baptism? As they are included in the covenant, why not enter it by the
divinely constituted sacrament of initiation? As they are included in the
plan of salvation, why not receive it in a churchly way? If Christ is the
Saviour of infants, why not bring them to Him through baptism?

Besides, the idea of following Christ reaches its full meaning only through
infant baptism. His own infancy, as we have already seen, is a warrant of
this. Without it He cannot penetrate and rule in every natural stage of
human life. Hence a denial of infant baptism is a subversion of the
fundamentals of Christian doctrine. The very constitution of the Christian
family, its unity and mission must be overthrown; for infant baptism is
incorporated with the nature of christianity itself, with the conception
and necessities of the individual Christian life, and of the Christian
family life.

And yet with the plainest teachings of the gospel before them, is it not
strange that there are so many virulent enemies to infant baptism? Their
rejection of it seems to rest mainly upon the untenable position that
baptism has meaning and force only when it is the fruit of an antecedent,
self-conscious faith on the part of the subject, and that it is but the
outward demonstration of a separate and prior participation of some inward
grace. As infants have not a self-conscious faith, it is believed,
therefore, that they are not, of course, fit subjects of baptism.

There is a cunning sophistry in all this. It goes upon the supposition that
faith necessarily demands the prior development of self-consciousness. It
assumes that faith is bound to a particular age, and can be exercised only
after the full and complete development of the logical consciousness, and
is dependent upon it; it also assumes that this faith must necessarily be
exercised by the subject of Christian baptism.

Now this is all mere assumption. There is no scripture for it. In all this,
the distinction is not made between faith in its first bud, and faith in
its ripe fruit. The first may exist in the unconscious infant, just as
undeveloped reason exists there; because natural powers do not generate
supernatural faith. Faith is the gift of God; and its existence does not
depend upon any particular stage of mental development. The enemies of
infant baptism can see nothing in baptism. They can see no objective force
in that holy sacrament; but regard it as something merely external,
extraneous,