The laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost was an ordinance in the Christian church for centuries. The ordinance remained with the church much longer than did the Holy Ghost. Cyprian mentions it in the third century; Augustine in the fourth. Gradually, however, it began to be neglected, until finally some of the sects repudiated it, while others, retaining the "form of godliness," denied "the power thereof." So much stress having been laid upon immersion, as the proper mode of baptism, one might be led to inquire, Why are we not immersed in the Spirit, as well as in the water? I answer: How know you that we are not? To which the reply may be: We see the water, and are put under it by the priest: but when we are confirmed or baptized with the Spirit, the elders lay their hands upon our heads and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." There is no immersion about that; we are not dipped or plunged: the Spirit is poured upon us. Be not too sure that there is no immersion about it. The fact that you do not see it is no conclusive argument against the proposition. We see the water because it is a temporal element: but spiritual things are discerned by the Spirit. As to the pouring process--may not enough of an element be poured upon a person to bury him therein? Or must that in which a person is buried necessarily come from beneath? It was not so in the days of Noah, when it rained forty days and forty nights that the earth might be buried in water. As much water came from above as from beneath at that time. John the Baptist, when proclaiming the Christ, said: "There cometh One mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mark 1:7,8). More than one baptism is here mentioned, but it is baptism in each case; and baptism signifies immersion. The candidate for baptism cannot well be dipped or plunged in the Spirit, since the Spirit is above, while the water is beneath; but he may be covered by or "clothed upon" with the Holy Ghost, nevertheless. The essential point in baptism is not the dipping or plunging, but the burying and bringing forth. Baptism, a Symbol of Creation.--Baptism symbolizes creation. Earth, created for Adam and his seed, was baptized--"born again"--for Noah and his posterity. Baptized with water in that day, it will yet be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The laying on of hands and the descent of the Spirit from above, may possibly typify the glorious baptism that earth will yet undergo, when the Spirit is poured out upon her from on high, and she is covered therewith as completely as with water in the days of Noah. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," said the Lord by the Prophet Joel (2:28). When that prophecy is fulfilled, earth will receive her spirit baptism, and in due time be ready for her baptism of fire.