"I think, Mr. Sterling," said Dorothy, "that the verse shows that the important thing about baptism is the way it is performed; that it is not water that makes the baptism; that it may be water, or it may be the Spirit, or possibly it may be something else; but that the important thing is the way it is performed. In other words, it must be like a burial and a rising again. It looks to me as if Paul is showing what a wonderful experience a person's conversion is."
"Exactly," said the father, "and I suppose the writer could not express that spiritual change in conversion better than to call it a baptism by the Spirit, and he showed mighty clearly his notion about baptism; to him it was a burial and a rising again.'
"I think there is something more wonderful still about that passage," said Dorothy. "I think you can see two baptisms in the verse, the water baptism and the Spirit baptism. Paul draws a picture of the conversion of a soul. It is a change worked in the soul by the Spirit, and as the Spirit works on the soul the soul dies to his old life and rises to a new life. But that is just like what takes place when the person is baptized in water. He is buried out of sight in the water and then rises again, and the water baptism is an exact picture of the spiritual baptism. Surely Paul must have had the two baptisms in mind when he wrote this."
"It looks mightily that way," said Mr. Page.
"Another thing," said Dorothy, all aglow with her interpretation of the passage, "doesn't this show why Christ commanded baptism? You see, he knew that every true Christian must pass through this spiritual experience at conversion—the baptism of the Spirit—and he decided to give his people an outward ceremony that would be a sign, or picture, of the inward spiritual change that they must have, and so he commanded immersion, as if he would say: 'Here is a picture of what I command of everyone—this burial in the water and rising again; it is the picture of that spiritual change that must occur in everyone that would be my follower'. He commands two things, a spiritual burial and rising and a material burial and rising; two baptisms, one of the Spirit to come first and a baptism of the water to come second as a sign of the first baptism."
"If that is true, Friend Sterling," said the father, "then it would seem a pretty serious thing to change the form of the baptism. If the founder of Christianity commanded these two baptisms, one a picture of the other, then it looks to me mighty risky to tamper with either of them. Now, if you put sprinkling in the place of immersion you destroy the whole meaning in the work of conversion. The two don't go together at all. You don't have a burial by sprinkling a few drops of dirt on a person. It is not a matter of much water or little water. The important thing is that it be a burial and rising again."
It was a new experience for Sterling, He had begun the discussion with the thought that Dorothy would be delighted with the doctrines of his great church. She had seemed on the point of joining. He was irritated that the conversation had been hung up on the baptismal controversy. Besides, the passages in favor of immersion bewildered him. His religious life had been spent largely among close adherents of Presbyterianism and he had rarely heard his doctrines called in question. Whenever he had heard allusions to the Baptists and their beliefs it was generally accompanied with a smile or a sneer and he had come to regard the dippings of the Baptists as a joke. The passages which they had just considered unveiled New Testament baptism before him in a new light, and while he could not believe that immersion was Bible baptism, yet he felt that he could never as formerly treat immersion in a joking manner.
The discussion was becoming exciting for him. He saw that the battle was on. As he thought of Dorothy drifting away from his faith and his church he had a sinking of heart, and yet he also felt that if he could not win her by the truth to his position he would not win her in any other way. Consequently he warmed to the fray.
He had promised to join the family circle on the next evening and resume the discussion. His work kept him closely confined at his office during the morning. He hurried home for a tennis game in the afternoon, and promptly that evening he appeared in the library at the Page's ready for the contest.