of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of your sins."(347)

And Ananias said to Saul, after his conversion: "Rise up and be baptized,
and wash away thy sins."(348)

"We were by nature," says St. Paul, "children of wrath," but by our
regeneration, or new birth in Baptism, we become _Christians and children
of God_. "For, ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on
Christ."(349) We are adopted into the same family with Jesus Christ. What
He is by nature we are by grace--children of God, and consequently brethren
of Christ. Nay, our union with Jesus is still more close. We become true
members of His mystical body, which is His Church, and His Divine image is
stamped upon our soul.

Baptism also clothes us with the _garment of sanctity_, so that our soul
becomes a fit dwelling-place for the Holy Ghost. The Apostle, after giving
a fearful catalogue of the vices of the Pagans, says to the Corinthians:
"And such some of you were; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit
of God."(350)

Baptism, in fine, makes us _heirs of heaven_ and co-heirs with Jesus
Christ. "We ourselves also," says St. Paul, "were sometimes unwise,
incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in
malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the goodness
and kindness of God our Savior appeared, ... He saved us by the laver of
regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom He hath poured forth
abundantly upon us, through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified
by His grace, we may be heirs, according to the hope of life
everlasting."(351)

Here we plainly see that the forgiveness of sin, the adoption into the
family of God, the sanctification of the soul and the pledge of eternal
life are ascribed to the due reception of Baptism--not, indeed, that water
or the words of the minister have any intrinsic virtue to heal the soul,
but because Jesus Christ, whose word is creative power, is pleased to
attach to this rite its wonderful efficacy of healing the soul, as He
imparted to the pool of Bethsaida the power of healing the body.(352)

From what has been said, I ask you candidly what are you to think of the
decision rendered in 1872 by the Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, who, in their convention in Baltimore, declared th