name perfectly well already, and yet they are to begin by asking the
child his name.

Now, why is this? What has a child's name to do with his Faith and
duty as a Christian?

You may answer, Because his Christian name is given him when he is
baptized.

But _why_ is his Christian name given him when he is baptized? Why
then rather than at any other time?

Because it is the old custom of the Church. No doubt it is: and a
most wise and blessed custom it is; and one which shows us how much
more about God and man the churchmen in old times knew, than most of
our religious teachers now-a-days. But how did that old custom
arise? What put into the minds of church people, for the last
sixteen hundred years at least, that being baptized and being named
had anything to do with each other? Men had names of their own long
before the Lord Jesus came, long before His Baptism was heard of on
earth;--the heathens of old had their names--the heathens have names
still;--why, then, did church people feel it right to mix a new
thing like baptism with a world-old thing like giving a name?

My friends, I feel and say honestly, that there is more in this
matter than I understand; and what little I do understand, I could
not explain fully in one sermon, or in many either. But let this be
enough for to-day. God grant that I may be able to make you
understand me.