minds of the people several
different modes of baptism. But this great liberality finds no warrant in
the Word of God. The Scriptures teach that "there is one body." Eph. 4:4.
If I should hold in opinion, as many do hold, that there are many bodies,
would my opinion prove the Word of God to be in error? Let me say here,
with emphasis, that there can be but one true, rightful body. If the
Catholic body should be the right body, it is the only body upon the earth
that is right. If the Presbyterian body is the right and true body, it is
the only body. And so with any other denominational body. If we were a
member of the Methodist body we would have to believe that that was the
one true body and that all the others were wrong. If there be but one
body, how can two bodies be that one body when those two bodies are
different?

There is but one Holy Spirit, one true Lord, one gospel faith, and one
true mode of baptism. God has not left us to follow our own peculiar
fancies, but all must go the same way. Whatever is required of one
individual, that same thing is required of every other individual. If
sprinkling is a right mode of baptism it is the only right mode, and all
others are wrong. If pouring is right it is the only mode that is right.
If three dips, face forward is right it is the only mode that is right. If
one single immersion is right it is the only mode that is right. The Lord
did not set the example in all these different ways. He was baptized. He
also baptized by proxy, and we believe that he thus baptized in the same
manner he was baptized. This one mode was all they understood by baptism.
The apostles perhaps had seen the Lord baptized, they administered baptism
under his direction, and when he commissioned them with the authority to
administer baptism after he had ascended to the Father, they did not
question him as to which mode. The word baptism meant but one thing and
the same thing unto them all. In the after years of their ministry they
practised just what they had seen their Lord practise.

Now let us learn from the plain, easy language of the Scripture the mode
as administered by John, the Lord and the apostles. In the third chapter
of Matthew the inspired writer has given an account of John's baptism,
which we kindly invite you to read. Now the way to correctly understand
the Scripture is to take it in its easiest, plainest, most sensible way.
Do not attempt to give it some complicated, mysterious mea