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AN EPISCOPAL BISHOP ON BAPTISM

Only when men lose sight of the meaning of the symbol can they descend to such puerilities as the following.

Note also that the “Church” speaks to them, not through the inspired word of God, but by the prayer book [“Rubric”], confessedly of human origin, and which they openly talk of remodeling at an early date.—W. M. W.

The clipping criticized by Bro. W. is from the Episcopalian journal called The Living Church, and reads as follows:

Bishop Tuttle, speaking of the practice of some ministers in simply sprinkling the head of the person baptized, says: “May I call attention to the fact that the Church never in the Prayer Book says one word about ‘sprinkling.’ Her words are ‘Shall dip in the water or pour water.’ I may, therefore, be permitted to say to the clergy that it is well worth their while to take pains to fill the palm of the hand full of water and pour upon the head when they baptize, in order, first, to ensure that the water does indeed touch the person so as to make the sacrament valid, and secondly, to comply with the exact injunction of the rubricand to help banish the unfounded accusation that we have aught to do with any such thing as ‘sprinkling.'”

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— May, 1890 —