ch reports three hundred and three communicants, and
seven baptisms; another, two hundred and eighty-seven communicants, and one
baptism."

These statistics speak volumes. They tell us how Christian parents neglect
the baptism of their children, and also how the church winks at it. And
from this neglect we can easily infer their indifference to it. If we refer
to the statistics of all other churches, we shall witness a similar
neglect. No branch of the church now is free from the imputation of such
neglect. It is now difficult indeed, to induce parents to have their
children baptized, because they think it is no use! "Let them wait," say
they, "till they grow up, and then they will know more about it!" This
shows us where the parent stands, viz., in an unchurchly state, and radical
to the very core. It shows us what that influence is, which is at work upon
his mind. "He will know more about it!"--just as if that in religion is
worthless until we know all about it. Baptism then is not worth anything
until the child understands all about it! In that parental utterance we
hear the wildest shout of triumphant rationalism!

But again, baptism is often abused by parental unfaithfulness to its
obligations. In the baptism of their children, parents solemnly vow to
bring them up in the nurture of the Lord, to train them up in His holy
ways, to teach them by precept and example, to pray for them and teach them
the privilege of prayer. And yet how grossly are these solemn vows left
unperformed, and even never thought of in all after life! Perhaps the very
opposite course is taken even on the day of baptism. Parents! by this you
endanger your own souls as well as the souls of your children. How will the
memory of such neglected duty and privilege sink with deepening anguish in
your souls, when you shall be called hence to answer to God for your
parental stewardship! Be not deceived; God is not mocked; neither will he
hold you guiltless when you thus outrage His holy sacrament.

Baptism is often abused by the unfaithfulness of children to its
privileges, influences and blessings. Many children fight against these,
prevent parents from performing their duties, and repel all the overtures
of the Christian home, all the offers of the Spirit's baptism, abandoning
the means of grace, refusing to assume the baptismal engagement taken for
them by their parents; and thus, so far as they are concerned, undo and
neutralize what their parents