.--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.

Chapter First.

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 unsearchable riches of wisdom and grace.

Has God done anything, in this world, to mark his regard for that class
of the human race constituting, thus far, the greater part of the
redeemed? We naturally look for something reminding the world of his
interest in these subsidiaries of his kingdom. Has he confined his
notice to those that are full-grown, and who have, thus far, the larger
part of them, withheld from him the fruit of his vineyard? God has a
church on earth, with ordinances, symbols, covenant signs: among them is
there not some sign, symbol, or ordinance, recognizing those who, more
than any other of the race, have, till now, been swelling the numbers of
that church in heaven?

Like those elements of astronomical calculation which require and lead
men to expect undi