Newport daily independent., 1902-05-31
SERMON ON BAPTISM.
By Rev. L. H. Richardson, Pastor of Presbyterian Church, Relative to Essentially of Baptism and
 Mode Practiced in
 Scriptures
CONTINUED FROM FRIDAY.l

VI.-The last great text claimed for the mode of immersion, we can only speak of shortly. Rom. 6:2,3,4 Gen. erally known as the text Buried with Christ in baptism, in the liquid gravel Now 1.-the liquid grave" is never applicable to any except those who are buried at sea; and these are exceptions rather than the rule, and that under case of extreme necessity, only when at sea. So that the figure is not we'll taken. Again Christ him. self was never buried in liquid grave.
 Baptism is not and cannot be com memorative of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, and that l for the following reasons:
 1.-Such commemorative institu- tion would be super1uous. The Sab- bath was instituted directly and solely to commemorate the resurrection, the seventh to the first day of the week as monument to this great event, and the Lords Supper is commemora- tive of his death and burial.
 2.-Again immersion is no symbol of burial. It is not burial to put a body in the grave and snatch it out agai immediately
 (b.)-A corpse at burial is perfectly passive. In immersion the will of &l.o oo-J;5o%o v,,,,cf l,o +borourb1v on listed, or they will not be immersed. Men do not immerse dead men nor un- concious subjects.
 (c.)-In baptism the water must come in direct contact with the body; in burial it is protected by the coffin and shroud and box.
 Besides the Greek word for burial is
 sThapto," whose primary meaning is ito burn.n Is the idea of cremation satisfactory in relation to baptism? l Cd. )--Again immersion bears not the least resemblance to the sepulchre
 of Christ, which was rock hewn
 tomb, in the side of cliff, so that "You could not possibly put man into and take him up out of the sepul- chre." In the recesses for deposltlng the dead, the bodies were slid into them, not let down into.
 But an especial ad hominem argu- ment is made against the immersion ist by the baptism of John the Baptist. How could his baptism be commemor- ative of Christ's death when it was performed before Christ had ever died? Did he ever say it was to be so interpreted? To say that it re- feRred to Christ's death and burial as a future event is contradiction in ! terms, because commemoration is used only of that which is past
 In the case of the institution of the
 Lords Supper, it did not become memorial service until after Christ's death. He said "This do ye," or "This shall ye do" not "This have we done in memorial of my death" and it was never observed until after his resurrection. Finally to quote a well known writer upon this subject: ssTo teach that this passage means immersion is to materialize that which l is spiritual, and leads to the following absurd consequences. If we insist that because 'bury' is used, that every christian should be buried, inner sionists should be circumsized; for Col. 2:11 says Tn whom also ye are circumsized.' But they say verse Il | is spiritual, and refers to spiritual operation. Then is it not very prob able that verse F is spiritual, and re- fers to a spiritual operation. They come right together"
 (b.)-Again immersionists should cruelty all their members before burying them. Verse in the 9th of Romans says ''Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him." If bury is literal, is not "crucify'' in the same passage literal9
 II (c.)-Again if "bury" means ma terial bury, "plant' means material plant. Rom. 6:5, "For if we have been planted together, etc" Immer- sionists should plant all their people in the soil. How can one explain these three, s'circumsize," "crucify" and "plantr as spiritual, and say "bury'' is literal and material?
 "The passage itself clearly shows