BERTHA
AND HER BAPTISM.

By the Author of
AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY;
or,
BEREAVED PARENTS INSTRUCTED AND COMFORTED.

BOSTON:
S.K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY,
161 Washington Street.
1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
S.K. WHIPPLE & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.


STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,
New England Type and Stereotype Foundry,
BOSTON.

PREFACE.

This book, and that which is also named in the title-page, were written at the same time, and as one book; but they were afterward separated, as more properly constituting two volumes, the part which was the original of the present volume now being greatly enlarged. Thus the two books grew in the author's mind together, from one and the same root,—the death of a little child.

CONTENTS.

Page

CHAPTER I.

PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN, 9

CHAPTER II.

THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.—THE NATURE, GROUNDS AND INFLUENCE,
OF INFANT BAPTISM, 16

CHAPTER III.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BAPTISMS.—THE SUBJECTS AND MODE OF
BAPTISM, 76

CHAPTER IV.

IS THERE ONLY ONE MODE OF BAPTISM? 121

CHAPTER V.

SCENES OF BAPTISM.—REASONABLENESS, BEAUTY AND POWER, OF
INFANT BAPTISM.—USE OF SPECIAL VOWS.—HUSBANDS AT
BAPTISMS.—NEGLECT OF BAPTISM, 130

CHAPTER VI.

TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS.—APOSTOLIC PRACTICE OF
INFANT BAPTISM.—MINISTERIAL USAGES IN BAPTISMS, 143

CHAPTER VII.

TERMS OF COMMUNION.—NON-INTRUSION.—DENOMINATIONAL COURTESY
AND KINDNESS, 184

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ROAD-SIDE BAPTISM, 198

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH.—ARE THEY MEMBERS OF THE
CHURCH? 216

CHAPTER X.

MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.—CONSTITUTION AND RULES FOR THEM.—A
CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S QUESTIONS TO HERSELF 255

CHAPTER XI.

BAPTISM OF THE SICK WIFE AND HER CHILDREN, 272

BERTHA
AND HER BAPTISM.

Probabilities of an Ordinance for Children.

'Tis aye a solemn thing to me
To look upon a babe that sleeps,
Wearing in its spirit-deeps
The unrevealed mystery
Of its Adam's taint and woe.—Miss Barrett.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy.—Wordsworth.

It is generally believed that, of those who have gone to heaven from this world, by far the larger part have been infants and young children. Born here, they were by one man's disobedience made sinners; born of the Spirit, at their early translation to heaven, they hold an important place in the plan of salvation by Christ. Very beautiful, as well as sublime, is the thought of so large a contribution, to the heavenly world, of human beings in the dawn of their existence, enhancing, as we may suppose, the happiness of heaven by such large admixture of exotic, youthful nature, and illustrating, by their redemption from a helpless state of sin and misery, the