Since it has been announced that my subject would be baptism, I think it highly probable that the question has arisen in the minds of some, Why another sermon on that old, hackneyed theme? Perhaps the objection has arisen that this subject has been discussed and debated for hundreds of years, and it has never yet been settled. Why then continue to disturb the minds of the people with it? This objection involves a serious mistake. The question, it is true, has not in one sense been settled, that is, all the people have not been brought to an agreement in regard to it; but in another and a very important sense, it has been settled thousands and thousands of times; that is, it has been settled in the minds of men and women who have to give an account to God in the great day, and they have acted according to the settlement of it in their own minds. And let me say to you who are here to-night, it is a necessity laid on you, you can not avoid it, that you shall also settle the question in your own mind and for your own soul. You can not go into any church on earth, except that of the Quakers, without being baptized--that is, without submitting to an ordinance which the church calls baptism. And if you are ever to become a member of any church, with the exception of the one named, before you do so you are compelled to decide in your own mind what baptism is, and that will be settling the question so far as you are concerned. If you answer me, No, sir, the question was settled for me by my parents when I was an infant, and they baptized me, even this does not enable you to escape the necessity of which I speak; for you are compelled to decide for yourself before God, whether you will be satisfied with that as your obedience to this divine command. So then, to come to some practical decision of this disputed theme, is a necessity laid upon every one of you, and you will all give an account thereof to God in the day of judgment. Don't be impatient, then, when a man proposes to discuss the subject in your presence. Don't be unwilling to hear him. Whatever may be the position he takes, whichever side of the controverted question he stands on, don't be unwilling to hear ail that he says, and to hear it candidly, to weigh it fairly, so that you may decide the question intelligently.