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.

CHAPTER V.

HANDLING THE THREE THOUSAND.

That evening Sterling opened the discussion: "Miss Dorothy, I have
listened in these discussions to what are evidently stock passages of
the immersionists. But let us go deeper into the matter."

"But why do you call them stock passages of the immersionists?" asked
Dorothy in surprise. "I did not get them from any immersionists. I told
you I thought I saw passages in the Bible teaching immersion and you
said no. I was asked to show these passages and I have been showing
them."

"Very well, we will not dispute on that point, my fair debater, but I
will try now to show you that it was impossible that immersion could
have been intended in these Bible passages. I think I can show you that
certain baptisms could not have been immersions."

"Good for