der from a clear sky," the question, "Where is
the scriptural authority for this?" I had heard it perhaps a hundred
times. I was as familiar with it as I was with the alphabet, but for
the first time in life the thought came to me with the suddenness of
lightning, "Where is the scriptural authority for it?" I could not
remember that I had ever heard a single passage of scripture quoted in
its support, or defense. (The reader must keep in mind that up to this
time, and for several years thereafter, to me, the Bible was
infallible, inerrant, and the sole and final authority in all matters
pertaining to religion and the church.) The shock was so great, and my
mental agitation so intense, that it threw me into a fever. I went
home sick.

During the following week I read the New Testament thru in special
search for some passage to support the doctrine that baptism, in any
form, was a necessary prerequisite to a proper participation in the
Lord's Supper. _And I did not find it_. In fact I did not find any
direct evidence in the Gospel record that any of the twelve to whom
Jesus first administered this supper were ever baptized at all! and if
they were,--which is only an inference, or a reading into the record,
not what actually is there, but what somebody thinks ought to be
there,--it was not Christian baptism, but the baptism of John, which,
according to the teachings of the Baptist Church, was an entirely
different thing in meaning and purpose, tho the same in form.

John's baptism, according to the teachings of my church, was a "baptism
unto repentance," _in preparation_ for the appearance of Christ; while
Christian baptism, "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Ghost" was not instituted until _after_ the descent of the Holy
Ghost, according to the promise of Jesus, on the Day of Pentecost.
Then for the first time, and not until then, did Christian baptism in
the name of the Trinity, have any existence or meaning. It was
therefore quite clear to me, that this institution that we call the
Lord's Supper, being instituted, and first administered to persons who,
so far as we have any specific knowledge, were not baptized at all; and
who in the very nature of the case _could not_ have been baptized under
that formula commonly known as Christian baptism; therefore, whatever
meaning may be attached to the Lord's Supper, it has absolutely no
connection with, or relation to any kind, or form of baptism wha