"Father, don't make fun of me. These facts deserve serious consideration."
"Good, daughter, go ahead. I really feel very solemn about it all."
"The other thing I found about them was their fearful suffering."
"Yes, that has already been alluded to."
"I know, but you have no idea what a chapter in the world's history these sufferings make. I saw two volumes filled simply with an account of the persecutions and sufferings of the Baptists of Holland. They were subjected to all manner of cruelties and tortures to make them give up their faith, but they stood firm and thousands and thousands in Holland alone were put to death. John Milton and John Bunyan were both imprisoned for their faith. It was a time when the governments were bitter in their punishments and the Catholic Church, and later on the other denominations also, were back of these persecutions."
"Yes," said Mr. Walton, "it is a fact that all the denominations were against the Baptists, and in a sense that has been the case ever since. In this country grievous punishments were visited upon the Baptists during their fight for religious liberty. They began their fight alone, but the world is gradually accepting their beliefs. Other denominations may not take our name, but they are taking our doctrines. I have spoken about religious freedom. Take the case of infant baptism. And, by the way, our doctrine of infant baptism has not been picked up by accident. It is logically connected with the doctrine of religious liberty."
"How can that be?" asked Sterling. "I fail to see any connection between infant baptism and religious liberty."
"The doctrine of religious liberty means that every individual is accountable to God only, and that each man's religion must be an act of his own free choice, and therefore no religious ceremony must be forced upon anyone, infant or adult, without his own consent. Infant baptism violates the principles of religious liberty and individual accountability. In fact, I think you will find that there is a logical, as well as Scriptural, connection between all our Baptist doctrines. This, however, is parenthetical. I started to speak of the spread of Baptist principles among other denominations. Three or four hundred years ago the Baptists were almost the only ones to lift their voices against the universal practice of infant baptism. How is it today? Though it is still on the creed books of the other denominations, yet it is a fact acknowledged on all sides that the practice is becoming rarer and rarer. The Baptist teaching about this practice is permeating the other denominations."
"What is that?" asked Mr. Sterling. "Infant baptism going out of use?"
"I do not say that it is on the point of going out of existence, but I do say that under the influence of Baptist teaching it is becoming rarer and rarer."