aptism. But excuse me, wife, I
took the answer out of your mouth."

"Well," said Mrs. Benson to me, "I must wait upon you, sir, to answer
the question further."

"Mr. Benson has the right view of the subject," I replied. "We make too
little of signs and seals, from a morbid fear and jealousy of those
which are invented by man and added to religion. But God's own seals are
safe and good. We cannot make too much of them.

"God never did anything with men, from the beginning, without signs and
seals. The tree of life was one, and so was the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. Adam and Eve knew better, at first, than to say, 'So long
as we love and obey God, of what use are these symbols?' By not
regarding symbols afterward, they brought death into our world and all
our woe. Even before that, God had appointed a symbol of his authority,
and a seal of a covenant between him and man forever, in the appointment
of the Sabbath. The mark on Cain's forehead, the rainbow, the lamp
passing between the severed parts of Abraham's sacrifice, Jacob's
ladder, the burning bush, the passover, and things too numerous to
mention, show how God loves signs and seals.

"There are many good people, at the present day, who say to me, I am
willing to consecrate my child to God in prayer, and bring him up for
God; but I do not see the necessity of an ordinance. Why bring the child
to baptism? I can do all which is required and signified, without the
sign."

"What do you say to them?" said Mrs. Ford.

_Pastor._ I tell them they are on dangerous ground. Will they be wiser
than God? He knows our natures, and what to prescribe to us in our
intercourse with him. I would as soon meddle with a law of nature, as
with God's ordinances. I might as well neglect a law of nature, and
think to be safe and well, as to neglect one of God's ordinances, and
expect his blessing.

People, moreover, may as well object to family prayer, and say that
they try to live in a spirit of prayer all day. Why do they have special
seasons for retirement, if they walk with God? Why do they hardly feel
that they have prayed if company, or a bedfellow, on a journey, keeps
them from using oral prayer? It is a bitter grief, also, when no funeral
solemnities lead the way to the grave with a beloved object; yet, where
in the word of God are they commanded? As Mr. Benson said, "Who is
willing to dispense with the wedding ceremony, except in cases where
sadness and trouble s