_What is close communion? Close,_ strict, or restricted communion is, properly speaking, that which does not invite all indiscriminately to the Lord's Table, but restricts the privilege to a particular class. But ordinarily the term is applied to the practice of Baptist churches, which invite only baptized believers, walking in orderly fellowship in their own churches. And by baptized believers, they mean, of course, immersed believers; not admitting sprinkling to be baptism at all. ONE AND THE SAME RULE _Observe further:_ That Baptists and Pedobaptists have one and the same rule in theory as to the proper qualification for participants, namely, they all hold that baptism is a prerequisite. That unbaptized persons have no legal right to the Lord's Supper, and cannot consistently be invited to it. Pedobaptists would not invite unbaptized persons to the Lord's Table, however good Christians, since such could not become church-members, and the Supper is for those within the church, not for the outside world. For though there are a few churches and a few pastors, who in their extreme liberality might be disposed to invite everybody to the sacred ordinance yet such a course would be contrary to their denominational standards, and opposed to the usages of their churches generally. _Further observe:_ They all practice a restriction since they restrict the privilege to a particular class: namely, baptized believers, walking in orderly church fellowship. But Baptists and Pedobaptists differ as to what constitutes _baptism,_ the one rejecting, and the other accepting the validity of sprinkling. Thus Baptists' custom is more _"close,"_ and Pedobaptists' is more _"open,"_ by the difference between their views of baptism; and by that difference only. _Therefore,_ it is manifest that the question so called of "close" and "open" communion is really not a question of "communion" at all, but of what constitutes Scriptural baptism. Let that be settled, and the controversy as to the restriction of the Lord's Supper will cease. THE BAPTIST POSITION