Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-11

~ aAoSAPASo " oOodos fOI IN odhG
of a secret society or a social club
or a political organization, few men
would care to die. Throughout long
centuries, though, men and women
and even little children have gone
smilingly to death for the sake of
the Church of Christ. That Church
is to-day the most widespread, the
most potent, the most hopeful of all
organizations into which mankind
has been gathered. Sometimes she
is laggard, and slow to discern the
signs of the times or to hear the
voice of divine opportunity; lever
theless, the Church possesses the
power to solve our imperiled 'civili-
zation, and to give vital effect to
the new programs of human welfare
which have emerged from the war.
The Admission Fec
There is a price to membership
in this biggest and best of bodies.
Our vague-thinking time is attempt
ing to create-as witness recent eX-
periments in New York and Cairo
a new sort of church without tests
or obligations, wherein Christian,
Moslem. Jew and agnostic may
stand on a m basis of mem
bership. This is no new folly; but
it is still folly. There is one un-
lldIlStdDle COllulllOn Ol "IlDeTS
in the Christian Church. and that
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
as Saviour and Lord.
Societies and clubs galore may
be constituted on a looser founda-
ton; and in business and politics
and social relations people of all
creeds may mingle tremendously.
But the Christian Church is COM
posed exclusively of the disciples of
Christ, who have paid the admission
fee of surrender of their own wills
to his sovereignty: so that they no
longer belong to themselves, but to
Him. This unity of obligation and
of spirit. so that the mind of Christ
may work out in the acts of his
friends, is what gives the Church
her unmatched potentiality as a
force for good will and brotherhood
n progress among mankind.
Through her the sublime ideals of
Jesus become operative. She would
lose her power If she relaxed the
essential condition of her member
ship. The doors of Church mem
bership are open to all people ev-
erywhere who will consent to pay
the price of entrance.
A Universal Rite
One condition that Jesus himself
attached to the work of discipling
the world was that all recruits
should be baptized into the name of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Varying views of baptism are held
by different branches of the Chris
tan Church, but all accept the
Neutrality-suspicious. the Society OF
Friends discards the outward SYM
Dol and regards only the spiritual
baptism. With this single exception,
so far as l am aware, all groups of
Christians eveywhere-Greeks, Lat
ms, Professionals, Gregorians, Nestor-
ians, Abyssinians n the other rep
resentatives of the eastern Church
employ the rite of baptism by wa
ter. Save for a few Protestant bod
les. all use the method of sprink-
ling, rather than immersion.
Upon this point there used to be
heated controversies, especially IL
America. Our days mood is oppos/d
to these discussions; whatever the
mode, baptized believers are truly
baptized into the mystical body of
Christ, who himself ever deemed the
spirit, and not the letter, the essen
tial thing. Friends and followers of
Jesus have too serious business on
hand in these days to permit them
to differ about interpretations of
forms. Reunion for service and
union with Christ are the essential
things which are not to be hindered
by the amount of water used in
carrying out the sacrament and
symbol of baptism.
The meaning of this rite is three
fold. 1t suggests submission to the
salvation and sovereignty of Christ:
the baptized one is offered up to
the ordinance and the obligation. 1t
is a masters mark on the forehead.
Then the S of water is a symbol
of cleansing; all who join Jesus
must be washed of their sins and
their self-will. That is what man.
kind needs most. A holy heart
cleansing would do more for the
world than the League of Nations.
At the very portal of admission
to the Christian fellowship stands
this sign of purified nature. No
body is truly baptized into Christ
who persists in known sin. The
sacrament of baptism will not save
such. 1t is the outward token OF. an
inward reality. Only a clean church
can conquer a corrupt world.
In the third place this rite is a
mystery. It represents a spiritual
union between the human heart and
the divine Lord. No man can tell
how this takes place; any more than
the scientist can explain the union
of two human hearts in true love.
Despite and beyond all nationality,
the mystery of grating of a sou
into Christ is a proved reality. There
are many who will read these lines
who can sincerely say, from the
depths of their spirits, For to me,
to live is Christ"
Union For Conquest
Ordinary societies grow only so
long as their average members pos
sess the recruiting spirit. When
membership ceases to interest them
sufficiently to seek actively to draw
others into their ranks, the organi-
zation begins to decline. 1t is to be
noted hat Jesus gave the sign of
baptism in connection with his COM
mission to recruit. GO we " . "
make disciples = = baptize them"
There may be those who choose
to study this theme from Il purely
doctrinal standpoint; / prefer to re-
gard it as a phase of the burning
question of present-day aggressive
enterprise by an aroused Church.
Baptism is an adjunct of Christian
conquest. 1t recalls us particularly,
at this grave hour, to the importance
of maintaining the high spiritual
standards and practices of the New
Testament. The Church is to bestir
herself. not merely for social re-
form: that Is but an aftermath of
spiritual regeneration. She is first
of all to win men to Christ: in that
new relation they will find them