They were to be baptized into the name of the Father, as a
sign that God was their Father, and they His children. They were to
be baptized into the name of the Son, as a sign that the Son, Jesus
Christ, was their King and head; and not merely their King and head,
but their Saviour, who had taken away the sin of the world, and
redeemed it for God, with His own most precious blood; and not merely
their Saviour, but their pattern; that they might know that they were
bound to become as far as is possible for mortal man such sons of God
as Jesus himself had been, like Him obedient, pure, forgiving,
brotherly, caring for each other and not for themselves, doing their
heavenly Father's will and not their own. And they were to baptize
all nations into the name of the Holy Spirit, for a sign that God's
Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, would be with them, to give them
new life, new holiness, new manfulness; to teach, and guide, and
strengthen them for ever. That was the gospel which they had to
preach. The good news that the Son of God was the King of men. That
was the name into which they were to baptize all nations--the name of
children of God, members of Christ, heirs of a heavenly and spiritual
kingdom, which should go on age after age, for ever, growing and
spreading men knew not how, as the grains of mustard-seed, which at
first the least of all seeds, grows up into a great tree, and the
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches of it--to go on, I
say, from age to age, improving, cleansing, and humanising, and
teaching the whole world, till the kingdoms of the earth became the
kingdoms of God and of His Christ.
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