Produced by Graeme Mackreth, Curtis Weyant and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by the Wright American Fiction Project.) BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM. By the Author of AGNES AND THE LITTLE KEY; _or_, BEREAVED PARENTS INSTRUCTED AND COMFORTED. BOSTON: S.K. WHIPPLE AND COMPANY, 161 WASHINGTON STREET. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by S.K. WHIPPLE & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS, New England Type and Stereotype Foundry, BOSTON. PREFACE. This book, and that which is also named in the title-page, were written at the same time, and as one book; but they were afterward separated, as more properly constituting two volumes, the part which was the original of the present volume now being greatly enlarged. Thus the two books grew in the author's mind together, from one and the same root,--the death of a little child. CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER I. PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN, 9 CHAPTER II. THE GRANDFATHER'S LETTER.--THE NATURE, GROUNDS AND INFLUENCE, OF INFANT BAPTISM, 16 CHAPTER III. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BAPTISMS.--THE SUBJECTS AND MODE OF BAPTISM, 76 CHAPTER IV. IS THERE ONLY ONE MODE OF BAPTISM? 121 CHAPTER V. SCENES OF BAPTISM.--REASONABLENESS, BEAUTY AND POWER, OF INFANT BAPTISM.--USE OF SPECIAL VOWS.--HUSBANDS AT BAPTISMS.--NEGLECT OF BAPTISM, 130 CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS.--APOSTOLIC PRACTICE OF INFANT BAPTISM.--MINISTERIAL USAGES IN BAPTISMS, 143 CHAPTER VII. TERMS OF COMMUNION.--NON-INTRUSION.--DENOMINATIONAL COURTESY AND KINDNESS, 184 CHAPTER VIII. THE ROAD-SIDE BAPTISM, 198 CHAPTER IX. THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH.--ARE THEY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH? 216 CHAPTER X. MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.--CONSTITUTION AND RULES FOR THEM.--A CHRISTIAN MOTHER'S QUESTIONS TO HERSELF, 255 CHAPTER XI. BAPTISM OF THE SICK WIFE AND HER CHILDREN, 272 BERTHA AND HER BAPTISM. Chapter First. PROBABILITIES OF AN ORDINANCE FOR CHILDREN. 'Tis aye a solemn thing to me To look upon a babe that sleeps, Wearing in its spirit-deeps The unrevealed mystery Of its Adam's taint and woe.--MISS BARRETT. Heaven lies about us in our infancy.--WORDSWORTH.