ntented
glance at the speaker; and the worthy doctor directed his eyes, full of
heartfelt sorrow, upon the youth, and sighed--'Another lamb gone astray
from the flock, whom I cannot lead back to the protecting fold. This it
is, that makes me sad.'

'You have not answered my question,' said Alf, with the triumph of the
controversialist.

'Of what advantage is it to show the way to the blind, who will not see
it?' cried the doctor: 'I could answer you, that Christ's apostles
could only baptize adults, because those only came over to christianity
at first; but that, at a later period, the burning zeal of the great
Augustine placed near the heart of the christian fathers the duty of
consecrating their children to Christ through the holy baptism into the
covenant, and thereby to deliver them from the original sin and impart
to them the redemption through Christ, before peradventure they should
be snatched away in their tender youth by a premature death. Would to
God that this schism was the only one that your companions in your
mistaken faith defend with such terrible obstinacy and fierceness. You
have yet other dogmas which you advance, sufficient to convert our
earth, God's beautiful temple, into a den of murderers. Your community
of goods, your equality of rank, your struggle against secular
authority, lead directly to lawless confusion, robbery, murder, and
unhappy revolution.'

'Even the best opinions may be misconstrued,' replied Alf, angrily.
'The gospel looks upon all men as equal. The distinctions made among
them by birth, rank, and wealth, are contrary to its spirit. Christians
who possess the doctrines of God as precepts, and take his spirit for
their guide, need no power that destroys religious liberty without
authority. They are able to govern themselves by the word of God, and
the Holy Spirit will always guide them, that they stumble not in the
paths in which they are led by their faith.'

'Unhappy, infatuated youth!' cried the doctor, with a majestic
prophetic look and tone. 'Go now into the unfortunate city, and behold
how the anabaptist spirit has conducted your companions to robbery,
incendiarism and murder, in the smoking ruins of the cloister, and in
the bleeding bodies which strew the highways! If this horrible
spectacle be not enough to move your heart, think of the words which in
this sad hour I address to you in the name of that God whom your
proceedings profane. These crimes will be but the begi