[M2.154L]                                                             [M2.154]								154
                                                                      
Romanism:   They would exempt the Church from the real cross of       (After preparatory remarks, perhaps best thus)
	afflictions, and instead of that, have nothing but painted or carved 		No Christian will deny that Christ is as ready now, as
	or gilded crosses."  This and more, of value in Leighton’s           		ever, "by the further side of Jordan: to receive little
	Commentary on St Peter.  Chap 1. verse 1-4                           Romanism 1	children and to bless them.
On Convent life read Blanco White’s Doblado’s letters.                		But some christians will deny that He in any wise considers
                                                                      		baptism of the child as the especial act of presentation
                                                                      		to Him;  or that tHe attaches any importance to this act;
                                                                      		Christ is always ready- they will say, to receive our
                                                                      		children.  We pray for them so soon as theyare born;  we
                                                                      		present them to Christ at their first breath - does Christ
                                                                      		withhold his blessing from them until water is poured
                                                                      		upon their foreheads? or his answer to our prayers until
                                                                      		they are presented to him in the set form of the Baptismal
                                                                      		service.
                                                                      		Of this class of Christians, correct and faithful as many
                                                                      		of them are:  I would ask;  first, whether they deny the
                                                                      		efficacy in use of the act of Baptism altogether? - or
                                                                      		whether they merely deny that the good which it procures
                                                                      		whatever that may be, is conferred at the moment of Baptism
                                                                      		and neither after nor before.
                                                                      		If they deny the efficacy of the act of Baptism
                                                                      		altogether;  if they merely consider it as a public
                                                                      		and formal confession of faith accompanied by the giving
                                                                      		of a name to the child, or as a formal admission into
                                                                      		the visible body corporate of Christendom, then is
                                                                      		there assuredly no chance of their consenting to any
                                                                      		form of doctrine which

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