Chapter II

Then I saw, in my dream, that Pastor Johnson sat with his good old wife, in their own quiet room; but his countenance was sad, and she saw that his heart was troubled, and knew that something had gone amiss with him during his absence. With true womanly tact she sought to find out what it had been without seeming to ask.

“I hope, my dear, you had a pleasant journey, and met with no disagreeable accidents by the way.”

“It was as pleasant as I had expected.”

“You saw Doctor Rice, of course. I have been told since you started that he is a perfect model of a Christian gentleman, and would certainly explain every thing to your satisfaction. Did you not find it so?”

“Gentleman! Why, yes; I suppose he is what people call a gentleman—a polished, pleasant gentleman—and he made, probably, what he thinks the best apology that the case admits of.”

“But you were not quite satisfied with it? Well, I don’t wonder. It _was_ too bad to call you a greater simpleton than could be found in all the Presbyterian Church. But what explanation did he make?”

“My dear wife,” said the pastor, suddenly raising his eyes, and looking earnestly into her face, “I begin to think that our _Doctors of Divinity_ are no more to be confided in than other people, and that Miss Ernest, Esquire Percy, and Professor Jones, were right in just casting all their assertions aside, and going to the sacred Word and hunting out its teachings for themselves.”

“Why, Mr. Johnson!”

“Yes, my dear; I never mean to trust the bare assertion of any _Doctor of Divinity_ again as long as I live. Just think of it now—Doctor Rice _laughs_ at my arguments in favor of sprinkling, and at Mr. Percy’s, and at those of Professor Jones. He holds them up to the scorn of the world. He speaks of them as though they were almost beneath contempt; and yet you and I know very well that they are arguments which I _borrowed_, EVERY ONE OF THEM, from a _Doctor of Divinity_. They are the very same arguments which have been employed by Doctor Eagleton, by Doctor Newton, by Doctor Wood, by Doctor Summers, by Doctor Miller, by Doctor Dwight, and even by Doctor Rice himself. But to make the world believe that we have some stronger and better arguments he laughs at these, as though they were the mere twaddle of the veriest ignoramus in all Christendom. But does he bring forward any stronger or any better ones? Does _he_ point to the chapter and the page in the works of our Doctors of Divinity, where they presented any thing more convincing? So far from it, he was obliged to own to Professor Jones, whom I met at his house, that he had himself employed these very arguments in his debate with Campbell; and the Professor also pointed out to him the volumes and the pages in the works of our _greatest_ doctors, where they had employed arguments _so much sillier than mine_, that I would have been ashamed to mention them to a shrewd, sensible girl, like Theodosia. Now, what am I as a Christian man and a Christian minister to do? I have all the time believed that we were right, and, therefore, I so preached and practiced. But you know I would sooner cut off this right hand than use it to sprinkle another babe if Christ does not require _it_. It was because I trusted to the teaching of our doctors that I thought he must be right; but when these doctors hold up these very arguments, by which I was convinced, to the scorn of the religious world, and yet give me no better in the place of them, I can’t help thinking there is something rotten in the system somewhere.

“I intend, God helping me, to search into the _Scripture_ teachings for _myself_. I remember that we could not find a single command to baptize infants, nor a single example of one baptized. I remember that our own best commentators, such as Barnes in this country, and Olshausen in Europe, say there is nothing about it in the text I most relied upon, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me.’ I remember that we could not find _one single_ text, which even our own Doctors of Divinity all agree upon as requiring or justifying the practice—that even concerning the covenant of circumcision, which Doctor McNought thinks is our strongest fortress. Professor Stuart expressly declares, in his commentary on Genesis xvii. and Galatians, that they can afford it _no_ countenance whatever; and as to sprinkling, even Doctor Rice himself did not, and dare not say that the Greek word baptize in the Scriptures has ever been truly rendered _sprinkle_ by any reliable Lexicon or eminent critic. He only contends that it may be rendered to _wash_, and then says that washing may be done by sprinkling a dozen drops or less of water on the person’s head. But _can_ it be thus done? If you or I should tell one of the children to wash, not his _face_, but to wash _himself_, would _he_ consider it a full and complete obedience if he should only dip the tip of his fingers in water, and touch them on his head, or face, or feet, or hands; for I don’t see as there is any more propriety in touching one part than another.”

“I don’t think we would, my dear,” replied the good woman. “And if this be so, I am sure it must be some _wicked MOCKERY to do that in obedience to God’s_ commands, which we would consider as the veriest trifling if it were done in the place of actual obedience to a similar command by us.”

“I am afraid, my dear,” resumed the pastor, “I am awfully afraid we have been wrong. God knows I _meant_ to do right—God knows I verily believed that I was right; but this communication of Doctor Rice has made the case look fearfully dark to me.

“I have thought, and prayed, and thought again, until my brain is dizzy. I can’t help seeing Jesus baptized, as Mark says, ‘_Eis_,’ not merely in, but _into_ the river of Jordan. I can’t help seeing the Eunuch and Philip going down into the water, then the baptism, then the coming up out of the water. I fear our doctors _twist_ and pervert the words in trying to make them mean any thing less. I fear some of them almost _prevaricate_ to hide the simple and natural meaning of the language. But oh, it is a dreadful thought that we have all the time been wrong; that I, a minister of Christ, have _all my life_ been the advocate of error, and have been doing in his name that which he never commanded, and having constantly undone that which he actually did commission all his ministers to do. I must study more about it. I must pray more over it. But if I find it so—much as I love my people, much as I love my church, much as I love my brethren in the ministry, much as I love the doctrines and the ordinances which I have so long taught and administered, I trust I love the truth and love my Saviour better than them all, and I will go down into the water as the Eunuch did, and Mr. Percy shall himself baptize me, as Philip did the Eunuch, and when we come up out of the water I trust to meet the Spirit of the Lord ready to find a place for me to labor, and to bless my work.”

Then I saw, in my dream, some few weeks after this, that Mr. Percy had returned from his visit to Nashville and the hill country of Tennessee (an account of which is given in the second volume of Theodosia Ernest), and he was standing in the same place where Theodosia had gone down into the water. The company that stood upon the bank consisted of a great multitude. Many of them had walked in a procession from the beautiful new Baptist meeting-house, which stood near the old school-house where Theodosia had been admitted to the visible company of Christ’s people. Many others had come from the magnificent old building, in which, until recently, Pastor Johnson had been accustomed to minister for many years. Many had come from other places of worship, and not a few were there who seldom witnessed any act of religion but one like this, which called them out merely to gratify their curiosity. But vast and various as was the crowd, they were silent, and solemn, and tearful, when the old man stopped at the verge of the water, turned to their expectant gaze, and briefly gave the reasons why, following his Saviour’s example, and in obedience to his positive command, which he could no longer misunderstand, he was about to “be buried with Christ by baptism.”

Those reasons we have not space to tell as he told them that day. It is enough for us merely to state that, after earnest prayer for guidance from above, he had resolved to “_search the Scriptures_” and discard the doctors. That he had been unable to find any sprinkling commanded or practiced as baptism. Nor could he find a single text which either commands or justifies the baptism of babes, Presbyterian Doctors of Divinity themselves being judges, since each text that one may claim as teaching it, a half a dozen others will declare has no relation to the case.

“There are,” said he, in conclusion, “many of my own former people here. I see their once familiar faces. Some look on me with pity; and could I have continued to practice, in my Master’s name, what he has nowhere commanded, I should need their pity.

“Some look on me with heartfelt sorrow; and I see even now the traces which their tears have marked upon their loving faces. My friends, I am happier now than I have been for many months. Doubt has now given way to certainty, hesitation to decision—the struggle, the long, agonizing, heart-rending struggle between old attachments and personal inclination, on the one hand, and duty to my Lord and Master on the other, has ceased at length, and I have _peace_ with God and _peace_ with my own conscience.

“It may be there are some who look on me with anger; some who will follow me with bitter words; some who may malign my motives, and seek to destroy my character; some who may send out rumors that their old pastor was _deranged_, or something worse, and that the people whom he served so long were glad to be so easily rid of him. Such things have been said of others, and, doubtless, will be said of me. But, though you may revile me, I will love you still. Though you may persecute me, I will still pray for you, and long and strive to bring you to a knowledge of the whole truth of the glorious gospel of my blessed God. And since you cannot make me hate you, you cannot harm me by your hatred. I part with you all in the love of the gospel, and pray for all, that God will help you see, as I have seen, the sin and danger of setting aside the ordinance of Christ, and teaching for doctrines the traditions and commandments of men.”

Then they went down into the water, both Mr. Percy and the former pastor, and he baptized him; and they came up out of the water, and I awoke—and behold it was a dream! And yet, kind reader, _was it ALL a dream_?

The End.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See Dr. Miller.

[2] “What,” says Professor Moses Stuart, page 298—“What are the _classical_ meanings of bapto and baptizo? Both these words mean to dip, to immerse, to plunge into any thing liquid. All lexicographers and critics of any note are agreed in this.” And again, on page 288: “The original etymological root of _baptizo_, _bapto_, and also of the nouns and adjectives kindred with them, appears plainly to be the Greek monosyllable BAP. The leading and original meaning of which seems to have been dipping, immersing, plunging, soaking, drenching in some liquid; and as closely associated with this, the idea of dyeing or coloring, since this was done by dipping.” And again: “The precise difference between bapto and baptizo is, that while they both _agree_ in one common and original meaning, that of immersion or plunging, usage has employed bapto to express the idea of coloring, as well as the idea of dipping or plunging; while baptizo is _not_ employed in the additional sense of coloring.”

[3] For an immense amount of testimony on this point, see Robinson’s History of Baptism.

THEODOSIA ERNEST. VOLUME II.: OR, TEN DAYS’ TRAVEL IN SEARCH OF THE CHURCH.

Nashville, Tenn.: Baptist Publishing House. S. C. Rogers, 59 North Market St. 1866.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by R. B. Davidson, In the District Court of the United States, for the Middle District of Tennessee.

CONTENTS

First Day’s Travel.

The converted infidel—The authority of the Scriptures—The object of our investigation—Is the Church one, or many?—Has the Church any branches—Difficulties increasing—A mystery developed. Pages 11–25

Second Day’s Travel.

The meaning of certain words and phrases used in Scripture to designate the institutions set up by Christ, such as the kingdom of God, etc., examined and settled—Mr. Percy’s call to the ministry. 26–67

Third Day’s Travel.

The difference between the Kingdom and the Church, and some other remarkable things concerning the Church brought to light—No Church universal. 68–130

Fourth Day’s Travel.

In which we come upon some marks by which to know a true Church of Christ, whenever and wherever we may find it. 131–165

Fifth Day’s Travel.

More marks of a true Church found—The tablet of marks completed. 166–182

Sixth Day’s Travel.

The Church of Rome tried by the marks or Scripture tests—Introduction of episcopacy—Episcopacy unscriptural—Rome apostate, and the consequences to Protestants. 183–256

Seventh Day’s Travel.

Digression on the introduction of Infant Baptism—The trial of the Church of England begun. 258–288

Eighth Day’s Travel.

The trial of the Church of England completed—The trial of the Methodist Episcopal Church begun. 288–314

Ninth Day’s Travel.

The trial of the Methodist Episcopal Church continued and concluded— Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Congregational Churches tried. 314–444

Tenth Day’s Travel.

In which the Church is found and identified. 444–485