THE SALVATIONISTS AND BAPTISM.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4752, 31 March 1884, Page 2

THE SALVATIONISTS AND BAPTISM.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.)

Si , —Through your paper allow me to' ask the leaders of the Salvation Army a few questions. If, as they profess, they have given up all for Christ, and desire to follow him, why do they not follow his express command and example by. baptism? Chrigt, the Great Captain of our Salvation, was baptised by John in Jordan, and He enjoins it upon every believer, not as necessary to salvation, bnt as he says, " for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness ; " not as St. Peter says, the " putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God "—lst Peter, 3rd chap., 21st verse. Believers' baptism seems to be regarded by Captain Francis as merely a " matter of form," and as such not binding upon the Christian Church. But it is binding. It is sufficiently binding as to . be coupled with faith. "He that be-> lieveth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." I Let us not call any of the commands of God merely/matters of form." Naaman, the Syrian, would never..^T?^ B? ll cleansed of his leprosy had-he> washed in any other river than that of Jordan, but the moment he accepted God's way of cleansing he recovered. Are not many of the practices of the Salvationists merely " matters of form," such as the waving of hands and handkerchiefs? May not " testifying" in meetings become a "matter of form?" To conclude, the testimony of believers, by being " buried with Christ in baptism," and rising to "newness of life," is the most effective as well as the most Scriptural of any.—l am, &c, A Baphst.