60 BIOGRAPHY OF
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etween God and man, before af-one, when man washoly. Jesus-was sent to restore that union, or to makethe at-one-ment between God and man. This he ef-fects when he saves us from our. sins and makes us~ holy. When this is effected, God and man are at-one,without any change in God, the whole change being inman. This is effected through faith in Jesus, ‘who lived,died, was buried, and rose again. But these thingsare fully shown in the books referred to above. About this time the subject of Baptism began to ar-rest the attention of the churches. On this I will statewhat took place while I was a Presbyterian preacher.Robert Marshall, one of our company, had then becomeconvinced of the truth of the Baptists’ views on thissubject, and ceased from the practice of pedobaptism ;and it was believed he was on the eve of uniting with.the Baptists. Alarmed lest he should join them, I wrotehima lengthy letter on the subject, laboring to con-vince him of hiserror. In reply, he wrote me another,in which he so forcibly argued in favor of believers’immersion, and against pedobaptism, that my mind wasbrought so completely to doubt the latter, that I ceasedthe practice entirely. About this time the great ex-citement commenced, and the subject of baptism wasfor awhile, strangely, almost forgotten. But after a fewyears it revived, and many became dissatisfied withtheir infant sprinkling, among whom I was one. The brethren, elders, and deacons came together onthis subject; for we had agreed previously with oneanother to act in concert, and not to adventure on anything new without advice from one another. At thismeeting we took up the matter in a brotherly spirit, andconcluded that every brother and sister should act freely, should cultivate the long-neglected grace of forbear-ance towards each other—they who should be immers-ed, should not despise those who were not, and viceversa. Now the question arose, who will baptize us?The Baptists would not, except we united with them ; a BARTON W. STONE. 61 and there were no elders among us who had been im-mersed. » It was finally concluded among us, that if wewere authorized to preach, we were also authorized tobaptize. The work then commenced, the preachersbaptized one another, and crowds came, and werealso baptized. My congregations very generally sub-mitted to it, and it soon obtained generally, and yetthe pulpit was silent on the subject. In Brother Mar-shall’s congregation there were many who wishedbaptism. As Brother Marshall had not faith in the or-dinance, I was called upon to administer. This dis-pleased him and a few others. The subject of baptism now engaged the attentionof the people very generally, and some, with myself,began to conclude that it was ordained for the remissionof sins, and ought to be administered in the name ‘ofJesus to all believing penitents. I remember onceabout this time we had a great meeting at Concord.Mourners were invited every day to collect before thestand, in order for prayers, (this being the custom of thetimes.) ‘The brethren were praying daily for the samepeople, and none seemed to be comforted. I was con-sidering in my mind, what could be the cause. Thewords of Peter, at Pentecost, rolled through my mind.‘¢ Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, andyou shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” I thought,were Peter here, he would thus address these mourners.I quickly arose, and addressed them in the same lan-guage, and urged them to comply. Into the spirit ofthe doctrine I was never fully led, until it was revivedby Brother Alexander Campbell, some years after. The churches and preachers grew and were multi-plied ; we began to be puffed up at our prosperity. Alaw of Synod, or Presbytery, forbade their people to as-sociate with us in our worship, on pain of censure, orexclusion from their communion. This influenced manyof them to join us. But this pride of ours was soonhumbled by a very extraordinary incident. *Three mis- sionary Shakers from the East came amongst us——Bates,* See Note, p.64. ca
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