us by the
help of the two simple sacraments, and that they are intended to act
upon us, in the hands of his Spirit, in the first instance; not merely
serving as offerings to God.

It is not that there are fewer children baptized now than formerly (if
such indeed be the case), that awakens sorrow and apprehension; but that
parents are deficient in the feelings which make us prize and use
baptism. This is the evil sign, and it is greatly to be deplored. One
must have intelligent views of the Scriptures as a whole,--of both
Testaments,--most fully to understand and value infant baptism; for its
roots were planted in the Old Testament. I always feel deep respect for
a church-member who comprehends this subject in its wide relations, and
is not swayed by the popular demand for an express sign at every step,
but can reason inferentially as well as when proofs are demonstrative
and palpable; and who has in his mind the whole system of redemption,
with its various economies, interdependent, and none made perfect
without the rest. When all our church-members come to understand and
feel the power of this subject in this manner, what times of enlightened
religious prosperity, and a high state of religious culture, it will
indicate. I pray and wait for the time when all our Paedobaptist
churches, of every name, will conspire to promote spiritual views of
children's baptism, holding it forth as the expression of spiritual
feelings, and discountenancing formalism in connection with it. Though I
was never an Episcopalian in my preferences, and though the appointment
of godfathers and godmothers may, like every good thing, relapse into
mere form, I honor it for its excellent and pious design of surrounding
the parents and the children with admonition and help. For there are
sponsors, I am happy to know, who are not mere formalists, but who make
it a rule to have an interview with their godchildren on or near their
birthdays, or the anniversaries of their baptisms, and, in an
affectionate, faithful manner, they endeavor to fulfil the vows which
they took upon themselves at the baptism. Blessings on such faithful
Christian friends! Happy the children who have them for helpers of their
faith and piety. Let us all, as church-members, be sponsors, at least by
prayers and a kind interest for it, to every child of a Christian
brother or sister, when we witness its baptism. Suppose a church-member,
after witnessing the baptism of an infant, it