QUES. 15.-"What are we to understand by 'the apostles' doctrine' in Acts 2:42?"

ANS.-It is found in verses 22-24, 32, 36-38 of the same chapter. "The apostles' doctrine" was simply this :That Christ having been rejected and slain, the nation lay under the guilt of this overwhelming crime. But God, according to His own counsel and foreknowledge, had through their wicked deed provided a Saviour in raising Him up from the dead, and had exalted Him in heaven. Forgiveness to the repentant was now proclaimed in His name, and baptism to His name was the pledge of this forgiveness-it was cancelling their part in the crime, and separating them from the unrepentant nation.

But when, according to God's purpose and sovereign grace, Paul was called out as the Lord's special minister to the Church, much was added to these foundation truths preached by the twelve-the heavenly calling of the Church-its place as God's witness on earth in Christ's absence-the glorious hope of being like and with Christ-to meet Him in the clouds at His call, and with Him to enter the Father's house as our eternal abode, all this and more has been added to the doctrine or testimony of the twelve in the early days of Pentecost.

QUES. 16.-"If baptism is the first step in righteousness that could be taken by sinners, and for them, putting them on resurrection ground, as Rom. 6 :4 shows, is it scriptural that any should take their place at the Lord's table without being baptized?"

ANS.-No, it is coming into the Christian company without having put on Christ (Gal. 3 :27). One admitted into the army is required to have the army uniform. The uniform does not make a good or bad soldier, but it is the badge of the army. So is baptism-it is externally putting on Christ, it is the first step in discipleship (Matt. 28:19, 20). If parents understood it aright, in bringing up their children as unto the Lord, training them "in the way they should go " (Prov. 22 :6), this badge of Christianity would be put on in connection with the training of the child as unto the Lord.

Just here I must take exception to your expression, "putting them on resurrection ground." Baptism does not put one on resurrection ground, but it is burial with Christ-burial of the first man. It is the acknowledgment that God has judged and put away the natural man ; therefore we bury it-in hope that, as Christ was raised from the dead, the one we bury will also live by faith in Christ; even as " when the dead man was let down" into the grave of Elisha, when he "touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet" (2 Ki. 13:20, 21). The twelfth verse of Col. 2 has been taken as teaching resurrection in baptism. But the word "wherein" is quite as correctly rendered "in whom," 1:e., " buried with Christ in baptism, in whom ye are risen through faith," etc., which agrees thus with the general teaching of Scripture.