There have been found persons so ignorant, or so weak, or so perverse in their opposition to immersion, as to assert that the Jordan was a small stream, so nearly dry in the summer, that it had not sufficient depth of water for the immersion of the multitudes of the disciples of John and of Jesus said to have been baptized in it; and also that Jerusalem had no sufficient accommodation for the immersion of the thousands of converts at the Pentecost, and on subsequent occasions. People are becoming more intelligent, and more candid, and it is possible that such puerile objections are no more heard. But it may be well to give passing notice to the facts. DR. EDWARD ROBINSON, at that time professor in the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in 1840, made a careful survey of Palestine, including the Jordan valley and river. His published statements corroborate those of others previously made, as to the abundant supply of water, both in the Jordan, and in the city of Jerusalem. He cites the published statements of earlier explorers, whose works are known to the reading public: Seetzen, who visited that country in 1806; Burkhardt, who explored it in 1812; Irby and Mangles, in 1818; and Buckingham, who traveled through it about the same time. See _Robinson's Bib. Researches, Vol. II., Sec. 10, pp. 257-267._ LIEUTENANT LYNCH, of the United States Navy, was, in 1848, sent out by our government in charge of an expedition to explore the river Jordan and the Dead Sea. Doctor Thomson, for a quarter of a century missionary in Syria and Palestine, traversed the land in 1857, and Dean Stanley in 1853, and others more recently. For a complete refutation of such puerile objections as those above mentioned, and a confirmation of Baptist claims, see the following works: Robinson's "Biblical Researches," Vol. II, Sec. 10, pp. 257-267; Lynch's "Dead Sea Expedition," Ch. 10 and 11; Thomson's "The Land and the Book," Vol. II., pp. 445-6; Stanley's "Syria and Palestine," Ch. 7, pp. 306-7; Barclay's "The City of the Great Kings," ch. 10; and other citations in "Baptist Church Directory." THE RISE OF SPRINKLING The question will naturally arise and very properly, When did sprinkling for baptism first come into use? And how came it to pass, that a human device superseded and took the place of a Divine institution? These questions are fully and satisfactorily answered by Pedobaptist scholars themselves, whose testimony we accept as a justification of Baptist views. For _two hundred and fifty years_ after Christ we have no evidence of any departure from the primitive practice of immersion. At length the idea came to prevail that baptism possessed saving virtue, and had power to purify and sanctify the soul, making its salvation more secure. It was consequently thought unsafe to die unbaptized. Here was the germ of the pernicious dogma of "baptismal regeneration," the foundation alike of infant baptism and of sprinkling instead of immersion.