Cowley's Talks on DoctrineCowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Religion
Cowley's Talks on Doctrine
Cowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Paul narrates before King Agrippa his conversion, in Acts xxii:16,
and says that Ananias, to whom he had been commanded to apply, said:
"And now, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy
sins, calling on the name of the Lord." The foregoing quotations will
suffice to show that God instituted baptism for the remission of sins,
but from other passages already quoted. Mark i:4, also xvi:15-16,
and the account of Simon, the sorcerer, in the eighth chapter of
Acts, it is very evident that the result--forgiveness--is not secured
unless baptism is accompanied on the part of the candidate by faith
and a genuine repentance in turning aside from sin. Otherwise there
would be the solemn mockery of administering a sacred ordinance to a
hypocrite. Hence the apostles said to Simon, "Thy money perish with
thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased
with money." (Acts viii:20.) Notwithstanding he had been baptized he
was still in his sins, because his heart was not pure, and he had not
repented. For this reason the apostles said to him, "Repent therefore
of this wickedness. * * * For I perceive that thou art in the gall
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." (Acts viii:22-23.) This
should be a warning to those modern professors whose religion is in
many instances a cloak, hidden beneath which is the depraved heart that
garnishes the sepulchres of the dead prophets but is ready to slay the
living ones.
We now come to that part of the subject which formerly caused so
much dissension among the Christian sects, but which latterly is
smoothed over with the assertion that it makes no difference which
mode--sprinkling, pouring, or immersion--is used; "either will do,"
"let the candidate take his choice; it is immaterial." To these
unwarranted assertions we reply: First, that if either mode will
do, none will do, for still other forms may be added by the whims
of men. Christ established but one true mode, "One Lord, one faith,
_one baptism,"_ and if one is right, the others are wrong. This is a
plain proposition. Again, the dissension and conflict on this point
is proof against the inspiration of the sectarian world, if they have
any, for the reason that the Spirit of God will not lie nor contradict
itself. If, therefore, the Spirit of the Lord teaches me that immersion
is right, it will not teach another sprinkling, and yet another
pouring. This division, then, is because men are guided by opinion and
preference and not by the spirit of revelation from God, which guides
into all truth and brings those who possess it to a unity of faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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