nt baptism, and therefore I do not feel it would be right for me to
join his church."

"May I ask why you feel that you cannot join his church?" asked the
Doctor in a gracious manner.

"If I think the doctrines of the church are wrong, do you think I ought
to select that as the church for me to join?"

"May I ask another question?"

Sterling's hopes rose as he saw the Doctor entering upon the discussion.
He felt there could be but one result.

"Mr. Sterling has mentioned that you thought very favorably of the
doctrines of the Baptists. One of the cardinal doctrines of the Baptists
is religious liberty. That means they believe in the right of every
individual to interpret the Scripture for himself. Do you believe in
that doctrine?"

"Certainly. Don't you, Doctor?"

"I see you are putting me on the witness stand," he said with a smile.
"I answer that I assuredly do believe in such individual liberty; but it
seems to me that the Baptists are inconsistent. They demand individual
liberty and yet they cry out against us Presbyterians because we
interpret the Scriptures in a way different from them. You say, Miss
Page, you cannot join the Presbyterians because of their beliefs, but I
should not think that that ought to concern you. If you hold that
everyone must interpret the Bible for himself, then that is what the
Presbyterians are doing. In doing that they carry out the Baptist
doctrine of individual accountability to God."

Sterling was delighted. It was just as he had expected. He saw in a
flash that if the Baptists were true to their doctrine of religious
liberty they could not demand that he change his faith, but must accord
him a perfect right to his belief.

"Excuse me, Doctor," said Dorothy, "I do not think you understood me. I
do not blame the Presbyterians for drawing their own conclusions about
the Bible and believing just what they think the Bible teaches rather
than what somebody else thinks it teaches. I grant them this right, but
it does not follow that I must therefore join their church. I say let
the Presbyterians follow what they consider to be the teachings of the
Bible; but let me do the same and let me not feel that I must join their
church."

"No, my young friend, I would not say you must join the Presbyterian
church; but may I ask why you should find it impossible to join that
splendid body of Christian people? If everybody must follow his own
convictions of Bible teaching, would you say y