e families?"

"Not absolutely sure, but almost; at any rate the burden of proof is on
those who deny that infants were in any of those families."

"Show us some of the accounts of family baptisms," said the father. "It
does look a little curious, daughter."

They turned first to Acts 16:13-15: "'And a certain woman, named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard
us, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things that
were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized and her household she
besought us, saying.'"

"How do you know there were any infants in her household? It does not
even say she was married," said Dorothy. "She was a seller of purple and
maybe she was an unmarried woman working for her living. At any rate I
do not see that you can prove that she had any infants in her
household."

"It looks to me," said the father, "as if that woman was a working woman
and as if her household were her fellow-workers, and that there were
probably no infants among them."

"Here is another passage," said the Doctor, "in 1 Corinthians 1:16: 'And
I baptized also the household of Stephanus.' Will you affirm there were
no infants there? How many households do you think I could baptize
without hitting upon an infant? Why do you exclude infants?"

The brother was busy looking through the concordance to see if he could
find out something more about this Stephanus and his household, and in a
few moments he exclaimed: "Here is some light on the household of
Stephanus in 1 Corinthians 15:15. It reads: 'Ye know the house of
Stephanus.' There you have it again--'the house of Stephanus'. That must
have been an interesting house: 'Ye know the house of Stephanus, that it
is the first fruits of Achaia and that they have addicted themselves to
the ministry of the saints.'"

"You see, Doctor," said Dorothy, "it seems that that household were
intelligent people and acted for themselves, and therefore were not
infants. Just notice what it says--that the house of Stephanus were 'the
first fruits of Achaia'. What does that mean--'the first fruits'?"

"Why, the first fruits are the first grain that is gathered in a
harvest."

"Oh, I see. Then the members of Stephanus' household were the first ones
to accept Christianity in Achaia, and if they accepted Christianity of
course they were not infants."

"But it may have meant that they were the first ones in Achaia to be
baptized--'the first