WADDINGTON, in his Church History, says, in reference to the _third_ century: "A belief was gaining ground among the converts and was inculcated among the heathen, that the act of baptism gave remission of all sins committed previously." _Hist. of Church, Ch. II., p. 53._ PROFESSOR FISHER says: "Very early baptism was so far identified with regeneration as to be designated by that term. This rite was considered essential to salvation. A virtue was believed to reside in the baptismal water itself." _Hist. Christ. Ch., p. 83._ Do its advocates and supporters hold the same view now? Do parents and ministers still believe that the baptism of unconscious infants secures, or makes more sure, their salvation? If not, why do they practice it? PROFESSOR LANGE'S words are weighty, and should be carefully pondered by Protestant defenders of this Papal emanation. He says: "Would the Protestant Church fulfill and attain to its final destiny, the baptism of new-born children must of necessity be abolished. It has sunk down to a mere formality, without any meaning for the child." _History of Protestantism, p. 34._ Many good people, familiar with infant baptism and surrounded by its influences, have naturally learned to reverence it as of Divine appointment, and some of them really believe it is taught or sanctioned by the New Testament. But Baptists are right in rejecting it as something utterly without foundation in the Word of God. HOUSEHOLD BAPTISMS Much stress is laid by some of the advocates of infant baptism on that fact that in the Acts of the Apostles several cases of household baptism are mentioned. And it is asked with an air of assurance: "If entire households were baptized, must there not have been children among them? And were they not baptized also?" To this it is sufficient to reply, that nothing is said of children, and we have no right to put into the Scriptures what we do not find in them. All inference that such households contained infants, and that such infants were baptized, is the purest fiction in the world. If Christian institutions could be built on so slight a foundation as that, we could bring in all the mummeries of the Greek or the Roman Church, and all the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual. One thing is certain: If in those households any children were baptized, they were old enough to receive the Gospel and to believe on Christ, and were thus suitable subjects for the ordinance, and for church fellowship. For it is said, _"They believed, and gladly received the Word."_ There are thousands of Baptist churches into whose fellowship whole households have been baptized--parents and children and perhaps others connected with them. But all were old enough to _believe_ and to make _profession_ of their faith. So evidently it was in these households.