ment; for the conclusion would with more
probability be derived thus: Christ blessed infants, and so dismissed
them, but baptized them not; therefore infants are not to be
baptized.'"--The author, _Articles of Faith_, vi:14. See paragraphs
11-17 in same lecture.

7. The Camel and the Needle's Eye.--In comparing the difficulty of a
rich man entering the kingdom with that of a camel passing through the
eye of a needle, Jesus used a rhetorical figure, which, strong and
prohibitory as it appears in our translation, was of a type familiar to
those who heard the remark. There was a "common Jewish proverb, that a
man did not even in his dreams see an elephant pass through the eye of a
needle" (Edersheim). Some interpreters insist that a rope, not a camel,
was mentioned by Jesus, and these base their contention on the fact that
the Greek word _kamelos_ (camel) differs in but a single letter from
_kamilos_ (rope), and that the alleged error of substituting "camel" for
"rope" in the scriptural text is chargeable to the early copyists.
Farrar (p. 476) rejects this possible interpretation on the ground that
proverbs involving comparisons of a kind with that of a camel passing
through the eye of a needle are common in the Talmud.

It has been asserted that the term "needle's eye" was applied to a small
door or wicket set in or alongside the great gates in the walls of
cities; and the assumption has been raised that Jesus had such a wicket
in mind when He spoke of the seeming impossibility of a camel passing
through a needle's eye. It would be possible though very difficult for a
camel to squeeze its way through the little gate, and it could in no
wise do so except when relieved of its load and stripped of all its
harness. If this conception be correct, we may find additional
similitude between the fact that the camel must first be unloaded and
stripped, however costly its burden or rich its accoutrement, and the
necessity of the rich young ruler, and so of any man, divesting himself
of the burden and trappings of wealth, if he would enter by the narrow
way that leadeth into the kingdom. The Lord's exposition of His saying
is all-sufficient for the purposes of the lesson: "With men this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt. 19:26.)

8. Undue Concern as to Wages in the Lord's Service.--The instructive and
inspiring Parable of the Laborers was called forth by Peter's question
of self-interest--"What shall we ha