"Mr. Walton, what about myself?" asked Mr. Garland. "Would you permit me to commune at your table?"
"Permit you? Mr. Garland, I have stated that we do not turn anybody away."
"Exactly. But you make it plain whom you want and it amounts to a prohibition. Nobody wants to go where he is not wanted. But tell me, do you think I have taken the necessary steps before communion? I have accepted Christ as my Savior, I have been immersed and am a member of a church that believes in immersion as the only baptism and that does not believe in infant baptism. These are the same doctrines as those held by the Baptists. Would you therefore say that I am qualified to come to the table?"
"I have always understood, Mr. Garland, that your view of baptism was not the same as ours; that you regard baptism as a necessary part of conversion, and in that respect we think you have made a mistake regarding baptism. Scriptural baptism is one of the steps laid down to be taken before the communion, and consequently I think you have not taken that particular step. Those who partook of the communion in Christ's day were baptized because they had believed and were already saved, but you have been baptized in order to be saved. Yours is a different kind of baptism from the Bible baptism."
"I thought immersion constituted baptism?"
"Ah, that is a mistake very frequently made. There is something else in baptism besides the form. There must be the right motive as well as the right mode. I think that when you go down into the water, not that you may typify your death to your old life and your rising to a new life—a change that has already taken place within you—but in order that in some way your baptism may complete your salvation, you rob baptism of its chief glory. It is not the same baptism that Christ commanded. He did not go down into the water in order to be saved nor in order that it might work any change in him, but simply to show forth certain truths and to fulfill all righteousness."
"I don't believe you have answered my question," said Mr. Garland. "Do you think I am entitled to partake of the communion?"
"I am not your judge, but if you ask my opinion I am bound to say that I do not think your baptism was after the Scriptural order—that is, if in your baptism you regarded it as completing your salvation."
"But do you think I have a right to commune?"
"You must follow your conscience on that point."