THE BAPTIST'S ANSWER
Brother Baptist, will you give us your opinion, or answer the question, "What shall we do and believe in order to be saved?"
—"Oh, yes! the Bible is so plain upon that subject that no honest reader can misunderstand it. You are to believe in the Bible; believe in Jesus Christ, and live up to his precepts; and believe in, and practically observe, the sacred ordinance of water-baptism,—without which, according to the Bible, it is impossible to reach the kingdom, or inherit life everlasting."—"Stop, stop!" exclaims the drab-cloth Quaker again. "I perceive that the Baptists, as well as the Methodists, are not on the road to salvation. No man or woman can be saved who believes in, and relies upon, the external and carnal rite of water-baptism. It is a reliance of such outward performances that causes millions of ignorant and unconverted heathen to sink to endless ruin every year. They and you are dwelling in the outer court, and practically know nothing about the true religion essential to salvation, and hence can not be saved."
—"Now, look here," exclaims the Campbellite Baptist, "water-baptism is one of the positive ordinances; and the Bible declares that no man or woman can be saved without a compliance with all the ordinances, from the least to the greatest. Therefore there is no chance for you infidel Quakers to get to heaven; but you will, sooner or later, be consigned to the pit 'where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'" And thus we might pursue the conflicting jargon of answers through all the churches. But we stop confused and confounded amid chaos, confusion, and contradiction. All seems to be wild conjecture and blind guess-work with regard to what we must do and believe in order to be saved. There appears to be no way of learning any thing about the road to salvation by the churches. What is to be done?