_2. Baptism of the Disciples of Jesus:_ "Whether our Lord ever baptized has been doubted. The only passage which may distinctly bear on the question is John iv. l, 2, where it is said "that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples." We necessarily infer from it, that, as soon as our Lord began his ministry, and gathered to Him a company of disciples, He, like John the Baptist, admitted into that company by the administration of baptism. Normally, however, to say the least of it, the administration of baptism was by the hands of his disciples. Some suppose that the first-called disciples had all received baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, as must have pretty certainly been the case with Andrew (see John i. 35, 40); and that they were not again baptized with water after they joined the company of Christ. Others believe that Christ himself baptized some few of his earlier disciples, who were afterwards authorized to baptize the rest. But in any case the words above cited seem to show that the making of disciples and the baptizing of them went together; and that baptism was, even during our Lord's earthly ministry the formal mode of accepting his service and becoming attached to his company." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 235.) _3. Confirmation:_ "The Laying on of Hands" was considered in the ancient church as the 'Supplement of Baptism.' 1. Imposition of hands is a natural form by which benediction has been expressed in all ages and among all people. It is the act of one superior either by age or spiritual position towards an inferior, and by its very form it appears to bestow some gift, or to manifest a desire that some gift is symbolically bestowed, as when guiltiness was thus transferred by the high-priest to the scape-goat from the congregation (Lev. xvi. 21); but, in general, the gift is of something good which God is supposed to bestow by the channel of the laying on of hands. Thus, in the Old Testament, Jacob accompanies his blessing to Ephraim and Manasseh with imposition of hands (Gen. xlviii. 14); Joshua is ordained in the room of Moses by imposition of hands (Num. xxvii. 18; Deut. xxxiv. 9); cures seem to have been wrought by the prophets by imposition of hands (2 K. v. ii); and the high priest, in giving his solemn benediction, stretched out his hands over the people (Lev. ix. 22). The same form was used by our Lord in blessing and occasionally in healing, and it was plainly regarded by the Jews as customary or befitting (Matt. xix. 13; Mark viii. 23, x. 16). One of the promises at the end of St. Mark's Gospel to Christ's followers is that they should cure the sick by laying on of hands (Mark xvi. 18); and accordingly we find that Saul received his sight (Acts ix. 17) and Publius's father was healed of his fever (Acts xxviii. 6) by imposition of hands. In the Acts of the Apostles the nature of the gift or blessing bestowed by