tism

means nothing but immerse. In the Greek language we have a different word for sprinkle. *Sprinkle is not what the Bible teaches; this is a fact you may depend

on.'

*

Prof. N. Bonwetsch, of Dorpat University, under date of May 5, 1890, says: "As far as the ceremony of the Greek-Russian Church is concerned, immersion is the only method used in baptizing."

These, I believe, are all native Greeks of no mean ability, and lived in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Prof. A. T. Fleet, LL. D., for many years professor of Greek in the State University of Missouri, spent much time in Athens in the study of the Greek language. He says under date of January 26, 1891: "Socrates and Plato, Zenophon and Demosthenes, and even Homer himself, might to-day sit at the foot of the Acropolis and read the morning paper published in Athens with comparatively little difficulty. There has been less change in the Greek language within the past 2,300 years than in the English within the past 500.'

Prof. Addison Hogue, professor of Greek in the University of Mississippi, under date of January 21, 1891, makes substantially the same statement.

It is not possible then for these Greeks, eminent in scholarship, to be mistaken about the

meaning and religious use of as common a Greek word as baptizo, or the other Greek, but anglicized word, baptize. Could one of our graduates from our high schools be mistaken about the meaning of the English words immerse, dip, sprinkle or pour? If he would, he had better surrender his diploma and carry a hod, or play dude.

Who then can claim for one moment, without blushing, that the most eminent Greek scholars do not know the meaning of so simple a Greek word as baptizo?

If they know the meaning of the word and tell the truth when they say it means "to dip, to immerse, to plunge, to overwhelm, to sink, to submerge, to cover up, and never did, or never can mean to sprinkle, or pour," then this must be the end of all controversy with every honest and fair-minded person who is searching after truth as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

THE

CHAPTER VII.

WHAT THE CHURCH FATHERS SAY.

HE Church Fathers lived and wrote while the Greek was a living language, and history furnishes us not one example in all their writings where the word baptizo is used as meaning sprinkle or pour.

We give a few extracts from their writings. Cyrill, Bishop of Jerusalem, Instruction III, on Baptism XII, speaking of baptism, says: Going down into the water, and in a manner buried in the water."

Basil the Great, A. D. 370: "The bodies of those baptized are as if buried in the water." Chrisostom, Com. on 1 Cor.: "Therefore Paul calls the IMMERSION the burial, saying: "We were buried therefore, with Him by the immersion into death.""

"Let

Gregory Discourse XL, on Baptism: us, therefore, be buried with Christ by the immersion, that we may also rise with Him; let us go down with Him, that we may also be exalted with Him, let us come up with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him."

John of Damascus, on the Orthodox Faith, book IV, ch. 9, on Faith and Baptism. "For the immersion shows the Lord's death."

Hippolytus: "For thou hast just heard, how Jesus came to John and was immersed by him in the Jordan."

Barnabas, A. D. 119: "We indeed go down into the water." Again: "Blessed are they who, placing their trust in the cross, have gone down into the water." Again: "This meaneth that we indeed descend into the water full of sin and defilement, but come up bearing fruit in our heart, having the fear of God and trust in Jesus in our spirits." Epis. XI, AnteNicene Fathers, Vol. I, p. 144.

Justin Martyr, A. D. 139, is the first writer who gives a minute account of how baptism was performed. In this he says: "Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated. For in the name of God, the Father, and Lord of the Universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive the washing with water.” 1 Apology, ch. XI, Ante-Nic. Fathers, Vol. I, p. 183.

Iranaeus, A. D. 177, speaking of Naaman, says: "And dipping himself (saith the Scripture) seven times in Jordan." Ante-Nic. Fath., Vol. I, p. 574.

Hermas, A. D. 160: "They were obliged to ascend through water in order that they might be made alive." Ante-Nic. Fath., Vol. II, p.

49.

Origen, A. D. 184-254: "Man, therefore, through this washing is buried with Christ; is regenerated." Comment on Matt.

Gregory, A. D. 240: "He who is baptized in water is wholly wet." Again: "Immerse me in the streams of Jordan, even as she who bore me wrapped me in the children's swaddling clothes." Ante-Nic. Fath., Vol. VI, p. 70.

Chrysostom, A. D. 347: "To be baptized and to submerge, then to emerge is a symbol of descent to the grave, and of ascent from it." Hom. 40 in 1 Cor., 1.

Every church, or Apostolic Father might be quoted, but it is useless, as there is not one dissenting voice.

The requirements of the Eastern or Greek Church, of the Western or Latin Church, and of the Anglican (English) Church is additional testimony along the same line.

Their rituals all required immersion. One extract will suffice to show the practice of the Church of England before the Reformation: "Let the presbyter also know, when they administer the holy baptism, that they may not pour the holy water over the infants' heads, but let them always be immersed in the font." Canon of the Council of Calchuth, A. D. 816. ch. 11.

Let us turn our attention briefly, for want of space, to the meaning of the Greek word baptizo, which means the same as our word baptize, and learn its meaning.