id that all through the centuries
since Christ there seem to have been bands of Christian people
believing substantially what the Baptists of today believe. This was not
proved with absolute certainty, but all the evidence points that way.
The great Roman church came into power and ruled the religious world,
but there were always bands of Christians protesting against Catholicism
and standing up for those truths and practices which they believed the
Bible taught. Baptist historians say that these persecuted churches held
very largely what the Baptists of today believe."

"Exactly," said Sterling. "You say that the Baptist historians claim
that these Christian sects who in every century protested against
Catholicism and stood up for Christianity were Baptists. Of course
Baptist historians claim that these Christians were Baptists. Suppose,
however, you had read Presbyterian histories; who knows but that you
would have read that there were in every century Presbyterian churches?"

"But how could this be? I read in two or three places that the
Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians and many of the other
denominations were the fruit of the Reformation, and came after the
sixteenth century."

"Daughter, you seem to have these histories at your finger ends."

"I do not know very much about them, but I have read everything in the
library that would throw light upon the matters that we have been
discussing, and I have made full notes from my reading."

"Your statements sound strange, Miss Dorothy," said Mr. Sterling, "for
the Baptists evidently were one of those numerous sects that sprang out
of and were a part of the Protestant Reformation."

"Two or three of the books that I examined said that the Baptists
existed before the Reformation and helped to bring about the
Reformation, and that they did much to shape the Reformation both in
Holland and in England and in other places."

"Miss Dorothy," said Mr. Sterling, "the idea seems preposterous to me
that the Baptists existed before the Reformation."

"Here is a statement that I read in 'Mosheim's History of Antiquity', in
which he says 'the origin of the Baptists is lost in the depths of
antiquity'."

"Does Mosheim say that?" asked Mr. Sterling. "Why, he was a noted
writer."

"I found that three or four hundred years ago the Baptists were called
Anabaptists, and that they gradually dropped the first part of their
name."

"What does the word Anabaptist mean?"