ouse, but simply a sound as of a wind. It was
therefore only a sound that filled the house, and sound could not fill
the house because sound has no existence except in the ears of those who
hear it. Where, then, is your immersion? You say they were immersed in
sound that day, and you call that baptism of the Spirit?"

"Mr. Sterling," said Dorothy in surprise, "you amaze me. The writer must
mean that the Spirit filled the house. I saw in my reading this week a
foot note that the wind in Scripture often symbolizes the Spirit."

"Certainly," spoke up the brother. "_Pneuma_ in Greek means both
'spirit' and 'wind'."

"Is that so?" exclaimed Dorothy eagerly. "That makes it plain. It was
the wind that filled the room and they knew it by sound. They heard this
sound like a wind and it filled all the house--notice, 'all the
house'--and this wind symbolized the Spirit and it was called the
baptism of the Spirit, and it certainly looked more like an immersion
than a pouring. Why, Mr. Sterling, I think it would lose all its
impressiveness if you make it simply the coming of a few drops of the
Spirit on them."

"Just listen to that," said the father with a laugh. "She is actually
trying to turn your guns on you, Sterling, and to make this verse prove
immersion rather than pouring."

"I note one striking fact," said Sterling, "and do not forget it. The
passage speaks of pouring, and I do not see the word immersion."

"But I see the picture of immersion," said Dorothy. "The important fact
about that scene seems to me to be the abundant way in which the Spirit
came. It was a rushing, in fact, a mighty wind. It filled all the house.
Suppose some people were in a room and water was poured on them in such
a deluge that the room was filled with the water. Wouldn't that look
like an immersion rather than like pouring?"

"No," said Sterling; "you don't immerse people by pouring water on them
and covering them up. You don't put the water around them, but you put
them in the water. You must put them in the water to have an immersion,
but nothing like that was done on that day. Besides, in an immersion you
not only put the person in the water, but you bring him up again out of
the water to show a resurrection as is claimed. There was nothing like
this on the day of Pentecost in the baptism of the Spirit. The disciples
were not plunged into the Spirit and they were not taken immediately up
out of the Spirit again. If you should use water