer scope for its exercise than anywhere else. Nor do

1 See the testimony of Dr. Hodge below (p. 286). What we call here for brevity and convenience the "New England view," accords in the main with that prevailing among the Independents of England and the Presbyterians, especially the New School branch, of this country. The Methodists accord with it also, so far as the connection of the baptism of a child, and his church-membership is concerned, though the Arminian tendencies would lead them to a different statement of reasons for the baptism of a child. See Dr. Whedon, in Methodist Quarterly Review for January, 1873, pp. 132-134.

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