THE PRACTICES ENJOINED ON

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

UNDER this head may be remarked generally, it is important, and indeed essential, that we should receive all the commands of Christ and his apostles in their plain and primary meaning: considering every precept in the New Testament equally binding now as upon the first churches. Mark ix. 7—“ Thi is my beloved Son: HEAR HIM."

C

1 John iv. 6—"He that knoweth God, HEARETH US (his apostles); he

that is not of God, heareth not us. HEREBY KNOW WE THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR."

ON BAPTISM.

PRIOR to the Saviour's ascension, he gave the following command to his apostles: Matt. xxviii. 19-"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them (the baptized) to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the

world." From this we gather, that the observance of baptism was the first duty of every believer in Jesus Christ: that this, moreover, was immediate on a profession of that belief, we find fully exemplified in the history of the Acts of the Apostles, as we shall now proceed to notice.

In the latter part of chap. ii. the apostle Peter is addressing those who had a shortwhile before been the betrayers and murderers of the Son of God: and, in reply to their anxious inquiry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" he says, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of

Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

Further on we find this same apostle commanding that the Gentiles should participate in that same baptism on their repentance and faith, a full account of