visible to one another as such, and capable of
being recognized and known as such.

Our Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation; for
lo! the kingdom of heaven is within you." Now, we cannot look into a
man's heart. All we can know of a man's heart is from what he says and
does. But the Lord has established an order for the subjects of his
kingdom. He has proclaimed a law, call it a ceremonial law if you
choose, by obedience to which all the subjects of his kingdom on earth
may be found out and become known to each other. That law is the
Lord's will made visible in the order of his brethren, carried out in
the forms of church organization by means of established ordinances
appointed by him. The Lord does not want his bride to wander through
earth's vanities a viewless, inactive, unprotected entity:

Doing nothing for his cause,
Learning nothing of his laws;

but he wants her to appear "all glorious within" and without; "bright
as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners."

I have been accused by some of never preaching a sermon without having
something to say about baptism, as if discoursing on that subject
might be criminal in their eyes. I can boldly say I do not like to
close a sermon without saying something about it, because baptism in
water, as the door to the visible church, has so much significance in
it that I do not feel as if I had fully discharged my duty to the
souls of men without it. But I am not altogether singular in this
respect. I have some very good company. John the Baptist had _baptism_
in two of his sermons. Peter the apostle had _baptism_, in two out of
three of his sermons. Ananias had _baptism_ in the sermon he preached
to Saul, and that in a shape altogether too strong for many, as that
Saul should wash away his sins in it. Philip had _baptism_ in his
sermon to the eunuch, and Paul had _baptism_ in his joyful
anticipations of heavenly glory, and calls it the washing of
regeneration; and in fact he laid strong emphasis on it in his answer
to the Philippian jailer's question, "What shall I do to be saved?"
But the Lord's sermon to Nicodemus gives the crown to _baptism_ as the
visible birth into the visible church. He calls it "born of
water,"--internally born of the Spirit, externally born of water. So
you see, friends, I have plenty of company in this line of preaching,
and good company too.

Baptism, as the visible ceremony of union of the