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Page 12
That most delightful Lutheran theologian, Luthardt, says: "Infant
baptism is a comfort beyond any other, but it is also a responsibility
beyond any other." Again: "As Christians we know that God has bestowed
upon our children not only natural, but spiritual gifts. For our
children have been baptized and received by baptism into the Covenant
of Grace. To preserve them in this baptismal Grace, to develop in them
the life of God's spirit, this is one side of Christian education. To
contend against sin in the child is the other." Dr. Schmid, in his
Christian Ethics, also teaches that it is possible to continue in the
uninterrupted enjoyment of baptismal Grace. Dr. Pontoppidan, in his
explanation of Luther's Small Catechism, asks the question: "Is it
possible to keep one's baptismal covenant?" He answers; "Yes, by the
Grace of God it is possible."
The teaching of our Church, therefore, is that the baptized child
can grow up, a child of Grace from infancy, and that under God, it
rests principally with the parents or guardians whether it shall be
so. And this Lutheran idea, like all others, is grounded in the Word
of God.
We note a few examples: Samuel was a child of prayer, given to
his pious mother in answer to prayer. She called him Samuel, _i.e._,
asked of God. Before his birth even, she dedicated him to God. As soon
as he was weaned she carried him to the Tabernacle and there publicly
consecrated him to the service of the Most High. From this time forth,
according to the sacred record, he dwelt in God's Tabernacle and
"_ministered unto the Lord before Eli_". As a mere child God used him
as a prophet. Of the prophet Jeremiah it is written: (Jer. i. 5)
"_Before thou earnest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee._" Of
John the Baptist it is written: (Luke i. 15) "_He shall be filled with
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb_". To Timothy, Paul says:
"_From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation_," and in speaking of Timothy's faith
Paul says, that faith "_dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy
mother Eunice_." Psalms lxxi. 5-6: "_Thou art my trust from my youth.
By thee have I been holden up from the womb._"
It is therefore possible for God, not only to give His Grace to a
child, but to keep that child in His Grace all its days. To dispute
this is, simply, to dispute the record that God gave.
Lest some one should still say, however, that the examples above
noted are isolated and exceptional, we note further, that the tenor of
the whole Word is in harmony with this idea. Nowhere in the whole
Bible is it even intimated that it is God's desire or plan that
children must remain outside of the covenant of Grace, and have no
part or lot in the benefits of Christ's redeeming work until they come
to years of discretion and can choose for themselves. This modern idea
is utterly foreign and contradictory to all we know of God, of His
scheme of redemption, and of His dealings with His people, either in
the old or new dispensation. He ordained that infants at eight days
old should be brought into His covenant. He recognized infant children
as partakers of the blessings of His covenant. "_Out of the mouth of
babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise_;" "_Suffer them to come
unto Me_." Everywhere it is taken for granted that the children who
have received either the Old or New Testament sacrament of initiation
are His. Nowhere are parents exhorted to use their endeavors to have
such children converted, as though they had never been touched by
divine Grace. But everywhere they are exhorted to keep them in that
relation to their Lord, into which His own ordinance has brought them.
Gen. xviii. 19, "_I know that he will command his household after him,
and that they shall keep the way of the Lord_." Psalm lxxviii. 6, 7,
"_That the generation to come might know them, even the children which
should be born, which should arise and declare them to their children,
that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of
God, but keep His commandments_." Prov. xxii. 6, "_Train up a child in
the way he should go; when he is old he will not depart from it_."
Eph. vi. 4, "_Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord_."
Let the baptized child then be looked upon as already belonging
to Christ. Let the parents not worry as though it could not be His
until it experiences a change of heart. That heart has been changed.
The germs of faith and love are there. If the parent appreciates this
fact and does his part, there will be developed, very early, the
truest confidence and trust in Christ, and the purest love to God.
From the germs will grow the beautiful plant of child-trust and
child-love. The graces of the new life may be thus early drawn out, so
that the child, in after years, will never know of a time when it did
not trust and love, and as a result of this love, hate sin. This is
the ideal of God's Word. It is the ideal which every Christian parent
should strive to realize in the children given by God, and given to
God in His own ordinance. How can it be done? Of this, more in the
next chapter.
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