# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 06 07_S140
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

140

7. Upon this strong ground, that Jesus will bless our little children whom we bring to Him, we pray the Our Father.

8. Thereupon the servant of Christ says: "The LORD preserve thy going out" from thy old state of sin, in which thou wast conceived and born, and "thy coming in" to the fellowship of the dear believing Christendom. Yea, may He preserve now thy going out from the world and thy coming in to life eternal. Help, God, how comforting that is!

9. Now one goes forth to the holy baptismal water. Here thou shalt think: The LORD Jesus will, through His intercession, unlock heaven to the little child; the Holy Ghost will descend, though not visibly, yet fruitfully and mightily; He will renew the little child and consecrate it to be a temple of God; the heavenly Father will accept the young baptized one as His dear child.

10. In the beginning, however, the child must renounce the devil and all his works, for no man can serve two masters (Matt. 6.) This ye shall bear in mind all your lifetime.

11. Thereupon it must swear to the little blood-banner of Jesus Christ and plainly confess the three articles of the Apostolic Creed.*)

*) Repentance and faith are, according to Scripture, absolutely necessary for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Mark 1, 15; Luke 24, 46. 47. Concerning their presence in the person to be baptized, the Church, with her called servants, must obtain a human certainty before she may administer Baptism. This is obtained, however, since men cannot look into the heart, first and foremost through the oral confession of the person to be baptized. The confession of repentance is the renunciation; the confession of faith is the Apostolic Symbol. Both are ancient. Whether in the time of the Apostles precisely these formulas were used, cannot indeed be proved; but that a twofold confession of this kind was required of the person to be baptized is certain. When the thousands at Pentecost, pierced to the heart by Peter's preaching, turned to the Apostles with the question: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter answered: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Likewise he exhorts them: "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" (what is this latter other than an exhortation to the renunciation of the devil and of all ungodly ways?). Thereupon Luke goes on: "Then they that gladly received his word (that is, who publicly acknowledged themselves to this demand of the Apostle) were baptized." Acts 2, 37 – 41. Still more plainly this appears from Acts 8, 36. 37. In consequence of Philip's preaching the eunuch says: "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" But the Evangelist first puts to him the question: "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest," whereupon the eunuch makes the confession: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

12. The little child is sprinkled three times with water. In former times grown people who had been converted to Christianity were even immersed in the water, in honor of the most blessed Trinity, which is surely present there, and in remembrance of the three parts which belong to true repentance, which is signified by baptizing with water, as St. Paul explains Rom. 6.

13. The words are distinctly spoken thereto: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. For the preacher is only Christ's servant and performs the outward work according to Christ's ordinance, but God is Himself the Baptizer, and when the preacher outwardly baptizes the people with water, God baptizes by this service, out of His divine power, the people inwardly in the heart. God the heavenly Father cleanses for Himself, by this blessed bath of heaven, His dear children of heaven. The LORD Jesus washes them by the power of His holy drops of blood.

The eye alone sees the water,
How men pour water,
Faith in the Spirit understands the power
Of the blood of Jesus Christ,
Before God it is a red flood
Colored by Christ's blood,
Which heals all the harm
Inherited from Adam,
Also committed by ourselves.

The Holy Ghost renews the dear little heart and sanctifies it, that it shall be God's child and dear dwelling. Therefore it is well that also not more than three sponsors be requested . . . *)

*) And also not fewer, that it may correspond to the three witnesses in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. And indeed, according to old custom, in the case of a boy two persons of the male and one person of the female sex are taken, but in the case of a girl two persons of the female and one person of the male sex.

14. After the Baptism has been performed the little child is clothed with a white little cap and with the little christening-robe, in remembrance that it has been clothed from head to foot in the beautiful, pure, white silk of righteousness and in the lambskins of the innocence of Jesus Christ, for Paul says, Gal. 6: "As many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ;" and also in remembrance that it is bound to apply itself with earnestness to purity of body and of soul.†)

†) This usage also, derived from Christian antiquity, is found in Luther's Baptismal Booklet and is here and there still in practice. With a crown upon the head, as a sign of victory over the world, and clothed with the christening-robe (Westerhemd), which takes its name from Vestis, garment, West, joy, and the German word Hemd, in token of innocence and purity the newly baptized once returned to their dwellings and laid aside the white garment only on the Sunday following. Since the baptism of adult catechumens was usually performed at Easter (and about this time the catechumenate of later times, the confirmation instruction, also concludes), they wore their white garment until the Sunday Quasimodogeniti, which for that reason is still called today the "White Sunday." The Introit of this day from 1 Pet. 2, 2, and the Epistle from 1 John 5, 4-12, point to this.

15. The sponsors lay the hand upon the little child and at once give a handclasp in the little child's stead, that it shall abide in the newly established covenant of a good conscience. The sponsors also hereby declare that they will in future time bear witness to the Baptism that has taken place, and if (which God forbid!) the young godchild should become unfaithful to the true religion, they will faithfully warn him that he repent.

16. Thereupon the servant of Christ wishes the baptized little child that God Himself, who hath regenerated it through water and the Holy Ghost, would preserve it unto eternal life.*) Finally all the sponsors, together with the baptizer, fall upon their knees and thank God from the heart that He has accepted the young little heart as His child, crowned the parents with His blessing, and once more increased dear Christendom with a young little church-plant.†)

*) In Luther's Baptismal Booklet it says: "Then the sponsors shall hold the little child at the baptism, and the priest shall say, while he puts on the christening-robe: The almighty God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who hath begotten thee anew through water and the Holy Ghost and hath forgiven thee all thy sins, strengthen thee with His grace unto eternal life. Amen. Peace be with thee. Amen."

†) The prayer of thanksgiving after Baptism, to which Herberger here refers, is found in many Agenda and runs thus: "Almighty, merciful God and Father, we give thee praise and thanks that thou graciously preservest and increasest thy Church, and hast granted to this child that it has been born again through holy Baptism and incorporated into thy dear Son, our only LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ, and become thy child and heir of thy heavenly goods. We pray thee most humbly that thou wouldest graciously keep this child, which now has become thy child, in the benefit received, that it may, according to all thy good pleasure, be brought up to the praise and glory of thy holy name in the most faithful and godly manner, and at last receive the promised inheritance in heaven with all the saints, through Jesus Christ. Amen." —

What now follows from No. 17 on was in this fashion probably in use only at Fraustadt. For the sake of the beautiful meaning which Herberger knows how to give even to these closing garlands, it is nevertheless communicated,

17. When that has taken place, the sponsors go with the little child before the high altar and consider that their godchild and all Christians have a joyful power to appear before God's face all their life long.

18. The woman sponsor sits down there a little and holds the little child in her lap. Here we consider: Now the dear, pious, young little heart lies in the lap of grace of the heavenly Father; now it lies in the arms of Jesus Christ; now it rests under the mother-hen's wings of His merit.

19. Now follow the sponsors' groschen. Here the sponsors have such thoughts as these: Dear godchild, thou hast three sponsors and witnesses of thy Baptism on earth; thou hast also three sponsors from heaven, who bear witness of thy Baptism and salvation, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. The sponsors from heaven have just now shown themselves very laudable and gracious; God has filled thy heart with comfort; we will fill thy little purse with a good penny: God make much out of little. Then each gives according to his means and the usual custom of the land.

20. Finally the sponsors kneel down with the young godchild, and conclude with hearty prayer, as they had earnestly begun. Thus the baptismal ring runs together again.