To the proud heart the commandment to “wash one another’s feet” is perhaps the most ridiculous ever given by the Son of God. In the semi-theatrical church entertainments men may pay a large sum for the privilege of kissing the most handsome lady, and for similar or more shameful indulgences, but to humbly wash a brother’s feet would be shocking in the extreme. “If a man love me he will keep my words.” John 14:23. Where true love exists there is no disposition to spurn any of the Lord’s commandments, however humiliating they may be. The ordinance of feet-washing was instituted by the Savior, and is recorded in the thirteenth chapter of John. One objection that many bring against this sacred ordinance is that it is so seldom mentioned in the Bible. If a man does not love God deeply enough to obey him when he speaks but once, he would not obey him should he speak a dozen times. Jesus says, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Luke 16:31. It is never difficult to persuade a humble heart to believe the Word of God, though there be but one single commandment; but the proud in heart will not be persuaded by any number if they are not according to their inclinations. About the first objection offered against this humble ordinance is that it was a custom among the Jews to wash feet, and the feet-washing recorded by John was nothing more than the Jewish custom. There was more here than the mere custom of washing feet. We will carefully weigh this objection. Bathing is a custom, naturally so, for cleanliness and health, and is observed by people of every civilized nation, and has been in every age of the world. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the river to bathe when she found the babe in the ark of bulrushes. Ex. 2:5. Bathing was not a custom of any particular nation, but a universal custom. God separated Israel from the world to be his own chosen people. He gave them certain laws, which stood as a partition wall between them and the Gentile world. Among the many ceremonies was that of bathing. By reading the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus you will learn of the bathings required of the Jews for certain sins and uncleannesses. These bathings were peculiar to this people alone and served to separate them from other nations. They observed the universal custom of bathing, but these bathings were additional and given by the Lord. When Jesus came he abolished the Jewish ordinances that distinguished them from the world and offers salvation to every nation. By his grace he separates his people from the world and institutes for them the ordinance of baptism. This is not the universal custom of bathing, neither is it the Jewish ceremony of bathings for cleansings, but a New Testament ordinance for saved people of this gospel day, representing their death to sin and consequent separation from the world. All continue in the custom of bathing, but the Christian is baptized.