Every Christian parent who now takes a child to the font of baptism should try and choose a name with some good meaning in it, and should endeavour to bring up the child to live a life worthy of its name, even as the parents of Timothy gave him a name which means " one who fears God," and early taught him in the Holy Scriptures that he might learn what God would have him to do.
2. No matter what name our parents may have given us, all who are baptized have the very best of names. It is the name of Christ, the name of "Christian."(1) It is the oldest name, older than all the Howards or Sydneys of England, older than Saxon or Norman, or Jew, or Greek, or Roman. The name of Christ, which we bear, is from everlasting.(2) It is the noblest name; most great families derive their name from some famous act of their founder, some great victory, or some wide estate; our name is better than all, for we are named after the greatest Conqueror, one who triumphed at the price of His own blood, one who conquered Death and Satan, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. We are a royal family, for we bear the name of the King of kings, a better name than that of Caesar, or Pharaoh, or Tudor, or Stuart: all old families have a crest and a coat of arms, but our arms are the best, and they are the Cross.(3) It is an everlasting name; some of the grandest old names in England have died out, many of the proudest family names are only to be seen on a tomb, but the name of our family will never be extinct, it becomes better known every year, and will be spread far and wide till "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea." What, then, is required of us who bear such a name? The son of a good father would not willingly disgrace the name which has been made famous, so we must remember whose name we bear.
(J. W. Buxton.)
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