"Well, who are entitled to baptism?"
"Let me get my concordance," said Dorothy, rising from her seat, "and look at the passages about baptism so as to see who are commanded to be baptized."
She began with the aid of the concordance to pick out the passages having the word "baptize" in them. She read: "'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.'"
"Hello!" said the father. "Who said that?"
"Those are the words of Christ," said Doctor Vincent.
"That looks as if a person had to believe before he could be baptized. But give us another one, daughter."
"Here is one: 'When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.'"
"There it is again," exclaimed the father, "believing coming before baptizing."
"And notice," said Dorothy, "it says they were baptized 'both men and women', but it does not say 'and children'. But here is another: 'See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he said, if thou believest with all thy heart thou mayst be baptized.'"
"There it is again," spoke up the father. "If he believed then he could be baptized. Evidently that writer considered believing essential to baptism."