By being baptized, those who heard the Gospel preached, showed their faith in Christ, and their determination to follow His precepts and commands: and by Baptism, God gave them grace and strength to do so. By Baptism, we are now received into Christ's Church--we become Christians. In the time of the Apostles, of course, the grown-up people were baptized: when they had heard the Gospel preached, and believed that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, they would repent of all their sins, and try to serve and obey Him; and then they would be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; to show that they _did_ mean to dedicate, or give themselves up, to the service of God: and He, in return, would pour out upon them His Holy Spirit, to enable them to do so. But God, who is a merciful Father, does not require His creatures to wait for the blessings of Baptism, until they are old enough to understand and value them; and therefore amongst Christian nations, Infants are baptized long before they can either believe or repent, and so they become the children of God--lambs of His flock; and receive His blessing before they have sense to know anything about it. When they are old enough, they must learn to know what great blessings were given to them by Baptism, and what solemn promises were made for them--promises which they are bound to keep, if they would partake of the benefits, and live with Jesus hereafter in heaven. In our own strength, no one can keep these promises entirely; but we must continually _strive hard_ to do so, and above all pray without ceasing, that we may be strengthened to do it. After Jesus had given His Apostles commands to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to baptize all who were willing, He told them, as we have read, that they should have power to work miracles, in order to prove to all men that they really were the chosen messengers of God, giving His messages to His people: for if they were able to cast devils out of the bodies of men, to heal the sick, to speak languages which they had never learned, and to take up venomous serpents, or drink poison without suffering any harm, it would be quite plain that God was with them; since only by His special grace could a man do any of these things. "And when he had spoken these things, he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and a cloud received him out of their sight, and (he was) carried up into heaven." "So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."