But Christian parents have not fulfilled their whole duty in
having children baptized into Christ. The children are indeed in
covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. But it is their bounden duty
and blessed privilege to keep their little ones in that covenant of
Grace. Of this more in the next chapter.




CHAPTER V.

THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT CAN BE KEPT UNBROKEN.
AIM AND RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS.

We have gone "_to the Law and to the Testimony_" to find out
what the nature and benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out of
the Word all the principal passages bearing on this subject. We have
grouped them together, and studied them side by side. We have noticed
that their sense is uniform, clear, and strong. Unless we are willing
to throw aside all sound principles of interpretation, we can extract
from the words of inspiration only one meaning, and that is that the
baptized child is, by virtue of that divine ordinance, a new creature
in Christ Jesus.

Here let us be careful, however, to bear in mind and keep before
us that we claim for the child only the _birth_ of a new life. It has
been _born_ of water and the Spirit. A birth we know is but a very
feeble beginning of life. So faint are the flickerings of the natural
life at birth, that it is often doubtful at first whether any life is
present. The result of a birth is not a full-grown man, but a very