It amounted to a sensation when the rich Presbyterian elder severed his connection with his great church and joined the Baptists. It meant a bright era for the Baptist church. Before a year rolled around a handsome new building had been erected on a commanding lot in the center of the town. Without offering any opposition to his old Presbyterian church, Sterling plunged into the work of his new charge with whole-hearted devotion. He made a study of the Baptist denomination in the state of Kentucky and in the South and North. One of his first acts was to subscribe for several Baptist papers, and it was interesting to Dorothy to note with what eagerness he read everything in the papers, and each time his reading was punctuated with exclamations of surprise at the world-wide activities of the Baptists as he saw them recorded in the columns of the papers. He found himself enthusiastic about their history and their present enterprises The efforts of the State Mission Board greatly interested him, and he determined to get into close touch with it. He told his wife that he intended to identify himself with all these denominational movements and share their burdens.
The Baptists of Kentucky and of the whole country have reason to be grateful for the day when Gilbert Sterling enlisted in their ranks. He is as yet on the threshold of his usefulness. He is studying the needs and tasks of his denomination, seeking to know how he can devote his strength and his possessions most effectively to its upbuilding. There is no happier Baptist family in Kentucky and none destined to a wider usefulness than that of the Sterlings.
(THE END.)