Editorial January 8, 1903 Issue

A representative of a Christian communion may not...

Editor

A representative of a Christian communion may not fairly reflect its thought, but if his utterances are heard without protest there is a strong probability that kindred opinions are entertained by some of his confreres.

From this point of view the reported statements of Rev. R. P. Johnson before a recent Baptist congress, become significant as another evidence of that trend of thought which means the ultimate displacement of all ceremonial requirements for admission to church fellowship. He said in part: "To make baptism essential to church membership is to perpetuate its cleavage in the body of Christ along the line of ceremony merely. It would compel us, for the sake of a ceremonial observance, to disregard the fundamental Biblical principle of the right and duty of individual freedom of Scriptural interpretation. The policy of receiving members without baptizing them has been followed by many English Baptist churches. Its adoption here would not mean the discontinuance of baptism nor the disappearance of immersion,"

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Memory of Good Deeds
January 8, 1903
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