Acts 8:39

“And when they came up out of the water...” That translation sounds favorable to immersion. I now give you another, which is equally correct:

“And when they came up from the water...” I verily trow the blessed Holy Spirit gave us this passage in that ambiguous verbiage, lest some one might be stickleristic on the quantity of water and the manner of its application, and thus run into a very dangerous form of idolatry, i. e., hydrolatry, i. e., water-worship, i. e., the imputation of saving efficacy to water baptism, which is a fond delusion, and has doubtless sent multitudes to hell who relied on water-baptism and human works instead of Jesus only. Such is the ambiguity of this passage that we can not tell whether they went into it and Philip immersed the entire body, or whether they simply went to the spring and took up some water with which Philip baptized him according to Isaiah 52:15, which the eunuch had read and Philip preached. When the publicans demanded of our Savior and Peter the payment of taxes, and He sent Peter to the sea to catch that fish with the money in its mouth, the statement of Peter's going down to the sea is precisely identical with the Greek in this passage. Hence if you do not believe that Peter waded into the sea to catch the fish, you need not believe that Philip and the eunuch waded into the sea in order to the baptism. Suffice it to say, reader, God has made plenty of water. So take all you want in your baptism. If you are not satisfied, go on till your conscience is perfectly satisfied (1 Peter 3:21). You had better live and die without water-baptism than to receive it under the popish heresy of baptismal regeneration, which is very likely to so blind your eyes that you will never see the Savior, live and die ignorant of God and make your bed in hell. So pay no attention to baptism nor anything else, but fly to the Savior, get intelligently saved and receive the Savior's baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. There abide, keeping your eye on Jesus, and assuredly He will keep His hand on you. When you are thus clearly and intelligently saved and sanctified, consciously baptized by the Savior with the Holy Ghost and fire, witnessed clearly and unmistakably by the indwelling Holy Spirit, then we can safely tell you to take all the water you want and any way you want, fully satisfying all of your convictions, as then there is no danger of your becoming a poor, superstitious, deluded devotee of Satan's water-god like multiplied millions, who have thus been side-tracked by the devil into idolatry and lost their souls. We have not a word of criticism for immersion, trine immersion, copious effusion or simple sprinkling, pursuant to your convictions, if you only receive the “one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5), i. e., the baptism of the Holy Ghost administered by the Savior. What was the character of the eunuch's conversion? It is simply preposterous to conclude that this man was a sinner.

(a) He was a man of sterling integrity, actually entrusted with the money of the kingdom;

(b) he was a Jewish proselyte, a bona fide member of God's Church in his dispensation;

(c) he actually traveled fifteen hundred miles to worship God in His temple on Mt. Moriah in the holy city;

(d) he loved his precious Bible, so that he carried it with him and even read it as he rode along;

(e) he hailed God's prophet with delight, gave him a seat by his side and received with enthusiasm the thrilling tidings that the Christ of prophecy, whom he worshipped and trusted for salvation, had already come into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, suffered and died on Calvary's cross, risen and ascended into heaven. The argument even favors the conclusion that he was a sanctified man, as we see not a vestige of prejudice, bigotry or jealousy rising to eclipse his eyes to the truth which Philip preached. The case is clear and even demonstrative that he was a pious and faithful member of the Jewish Church, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna and many others, and simply needed conversion to the Christhood of Jesus, like thousands of other pious Jews serving God in the full light of their dispensation, needing not conversion to God, but to the Christhood of Jesus, a mere matter of historic faith, having already been saved by justifying faith in the Christ of prophecy. I doubt not that item of history which certifies that the Ethiopian eunuch who raised the shout in the presence of Philip, “went on his way rejoicing,” stirring the people along the road, telling them of Jesus, His redeeming grace and dying love, arriving at Thebes, the Ethiopian capital, turns preacher and shakes the whole country with a spiritual earthquake, pressing the evangelistic work as the years go by, till finally the Apostle Matthew comes to his relief, taking Ethiopia for his field of labor, where he preached on till bloody martyrdom crowned his triumphant exit from earth to heaven.