The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1895-11-08

see the Boston dentists about some
crowns. Mrs Woodley says they make
beautiful crowns at one half usual prices
and they guarantee all their work in ev-
cry Particular
Mrs M: "And will accompany you
when you CO."
Around the Fireside.
THREE BAPTISMS.
A SERMON BY REV ROBERT e. CARTER OF
WARRINGTON.
have baptism TO be baptised with. Luke
II 20.
We think of baptism as one, the New
Testament teaches US of three baptisms.
Here in our text our Blessed Master
speaks of baptism which was yet to
come upon him, though it was long after
he had been baptised with water. Search |
carefully the different passages Of the
New Testament that speak Of baptism,
and you will speedily see that the word
is by no means uniformly used, as we
commonly now use it, to speak Of the
baptism Of water, nor, on the other
hand, is it loosely used to cover a vari-
ETY. of spiritual experience: it refers al
ways to some one of three different ex-
periences. There are three separate
and distinct baptisms taught in the New
Testament we have fallen away from
the New Testament thought in the meas
ure that we have come to let two Of
these drop out Of our thoughts and
teaching, and think only Of the other
one. These three baptisms open before
US the threefold duty of the Christian
life, which God lays upon US, and at
the same time witness the threefold
promise which the Christian life holds
out before us. They are symbolized by
three different material elements. The
coming upon US of each one Of these ell
ements symbolizes the coming into us of
corresponding spiritual experience.
These three baptisms are. y the baptism
with water, (2)the baptism with fire, (3)
| the baptism with blood. To put op.
posite these the corresponding spiritual
experience, we car. name, ID The baptism
unto personal purity of life and char
acter, CD the baptism un to spiritual
power, (3) the baptism unto self-sacri-
| flee. Unto one of these three every pas
sage in the New Testament that speaks
of baptism can be referred. These three
were the baptismal experiences of
Christ's life; that life is not to be under
stood if we neglect any one of them !;
| nd to ho TOR nd
considered the experiences of every
Christian life-it is great loss if any
one of them be belittled Or neglected.
To this fact of threefold baptism and
to its great Importance the Apostle y ohm
bears fervent testimony when, after en-
phasizing the fact that Christ came not
by water only but by blood he adds, I'm
deed, there are three that bear witness
the Spirit, and the water, and the
BLOOD" Fire for the burning zeal OF
his life, water for the purified character
of his life, blood for
THE UNsELFIsH OFFERING OF HIS LIFE
these three bear witness unLo our Lord
Jesus Christ. These three claim their
witness in our Christian lives.
And, indeed, these three find their
witness in our Christian baptism; we
have only preserved the one symbol,
but our words in baptism recognize the
three facts for while the original bap-
tism with water-that OF John-was
only in the name of the Father, we bap-
tie with water only, believing that in
symbol the Apostle was altogether
right, and that these three will agree in
one; but we baptize in the name, not on
ly of the Father, but of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, in the name OF the
holy One above us, and Of the Spiritual
Presence who is with us, and Of the
loving One who gave himself for US,
SO making to agree under the one sym
Dol three great facts of baptism.
From almost the very first, this sig
nificance OF the baptismal formula has
been discerned. / know that the words
in st Johns letter preceding these
which we have just quoted about the
earthly witnesses, and pointing up to
the three heavenly witnesses, are net
genuine; they are rightly omitted in our
revised version, and it is all wrong for
us to use them as proof-texts for doc
trine of the Trinity. But even then,
though they were not written by st
John, and are not really in our Christian
Bible, they were written very early in
Christian history, and were written by
one who, like us here, felt that there
was truth in the triune manifestation
OF the Godhead; and that one, whoever
it may have been, and with whatever
measure of authority he may have
spoken, saw that the three baptisms Of
the Christian life on earth were In way,
bringing the experiences of the human
life into conformity with the triune ex-
perience Of the divine life. Man must
be baptized into the service Of God as
the righteous One, and into the service
of God as the present, living, speaking
One, and into the service Of God as the
patient, suffering, loving One.
It is not necessary for me to speak at
length Of the baptism with water; it Is
the one Of which we most often think
and speak. It was also called the bap-
tism unto repentance. It was the full
conservation OF life unto holiness, the
washing clean. Its supreme message to
men in formal symbol and in practical
teaching was their duty to themselves,
their obligation to personal purity Of
life and character, that obligation recog-
nized, acknowledged, undertaken.