pPastor Briggs Drowns
Editor’s Baptism Idea
Minister Quotes Outstanding: Church Men With
to Absolute Necessity For Church
Members to Be Immersed
J. Edwin Bufflap is about the big
s gest “jiner” I know of. One begins
to wonder if he has not changed de
nominations every time he has
changed boarding places—not be
cause of a change of convictions, but
merely for convenience sake. If he
keeps on moving, what will he “jine”
before he gets through anyway ? Ac
cording to his own story he has
joined the Lutherans, the Reformed,
’> the United Brethren, the Presby
terians, and now he comes in his
own words telling us that he’s ‘ a
gosh durned Methodist.” Shame on
you, Bufflap, talking like that! I
* wouldn’t have called you that my
self—though I never could be a
Methodist. He even tells us he tried
to join a Baptist Church but the
preacher turned him down. I don’t
blame that preacher; he was made
■out of the right sort of stuff. Even
if Mr. Bufflap had been willing to
submit to baptism, a real Baptist
preacher don’t want to try to bap-.
tize a fellow whom he has good rea
son to know will float. You see, Mr.
Bufflap has just been floating, float
ing, floating ever since he was six
teen years of age, it seems. Trouble
with him seems to be that he just
■doesn't believe anything much. Real
Baptists want their members to be
Baptist for the simple reason that
“they couldn’t be anything else; but
Mr. Bufflap could be almost anything
it seems, and he who can be one
thing as easily as he can be another
can be nothing just about as easily
as he can be anything. Perhaps his
trouble, however, is that he just got
headed in the wrong direction, not]
having been properly instructed to
begin with. Possibly when he has j
been more perfectly instructed in the
ways of the Lord, he has the making
of a good Baptist in him after all. I
do hope that I may help him to see
b the light, for I am liking him better
” all the time —if he just don’t go and
spoil it all.
j. Here is a fair illustration, never-
EAfes. of what I have long held to
M «ne with reference to discussions
? of the ordinance of baptism; there is
no possible way of putting the sub
ject before the people in its true
light without stirring up resentment
in those who oppose this sacred ordi
nance. The soft-pedalling, molly
coddling, pussy-footmg, compromis
ing “divines” may talk all they want
to about what they style “tact,” but
my own personal observations have
long since led me to the conclusion
that their style of tact itself fails
when trying to instruct those who
are just simply chronic foes to this
teaching and ordinance of the all
wise God. For this reason I have in
vented a definition of tact of my
f own, to the effect that tact is after
all just the best way of accomplish
ing a desired end—whether it be by
the use of a sugar coated pill on the
one hand, or by the use of the sur
-I** geon’s knife on the other hand. And
accordingly I usually “take it by the
nose and hit it between the eyes” to
begin with; for that is usually what
has to be done before the battle is
over, anyway.
In my baptismal story appearing
in the December sth Herald, how
ever, L- was perhaps unusually cau
tious, for I really didn’t especially
want to provoke a long newspaper
discussion of the subject. So care
ful was I in selecting my words and
the arrangement of my paragraphs
that perhaps some of my more com
promising brethren who know of my
straight-forward, concrete method of
dealing with the truth, took it that 1
had completely “flopped,” and had
become a “jelly-fish” and “fence
( straddler” like themselves. My dis
cussion was pronounced to the “ir
refutable and in fine spirit,” with
“nothing in it at which anyone could
take offense.” But when the Editor
, had read my manuscript he began
* right away to “smell the fumes of
the inferno,” and so he began to talk
about being “hell bound 24 hours of
every day" because he had never
been immersed. Now, what I had
very tactfully established was that
it, is a command of God that all re-
believers in Christ Jesus
be immersed, and I quoted
and inspired disciple
John, who said that, “He that saith
I know him and keepeth not his
commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him” (I John 2:4).
& That’s Bible. .The Editor ought not
to take exceptions to the Bible, ought
he? Well, if in such inspired scrip
tures as I quoted he "infers” his own
condemnation, then why should I
worry?
When I say that the scholarship of
the world is on my side in this ques
g. tion, that is just exactly what I mean,
of denominational affilia
tion# It is true that Baptists have
very manyv mighty scholars. Apart
A from the indisputable light which the
L Bible itself throws on this subject—
■mch as Is frond in the sixth shap
ertson, for years head of the Greek
department in the Southern Baptist
Seminary, was recognized as one of,
if not indeed the greatest New Tes
tament Greek scholar of his day. Os
course, he said that baptism is the
immersion of regenerated believers
in water, and that no other form can
be scripturally substituted, but I am
not concerning myself so much now
with what Baptists have said, for
what I mean to do is to prove to the
Editor by his own kind—not one of
them Baptists that baptism is im
mersion. If he has never been im
mersed, he has never been baptized-
He says he used to be a Lutheran.
Very well, then, we shall see what
Lutheranism has to offer us on the
subject. Why bless your life (while
I think of it) are there not those in
that communion who believe that
there are infants in hell not more
than a span long, because they died
before they were baptized? And yet
he has the inconsistency to chide
Baptists with believing in “baptismal
regeneration.” But what of the act
itself? Whatever Martin Luther, the
founder of that sect, may have had
to say about it in later years when
he seems to have drifted greatly
from his “salvation by grace” posi
tion, it is certain that during the
earlier part of his reformatory career
when his messages carried most the
tone of evangelism, he fought tena
ciously for immersion. In his cele
brated sermon on baptism, dated
1518, here is in part what he had to
say: "First baptism is called in
Greek “baptismos,” in Latin “mersio,”
| that is, when we dip anything wholly
lin water, that it is completely cov
lered over * * * That also the signi
fication of baptism demands, for it
signifies that the old man and sinful
birth from the flesh and blood shall
be completely drowned through the
grace of God. Therefore a man
should sufficiently perform the sig
nification and a right perfect sign.”
The Editor says he used to be a
Presbyterian. Then let us ask Pres
byterian scholars about it. I am al
most certain that I have read that
Dr. DeWitt Talmage, perhaps Am
erica’s greatest Presbyterian preach
er, was immersed in the Jordan Riv
er itself. However that may be, let
us ask John Calvin, the founder of
Presbyterianism, what he thought
about baptism. Said he in his com
mentary on Acts 8:38: “Here we see
how baptism was administered among
the ancients, for they immersed the
whole body in water.”
Even Catholics, centuries after
Christ, were found practicing immer
sion as baptism. I read that, “The
Roman Catholic custom * * * is men
tioned by the celebrated Jacopo Sa
deleto, who was secretary to Leo X,
and was afterward made a cardinal
by Paul 111. Writing in the year
1536, he says, ‘Our trine immersion
in water at baptism, and our trine
emersion, denotes that we are buried
with Christ in the faith of the true
trinity, and that we rise again with
Christ in the same belief’.”
Take the Anglican Church, or the
denomination which we in the United
States know as the Protestant Epis
copal Church, which, largely as a po
litical faction under Henry VIII,
broke off from the Catholic Church,
retaining most of the creed of the
mother church nevertheless. Only
gradually, and perhaps chiefly as a
matter of “convenience,” did this de
nomination give up immersion as
baptism. It’s an interesting study
we haven’t time to continue just
here, but Lightfoot, almost the great
est of all commentators from that
communion, in his “Commentary” on
Col. 2:12, says: “Baptism is the
grave of the old man, and the birth
of the new. As he sinks beneath the
baptismal waters, the believer buries
there all his corrupt affections and
past sins; he emerges thence, he rises
regenerated, quickened to new hopes
and a new life.” Now, as you can
clearly see, the Episcopalians along
with many others, take the position
that there is a regenerating effect in
the act of baptism itself. But I am
a Baptist because Baptists take this
act as symbolical of a death to sin
and a resurrection to a new life
which has already taken place before
hand, and because it is commanded of
all regenerated believers. Now if
anybody wants to debate this ques
tion further, I can bask up what f
say, and that before I say it.
Well, the Editor also claims to be
a (some sort of) Methodist. What
do their real honest scholars say
about baptism? John Wesley and
his brother started the move that re
sulted in the founding of the Metho
dist denomination. What did Wesley
sav? If voa investigate far enough
vou win likely find that he immersed
Mary Welch, bnt positively refused
Mrs. Parker’s child because she would
not submit to an immersion. In his
notes on Romans 6:4 he says, "We
are buried with Mm. Alluding to the
•ncfrut manner «f baptising by hn-
THE CHOWAN HERALD, EDENTON, N. C, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1936
Church of Sweden, but later convert
ed to the Baptist position, quotes
Neander, the great Jew and church
historian, as saying: “It is certain
that Christ did not ordain infant
baptism. * * * We cannot prove that
the Apostles ordained infant bap
tism. * * * Baptism was originally
administered by immersion, and
many of the comparisons of St. Paul
allude to this form of its administra
tion.”
But here comes the Editor of the
Chowan Herald, close enough to the
Chowan River, the Edenton Bay, the
Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic
Ocean to fall overboard and drown —
that close to such mighty floods of
water, still fretting about folks go
ing to hell for a lack of water in
which to be immersed. Why, bless
your life, Bufflap, this old ball on
which you and I live has a plenty of
water to immerse every convert in
this old sinful world. The good
Lord has well provided for that. He
knocked your argument in the head
before you ever offered it. When I
studied geography they said that
three-fourths of the earth’s surface
was made up of water. Since that
time we have had several big rains
that have gotten all the creeks up,
and now they say there is more wa
ter in the world than my geography
teacher had perhaps ever dreamed of.
I’ve been in some mighty dry looking
places out in Texas and over in Old
Mexico, but I’ve never yet found a
place so dry but that a convert
couldn’t find a place somewhere to be
buried with Christ in baptism. I
don’t believe I recall reading of any
convert in all history who couldn’t
reach baptismal waters except the
thief on the cross. In his case God
no doubt took his willingness for the
deed- But you, Mr. Bufflap, have no
such excuse.
“Buried with Christ in baptism”—
whether in the Jordan itself, in the
sea, the Chowan River, a creek, a
pool, a baptistry, or even in a big
bathtub —it makes no difference
which, just so you have been genu
inely converted to Christ and are
buried with him in the waters of
baptism. It’s not a lack of evidence
in favor of immersion, nor is it a
lack of water. It’s just simply a
lack of the spirit of love and a wil
lingness to obey the Master’s holy
will. Jesus said, "If ye love me ye
will keep my commandments” (John
14:14). “If any man willeth to do
his will he shall know the teaching,
whether it is of God.” John 7:17.
“Then shall we know, if we follow on
to know the Lord.”
Respectfully submitted,
W. T. C. BRIGGS,
Pastor Chappell’s Hill Baptist Church.
January 23, 1936.
f YEOHM i
Mrs. W. E. Baker, of North Eden
ton, visited Mrs. Charles Ward Wed
nesday afternoon.
Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Kirby and
children of Bonner’s Fork, visited
Mrs. Kirby’s mother, Mrs. J. E.
Brabble, Sunday.
J. H. Mansfield and children, Ruth,
Louise and James, from Bethel, visit
ed Mr. Mansfield’s daughter, Mrs.
Charles Ward, and Mr. Ward Sunday.
Mrs. Louise Mansfield and Miss
Ida Brabble visited Misses Hilda and
Katie Barber Sunday.
Miss Nancy Davenport and Lessie
Lessiter visited Miss Margaret Beas
ley Saturday afternoon.
Mrs. Sidney Campen, of Edenton,
spent Tuesday with her parents, Mr.
and Mrs. J. A. Webb.
Mrs. Henry Basnight and baby
have returned home after visiting her
sister, Mrs. Bruce Basnight, and Mr.
Basnight, in Norfolk, Va.
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Jordan and
children visited Mr. and Mrs. M.
Jethro Sunday.
Alvin Skinner and Jasper Good
win visited Thomas and Willie Lee
Brabble Sunday.
Hold Surprise Birthday
Party For J. H. Morgan
Mrs. J. H. Morgan entertained at
a surprise party last Wednesday
night at her home in the Advance
community in honor of the fiftieth
birthday anniversary of her husband,
J. H. Morgan. Sixty-two of Mr.
Morgan’s relatives and friends were
present for the occasion.
The roomß were beautifully deco
rated with flowers and pink and
white crepe paper, a color scheme
of pink and white being carried out
in the decorations and refreshments.
Special instrumental music and
singing was rendered by the Chowan
Coon Hunters, and this added greatly
to the pleasure of the evening. At
about 10 o’clock Mr. Morgan was
presented with a lovely birthday
cake, which waa «m a cake plate
given Mr. and Mrs. Morgan as a
wedding present 26 years ago. The
high light of the evening was the
appearance of Mr. Morgan’s little
nephew and niece, Linwood Melvin
and Hilda Perry, who presented the
honoree with a large basket filled
with many beautiful and useful gifts.
Ice cream, cake and home-made
candies were served, following which
the guests left wishing Mr. Morgan
many more happy birthdays.
»
The KhyfreTjMWi; gatwray to .the
plains of Isrißa-ftwat is
SEWING CIRCLE ENTERTAINED
Mrs. E. N. Elliott was hostess to
the Sewing Circle at her home near
Cross Rpads one evening last week.
There were only six members pres
ent and to those the hostess served
sandwiches and hot chocolate. The
1 meeting this week will be with the
teachers at the home of Mrs. R. H.
Hollowell.
nrfypwf
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PAGE SEVEN