Baptism

noun

A sacred rite of such efficacy that he who finds himself in heaven without having undergone it will be unhappy forever. It is performed with water in two ways -- by immersion, or plunging, and by aspersion, or sprinkling.

    But whether the plan of immersion
    Is better than simple aspersion
    Let those immersed
    And those aspersed
    Decide by the Authorized Version,
    And by matching their agues tertian.

        G.J.


—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary