Bertha and Her Baptism

Bertha and Her Baptism, by
Nehemiah Adams

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bertha and Her Baptism, by
Nehemiah Adams This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give
it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Bertha and Her Baptism
Author: Nehemiah Adams
Release Date: January 23, 2007 [EBook #20428]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BERTHA
AND HER BAPTISM ***

Produced by Graeme Mackreth, Curtis Weyant and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images produced by the Wright American Fiction
Project.)

BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM.

By the Author of
AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY; or, BEREAVED PARENTS
INSTRUCTED AND COMFORTED.
BOSTON: S.K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY, 161 WASHINGTON
STREET. 1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by S.K.
WHIPPLE & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
District of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS, New England Type and
Stereotype Foundry, BOSTON.

PREFACE.
This book, and that which is also named in the title-page, were written
at the same time, and as one book; but they were afterward separated,
as more properly constituting two volumes, the part which was the
original of the present volume now being greatly enlarged. Thus the
two books grew in the author's mind together, from one and the same
root,--the death of a little child.

CONTENTS.

Page
CHAPTER I.
PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN, 9

CHAPTER II.
THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.--THE NATURE, GROUNDS
AND INFLUENCE, OF INFANT BAPTISM, 16
CHAPTER III.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BAPTISMS.--THE SUBJECTS AND
MODE OF BAPTISM, 76
CHAPTER IV.
IS THERE ONLY ONE MODE OF BAPTISM? 121
CHAPTER V.
SCENES OF BAPTISM.--REASONABLENESS, BEAUTY AND
POWER, OF INFANT BAPTISM.--USE OF SPECIAL
VOWS.--HUSBANDS AT BAPTISMS.--NEGLECT OF BAPTISM,
130
CHAPTER VI.
TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS.--APOSTOLIC
PRACTICE OF INFANT BAPTISM.--MINISTERIAL USAGES IN
BAPTISMS, 143
CHAPTER VII.
TERMS OF
COMMUNION.--NON-INTRUSION.--DENOMINATIONAL
COURTESY AND KINDNESS, 184
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ROAD-SIDE BAPTISM, 198

CHAPTER IX.
THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH.--ARE THEY MEMBERS OF
THE CHURCH? 216
CHAPTER X.
MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.--CONSTITUTION AND RULES
FOR THEM.--A CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S QUESTIONS TO
HERSELF, 255
CHAPTER XI.
BAPTISM OF THE SICK WIFE AND HER CHILDREN, 272

BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM.
Chapter First.
PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN.
'Tis aye a solemn thing to me To look upon a babe that sleeps, Wearing
in its spirit-deeps The unrevealed mystery Of its Adam's taint and
woe.--MISS BARRETT.
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.--WORDSWORTH.
It is generally believed that, of those who have gone to heaven from
this world, by far the larger part have been infants and young children.
Born here, they were by one man's disobedience made sinners; born of
the Spirit, at their early translation to heaven, they hold an important
place in the plan of salvation by Christ. Very beautiful, as well as
sublime, is the thought of so large a contribution, to the heavenly world,
of human beings in the dawn of their existence, enhancing, as we may
suppose, the happiness of heaven by such large admixture of exotic,
youthful nature, and illustrating, by their redemption from a helpless

state of sin and misery, the unsearchable riches of wisdom and grace.
Has God done anything, in this world, to mark his regard for that class
of the human race constituting, thus far, the greater part of the
redeemed? We naturally look for something reminding the world of his
interest in these subsidiaries of his kingdom. Has he confined his notice
to those that are full-grown, and who have, thus far, the larger part of
them, withheld from him the fruit of his vineyard? God has a church on
earth, with ordinances, symbols, covenant signs: among them is there
not some sign, symbol, or ordinance, recognizing those who, more than
any other of the race, have, till now, been swelling the numbers of that
church in heaven?
Like those elements of astronomical calculation which require and lead
men to expect undiscovered planets in a certain quarter of the
firmament, analogy, and the known intercourse of God with mankind,
and our moral sense, incline us to look for some symbolic recognition
of this earthly constituency of heaven by him who ordained and is
redeeming to himself a church from among men. Words of interest and
love toward them on the part of God, we all know, are not wanting in
the Bible. Acts of loving-kindness, also, proving the sincerity of those
words, and reaching even to a thousand generations of them that love
God, are everywhere seen in sacred history.
But is there no great, conspicuous symbol of