"Suppose people in the days of the apostles did become baptized quickly after conversion," said Mr. Garland, "would that prove that no one has a right to commune before he has been baptized?"
"I think it does, if we find that in every case the first thing people did after believing was to be baptized. It must mean that they were instructed by the apostles that baptism came first."
"Do you mean that it would have been wrong for them to have done anything whatever before baptism?"
"Of course they could not cease all activity."
"Why, then, do you pick out the Lord"s Supper as something they must not engage in until they were baptized?"
"Because," said Sterling, "there are two ordinances, and if the ordinance of baptism always came first, then the other ordinance must not come first, and so I think it is clear that only baptized persons had the right to the table. Don"t you remember about the people converted on the day of Pentecost? It reads "then they that gladly received his words were baptized", and then in the next verse we read that "they continued steadfastly in the apostles" doctrines and prayer and in breaking of bread". Notice "breaking of bread" came after baptism."
"Does the Bible say anything about who ought to commune or who did commune in those days?" asked Dorothy.
"Get your concordance, daughter," said the father.
Dorothy did so and soon turned to a pa.s.sage about the Lord"s Supper. "In First Corinthians, chapter nine, the writer is writing to some people about celebrating the Lord"s Supper."
"Is that so!" exclaimed the father. "Find out then whom he is writing to and who are taking part in that supper, and that will answer your question."
"It was the Corinthian church," said Mr. Sterling.
"If it was the members of the church who were taking communion, then they must all have been baptized, don"t you think so, Mr. Garland?"
asked Dorothy.
"I guess the members of that church at Corinth which was founded by Paul were all baptized."
"It does look plain, then," said Dorothy, "that all those early Christians were first baptized and then took the communion and then performed the duties that came up."
"Yes," spoke up Mr. Sterling, glad to join the forces with Dorothy against Garland, "baptism was a duty to be performed once and for all time and in the beginning, but the communion is something that is to be observed right along through the Christian life at regular times."
"Mr. Garland," said Dorothy, "I can"t understand why anyone should want to come to the communion table before he is baptized. Why does he not do the first duty first?"
"I don"t see the point in all this," said the father. "I think it is a clear proposition that baptism always comes first after believing and before communion. But all the churches baptize--Presbyterians, Disciples, Methodists and the rest. Why, then, cannot they all commune together?"
"Ah!" said Mr. Garland with a smile, "there is the point. These other denominations have been sprinkled, but according to the Bible they have not been baptized. Now if I believed that baptism had to come before communion, I would not commune with the Presbyterians, Methodists and others who sprinkle, because I do not believe they have been scripturally baptized; but even though I think them unbaptized, yet I would invite them to the communion, because I do not think baptism is necessary to the communion."
"That certainly sounds strange," said Dorothy. "Why, I thought you considered baptism so important that a person could not be saved unless he was baptized; and now you say baptism is not necessary for the communion. That seems contradictory. I should think if baptism is essential to salvation it surely would be essential to taking the communion. Do you think a person ought to take the communion who has not been converted?"
"Of course not."
"This is what puzzles me," said Dorothy. "You say a person can"t be converted without baptism. If an unbaptized person should come to your communion table claiming to be converted, would you not have to deny his conversion because he had not been baptized? You say you do not require baptism before communion, and yet when you require conversion before communion you thereby require baptism before communion, because you say there can be no conversion without baptism. In other words, you must hold that an unbaptized person cannot come to your table."
"That does look like a clear proposition, daughter," said Mr. Page.
"Let me ask you this question, Mr. Garland," said Dorothy: "Why do you admit members of other denominations to your table?"
"Because it is not my table, but the Lord"s table, and I have no right to shut any of his people out."
"You think the members of other denominations are Christians, then, do you?"
"Certainly they are; probably as good Christians as we are. We do not set ourselves up as being better than others."
"How can you think they are Christians? You do not think with their sprinkling and pouring they have been scripturally baptized, do you?"
"No, I do not."
"How, then, can you think them converted? I understood you to say that none are perfectly converted and saved until after baptism, and you say that sprinkling and pouring are not Scriptural baptism. Therefore you must think they are not Scripturally converted and saved."
"But such people think they have been scripturally baptized, and they do what they consider right."
"But do you think it is right?"
"It is right for them."
"Do you think anybody will be saved if he will only do what he thinks is right for him? Suppose a person should come up and say that he believed that touching the tip of the little finger in the water was baptism, would you say that baptism would be all right for him?"
"Well, hardly," he said with a laugh.
"I declare, Mr. Garland," said Dorothy, "you confuse me. I really don"t understand what you believe. It may be my stupidity. I wish I did understand. One thing, however, seems clear to me, and that is that in the Bible teaching the first thing that comes after conversion is baptism. I certainly do not think that I ought to go to the communion table in a church before I have been baptized."
"You don"t seem to be able to accept the views of Mr. Garland"s denomination," said Sterling.
"I want to say," said Mr. Garland, "that there are variations within our own ranks. In some sections of the country our denomination is more radical in its views than in other sections. In the East our people are not so p.r.o.nounced as we of the West are in regard to the relation of baptism to salvation."
In response to Sterling"s remark to Dorothy about her accepting the doctrines of the Disciples, she replied:
"No, I cannot accept the views of Mr. Garland. I am not sure that I understand clearly what his doctrines are, and yet from what he has said about free or open communion and baptism I must say they do not seem to me to be in accordance with the Bible teaching. I am speaking frankly, Mr. Garland. I have been interested in your statement of the doctrines of your church, and I thank you for telling me about them."
"I am sorry that you have not had an abler champion of our doctrines to present them to you," said Garland with a smile. "If you can"t join us you can"t join the Methodists, nor the Presbyterians, nor the Episcopalians. You are therefore shut up to the Baptists."
"Oh, I do not think I could join them, either. What do you mean, Mr.
Sterling, exactly by their close communion?"
"I mean that they think they are better than anybody else, and that n.o.body but Baptists have any right to partake of the Lord"s Supper. They are an ignorant, bigoted set and think that n.o.body can be saved who is not put under the water."
"Well, the Disciples believe that, don"t they, Mr. Garland?"
"Ah, but not in the way the Baptists believe it," spoke up Sterling.
"Miss Dorothy, there is a little Baptist mission here in the eastern part of town. I will take you over there that you may take a look at their base of operations, and I think a sight of it will set at rest any further inquiries as to the Baptists."
The members of the little Baptist mission to which Sterling referred worshiped in a plain, unsightly frame chapel. The city had raised the street that ran in front of the building so that the lot on which the chapel stood was left several feet below the level of the pavement and could be reached only by a rough board stairway from the street to the door of the building. Here a Baptist minister had been ministering to a small and struggling flock in connection with two other churches out in the county. The members were poor and many of them unlearned, and the pastor with such a poor building equipment found his task a difficult one.
"Daughter, I think you want to keep away from that Baptist crowd," said Mr. Page. "They are very small fry and I would hate to see you tied up with such folks."
"I have no intention of joining them, and yet I am much bewildered over this matter of church membership. What must I do? I cannot unite with any of these denominations that I have heard about without doing wrong to my conscience."
"Miss Dorothy, you do not have to endorse all the beliefs that every member of your church holds," said Sterling. "Where will you find such a church? Each person must interpret the Bible for himself and be accountable to G.o.d only. If a church is composed of Christian people, why is not that the essential thing, and why can you not join with them?
You will have to live in Heaven with them, and why can you not live with them here?"