[Gutenberg 52917] • A Bible History of Baptism

Excerpt from A Bible History of Baptism

In this connection the analogy of the forms of religions purify in g prevalent throughout the east is worthy of special notice. The Brahmin, before taking his morning's meal, repairs to the Ganges, carrying with him a brazen vessel. By hundreds, or by thousands, they enter: the stream, and while some take up the water in their vessels, and pour it over their persons, others plunge beneath the stream, for the purging away of their sins. Then filling the vessels, they repair to the'temple, and pour the water upon the idol, or as a libation, before it. The Parsee, worshiper of the sun, goes. In the morning, to river or sea, and entering until the waves are waist high, with his face toward the east, awaits the rising of the sun, when, using his joined hands as a dipper, he dashes water over his person and makes obeisance to his god. On the other hand, the Mohammedan, deriving his usage from the earlier Pharisaic ritual, repairs to the mosque, and from the tank in front, without entering it, takes, up water in his hands with which to bathe face, feet and hands, before presenting his prayers.

By the corruptions in the Christian church, before exemplified, the key of knowledge was taken away from the people. The in structive meaning of the sacraments was obscured and obliterated, by the idea of their intrinsic efficacy for renewing the heart and aton ing for and purging sin. The preaching of the word was disparaged and ultimately set aside; the preachers having become propitiating priests, working regeneration by the baptismal-rite, and making atonement by the sacrifice of the mass. The corruption and tyranny of the clergy of the middle ages, and the ignorance, slavery and spir itual darkness which for centuries brooded over the people, were the inevitable results.

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