te.
Dr. Hyde, in his treatise on the _Religion of the Ancient Persians_,
xxxiv. 406, tells us that it prevailed among that people. 'They do not
use circumcision for their children, but only baptism, or washing for
the purification of the soul. They bring the child to the priest into
the church, and place him in front of the sun and fire, which ceremony
being completed, they look upon him as more sacred than before. Lord
says that they bring the water for this purpose in bark of the
Holm-tree; that tree is in truth the Haum of the Magi, of which we spoke
before on another occasion. Sometimes also it is otherwise done by
immersing him in a large vessel of water, as Tavernier tells us. After
such washing, or baptism, the priest imposes on the child the name given
by the parents.'"[335] A few weeks after the birth of a Hindu child a
ceremony is performed, a part of which consists in sprinkling the child
with water--such sprinkling entering into all Hindu worship. Williamson
gives authorities for the practise of Baptism in Egypt, Persia, Thibet,
Mongolia, Mexico, Peru, Greece, Rome, Scandinavia, and among the
Druids.[336] Some of the prayers quoted are very fine: "I pray that this
celestial water, blue and light blue, may enter into thy body and there
live. I pray that it may destroy in thee, and put away from thee, all
the things evil and adverse that were given to thee before the beginning
of the world." "O child! receive the water of the Lord of the world who
is our life: it is to wash and to purify; may these drops remove the sin
which was given to thee before the creation of the world, since all of
us are under its power."

Tertullian mentions the very general use of Baptism among non-Christian
nations in a passage already quoted,[337] and others of the Fathers
refer to it.

In most religious communities a minor form of Baptism accompanies all
religious ceremonies, water being used as a symbol of purification, and
the idea being that no man should enter upon worship until he has
purified his heart and conscience, the outer washing symbolising the
inner lustration. In the Greek and Roman Churches a small receptacle for
holy water is placed near every door, and every incoming worshipper
touches it, making with it on himself the sign of the cross ere he goes
onward towards the altar. On this Robert Taylor remarks: "The baptismal
fonts in our Protestant churches, and we need hardly say more especially
the little cisterns