The Laying on of Hands.--The Holy Ghost is imparted by the laying on of hands. [14] Possibly this ceremony was intended to typify the glorious baptism that Earth will undergo when the Spirit is poured out upon her from on High. The laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost was an ordinance in the Christian Church for centuries. Cyprian mentions it in the third century; Augustine in the fourth. Gradually, however, it began to be neglected, until finally some of the sects discarded it, while others, retaining the form, "denied the power thereof." The Fathers Understood.--The Greek fathers of the Church held correct ideas concerning baptism. They termed it "initiation," from its introductory character; "regeneration," from its being regarded as a new birth; "the great circumcision," because it was held to have superseded the circumcision of the Mosaic law; also "illumination" and "the gift of the Lord." [15] Censured for Truth's Sake.--The Greek Christians of the early centuries, like the Saints of New Testament times, baptized for the remission of sins. They have been censured by modern critics for magnifying the importance of water baptism, and at the same time insisting on the purely ethical or spiritual nature of the rite; for confounding the sign with the thing signified, the action of the water with the action of the Spirit, in the process of regeneration. But they were not any more insistent upon these points than the Apostles themselves. Augustine's Theory.--St. Augustine is complimented by the same critics for formulating the first strict scientific theory of the nature and effects of baptism. He drew a sharp distinction between "the outward sign"--water baptism--and the inward change of heart resulting from the operation of the Holy Ghost. Yet even he is charged with laying too much stress upon the value of "the outward sign," which he held to be essential to salvation. Protestant theologians have been commended for keeping the "sign" in due subordination to "the thing signified," for justifying themselves by faith, and ignoring to a great extent outward ordinances. But the Greek Christians, whatever their defects, were nearer right than St. Augustine, and St. Augustine was nearer right than the Protestant theologians who followed him. Baptism, as taught in the New Testament, is not the mere "outward sign of an inward grace." The action of the water and the action of the Spirit are not to be separated in any analysis of the nature and effects of baptism. Both are essential in the soul-cleansing, soul-enlightening process.