An aged Christian writes :-
Being unable to go out as I used to, I send out some of those beautiful gospel tracts and booklets with a few words by mail to acquaintances and to others. I have received such nice letters in answer, that, with your permission, I would suggest to young brothers and sisters that they employ some of their activities in seeking to reach others with the precious gospel. One of these letters says :" Since reading your letter and the booklets I have been brought to know that I am saved, and I am so happy that I have written to all my friends about it."
There are also many in the Bereaved columns of newspapers to whom some suitable booklet or tract, with a few words, might be sent. Start now, and with prayerfulness over your service, your own mind and heart will be blest and enriched by it. A. McC.
Dear brother :-
. . . Your correspondent, A. N. Dunning, in April Help and Food, has caused some concern as to knowingly un-baptized persons being received at the Lord's table. Will! you please say something more as to this in June Help and Food. H. C. C.
This was considered at some length in Help and Food, January 1918, pp. 25, 26. As that number, or volume, may be difficult for some to procure, we reprint here the answer then given :-
QUES.-A brother, recently come among us, does not, as we now find, acknowledge water baptism. He says that those baptized by the Holy Ghost need no water baptism. It is making a division here, and we should be glad of what instruction you can give us as to it.
Ans.-It is sad and strange that any who profess to believe God's word should deny that baptism is enjoined upon every disciple of Christ. Scripture is perfectly plain as to it. Let us trace it there.
In Matt. 28:19 the risen Lord commands the apostles to go to all nations, to teach and to baptize in the name of the Trinity.
In Mark 16:15,16 the same command is given, to go and preach the gospel, and the responsibility to be baptized is there put upon those who believe.
After our Lord's ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see the Lord's command carried into practice (Acts 2:38, 41). The preaching is, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in (unto) the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost;" and verse 41 says, "They that gladly received the word were baptized." Would they have been accounted disciples if they had refused to be baptized ? Verse 40 answers the question.
So far, it was among the Jews. Now, in chapter 10, we come to the Gentiles. A godly company were assembled with Cornelius, the Roman captain, and as Peter spoke to them of the salvation by Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon this Gentile company before they were baptized unto the name of Jesus Christ-which was not the usual order. As the Jews had great prejudice against keeping company with Gentiles, they might otherwise have refused fellowship with Gentile Christians. Peter himself had to be shown that those whom God has cleansed are not to be called "unclean;" therefore God marked them out as cleansed and sanctified, by the Holy Spirit coming upon them. Peter then said, " Can any one forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ? And he commanded them to be baptized."
If we yet needed anything more, we have it in the epistles. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, expounds to us the meaning of baptism, in Romans, chap. 6, as he does the Lord's Supper in 1 Cor. 10:15-21. Baptism, he says in Romans 6:4, is a figure of our burial with Christ, and he goes on to develop the truth which baptism typifies. Col. 2:12 speaks in the same way, and Eph. 4:5 speaks of the circle of Christian profession as the confession of " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Therefore, to say, " Those baptized by the Holy Spirit need no water baptism," is opposing Acts 10:48, and contradicts the Lord's own command-a very serious thing indeed.
No intelligent Christian thinks or says that baptism with water has any part in the eternal forgiveness of sins or final salvation. But it has to do with our discipleship here, and with governmental forgiveness in the sense of being owned as disciples of Christ – as in Acts 2:38. Every loyal soldier is required to put on the army uniform, though we know that some who wear the uniform may not be loyal in heart. Let us not think lightly of our responsibility to confess Christ. See Rom. 10:8,10.
To the above we may add that, as circumcision in Israel was the external mark of being children of Abraham, distinguishing them from the heathen world, so is baptism the external mark of the followers of Jesus ; it marks out Christianity from Judaism as well as from heathenism. The circumcised Israelite might be untrue to the faith and life of Abraham, as the baptized may be untrue to Christ ; nevertheless the external sign is not to be neglected or denied.