the Lord prescribes a form, it is imperative that His
instruction should be followed. The form of the ordinance as commanded
by God emphasizes the divine meaning of the service.

Scriptural baptism is a burial "in the likeness" of Christ's burial, as
the lifting up of the believer from the watery grave is a likeness of
the resurrection of Christ. Of the meaning of the word "baptism," Luther
wrote:

"Baptism is a Greek word; in Latin it can be translated
immersion, as when we plunge something into water that it may
be completely covered with water."--_Opera Lutheri, De Sac.
Bap. 1, p. 319 (Baptist Encyclopedia, art. "Baptism")._

Calvin, after arguing that the form is an indifferent matter, says:

"The very word 'baptize,' however, signifies to immerse; and it
is certain that immersion was observed by the ancient
church."--_"Institutes," lib. 4, cap. 15 (Baptist Encyclopedia,
art. "Baptism")._

Of the practice in primitive times, Neander, the church historian, says:

"In respect to the manner of baptizing, in conformity with the
original institution and the original import of the symbol, it
was generally administered by immersion."--_"History of the
Christian Church," Torrey's translation (London edition), Vol.
I, p. 429._

The perversion of the ordinance into sprinkling, and that in infancy,
takes away the divinely ordained object-lesson; and in the case of the
infant must of necessity substitute mere ceremonialism for experience,
for the child of unaccountable years can have had no experience of
believing and repenting, which are the necessary conditions to fulfil
the meaning of baptism. The change in the ordinance, like most of the
changes that came about in the days of the "falling away" from the
primitive faith and practice, was by gradual process.

Dean Stanley, in his "Christian Institutions," page 24, says that it is
not till the third century that "we find one case of the baptism of
infants." Of the change from immersion to sprinkling, he says:

"What is the justification of this almost universal departure
from the primitive usage? There may have been many reasons,
some bad, some good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious
feeling already mentioned which regarded baptism as a charm,
indispensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting it
to every human being who could be touched with water, however