somewhere else.

But these impressions did not last long. My fundamental theology had
not changed. The Bible was still an infallible divine revelation.
Humanity was still lost, totally depraved, abiding under the "wrath of
God"; hell was a reality towards which all humanity was bound; and the
only means of escape was to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ"
according to the prescribed formula. The burden of my personal
responsibility soon returned. I could not escape it. True, I was out
of the church--the Baptist Church; but it seemed quite evident that God
was using other agencies, outside the Baptist Church, for the salvation
of souls, and seemed to be doing it quite successfully. If God could
so use the Methodist Church for this purpose, why might not I? What
did baptism amount to anyway? I was never taught that it was necessary
to salvation. And if not, why make such a fuss about it? If a person
was already saved, and it was only "an outward sign of an inward
grace," what difference could it make how it was administered, who
administered it, or whether it was administered at all?

These were some of the questions that ran thru my mind. I also began
to note that there were at least a few places in the New Testament that
might be fairly interpreted to imply that baptism was, at least, _not
always_ by immersion.

For example, the baptism of so many thousands on the Day of Pentecost
in Jerusalem, where the supply of water was very limited, and this all
under the control of the enemies of the new religion. The immersion of
so many, in so short a time and under such circumstances and conditions
was next to a physical impossibility, while easily probable if done by
sprinkling.

By these processes of reasoning, in the course of some two years, I
found a congenial home in the Methodist Church, at first with some
trepidation, but soon afterwards with perfect satisfaction. While this
change in church relations involved quite a radical change in matters
of ecclesiastical organization and polity, it must be kept in mind that
it _did not_ involve any material change in matters of fundamental
theology. But let it be noted here that during all this time I was
striving for some degree of religious liberty; and in passing from the
Baptist to the Methodist Church, I was at least making some progress
towards it, however small it might be. To shorten my story, in a few
months I found myself a "circuit rider" in the Louis