g them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world. Amen."

He continued: "My dear Mrs. Peirce, God is your God. He will have his
name written upon you, by its being called over you, with the use of his
own appointed sign and seal of baptism. The name in which he has chosen
thus to appear to you, is not God Almighty, nor his name Jehovah; but
those names which redemption has brought to view, and which impress upon
us the acts of redeeming grace and love. Do not feel, chiefly, that you
give yourself up to God in this transaction, though this, of course, you
do, and it is essential that you do so; but feel that the Father, Son,
and Spirit, come to you, and own you in the covenant of redemption, in
consequence of your accepting Christ, by faith, which itself, also, is
the gift of God. Professing repentance of your sins, and faith in the
Lord Jesus, you are now to receive, from the Sacred Three, a sign and
seal, confirming to you all the promises of grace, adopting you as a
member of the whole family in heaven and earth, and engaging God to be
your God.

"And now, as you are, yourself, a child of God, your children God adopts
to be, in a peculiar sense, his. This is the method of his love from the
beginning. Had Adam remained upright, doubtless his children would have
been confirmed in their uprightness; but, inasmuch as he fell, and, by
his disobedience, they were made sinners, God reestablished his covenant
with Abraham as the father of all believers, under a new
church-organization, to the end of time, promising to be the God of a
believer's child."

He then read this hymn; and certain expressions in it never struck me
with such force and sweetness as in that baptismal scene:

"How large the promise, how divine,
To Abraham and his seed;
I'll be a God to thee and thine,
Supplying all their need.

"The words of his extensive love
From age to age endure;
The angel of the covenant proves,
And seals, the blessing sure.

"Jesus the ancient faith confirms
To our great fathers given;
He takes young children to his arms,
And calls them heirs of heaven.

"Our God, how faithful are his ways!
His love endures the same;
Nor from the promise of his grace
Blots out the children's name."

"And now," said he, "as you belong to the