This new Birth! How is it accomplished? Nobody knows. How Baptism causes all that it effects, is as yet unrevealed. The Holy Ghost moves upon the face of the waters, but His operation is overshadowed. Here, we are in the realm of faith. Faith is belief in that which is out of {80} sight. It is belief in the unseen, not in the non-existent. We hope for that we see not.[18] The _mode_ of the operation of the Holy Ghost in Baptism is hidden: the result alone is revealed. In this, as in many another mystery, "We wait for light".[19] [1] See Service for the "Private Baptism of Children". [2] Service for the Ordination of Deacons. [3] From an old word, Gossip or _Godsib_, i.e. God relation. [4] Cf. Rom. vi. 4; Eph. v. 26. [5] _Trine_ Immersion, i.e. dipping the candidate thrice, or thrice pouring water upon him, dates from the earliest ages, but exceptional cases have occurred where a single immersion has been held valid. [6] From _Chrisma_, sacred oil--first the oil with which a child was anointed at Baptism, and then the robe with which the child was covered after Baptism and Unction, and hence the child itself was called a _Chrisome-child_, i.e. a child wearing the Chrisome robe. [7] In the 1549 Prayer Book, the Prayer at the Anointing in the Baptismal Service ran: "Almighty God, Who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and hath given unto thee the remission of all thy sins, He vouchsafe to anoint thee with the Unction of His Holy Spirit, and bring thee to the inheritance of everlasting life. _Amen_." [8] St. Jerome, writing in the second century, says of the Baptized, that he "bore on his forehead the banner of the Cross". [9] 1 Kings vii. 22. [10] It is a real loss to use the Service for the Public Baptism of Infants as a private office, as is generally done now. The doctrinal teaching; the naming of the child; the signing with the cross; the response of, and the address to, the God-parents--all these would be helpful reminders to a congregation, if the service sometimes came, as the Rubric orders, after the second lesson, and might rekindle the Baptismal and Confirmation fire once lighted, but so often allowed to die down, or flicker out. [11] 1 Pet. iii. 21. [12] Baptismal Service. [13] Rev. iii. 11. [14] Not more, it is estimated, than two or three out of every eight have been baptized. [15] I may take an _additional_ Christian name at my Confirmation, but I cannot change the old one. [16] The present Town Clerk of London has kindly informed me that the earliest example he has found dates from 1418, when the name of John Carpenter, Town Clerk, the well-known executor of Whittington, is appended to a document, the Christian name being omitted.