Page 16 - Voices in Praise

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism
(Infants and Youth
Friend of the home, as when in Galilee
The mothers brought their little ones to thee, So we, dear Lord, would now the children bring, And seek
for them the shelter of thy wing.

Thine are they, by thy love's eternal claim,
Thine we baptize them in the threefold Name: For both the sign we trust, Lord, and the grace That in
thy fold prepared the lambs a place.

Lord, may thy church, as with a mother's care,
For thee the lambs within her bosom bear; And grant, as morning fades to noon, that they Still in her
love and holy service stay.

Draw through the child the parents nearer thee, Endue their home with growing sanctity:
And gather all, by earthly homes made one, In heaven, O Christ, when earthly days are done.
Amen.

Tag (The Minister shall then pray: O GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, who in every generation gives new
sons and daughters to your Church, we pray that this child now to be baptized may, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, daily increase in the knowledge and love of you, through
Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord. Amen.

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Tag (The Institution
DEARLY BELOVED, as we are about to receive this/these child/children into the Church by baptism, let
us recall both the promise and the warning of our Lord.

This warning is that those who shall cause any one of these little ones to stumble, it were better that a
millstone were hanged around their necks and they were drowned in the ocean (Matt. 18:6), and the
promise is that those who receive little children in his name receive the Lord himself.

His promise of grace is boundless. The promise of the Holy Spirit is to you and your children and to all
who are afar off (Acts 2:39).
He died for all (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

And all are in need and within reach of his grace and mercy. We are given the assurance that this child
is also heir to that grace and a partaker of these promises and that he who once took little children in
his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them, will likewise favourably receive this child

and give to him/her the Holy Spirit that he/she may become a partaker of his heavenly Kingdom. Let us
therefore hear the Words of Institution as recorded in the First Gospel:

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