Our Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation; for lo! the kingdom of heaven is within you." Now, we cannot look into a man's heart. All we can know of a man's heart is from what he says and does. But the Lord has established an order for the subjects of his kingdom. He has proclaimed a law, call it a ceremonial law if you choose, by obedience to which all the subjects of his kingdom on earth may be found out and become known to each other. That law is the Lord's will made visible in the order of his brethren, carried out in the forms of church organization by means of established ordinances appointed by him. The Lord does not want his bride to wander through earth's vanities a viewless, inactive, unprotected entity: Doing nothing for his cause, Learning nothing of his laws; but he wants her to appear "all glorious within" and without; "bright as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." I have been accused by some of never preaching a sermon without having something to say about baptism, as if discoursing on that subject might be criminal in their eyes. I can boldly say I do not like to close a sermon without saying something about it, because baptism in water, as the door to the visible church, has so much significance in it that I do not feel as if I had fully discharged my duty to the souls of men without it. But I am not altogether singular in this respect. I have some very good company. John the Baptist had _baptism_ in two of his sermons. Peter the apostle had _baptism_, in two out of three of his sermons. Ananias had _baptism_ in the sermon he preached to Saul, and that in a shape altogether too strong for many, as that Saul should wash away his sins in it. Philip had _baptism_ in his sermon to the eunuch, and Paul had _baptism_ in his joyful anticipations of heavenly glory, and calls it the washing of regeneration; and in fact he laid strong emphasis on it in his answer to the Philippian jailer's question, "What shall I do to be saved?" But the Lord's sermon to Nicodemus gives the crown to _baptism_ as the visible birth into the visible church. He calls it "born of water,"--internally born of the Spirit, externally born of water. So you see, friends, I have plenty of company in this line of preaching, and good company too. Baptism, as the visible ceremony of union of the penitent, believing, loving candidate with the church, and of the church with the Lord as his bride, holds the same rank in its relation to the Divine Law as the ceremony of marriage holds to human law. Both are simple in form, yet both are absolutely essential to order and an orderly life both in a religious and social sense. The ordinance of marriage and that of baptism compare remarkably in another point of view. Both cement a union to be dissolved only in death. Both have the stamp of the divine seal, impressed by the Lord's hand, engraven with the words: "WHAT GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER, LET NOT MAN PUT ASUNDER."