No. V.



FISHERGATE BAPTIST CHAPEL.



The "right thing" in regard to baptism is a recondite point; but we
are not going to enter into any controversy about it. We shall say
nothing as to the defects or merits of aspersion or sprinkling,
immersion or dipping, affusion or pouring. Opinions vary respecting
each system; and one may fairly say that the words uttered in
explanation of the general theme come literally to us in the "voice
of many waters.", Jacob the patriarch was the first Baptist; the
Jews kept up the rite moderately, but had more faith in its
abstergent than spiritual influence; John turned it into an
institution of Christianity; the Primitive Church carried on the
business slowly, Turtullian kicking against and Cyprian lauding it;
in the fifth century baptism became fully established amongst all
Christian communities; then the Eastern and Western Churches
quarrelled as to whether sprinkling or immersion constituted the
proper ceremony; other small disputes concerning the modus operandi
followed; and from that time to this the adherents of each scheme
have spilled a great deal of water in piously working out their
notions. There was once a time when nobody could undergo the
ordinary process of baptism except at Easter or Whitsuntide; but
children and upgrown people can now be put through the ceremony
whenever it is considered necessary. In Preston, as elsewhere, the
majority of people think well of water when it is required by