dividual; but all through the Ten Commandments
the individual is regarded only as part of the nation.

The other translation of these words--'which is the first commandment
with promise'--is one to which the original Greek does not seem to give
any preference, and which does not give a good sense, for the fifth
commandment has neither {230} more nor less of promise than the second,
and in what we now call 'the second table' it stands alone as having a
promise implied.

Here again in dealing with children St. Paul passes from the duty of
the subject to that of the authority. Fathers are exhorted not to
irritate their children, as in the Epistle to the Colossians they are
not to provoke them, or, as the word may perhaps mean, overstimulate
them so as to lead to their losing heart[28]. A broken spirit and a
sullen spirit are alike bad signs in youth. But this does not mean
that they are not to be disciplined; discipline is God's purpose for us
all through life, and in childhood and youth parents are the ministers
of God to discipline their children and put them in mind to obey God.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy
father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that
it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And,
ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the
chastening and admonition of the Lord.

We may notice in this passage the implication of infant baptism. The
children are addressed 'in the Lord,' that is as already members of the
{231} body of Christ. The children of any one Christian parent are, in
1 Cor. vii. 14, described as 'holy'--that is consecrated or dedicated
by the circumstances of their birth and the opportunity which it
supplies for Christian education--and thus fit subjects for baptism.
In fact it is probable that Christianity took from the Jews the
practice of infant baptism. Within their own race indeed there was no
need of a ceremony of incorporation. For the son of Jewish parents was
_born_ a member of the chosen people. But a proselyte was--certainly
before our Lord's time--made a Jew with a _baptism_[29] which was
regarded as his new birth, his naturalization into a new and higher
race. And if the proselyte had children they were baptized with him as
'little proselytes[30].' With a new depth of meaning this practice of
infant baptism was taken over by the Christian church in t