Dorothy was consulting her concordance.
"Here is another passage in the third chapter and twenty-third verse."
"Let us have it," said the father.
She read: "'And John also was baptizing in Aenon, near to Salem, because there was much water there.'"
"Much water!" exclaimed Mr. Page. "What about that, Friend Sterling?"
"I think that is plain. There were great multitudes following John and camping around him, and he selected a place where there would be abundant water for the cattle. The country was dry in many places."
"But it says he was baptizing there because there was much water there," said Dorothy.
"That simply means that he did his baptizing in that section because of the abundance of the water for the cattle," insisted Sterling.
"What is your reason, Mr. Sterling," asked Dorothy, "for saying it was the cattle that John had in mind?"
"You mentioned the passage as indicating immersion," continued Sterling, "and I replied that the mention of much water did not necessarily prove immersion, because it may have had reference to the cattle rather than to the mode of the baptism. And besides, the dryness of that Oriental country is another fact that indicates that John selected the place for watering the cattle."