d spur of his longing he may gaze upon the
deathless principle with deathless spirit, through the deathless water,
through the solid and the air; that he may be re-born through reason (_or_
idea), that he may be consecrated, and the holy spirit breathe in him, that
he may admire the holy fire, that he may behold the abyss of the Orient,
dread water, and that he may be heard of the quickening and circumambient
ether; for this day he is about to gaze on the revealed reality with
deathless eyes; a mortal born of mortal womb, he has been enhanced in
excellence by the might of the All-powerful and by the right hand of the
Deathless one," &c.

This is but one specimen of the pious ejaculations, which in the first
centuries were rising from the lips of thousands of _mystae_, in Egypt,
Asia Minor, Italy and elsewhere. The idea of re-birth was in the air; it
was the very keynote of all the solemn initiations and mysteries--Mythraic,
Orphic, Eleusinian--through which repentant pagans secured pardon and
eternal bliss. Yet there is not much evidence that the church directly
borrowed many of its ceremonies or interpretations from outside sources.
They for the most part originated among the believers, and not improbably
the outside cults borrowed as much from the church as it from them.

AUTHORITIES.--The following ancient works are recommended: Tertullian, _De
Baptismo_ (edition with introd. J. M. Lupton, 1909); Cyril of Jerusalem,
_Catecheses_; Basil, _De Spiritu Sancto; Constitutiones Apostolicae_;
Gregory Nazianzen, _Orat. 40_; Gregory Nyss., _Oratio in eos qui differunt
baptismum; Sacramentary_ of Serapion of Thmuis; Augustine, _De Baptismo
contra Donatistas_; Jac. Goar, _Rituale Graecorum_ (gives the current Greek
rites); F. C. Conybeare, _Rituale Armenorum_ (the oldest forms of Armenian
and Greek rites); Gerard G. Vossius, _De Baptismo_ (Amsterdam, 1648);
Edmond Martene, _De Ant. Ecclesiae Ritibus_ (gives Western rites) (Bassani,
1788). The modern literature is infinite; perhaps the most exhaustive works
are W. F. Hoefling, _Das Sacrament der Taufe_ (Erlangen, 1859): Jos.
Bingham's _Antiquities_ (London, 1834), and W. Wall, _On Infant Baptism_
(London, 1707); J. Anrich, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_ (Goettingen, 1894),
details the corresponding rites of the Greek mysteries, also A. Dieterich,
_Eine Mithras Liturgie_ (Leipzig, 1903); J. C. Suicer, _Thesaurus, sub voce
[Greek: baptisma]_; Ad. Harnack, _Dogmengeschichte_ (Freiburg i