will grant to this child that which by nature he cannot have; that he may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made a lively member of the same.'

Comparing this opening address and exhortation with the perfect echo and response uttered by the priest' immediately after the baptism of the child, we see at once that the opening prayer is not for a distant good, not for a blessing in after life, not for holy influences which, in conformity with the Divine covenant, are to attend upon the instructions and training of the parents (or godparents), in the fulfilment of their vow on account of their child. It is a prayer for a blessing which is to be imparted then and there, under the hand of the 'priest.' The prayer is to be satisfied before the conclusion of the service. The child is to be,-after the baptism the child is,-so the priest declares and gives thanks, 'regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church. For the parents, in regard to their vow and covenant, in regard to the performance of their duty, and the blessing which should rest upon their faithful teaching and training, there is no prayer here or elsewhere throughout the service. The child is then and there to receive 'that which by nature he cannot have,' is to be regenerated, to be born anew of water and the Holy Ghost.'

Having, in a former Paper in this Magazine (December, 1880, p. 917), given what to me seems to be the true exposition of the passage from the third chapter of John's Gospel, quoted in the foregoing extract from

the Prayer-Book Office (born anew of water and the Holy Ghost), I shall not touch upon that subject here. I must, however, observe that it is evident that, in the last words of this opening address, the expression 'baptized with water and the Holy Ghost' is used as equivalent to 'born of water and the Holy Ghost,' which use of these words assumes the matter in question. The phrase is not Scriptural. We read, indeed, of our Lord as baptizing not with water, but with the Holy Ghost and with fire,' but never of any one-least of all of any merely human priest or Minister-as 'baptizing with water and the Holy Ghost.'

Then follow two prayers, prayers of much beauty, for the direct and immediate efficacy of the service upon the child, and for his safety and blessedness through life. Of these prayers some portion is not only unobjectionable, but very suitable to any Christian baptismal service.*

The first, however, speaks of God as having 'sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin,' language clearly open to misconstruction, and, indeed, repeated in a later part of the service in a distinctly unevangelical sense; it follows up this language by the petition that God will look upon the child and wash and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost,' language perhaps ambiguous, but, as connected with this service, very plainly and very easily indeed susceptible of an unevangelical meaning. The second prayer asks for the child, that, 'coming to God's holy baptism, he may receive remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration.'t

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This brief exhortation' to the congregation present is followed by the Lord's Prayer and by a Collect containing two petitions: one for the congregation generally, that their knowledge of God's grace and their faith may be increased evermore; and another for the infant to be baptized, that the Holy Spirit may be given to him,' and that, being born again and made an heir of everlasting salvation,' he may 'continue God's servant.' The strict correspondence of this prayer with the opening address, and with the language afterwards used to describe the consummated effect of the baptism on the child, is evident. The prayer defines the immediate result expected, the present blessing and gracious effect annexed to the sacramental act and ordinance. It contains no petition on behalf of the parents.t

After this, in the Prayer-Book Office, comes in the address of the 'priest' to the godfathers and godmothers, and the challenge and questioning of the godparents, who-by a direct personation of the child, answer

ing themselves, as if they were the child, or as if the child were speaking in and by them-do actually and publicly 'renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh,' who rehearse the Apostles' Creed, who declare their desire' to be 'baptized in this faith,' and promise 'obediently to keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of their life.'

This is a highly dramatic portion of the Baptismal Office, and its presence must be taken to explain the absence of all reference to the parents throughout the service. Nor is it to be doubted that the idea underlying this portion of the service is, in one aspect, a fine and true idea. That idea is, that in baptism there should be sponsors for the child, solemnly pledged to identify the child's soul with their own, to watch over the child as their other self, to infuse, through their own sympathetic fellowship, sponsorship, unison, into the child, so far as in them lies, their own covenanted obedience toward God, and faith and love toward the Lord Jesus Christ. But who are the proper parties to undertake such a work as this? Who but the parents of the child, or such persons as are, to all purposes and effects, in the place of parents? How can those who do not live with the infant, or watch closely and continually the unfolding.

of its character, who have no opportunity of influencing the child sympathetically from day to day and from hour to hour, perform the duty thus undertaken by the godparents of the baptized child? Only in absolute default of parental care and responsibility can sponsorship be admitted. In the earliest ages, in presence of surrounding heathenism, when parents themselves were heathen or utterly incompetent and morally unconscious, the institution of sponsorship might not only be useful, but necessary. But by means of sponsors-concealing from view the parents as well as undertaking spiritually to train and nurture the children-to set aside, absolutely to ignore, the parental duty and responsibility, is a thing so glaringly unseemly, so unnatural, that it is a marvel that the institution, in its Prayer-Book form, still survives in the Church of England. It is true, indeed, that the parental sense of duty and spiritual responsibility in regard to the solemn covenant of baptism is too often painfully defective; but the way to remedy this evil is not to supersede and set aside the parents. Moreover, the responsibility of the godparents is, as might be expected, much more frequently (is it not all but universally?) a mere fiction, an obsolete, old-world idea transformed into a complimentary formality, than anything else.

It is no wonder, accordingly, if the institution of godparents has been generally set aside by Protestant and evangelical Churches, and the parents themselves reinstated in their position of unique and sacred responsibility. When Wesley published, primarily for the use of the American Methodist Church, his abridged Service Book, in which he made such alterations and omissions from the text of the Prayer-Book as he judged to be necessary in a book of offices and public services intended for an independent Methodist Church in

America, he could not do otherwise than omit from the Baptismal Office the portion relating to godparents.

But his circumstances precluded him from doing what was hardly less necessary, by introducing into the service a due recognition of the relation of parents, in baptism, to their children and to the covenant made with them and their children, of which the baptismal act is the sign and seal. As himself a Presbyter of the Church of England, and as undertaking an initial and experimental work for a Church which was yet to be developed, he contented himself with doing the necessary minimum of negative and corrective modification. He not only omitted the portion relating to godparents, but also omitted or modified the phrases which appeared directly to contravene, or might be easily construed as contravening, the evangelical doctrines. The work of reconstruction, the real completion as well as correction of the form, so as to render it adequate to the requirements of a fully organized and developed Church, he could not but leave to be supplied in after time and by other hands. Our Conference naturally adopted Mr. Wesley's Abridgment, in the first instance, as its Service Book. This has been modified since, time after time. But the original feature, that of the mere omission of the portion relating to godparents, without the provision of any compensating element in the service, has remained unchanged in all the successive revisions. There has been no distinct and formulated recognition of the relation and the duties of parents towards their children, as lying at the foundation of the ideas connected with the baptismal sacrament, and as to be held in view throughout the service.

The elimination from the service of that portion relating to the godparents, without the provision of any compensating element, though it

removes an unreality, and so makes an opening for positive improvement, nevertheless leaves the service, in a sense, less efficient, makes it, in a sense, more imperfect than before. The godparents disappear from the scene, but the parents themselves are not reinstated. They bring the child to the Minister and to the font, but they enter into no covenant on behalf of the child, and in no prayer or form of words prescribed for the service is their divinelyordained relation and solemn and unique responsibility in regard to their children even alluded to.

the

Is it possible to imagine, in a Church formulary, a more vital and radical deficiency than this? It has been a part of the work of the Wesleyan Revision Committee, in their form lately prepared and now before the Ministers, to remedy this deficiency throughout the service. In opening rubric it is laid down that 'all parents bringing their children for Baptism are to be reminded that they hereby devote them to God, and are pledged to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and that the Sacrament of Baptism is administered on their virtual promise, by the grace of God, so to do.' In the opening address to the congregation-what may be called the preamble of the service-the same truth, as well as the symbolic meaning of the sacrament, is distinctly and emphatically brought out. In the final hortatory paragraph of this address, especially, not only is the congregation invited to pray that the Holy Spirit may be given to the child, but also to his parents, that they may be enabled to fulfil the solemn covenant into which they are now entering,' and that their child, being sheltered from the dangers and temptations of the world, kept safe from ungodly teaching and example, and brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,

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may be led to trust in Christ his Saviour, and may abide through life a faithful member of His holy Church.' And of the three Collects, as revised in the proposed form, which follow this address, and immediately precede the act of baptism, the first contains an emphatic petition for the parents, that they may have wisdom and grace to bring up their offspring in Thy nurture and admonition and in the faith of Thy Holy Word'; the two which follow taking up, emphasizing and prolonging, the supplication on the part of the congregation directly offered on behalf of the child, of which the first note had been lifted up in the closing petition of the first Collect. And, finally, after the baptism, as we shall presently see, among the petitionary sentences to be offered by the standing congregation, one is inserted on behalf of the parents, that they may have grace to fulfil their vows.

But, to recur to the baptismal service in the Prayer-Book: after the 'priest' has catechised the godparents, and received their responses to his questions, the service comes in face of the act of baptism itself. Three movements, so to speak, have led up to this solemnity. First, on the presentation of the infant by the parents to the 'priest,' the whole congregation, on his invitation, have united in prayer, in repeated prayer -the second Collect being in continuation of the first, but in an intenser strain-for a regenerative blessing upon the child in the ordinance itself and for after blessings during his life. Next, the words of Scripture have been read to encourage the faith of all present, an address and exhortation founded on these words has been delivered to the congregation, and a Collect has been read of thanksgiving for the blessings of Christian faith and knowledge, of prayer for the congregation, that

these blessings may be increased to them, and of renewed supplication for the child, that he may, by the Holy Spirit, be born again, and be made an heir of everlasting salvation.' And, thirdly, the godparents have stood forth to undertake their momentous part in the service, and to identify themselves solemnly, as by a spiritual affinity and holy guardianship, before God and the Church, with the child to be baptized. Now all is ready for the baptism itself. The parents, silent, passive-one might almost say forgotten-remain in the background all the time. For the future spiritual nurture of their child, the godparents have been made responsible-they, and they only, so far as respects this solemn service and sacrament. All that remains now is that the child should be born again, and be made an heir of everlasting salvation.' This unspeakable gift is now to be imparted to the child under the hands of the 'priest. In hushed expectancy all wait for this.

Not without due steps and solemnity of transition, however,-now that the godparents have performed their part in the service,-is the attention of the congregation to be gathered up and fixed upon the critical act of baptism, that which constitutes the very sum and essence of that which is spiritually and divinely efficacious in the service. The voice of the 'priest' utters the petitionary sentences which immediately precede the baptismal act, and to each of which in succession the choir and congregation respond Amen:

'O merciful God, grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him.

Grant that all carnal affections may die in him, and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him.

Grant that he may have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph, against the devil, the world, and the flesh.

Grant that whosoever is here dedicated

to Thee by our office and ministry may also be endued with heavenly virtues, and everlastingly rewarded, through Thy mercy, O blessed Lord God, Who dost live, and govern all things, world without end."

These beautiful petitionary sentences are followed by the final preparatory Collect, before the rite is performed, in which it is prayed that the water then in the font, and about to be used, may be sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin' (What is this but a form of the superstition of 'holy water'?), and that the 'child, now to be baptized therein, may receive the fulness of Thy grace, and ever remain in the number of Thy faithful and elect children.'

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The last act of this service is thus

reached. The 'priest' takes the child into his arms, calls upon, not his parents, but the godparents to name the child, baptizes him, signs him with the sign of the cross, as one received into the congregation of Christ's flock,' and declares to the congregation that he is now regenerate, and grafted into the body. of Christ's Church.' Then, after the Lord's Prayer, and a prayer of thanksgiving and supplication, follows an exhortation to the godparents-not even yet one word of or to the parents-with, as the last utterance, a charge, still to the godparents and them only, that so soon as the child can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in the vulgar tongue,' he shall be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed,' and shall be further instructed in the Church Catechism.'

So ends the service. So absolutely are the parents ignored from first to last. The service contains two elements: the rite of baptism whereby the child, through the 'priest's' ministry, is born again and grafted into the Church; and the undertaking of the godparents,-i.e., of the parents' created and appointed over the child by the Church,