h dying infants who they thought would be lost if they were
not baptized."

"Oh, never," said the Doctor.

"Well, I remember in a house where I was boarding while at college that
a mother thought her little infant was about to die and she sent off
immediately for the preacher to baptize her child, for she said she was
afraid it would be lost if it died without baptism. Now, if that mother
had that idea about baptism, why may not many others have the same idea
about baptism?"

"Since I come to think of it," admitted the Doctor, "I myself have had
quite a number of excited mothers to ask me to baptize their sick
infants because they were afraid for them to die without baptism; but
they are the exceptions and of course their fears were entirely
groundless. This is a Catholic doctrine. The Catholics teach, that
baptism saves the infant, but we teach no such doctrine."

"But is it not natural for the mother to get such an idea about
baptism?" asked Dorothy. "They come to think that it keeps the child
from being lost and the child, as it grows up, would get the idea from
the mother that it was saved because of its baptism in infancy. If the
mother thought the baptism saved her child, why would she not be apt to
tell this to the child, and how awful it would be for a child when grown
to think that it was saved when actually it was lost. Doctor Vincent,
this doctrine seems to me to be a frightful one. It looks as if it might
do a world of harm, and I cannot see where it does a particle of good;
and besides, it is so different from that principle which father said
just now was one of the characteristics of religion, and that is that
religion must be a personal matter. Each soul must be accountable to
God, and it is what I do and not what somebody else does for me for
which I shall be held responsible."

"My daughter," said the Doctor, "I have let the discussion run along for
awhile in this fashion without mentioning the main feature and benefit
of infant baptism. It is a dedicatory ceremony. The parent brings the
child and offers or dedicates it in baptism to God; and not only that,
never forget that the baptism does not stop with that."

"With what?" asked Dorothy.

"With the sprinkling of the water."

"You say the baptism does not stop with the sprinkling of the water?
What else, then, Doctor, is added?"

"Why, the parent not only dedicates the child to God, but solemnly
promises to watch over the child and to seek