PREFATORY REMARKS. The THE importance of the subject discussed in the following chapters will hardly be denied. If it be important that our children be baptized at all, it is important that all should be, that are entitled to the ordinance. question of right has greatly agitated our churches, and notwithstanding the signal defeat that was sustained by the advocates of the exclusive system, in the decision of the Synod of '34, opinions remain unchanged. Many are still grieved that their children are refused a place in the church, while they consider them entitled to that privilege. On the other hand, conscience is pleaded for rejecting them, as if it would be a profanation of holy things to receive them. Nothing can produce uniformity of practice, but uniformity in the principles adopted; and any thing that looks like an approximation to this, must be the result, not of Synodical decisions, but of free and friendly discussion. |