conveyed in it is expressed fully in John iv. 1, "The Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.” Here to make disciples is obviously not to teach them, but simply to cause them in some way publicly to enroll themselves as his disciples, and in consequence of that discipleship to be baptized. In the commission, this making disciples and baptizing, before limited to the Jews, was extended to all nations. The teaching was to come after they had been made disciples. To render this word by teaching alone, is to make our Lord command the disciples to go and, teach all nations, teaching them, a tautology that ought not to be charged on his words. Hence the true meaning of the word is making disciples.*

How they are to be made disciples must of course depend on the character of the persons themselves. The great fact is that they are to be

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* That this meaning of the word is not adopted from any doc. trinal preferences, will appear from the fact that it is preferred by critics who cannot be suspected of any such preferences. Kuinoël, who is surely safe from any such suspicion, says, on v. 19, "palnтevél is not to teach, for it is clearly distinguished from didáσkεiv v. 20, and they who by baptism were received into the company of Christians, were afterwards more accurately instructed. It simply denotes" to make a disciple, to receive into the company of Christians." Bengel makes the same distinction, "μanrevéw is to make disciples, and embraces baptism and teaching." Other testimonies equally explicit could readily be given from Olshausen, Stier, and others.

made disciples, brought into the relation of professed and acknowledged learners from the great Teacher, and led to him as the only way of access to God. Christ stands at the threshold of the kingdom of God, and must be acknowledged before an entrance can be made to its inner blessings. In this acknowledgment we have a recognition of the prophetic office of Christ, when we come and cleave to him as disciples, to learn the will of God for our salvation.

2. They were to baptize the disciples thus made. It is impossible for us to gather any full account of either the nature or subjects of baptism from this commission. It was not the design of our Lord to do this, nor was it necessary, as they had already no doubt received full information on these points when they were first ordained. The Jaw here announced is that all who are made disciples are to be baptized. The question as to the proper subjects of baptism is simply, Who are capable of being made disciples? Can any be constituted disciples by birth, and entered into the school of Christ by the act of their parents? Is the kingdom of Christ only a school for the adult disciple, or is it also a training institute for the youthful disciple? We believe, that like the family, and the state, it was designed by God to be an educational institute for the young, as well as for the old, and that this is one of its most pre

cious features. The lambs are entrusted to the shepherd as well as the sheep, and belong to the flock as truly as they do. So the children of believing parents are made disciples as truly as the parents themselves, and as such have a right to the same ordinance of recognition and initiation.

The baptismal formula is one of the deepest significance. It is required that the disciples of Jesus shall be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. What is the meaning of this? It is not merely by their authority, for the words indicate much more than that. The meaning of the phrase is, that by the baptism there is signed and sealed a close and vital relation to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each of whom performs a part in the work of salvation. The outward application of water is a symbol of purification from sin, and this being done into the name of the Trinity, it is thus declared that each person of that mysterious nature bears a part in this great work of salvation, and that the person baptized is brought into a relation of the deepest obligation to them all. Baptism is then a public avowal that the person baptized is devoted to the Triune God, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, who, as the great High Priest, has made a perfect sacrifice, and thus opened a way of access to God.

The baptismal formula is an assertion of the

doctrine of the Trinity that no ingenuity can set aside. It is very certain that the Father is a person, and the Son a person, and hence it must follow that the Holy Ghost also is a person, and thus we have three persons presented to us. But these three are in another sense one, for but one Name is ascribed to them. If they were distinct natures as well as distinct persons, baptism would have been in their names, and not their name. But there is ascribed to the three only a single Name, which here, as elsewhere, denotes the essence of the Being to whom it is attached. This fact proves that whilst in personal distinctions they are three, so that personal names and actions may be ascribed to each, yet in essence and nature they are one, so that but a single Name can be rightly ascribed to this mysterious and adorable Nature. Hence we have here the proclamation of the ineffable Name of that great Being, who appeared to the Patriarchs as the Almighty God, the Elohim; to the chosen seed, as Jehovah, the I AM of his own people; but to those who live under the third great dispensation of the covenant, as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons, but one God-three persons, the same in substance, but equal in power and glory. This however is the doctrine of the Trinity.

3. They were to teach the disciples thus baptized, all that Jesus commanded them. "Teaching them to

observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

These words imply a promise of plenary inspiration, for they constitute the apostles the vehicles through which the commands of Jesus are to be transmitted to us. Now as these commands are to be kept on pain of the most fearful condemnation, we cannot conceive it possible that our Lord would not secure a transmission of them that would be infallible. To ordain a law, the violation of which involves the severest penalty, and yet make no provision for the certain and infallible record of that law, would be a refinement of cruelty that can never be charged on the kingdom of Christ. Hence we have here a formal investiture of the apostles with that high function of conveying Christ's words to the world in speech and writing, from which we have the inspired scriptures of the New Testament.

We have here presented to us the great function of the ministry. It is to teach the world all things that Christ has commanded. It is not to teach systems of politics, of philosophy, or of art, but to teach the commands of Christ in all the forms in which he has delivered them, to preach the gospel, unmingled with either the frozen traditions of the past, or the fiery fanaticisms of the present.

We have in these three clauses of the apostolic commission a recognition of the three offices which