"No," said Dorothy. "Don't you remember, father, how I told you that the figures state that the Baptists are next to the largest denomination in the United States except the Catholics?"
"In Georgia," said Mr. Walton, "one person out of every four is a Baptist, and it is almost that way in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. I understand that the Baptists of Georgia pay over half the taxes of that state. They are a mighty army in the South and in the world."
All of these things were a revelation to Mr. Sterling. As to Dorothy, her mind had been made up many days ago, and her path of duty was as clear as a sunbeam to her, and it led straight to the Baptist church. Mr. Sterling had within him a storm of thoughts that he could not still. His efforts to win Dorothy for his faith and his church seemed to have utterly failed, and she appeared to be drifting further and further away from him. He was tortured by the thought that he might lose her. Besides, there was the chaos in which his mind had been left by the recent discussions and disclosures. The evidence in favor of immersion as the Bible mode of baptism, and the violation of Scripture teaching in the case of infant baptism, as well as the Bible teaching regarding church government, stared him in the face. It rose above all his ties of kindred and church and above all arguments that he could summon to his aid in favor of his position, but he dared not let anyone suspect his state of mind.
He was eager to follow the matter still further, though he felt as if he were moving towards a precipice. It may to some thoughtless ones seem a trifling matter for one to abandon a position as to doctrinal matters and accept other truths. Men are constantly altering their opinions: but for a Presbyterian elder—especially one filled with an ambition for high usefulness in his church, whose ancestors on his father's and mother's side have been of his faith—for him to come out before his church and before the public and acknowledge that he was wrong, to give up his doctrines and his church and his prospects and his large circle of kindred and friends and link himself with an obscure and almost despised band of people meant a crisis, and he did not even permit himself to consider it. He merely tried to regard the restlessness in his mind as transient and to think that soon he would settle into his former composure and confidence. That night as he sat in his room he remembered having seen in the afternoon paper the statement that Dr. R. L. Boardman, one of the most learned professors in the Princeton Theological Seminary, a leading Presbyterian institution, was to lecture that evening in the adjoining town about ten miles distant. In a moment Sterling decided on his plan. He determined upon a desperate attempt. Next morning by telephone he gained Dorothy's consent to a conversation with Dr. Boardman in case he could persuade him to come over for that purpose. Before nine o'clock the next morning Sterling had reached the Doctor by telephone and made an engagement to meet him, and in less than an hour his automobile had whirled him to the next town, and there Sterling told the Doctor of his friend who was seeking to know her duty as to church membership, and he besought him to return with him and in the evening to visit with him his friends at the Page home and to set the young lady right on the matter of sprinkling and infant baptism and church membership.
Sterling won the day and a few hours later he and the Doctor were speeding along the road to Sterling's home. Sterling hung his hopes high on the Doctor, who was a noted authority on Presbyterian doctrines. He felt as if he were staking everything on the conversation of that evening.
Mr. Page, when he learned that the Princeton professor and the Baptist preacher would both be on hand that evening, knew that the discussion would be lively.