Ah! my Baptist friend, you think that Baptism is not necessary for your child’s salvation. The old Church teaches the contrary. You admit that you may be wrong, and it is a question of life and death. Take the safe side. Give your child the benefit of the doubt. Let it be baptized. Baptism washes away _original sin, and also actual sins_ from the adult who may have contracted them. The cleansing efficacy of Baptism was clearly foreshadowed by the prophet Ezechiel in these words: “I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness. And I will give you a new heart and will put a new spirit within you.”(346) When the Jews asked St. Peter what they should do to be saved the Apostle replied: “Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.”(347) And Ananias said to Saul, after his conversion: “Rise up and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.”(348) “We were by nature,” says St. Paul, “children of wrath,” but by our regeneration, or new birth in Baptism, we become _Christians and children of God_. “For, ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.”(349) We are adopted into the same family with Jesus Christ. What He is by nature we are by grace—children of God, and consequently brethren of Christ. Nay, our union with Jesus is still more close. We become true members of His mystical body, which is His Church, and His Divine image is stamped upon our soul. Baptism also clothes us with the _garment of sanctity_, so that our soul becomes a fit dwelling-place for the Holy Ghost. The Apostle, after giving a fearful catalogue of the vices of the Pagans, says to the Corinthians: “And such some of you were; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of God.”(350) Baptism, in fine, makes us _heirs of heaven_ and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. “We ourselves also,” says St. Paul, “were sometimes unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared, ... He saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom He hath poured forth abundantly upon us, through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we may be heirs, according to the hope of life everlasting.”(351)