ny must be forced
upon anyone, infant or adult, without his own consent. Infant baptism
violates the principles of religious liberty and individual
accountability. In fact, I think you will find that there is a logical,
as well as Scriptural, connection between all our Baptist doctrines.
This, however, is parenthetical. I started to speak of the spread of
Baptist principles among other denominations. Three or four hundred
years ago the Baptists were almost the only ones to lift their voices
against the universal practice of infant baptism. How is it today?
Though it is still on the creed books of the other denominations, yet it
is a fact acknowledged on all sides that the practice is becoming rarer
and rarer. The Baptist teaching about this practice is permeating the
other denominations."

"What is that?" asked Mr. Sterling. "Infant baptism going out of use?"

"I do not say that it is on the point of going out of existence, but I
do say that under the influence of Baptist teaching it is becoming rarer
and rarer."

"Even though it should be somewhat on the wane--which I do not at all
admit, Mr. Walton--yet supposing it to be the case, what have the
Baptists to do with it?"

"I thought such questions might come up and so I came prepared," Mr.
Walton replied, drawing a newspaper clipping from his pocket. "Here is
something written by Lyman Abbott in the Outlook of November, 1897."

"Is he a Baptist?" asked Dorothy.

"No, indeed," replied Sterling.

"Does he believe in infant baptism?" she asked.

"Yes. What is your quotation from Dr. Abbott, Mr. Walton?"

"Dr. Abbott is writing about the Baptist Congress that had held a recent
meeting."

"The Baptist Congress?" exclaimed Dorothy. "What is that?"

"It is a meeting where Baptist men from different parts of the country
come together once a year and discuss different religious subjects, and
they call it a Baptist Congress, but of course they make no laws. Now,
Dr. Abbott was writing about one of these Baptist Congresses, and he
says: 'They (the Baptists) all hold, and hold as strongly as ever, that
apostolic baptism was a symbolic expression of repentance and faith, and
that to baptize infants that can neither repent nor exercise faith is a
change of the original ceremony from its original purpose. Historical
scholarship abundantly confirms this contention. Infant baptism was
unknown in the apostolic church. The change can be justified only on the
ground that no