# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1862_S235
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the True Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy. 235

be adopted; but it also stands in exactly the right place, where the church, with the baptismal font, opens itself to the one being baptized." (Rudelbach.)

In the second part of baptism the church turns from the godparents to the one being baptized himself, who, being as yet a minor, at the same time receives, in those who have hitherto acted as intercessors and sureties, his representatives as well as his witnesses. Since, without (repentance and) faith, worked by God, no one can be baptized (Acts 2:37-38; ch. 8:35-38; Heb. 6:11), and the baptizer must be convinced of its presence through the oral confession, and since in baptism, too, the covenant of a good conscience is concluded (1 Pet. 3:21), and this involves the pledge, necessary for it, of the one being baptized — renunciation and vow — there enters into immediate relation with the act of baptism, and precedes it, the renunciation and the confession of faith, each in threefold form — both of most ancient origin. Upon the act there follows, to conclude, the short, concise benediction of the one baptized, referring directly to the power and effect of the baptism received, the votum postbaptismale: "Almighty God and Father, etc." — and indeed, according to old custom, together with the putting on of the white baptismal garment, symbolizing Gal. 3:27. Here and there a further prayer follows, as is found, for example, in our Agenda at the close of the confirmation of emergency baptism. Note. True faith cannot be conceived of without repentance, although the knowledge of sin from the Law, with contrition and terror in the sense in which it occurs in grown persons, is not possible in the infant.

d. From Dr. Luther's preface to the baptismal booklet, which was already appended to the first edition of 1523, as well as from the Table Talk, the reporter now further brings out a few passages. "Because I daily see and hear how carelessly and with how little earnestness — I will not say with frivolity — people treat the high, holy, comforting sacrament of baptism, [I have written this exhortation,] so that the godparents and sponsors may be all the more moved to faith and earnest devotion, and the priests who baptize may take all the more pains for the sake of their hearers, etc. (Baptismal Exhortation.) For here you hear, in the words of this prayer, how piteously and earnestly the Christian church bears the little child forward, and with steadfast, undoubting words confesses before God that it is possessed by the devil, and a child of sin and disfavor, and so diligently prays for help and grace through baptism, that it may become a child of God . . . (Luther's understanding of the exorcism.)

So bear in mind, then, that in baptizing, these outward parts are the least of it, such as: blowing under the eyes, making the sign of the cross, putting salt into the mouth, putting spittle and clay into the ears and nose, anointing the breast and shoulders with oil, and anointing the crown of the head with chrism, putting on the white garment, and giving a burning candle into the hand, and whatever else there may be that men have added to adorn baptism; for baptism may well take place without all of this, and it is not