uch spiritual views and feelings, and, as a
consequence, with greater reference in the prayers of Christians, public
and private, to the subject, the practice of children's baptism will
increase, as surely as accessions to the Lord's table increase when
people come to have Christ in them the hope of glory.

We, ministers, can do very much to promote a love for the ordinance in
many ways. We ought to make it convenient and pleasant by all the
expedients within our power. I like the practice which you speak of, in
your church, of the mother remaining with the child in the anteroom till
the introductory services and the loud organ-playing are over. Does
your pastor pour water into the child's face and eyes, and then begin
the words of baptism? I presume not; but I have seen it done. We should
not touch the child's head till near the close of the baptismal formula;
and then so that the child will not see the arm move toward it.

Much can be done by these simple expedients to promote a quiet and
pleasant attendance upon the delightful rite. I like the practice, in
your church, of chanting low some appropriate words of Scripture before
and after the baptism.

I am constrained to say, though with diffidence, that I fear some of my
good brethren give erroneous impressions by what they say of the
church-membership of children. They push it to extremes. They discuss
the question, What shall be done with baptized children, who, on
arriving at years of understanding, refuse to enter into covenant with
God? Church censures are asserted by some to be proper in such cases,
even to excommunication, or interference in some judicial way by the
church. So long as I believe in regeneration by the Holy Spirit, I
cannot feel that baptized children, as such, are, in any sense
whatever, in which the term is generally received among men, _members_
of the church of Christ; while, in another and most important sense,
they do belong to the church, hold a relation to it, and are a part of
it. Strictly speaking, and in the highest spiritual sense, they are not
even "the lambs of Christ's flock;" for lambs have the nature of sheep;
but the children of believers are, by nature, children of wrath, even as
others. And yet, in another sense, they hold a most important relation
to the flock of Christ, as no other children do. In its most important
sense, they are not to the church even what they are to the state; they
have no place whatever in the invis