re buried with him by sprinkling into
death.'"

"Oh, my," said Mr. Page, bursting into a laugh, "where did you ever see
anyone buried by sprinkling a few drops of earth upon him? Say, Friend
Sterling, how did this idea of sprinkling get into so many churches? It
certainly does not seem to have a single leg to stand upon."

"I can give you some passages where the word sprinkle would sound
natural; for example this passage: 'Go ye into all the world and preach
the Gospel unto every creature, and he that believeth and is sprinkled
shall be saved.' That sounds just as natural as if it read 'he that
believeth and is immersed shall be saved'."

"Maybe so," said Mr. Page, "but it sounds just a little limp to me.
Besides, you could hardly put the word 'pour' in that passage. If you
want to make a real point you must give some passage where the word
'sprinkle' would sound natural and the word 'immerse' would seem out of
place."

"Yes," spoke up Dorothy. "Can you give us such a passage, Mr. Sterling?"

"I have such a passage and it will show that immersion could not have
been the mode of baptism."

"Out with it," said Mr. Page.

"It is the words spoken to Saul. It reads: 'Arise and be baptized.' Now
that baptism could not have been an immersion. Saul was evidently seated
and he was told to arise or to stand up. What was he to stand up for? To
be sprinkled, of course. You would not ask a man who was seated to
stand up to be immersed."

"He would have to stand up before he could be immersed," said Dorothy.
"Why could it not read, 'Arise and be immersed'? Maybe they went off to
be immersed. And notice the first part of the verse. It reads: 'Now why
tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on
the name of the Lord.' Those first words 'why tarriest thou' explain the
other part. In the first place, he had to arise; that is, to get up in
order that he might go off to some place where he could be immersed. In
the next place, he tells him not to tarry, not to wait, but to arise and
be baptized."

"Good for you, daughter. It does look as if you were telling him not to
delay his baptism, but to get up and attend to it."

There was a lull in the conversation for a moment, and then the father
asked: "What kind of baptism did they have in the churches just after
the apostles died? Don't we find anything in history about the kind of
baptism that was practiced?"

Dorothy spoke up promptly: "I was reading