+I. The doctrine of Rome.+--Christ's merits are instrumentally
applied by baptism; original sin is removed by a change of nature; a
new character is imparted to the soul; a germinal principle or seed
of life is miraculously given; and all this in virtue, not of any
condition in the recipient, nor of any condition except that of the
due performance of the rite. The objections to this doctrine are:
1. _It assures baptism to be not the testimony to a fact, but the
fact itself._ Baptism proclaims the child of God; the Romanist says
it creates him. 2. _It is materialism of the grossest kind._ 3. _It
makes Christian life a struggle for something that is lost, instead
of a progress to something that lies before._
+II. The doctrine of modern Calvinism.+--Baptism admits all into the
visible Church, but into the invisible Church only a special few. The
real benefit of baptism only belongs to the elect. With respect to
others, to predicate of them regeneration in the highest sense is at
best an ecclesiastical fiction, said in the judgment of charity. You
are not God's child until you become such consciously. On this we
remark: 1. _This judgment of charity ends at the baptismal font._
2. _This view is identical with the Roman one in this respect--that
it creates the fact instead of testifying to it._ 3. _Is pernicious
in its results in the matter of education._
+III. The doctrine of the Bible.+--Man is God's child, and the sin of
the man consists in perpetually living as if it were false. To be a
son of God is one thing; to know that you are and call Him Father is
another. Baptism authoritatively reveals and pledges to the
individual that which is true of the race. 1. _This view prevents
exclusiveness and spiritual pride._ 2. _Protests against the notion
of our being separate units in the Divine life._ 3. _Sanctifies
materialism.--F. W. Robertson._