[The following article is 77 years old]
     If you want to find out my origin and my place in the realm of religion, read the New Testament.  I am a command of God and am a specific act.  One of God's great preachers became distinguished by associating himself with me.  Those who refused to obey me rejected the counsel of God against themselves.  My associates in the days of John were: confession of sins, repentance and forgiveness of sins.  Jesus, the divine Son of God, recognized my place and fulfilled all righteousness by obeying me (Matthew 3:15).  After His resurrection from the dead and after He received all authority in heaven and in earth, He commanded His Apostles to teach all nations and administer me to them the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To obey me, one must go to the water (Acts 8:36), where there is much water (John 3:23), down into the water (Acts 8:38).  I am a symbol of death, of burial and resurrection.  When you behold me you behold in symbol the death of Christ, His burial, and His resurrection from the grave.  You will also see your own death to sin, your burial with Christ and your resurrection with Him in this act (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12).  Only those who obey me from the heart, of their own free will and accord, have really obeyed this act (Romans 6:16-19).  I equal immersion and emersion.  I represent both a burial and resurrection.  Having been buried with Christ in a watery grave and having been raised, one comes up out of the water and in this act he has had his body washed with water (Acts 22:16; Hebrews 10:22).  In obeying me you clothe yourself with Christ (Galatians 3:26-27) you are added to him (Acts 2:41; 10:48); you receive the remission of sins (Acts 2:37-38; 22:16), you come into the relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20) and you get salvation (Mark 16:15-16).  Remember that I am a command of Jesus Christ and that He says, "If you love me you will keep my commandment."  You dare not substitute something else for me.  I am a specific act.  In faith you give your intelligence to Christ; and in repentance you give your affection, and in obeying me, you give your will and your body to Christ.  He wants the whole body.  It must be surrendered, buried and raised in His likeness.
My Name Is Baptism.
[This article is adapted where it first appeared in the Restoration Herald in May 1932.]
 - Phillip