in its fullest degree towards "that worthy name by the which ye are called.” [James ij. 5.]

It is also a type of that "New Name," which is to be given to the redeemed in heaven: as spoken of in the Revelation, “I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." [Rev. ij. 17.] “And I will write upon him my new name." [Rev. iij. 12.] “I will write on him the name of my God." Ibid. "And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father's Name written in their foreheads." Rev. xiv. I.

§ 2. How Children are made Christians.

PERSONS are made Christians by God's work cooperating with the work of the person who baptiześ.

The person who baptizes either dips the infant or adult to be baptized in water, or pours water upon him or her; and while he does so he says, N. or M, “I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," according to our Lord's commandment in Matthew xxviij. 19. Such was "my Baptism."

By this outward act of the Priest or other person who baptizes, God makes the person baptized “a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven."

§3. Membership in Christ.

A "MEMBER" is a living part of a living body.

Members, such as arms, hands, feet, for example, live by the life which they derive from their union with

the body to which they are attached, however complete they are in themselves. The expression is a Scriptural one. In 1 Cor. xij. 27, "We are the body of Christ, and members in particular;" that is, all we together make up the body, and each one of us by himself is a member.

Scripture also teaches that we become so by Baptism. In 1 Cor. xij. 13, 14, "By one spirit are we all baptized into one Body . for the body is not one member but many."

....

And also that this body is Christ. In 1 Cor. xij. 12, 'As the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ ;" and Eph. v. 30, "For we are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones.

We cannot understand how we can be members of Christ. But since the Holy Bible teaches us that such is the case, we must believe it as a truth. A truth which we must believe without understanding being called a "mystery."

The result of being made so is intelligible, partly from analogy, and partly from the statements of our Lord and His Apostles. For

Natural members live by union with the whole body, and through it with the head. They are chiefly dependent for life on the head, without union with which by means of bones, muscles, nerves, arteries, and veins, they cannot live at all.

The analogy is thus, that members of Christ derive their spiritual life from Him, not only as a gift bestowed by one Person on another person, but through an unintelligible or mysterious Union with Him, which is brought about by Baptism, "wherein" they are made His members.

Hence the body of Christian people is called the mystical Body of Christ, because they are spiritually united to Him by Holy Baptism. "He is the Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him which filleth all in all." [Eph. j. 22, 23.] "And He is the Head of the Body, the Church." [Col. j. 18.]

To baptize an infant is, therefore, to give it spiritual life by uniting it to Christ. To leave it unbaptized is to leave it spiritually without life, by leaving it without union with Christ. And the same is true with respect to adults.

Our Lord showed this in describing Himself as the True Vine, and the Apostles as branches. Especially in the words, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." [John xv. 5.] "Without Me" [xwpis ¿μoû]=separately, or (as in the margin) severed from, Me.

Baptism is thus the means by which our union with Christ, “the Way, the Truth, the Life,” “the Light,” "the Resurrection and the Life,” is at first effected. Our spiritual life and knowledge, and our Resurrection to the full blessing of Life eternal, are dependent on the Union being effected.

§ 4. Adoption into God's Family.

WE are also made children of God by Holy Baptism. The term is Scriptural. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God . . . . Beloved, now are we the sons of God." [John iij. 1, 2.] "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many

of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." [Gal. iij. 26.]

Such a relationship to God is gained through membership with Christ. Being united to Him, we are called His brethren. So St. Paul says, in Heb ij. II, "For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."

Before we were sanctified by " Him that sanctifieth," we were not children of God, because we inherited original sin.

In the latter part of the Catechism, we are said to be born" children of wrath." In the beginning of the Baptismal service, there are the words, "Forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin." In Psalm lj. 5, it is written, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

The sin with which we are born is called original sin, being the sin that comes to us with our origin as descendants of Adam and Eve, the first sinners of mankind.

Adam was made holy and immortal. In the Image of God. God is holy, and incapable of being otherwise. Adam, made in His Image, was holy, but capable of sinning.

He sinned when tempted by his wife Eve, who was tempted by Satan.

When he sinned, Adam lost the Image of God, the holiness and immortality which he had before, and which he might have continued to have, and his descendants after him, if he had not sinned.

He had no children while he remained in the Image of God; holy and immortal. But after he had fallen,

all others are born.

he had children who were born in his own fallen likeness, inheriting his guilt. “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." [Gen. v. 3.] In the same image [Although marriage is an holy estate, it is the means by which original sin is inherited, as is shown by 2 Peter j. 4: "Having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust :" and by Psalm lj. 5, previously quoted.]

The Holy Child Jesus was not born a sinner because He was not " conceived in sin," but by God the Holy Ghost, and miraculously born, without a human father of the Virgin Mary.

Our natural birth, therefore, makes us children of Adam the sinner; and a new or spiritual birth is required to make us children of God through the "second Adam," our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Hence in 1 Cor. xv. 22, it is written that, "In Adam all die" and again, "In Christ shall all be made alive." Our Lord also taught the same truth when He said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." [John iij. 6.]

This new birth into the family of God is called regeneration, [Titus iij. 5; 1 Peter j. 3, 23], and adoption, [Gal. iv. 5, and Eph. j. 5], to distinguish our relation of sonship to God from that of our Lord, who is the Son of God by eternal generation.

It is as children of God that we use the Lord's Prayer, saying, "Our Father."

§ 5. The Heritage of God's Children.

BECAUSE we are children of God we are entitled to the