Morning Star

INFANT BAPTISM.
Dr. Arnold and the British Critic seem to be of different impressions respecting Infant Baptism. We quote the following passage from the last number of that work.
"Another signal triumph of Ecclesiastic freedom and independence may be seen in the discovery, which Dr. Arnold appears to have made, that one main cause of the calamitous decay of Christian unity, is the practice of Infant Baptism. It is true that he abstains from stating this proposition in so many words; but we are unable to see how this conclusion from his statements is fairly to be avoided. He tells us that, "now, people are born Christians, but too seldom think of making themselves so. They seem to think themselves Christians in the same way that they are Englishmen, by the accident of their birth; and they, too often, never think of inquiring into the objects of a society, into which they entered without trouble, and, indeed, without their own knowledge. And hence it is that the church is full of so many unreal members, who take not the smallest interest about it, and are actually, all the time, in the service of the enemy."
Dr. Arnold is a Presbyter and Doctor of the Church of England. We are glad to perceive such sentiments as are here expressed by one so independent and learned as Dr. Arnold. It is a truth, that Infant Baptism has a tendency to secularize the church of Christ, and to fill it with "unreal members."