undoubtedly paid something for their false religion, and they ought to pay something now for the true religion. Some churches have made a commencement. At the Lord's supper it is usual to make a collection, and almost all the communicants give something in aid of the poor. In some places granaries have been established from which the poor members are supplied with rice. Collections of various kinds have occasionally been made with some success. Towards the erection of places of worship both labour and money have here and there been liberally contributed. All this shows that something may be accomplished without much difficulty. The important object is to draw out the principle of Christian liberality, which must exist (though in a latent form) wherever genuine faith in Christ exists. And the duty and privilege of Christian churches to become self-sustaining should be brought prominently forward as a topic of religious instruction most important in its bearings upon the prospects of this country. The writer has expressed his thoughts freely, but if he know his own intention he can truly say that he has not been actuated by a captious or fault-finding spirit. He trusts that others may ponder the subject, and communicate their thoughts upon it for the general benefit of all. THE EARLY MODE OF BAPTISM IN BRITAIN. BY THE REV. F. BOSWORTH, M.A. The venerable Bede describes Paulinus as baptizing in the Glen, Swale, and Trent. That this must have been performed by immersion is evident from the practice of the Romish church at the time, and from the subsequent practice of the Anglo-Saxons. Gregory, the very pope who sent Paulinus, thus speaks of the ordinance, "But we, since we immerse (mergimus) three times, point out the sacrament of the three days' burial." Bede, although in his works he seldom refers to the mode of baptism, gives sufficient evidence of the practice of his church at the time he lived. In his Commentary on John he finds a striking resemblance between the account of the pool of Bethesda and the rite of baptism. Works, v. 581. So also when treating on John xiii. 1-11, ne speaks of a man as being altogether washed in baptism. Works, v. 710. Furthermore, he runs a parallel between baptism and Naaman's washing in Jordan. Works, viii. 388. Forty-six years after Bede's death the following canon was passed by pope Clement :"If any bishop or presbyter shall baptize by any other than trine immersion (immersionem), let him be deposed." Some few years afterwards, pope Zacharias, speaking of baptism, refers to an English synod in which it was strongly commanded that whoever should be immersed (mersus) without the invocation of the Trinity, should not be regarded as having enjoyed the sacrament of regeneration. Zach., Papa in Syn. de Conc., dis. 4. The writings of Alcuin, born at York, A.D. 735, and educated there by bishop Egbert, abound in references to the mode of baptism. In his sixty-ninth epistle he says, "Trine immersion (demersio) resembles the three days' burial." His Expositio de Baptisterio, Ep. 70, contains the following language: At the commencement of the ninth century (A.D. 816) a canon was passed at the Synod of Celichyth to the following effect:- "Let also priests know that when they administer holy baptism they pour not holy water on the heads of infants, but always immerse them in the font." With these notices the Saxon writings themselves agree, for though in the laws of Alured and Ina, the Council between Alured and Godrum and very many other Saxon documents, the word used for baptism refers rather to its supposed effects than to the mode, yet in two AngloSaxon manuscripts of the Gospels, the word dyppan (our English dip) is, according to Lye, used four times for baptism. Well does Lingard, in his work on the Anglo-Saxon church, say:"The regular manner of administering it (baptism) was by immersion." bishop of Canterbury, passed 1236, contain the same reference to immersion as the mode of baptism. In the Constitutions of the bishop of Wigorn, 1240, we find written :-"We order that in every church there be a baptismal font of proper size and depth (profunditatis) and that trine immersion (immersio) be always practised." So also in the Constitutions of archbishop Peckham, 1279, the same language is used. The Synodus Exoniensis, 1257, calls baptism, submersio. Furthermore, in the Constitutions of Woodlake, bishop of Winton, 1308, and in a provincial Scotch council, held in the reign of Alexander II., precisely the same term (immersio) is employed. Lyndwood, who lived in the sixteenth century, in his Provincial Constitutions, ed. 1679, p. 242, composed by order of the archbishop of Canterbury, explains a canon of archbishop Edmund, in the reign of Henry III., as requiring baptisteries that would admit of dipping the candidate (sic quod baptizandus possit in eo mergi). A drawing still exists in the Cotton MSS. of the British Museum, describing the baptism of the Earl of Warwick in the reign of Richard II., (1381), in which the mode is evidently by immersion.* "In Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., was thus baptized. An old MS. description of the ceremony says, continent after the prince was put into the font." So also was Mayant after During the Norman rule, the same mode of observing the ordinance in question obtained. A council, held in London, A.D. 1200, passed the following regulation :-" If a boy is baptized by a layman, the rites preceding and follow-wards queen of Scotland, "as soon as ing immersion (immersionem) must be performed by a priest." A similar ar ticle was adopted in 1217 by the diocese of Sarum. In 1222 a council at Oxford ordered that the rites following immersion (immersionem), not preceding, should be performed by a priest. The Provincial Constitutions of the arch-seeing. It will be found marked Julius, E. 4. she was put into the font," says the account of an eye-witness. The Princess Elizabeth and Edward VI. were also immersed. *This work is a pictorial history of the earl of Warwick from the cradle to the grave. It is executed in a very spirited manner and is well worth VOL. XIII.-FOURTH SERIES. THE BIBLE THE FRIEND OF THE POOR. BY THE REV. THOMAS POTTENGER. All who know and love the bible must lament that any among us, but still more that any of the poor, should speak or act in opposition to that blessed book. Whatever may be the opinions or conduct of those called the higher classes of society there are peculiar and weighty reasons why the poor should regard the bible with profound esteem, as the charter of their dearest rights and the shield of their spiritual privileges. In truth it is the best and most eloquent friend they have in this world. No arguments on their behalf are so strong, no appeals are so touching, and no decisions are so binding upon the consciences of good men, as those which are drawn from the word of God, and are backed by the authority of the Divine Lawgiver. No person that has read and studied the holy scriptures can feel any surprise at this statement, nor can any good man fail to trace the hand of God in his condescension and goodness to the poor as they shine forth in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth throughout the sacred volume. Had a contrary spirit pervaded the bible, one strong argument for its divine origin would have been wanting, and the evidences of Christianity would have been incomplete; for in a revelation professing to come from God to mankind we look for principles, precepts, promises, and facts, which breathe goodwill towards the sons and daughters of sorrow. This expectation is justified by the paternal character of God and also by his compassion, while it is strengthened by the fact that the poor have always constituted the great majority of the human race. There could be no doubt that divine revelation would seek the good of the many rather than the good of the few, and indeed it MUCH has been written of late about the alienation of the poor from the religious institutions of our country. There may be some truth in the remark itself, though it is mixed up with bold assumptions which are apt to lead people astray. On those who look upon the dark side of things rests the obligation to prove that our countrymen in general were ever yet in love with the truths of the bible or devoutly observant of its institutions. Facts indeed lead us to a different conclusion. In almost every age there have been writers who mourned over the want of religion amongst the people of their day; any faithful history of England will make it clear enough that such mourning was demanded by the sins and vices of the times, and the criminal returns of successive generations bring to light a state of morals far below the virtue and piety of our days. As to the positive alienation of multitudes from the doctrines and precepts of the bible there can be no doubt among the friends of true religion; but unhappily this has been noticed by men of God in every age which has gone before us, nor can we look for a new order of things as long as the enmity of the carnal mind retains its power, and men love darkness rather than light. Amid all the slight, however, which many around us cast upon the word of God, both rich as well as poor, it cannot be denied that in the ranks of the working classes are found some of the best specimens of the Christian character, while the recent production by working men of more than eleven hundred essays in defence of the sabbath, ought not to be passed over lightly by those who think former times were better than the present. might have been foretold with certainty that the bible would be a book for the people. That such is the fact cannot admit of two opinions among those who "know the holy scriptures," and who are competent to give an opinion upon this interesting question. For, above all other books, "the bible is the friend of the poor." This proposition is supported by two arguments, namely, the humanity of the Law, and the benevolence of the Gospel. Illustrations of these two arguments will be laid before the reader in the numbers of the Baptist Magazine for March and April. TRANSFERRED WORDS IN THE COMMON ENGLISH TESTAMENT. NO. II.-PRESBYTERY. "the word presbytery denotes the elders The word PRESBUTERION Occurs in the Greek Testament three times, and three different courses have been followed in respect to it by the revisers, or, as they are usually called, the translators, of our common version. In the first instance, Luke xxii. 66, it is rendered dders :-" And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people, and the chief priests, and the scribes, came together, and led him into their council." In the second, Acts xxii. 5, it is rendered estate of the elders :-" As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto the brethren." In the third, 1 Tim. iv. 14, it is only anglicised:-"Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." The precise idea which the original word was intended to convey appears to be, the elders collectively, PRESBUTEROI being elders, PRESBUTERION, a body composed of elders. In this view of the meaning of the word, which is all we have to do with at pre-presbytery or eldership is founded on the sent, there would be, we apprehend, a general concurrence, even among those who differ most widely from each other as to the station or office of the persons constituting the PRESBUTERION whose hands were laid on Timothy. "According peoßuréptov [PRESBUTERION] cannot mean associated elders and deacons. The word denotes the body or college of elders belonging to one congregational church." It is however from his general views of the constitution of a church derived from other scriptures that Dr. Davidson deduces the concluding member of this last sentence, as he himself admits: all that the word PRESBYTERION signifies being, the elders collectively, or, the body of elders. "It is true," he adds, "that in the passage we have quoted, the presbytery is not said to belong to any particular church. But other plain examples prove that there was a plurality of elders in the primitive churches. The expression general organization of the worshipping societies, and confirmatory of it. It occurs but once in the New Testament in reference to a Christian church." * Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, to presbyterians," says Dr. Davidson, pp. 352, 353. EXTRACTS FROM A DEACON'S SCRAP BOOK. Experience is the knowledge of God's | earnestness than ever, "God be merci HOPE Smiling stood, second attendant, The pensive wanderer's thoughts. Her eye A helmet shone, whose lustre graced To such as her blest children be. Unto an Eminence she led them ; To those whose hopes dart swift and free The fondest, best imaginings Even brave hearts tremble when they see Not so the Christian hope; its ray It pierces through. Oh Hope's blest child! Shall be destroyed-ere long the car Of HOPE, above the highest star To those who through the heavenly gate Birmingham, Dec. 6, 1849. |