Nevada County picayune., 1891-11-12
THAT HAMBURG PREACHER.

Information reaches me that at Lancbtrg, Ark, on sunday. Oct 25th, Missionary Baptist minister of some ability, regarded by his church there n big preacher, said in a sermon there something to this effect: There is not nor has there ever been q pedobaptlst author of any responsibility, or noted in any degree for scholarship, who denies or has ever denied that immersion in water was the only mode of bap. ti~m known and practiced in the days of Christ and hls apostles. The dear brother went on to speak of John Wesley concedlng the same thing. And good brother there wants to know if all this is true. Well, no, it is not true. If the preacher be correctly reported, he is either stupidly ignorant or wickedly false. Here is what John Wesley did say:
 In Wesley's notes on the New Testament, on Matthew } :6, he says {: Such prodigious numbers could hardly be baptized by immerglng their whol ebodies under water, nor can we think they were provided with change of raiment for it, which was scarcely practicable for such vast multitudes; and yet they could not be immerged naked with mod csty, nor in thelr wearing apparel with safety. It seems, therefore, that they stood in ranks on the edge of the river, and that John passing along before them cast water upoh their heads and faces. Comment ing on Acts S:3S, he says concerning the baptism of the eunuch, ''1t does not follow that he was baptized by immersion" On Mark 7:3 he says, ''the Greek word (baptism) means indifferently either sprinkliug or washing
 Dr. Adam Clark had great reputa- tion for scholarship. He says, com ment on Matthew 3:6, Can any man suppose that it was possible for ! John to dip all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea and of all the country round about the Jordan Were both men and women dipped for certainly both came to his bap- tism? This could never have com ported either with safety or with de- cency. Were they dipped in their ! clothes! This would have endan- gercd their lives, if they had not with them change of raiment, and il is not all likely that the people would come thus provided.
 Richard Watson was no unknown scholar. In his Institutes, South Meth. Edition, ?. 725, he says That the mode therefore in which John baptized was by pouring water upon his disciples, may be concluded from his using the same word to eX press this pouring out, the descent of the Spirit upon the disciples of Je sns."
 Dr. r. o. Summers was a rip, scholar. In his work on Baptism, P S7, he says: "Who can believe that Lydia and her family were immers cd: As soon as she was converted she and her children were baptized but not the slightest intimation wa given that there was moments de lay for a change of apparel, and cer tainly she could not have been i'm mersed without this. The immersion of q female by person of the other sex is revoIting to us under any cir cumstances-it must be exceedingly repulsive to the delicate sensiblitieS of q woman. Yet Lydia was baptiz- ed by the apostle-surely not i'm mcrsed.'
 Dr. Charles Hodge, the learned Presbvterian divine, and author of Systematic Theology ,' says; "So far, therefore, as the New Testa- ment, concerned, there is not a single case where baptism necessarily i'm plies immersion" It is to the last degree improbable that the thousands mentioned in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles were bap- tized by immersion. The same i'm probability exists as to the ease of the centurian in Cesarea and the jaiIer at PhilIippi.'
 With we'll informed people few names stand higher than that of