1. This epistle selection was primarily arranged for this particular
Sunday because it treats of baptism and of the new birth of the
believing Christian. It was in former time customary in the Church to
baptize immediately after Easter those who had accepted the Christian
faith and had been instructed in its precepts. This day is also called
"Dominicam in albis," and by us Germans "Weiszer Sonntag" (White
Sunday), because the candidates for baptism were clad in white linen
as indicative of their cleansing and new birth; just as today children
to be baptized are arrayed in a white christening-robe.