of the men, the Levites strike up with music the psalm beginning, "I praise thee, O God, because thou hast heard me, and hast not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me." 1 The doves which hang upon the baskets are taken for a burntoffering, and whatever else the people have brought they give over to the priests, and repeat meanwhile the confession prescribed by Moses 2 for those who bring the first-fruits. All this takes place to-day at the hour of evening service. A great multitude of men, women, and children have streamed into the Temple after those in the procession, and crowd about them as they go out. Relatives and friends receive their own, while the citizens vie with each other in showing hospitality to the rest. And as these men sit or recline at the evening meal with their friends of Jerusalem, the question is constantly repeated, "Do you know anything in regard to the sons of Mariamne?" One says, "they are still closely confined in the Sidonian village Platane." "No," says another, "they are in a far more secure dungeon; they have been taken from Platane to Tyre." "But say you, men of Jerusalem, what does the king intend to do with them?" "They will be put to death," responds the man of the house, "and then two towers will be built to their memory." "He never loved them," said the housewife," since he hates every one that is better than himself: I have sometimes seen him walking with the two princes, who were almost a head taller than himself, but who ducked down in order that they might not appear to him to be taller." An invited Rabbi attempted, as a pupil of Hillel, who was in great favor with Herod, to support the cause of the king. "Fie on you," says one, "if you have chosen God's business, put on also its dress"; i.e. if you are occupied with God's word, exercise also love.3

And as one then related, not without bitterness, what sort of a moustache-day [Schnurrbartstag] Tryphon had that day had (thus the barbers were accustomed to call any day on which they earned little or nothing1), and as one related how

1 Ps. XXX. - TRANS. 2 Deut. xxvi. 3 et seq. • Dukes, Rabbinische Blumenlese, p. 203.

3 Bereshith Rabba, c. 55. The reference in the text is

the honest Tero and his son had been defamed by Tryphon, how they had been tortured until they had falsely accused themselves, and how that on one of the immediately succeeding days, a wholesale execution of hundreds might be expected, a man from Tirza cried out, "How happy I shall be when I get well out of the holy city, this den of cutthroats!" But when he shall return home what sad intelligence awaits him there! Alexander and Aristobulus have, during his absence, been removed from Tyre to Sebaste and there strangled. In Jerusalem, the following days literally drip with blood. The daily task of sweeping the streets was terrible. The king had pointed out to the people, as they were assembled in the theatre, his generals, together with Tryphon, as guilty of high treason. The mob of Jerusalem in its rage now let loose against the army officers, the most of whom were objects of contempt, behaved itself like a bloody beast. Three hundred were killed. For the most part they were smitten with clubs and stones. Tero fell with the rest.

But during these scenes, here in the stillness of a little chamber, or there in the corner of a synagogue, or yonder in the shadow of some obscure archway,2 earnest prayer was offered that the Messiah of God might soon appear, to put an end to the bloody rule of the tyrant, and to this unhallowed riot and tumult. Indeed, this atmosphere, which is loaded with the perfumes of sensuality, and reeking with the blood of victims which iniquity under the cloak of justice has slaughtered, and dense with the vapor of the incense and smoke of the sacrifices offered in the Temple, needs a thorough purification. And this purification is soon to take place. When, after some thirty years, Jesus of Nazareth shall be led forth from the iron gate of the castle of Antonia and along the Via Dolorosa, bearing his cross, then the hour of the Herodians then the hour of Redemption-will have struck! p. 102, which is wrong. It seems that the barber had a definite tax for cutting the hair, and trimming the moustache was "thrown in." If this was done alone no charge was made. When a barber earned nothing he said he had had a "", "Ein Tag der Lippenbärte." - TRANS.

1 Baba Mezia, 26 a, and many other places.

2 Para, iii. 2.

ARTICLE VIII.

BAPTISM OF INFANTS, AND THEIR CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP. MODERN VIEWS.

BY REV. G. F. WRIGHT, ANDOVER, MASS.

(Continued from p. 265.)

BEFORE proceeding to a statement of the modern opinions which have prevailed regarding the significance of infant baptism, it will be well to make some remarks upon the relation of the views presented in the preceding portion of this Article to a few points not heretofore touched upon, and which may be considered by some of no small importance.

(1) What bearing do our principles have upon the question of the salvation of those who die in infancy?

Upon this point we have to say: (a) That our theory does not require us to form any opinion at all, except in regard to those who live to the age of personal responsibility. In the view here presented, the significance of the rite has been. made to centre, mainly, in that period of life when the parents and the church are most active in consciously influencing the actual character of the child. If the child lives to act consciously for himself, the battle wages most fiercely during the opening years of his life. During this time the parents and the church, relying on the promises of God, are the most potent allies for good which the young and struggling soul has. As we conceive it, the rite of infant baptism serves an important purpose in warning these parties to be at their post.

But (b), If God in his providence takes children away from the world before the years of personal accountability, he removes them also from the need of the rite of infant baptism; and our general confidence in God's abounding mercy leads us to believe that he secures their development under such circumstances that they will all be saved.

But this is outside of the question we have been considering; for, logically, our position steers clear entirely of any theory regarding God's method of dealing with those who die before responsible development in this life. We maintain our position, and consistently hold that all who die before years of personal accountability are saved. Our views so connect the significance of infant baptism with the development of character in this life, that no conclusion can be drawn from it adverse to the salvation of those who die unbaptized, and before years of personal accountability.

(2) The second point upon which we remark concerns the reasons for baptizing but once.

It will doubtless be suggested, as it has been in our hearing before this, that the ends which we propose to secure by infant baptism might be secured equally well, if we called our rite something less than baptism, and then had the real baptism at the time of the profession of faith.

To some Baptists this might be a satisfactory adjustment of the practice. Sprinkling would appear to them so light an affair, as compared with what they consider the only true mode of baptism, that it would not seem impossible to persuade them to sprinkle their children as we do, and call it "Christening," or some other such name, and then have their immersion come, as now, on admission to the church. Could the Baptists see their way clear to enter into some such arrangement as this, we are not sure that we could not hail it as a great advance. But, though we have heard this spoken of by some Baptists as a desirable adjustment of the matter, we are not aware that anything of the sort has been actually practised, and so their children are left to grow up without any church ordinance expressing their relation to the covenanted mercies of God.

But it will be seen that this would just reverse our ideas of the relative importance of things; for we now do just the converse of what is proposed in the plan above. We practise infant baptism, and have adult confirmation or profession .following, in which the significance of the act of baptism is

accepted by the person who has been baptized. We deem the ideas associated with the baptism of an infant so much more important than those which can be associated with the baptism of an adult, that it seems necessary to connect with it the greater sign. An important element in the symbolism of baptism is the fact that it is administered but once. In that rite the individual is outwardly admitted into that circle of spiritual influences which is the moving power of the church. To multiply baptisms would take away from their emphasis, and have an effect analogous to that upon miracles if they were indefinitely multiplied. It would be an expansion of the currency which would be connected necessarily with a depreciation of its value. In ordinary cases, we should say that careful instruction regarding the doctrine of baptism, and clear statements of it, would relieve the consciences of those who have doubts about the validity of the baptism with which they were set apart in childhood.

(3) As a logical result of the foregoing views of infant baptism, our churches have, as a rule, discouraged the practice of baptizing children whose parents or guardians were not visibly pious. This principle gave way, in great measure, during the prevalence of what is called the "Half-Way Covenant." The writings of Dr. Bellamy are exceptionally rich in arguments opposed to the practice of the "Half-Way Covenant."

Infant baptism is an inclosure of three sides. The promises of God form one side; the faithfulness of parents provides the second, and that of the church the third. The faithfulness of the parent is next to that of God in importance. God and the church conspire, in the rite, to emphasize the parental responsibility for Christian nurture. If, now, this emphasis of the parents' part of the covenant is allowed to fall out of the rite, as it must do if visible piety on the part of parents is not insisted on as a condition precedent to the baptism of their children, there will come in its place the dangerous heresy that baptism is an opus operatum, or a charm that has power apart from its connections. In reply.