Mexico weekly ledger., 1893-11-16

He says that "Jesus went into the
water to John" when John baptized
Him. We fail to find in any of the
gospels any account of Jesus going
''into" the water. Jesus was ini-
tiated into His priestly office by
sprinkling water of publication on
Him as prescribed in Numbers ST..
Bro. Williams makes his worst
break where he tries to make case
of immersion out of the baptism OF
the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. He
says "the whole room where the
Apostles were, was filled with the
influence of the Spirit and the
Apostles were completely immersed
in it." Well, really, Bro. Williams
must be jesting. Read the account !;
take off your immersionist glasses
and see clearly that it was the
'sound of a mighty rushing wind"
that filled the house, not the Spirit.
The eloven tongues of fire appeared
and sat on each ofthem. The room
was filled with "sound," the sound
of a "mighty rushing" but that was
not the Spirit. So Bro. Williams
has them immersed in ''sound?"
A very Transparent case Of INNER
sion, l must say. The element
wherewith they were baptized, St.
Peter says, was ''shed" on them.
Acts 2;33. And he says it was the
fulfllment of Joel's prophecy who
said it should be poured out"
Acts 2:16-17. No, my brother, this
was the first baptism administered
by my Lord and it was by effusion.
He set the example in 'mode" and
Him we follow.
Bro. Williams disposes of the
5000 on Pentecost by giving an in
stance - Chrysostom immersing
5000 people in one day, dipping
each three times-9, 900 immersions
say in II hours; he could not have
stood it longer, $50 per hour, u per
minute. Brother, you have over
taxed my credolity. 1 can't swallow
that. And then that case of those
Baptist preachers turning out 2 ,222
in six hours; each preacher three
every minute. Well, brother, you
have hard case to make out, and
a desperate case requires desperate
recourses, but these statements are
as thin as the 'ssound" you immers-
ed the disciples in, in that upper
room. am now prepared to hear
anything. Your exposition of the
baptism, both of the spirit and with
the water on Pentecost, and your
illustrations, are like "old wives
fables" that even do not deserve
the nameof "cunningly devised"
When Bro. Williams comes to the
baptism of the Ethiopian in Acts s,
there he beats his gong, and as l
shall show to have larger audience
at his humiliation. All that parade
about "eis" in those various in
stances is mere dust to hide the real
issue. If Bro. Williams does not,
he should know that when "eis" is
used only before the noun and not
in connection with verb of motion,
it means "to" everytime and that is
the composition here. The Greek
proposition eek" when used only
before the noun and not in compo-
sition with a verb it means ''from. :"
So that "eis" simply takes them to
the water, and eek" brings them
from the water. Dear brother, | do
not know what chair you fill in Har-
din College, but if the chair of lam
guages, and this is a sample ofyour
Greek, alas! alas! for those pu-
pills dependent on you for instruc-
ton. Again, Bro. Williams knows
the King James reyisionist were
immersionist, and he must not try
to create different impression. In
order to make a case of immersion
out of this dry-land baptism, he not
only gives US bad Greek, but per-
sistently ignores the description of
the country in the context where ii
says it sis DESERT" but the context
of the Scripture the Ethiopian was
reading which says she shall
sprinkle" Read an account of
Isaac and his servants digging for
water in this same place. Gen.
26:1S-22. No, Philip preached
baptism by 'sprinkling' to his SUBJ
iect. The water is in "wells," the
country is "desert," and in its arid
sands are buried the forlorn hopes of
many immersionists, and here L
hollow out grave deep and wide
and bury Rev. G. M. Williams ar.