GETTING INTO DEEP WATER.
"Here is another passage about baptism," said Dorothy, "in Luke 12:50:
'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it
be accomplished?'"
"But hold on, Miss Dorothy," said Sterling. "Why should we be spending
so much discussion simply on the question as to the quantity of water in
baptism? It seems a waste of effort. There are far more important
doctrines than this."
"It is not simply the quantity of water we are considering, Mr.
Sterling. We are trying to find out how baptism is performed. Surely we
ought to try to get it right."
"That's good logic," said the father. "Get one point settled before you
proceed to another."
"All right," said Sterling with a smile, "I'm all attention. Read that
passage again, Miss Dorothy."
She read: "'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I
straitened till it be accomplished!'"
"Who is that talking?" asked Mr. Page.
"It is Christ," said Sterling, "and he is talking about his coming
sufferings which were to end in his death."
"And what is it he says about his sufferings? Read it again, daughter."
She read it once more.
"You say, Sterling, that Christ here speaks of his future sufferings and
said he was to be baptized in them?"
"No, he does not say he will be baptized 'in' them, but 'with' them,
thus showing that he was not to be immersed but sprinkled."
"You mean, then," said Dorothy, "that Christ said he was to be sprinkled
with his sufferings?"
"Yes."
"But is it not far more impressive to think of Christ being immersed in
his terrible sufferings than simply of his having a few drops of
suffering sprinkled on him?"
"Certainly," said Mr. Page; "we often speak of people being plunged,
overwhelmed, in sorrow or suffering, and that is nothing but an
immersion."
"But," said Sterling, "if he had meant immersion, why did he not say he
had a baptism that he had to be baptized 'in'? But no; he said he had a
baptism to be baptized 'with'."
"I don't think it makes any difference whether you use the word 'in' or
'with'," said Dorothy. "When a person is immersed he is baptized 'with'
water as well as 'in' water, and when Christ said he had a baptism to be
baptized with--and Mr. Sterling says he referred to his sufferings--why,
it is far more natural to think he had in mind an immersion, an
overwhelming, rather than a mere sprinkling."
"Have you any more passages, daughter?"
After some examination she answered: "Here is a strange passage, Romans
6:4: 'Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so
we also should walk in newness of life.'"
"Isn't that a wonderful passage?" exclaimed Dorothy; "'buried with him
by baptism'. That looks like immersion."
"That verse seems to be against you, Sterling," remarked Mr. Page.
"Not at all. Christ is not talking here about water baptism."
"What is that?" asked Mr. Page quickly; "not talking about water
baptism? Have you got still another kind of baptism?"
"Certainly. The Bible speaks of a baptism of the Spirit. It is mentioned
in several places."
"All correct," said Mr. Page, "and now proceed with your argument to
show that the passage just read about baptism does not mean water
baptism."
"Paul here speaks of a spiritual baptism."
"Why do you say that?" asked Dorothy.
The fire of questions seemed to stun Sterling somewhat. He had never had
these passages pressed upon him in this fashion, but all his life he had
had an open track for his Presbyterian tenets. He continued his
explanation of the passage:
"Paul is here writing to people about their conversion and he is trying
to show them that if they have been truly converted they must forsake
sin. He says here in the verse: 'We who died to sin, how shall we
longer live therein?' You see he speaks of dying to sin, and that brings
him to the idea of a burial. He wants to show them that when they were
converted--if they were really converted--that their conversion was a
baptism of the Spirit; that just as Christ died, was buried and rose to
a new life, so the converted soul through the work (or the baptism) of
the Spirit on him died to his old life and rose to a new life, and
therefore such an one must not sin. The passage therefore reads:
'Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also must walk in newness of life.'"
"Well, now, let me see," said the father. "You say the writer compares
the conversion of a soul to a baptism of the Spirit?"
"Yes, he speaks of it as a spiritual experience; not a mere outward
reformation, but an inward spiritual experience, and when he says buried
with him by baptism he means a baptism of the Spirit."
"Why does he call it a baptism?" asked Dorothy.
"That's the point exactly," said the father. "Sterling says the writer
is not talking about a water baptism. Well, I don't see why it may not
be a water baptism. It says nothing about a spiritual baptism. But
anyhow let it be a spiritual baptism; the important point in this
argument is that he calls it a baptism, and note carefully he calls the
baptism a burial. No matter whether it is a water or a spiritual baptism
that he is talking about, he shows what his idea of a baptism was. It
was like a person being buried and being raised again."
"I think, Mr. Sterling," said Dorothy, "that the verse shows that the
important thing about baptism is the way it is performed; that it is not
water that makes the baptism; that it may be water, or it may be the
Spirit, or possibly it may be something else; but that the important
thing is the way it is performed. In other words, it must be like a
burial and a rising again. It looks to me as if Paul is showing what a
wonderful experience a person's conversion is."
"Exactly," said the father, "and I suppose the writer could not express
that spiritual change in conversion better than to call it a baptism by
the Spirit, and he showed mighty clearly his notion about baptism; to
him it was a burial and a rising again.'
"I think there is something more wonderful still about that passage,"
said Dorothy. "I think you can see two baptisms in the verse, the water
baptism and the Spirit baptism. Paul draws a picture of the conversion
of a soul. It is a change worked in the soul by the Spirit, and as the
Spirit works on the soul the soul dies to his old life and rises to a
new life. But that is just like what takes place when the person is
baptized in water. He is buried out of sight in the water and then rises
again, and the water baptism is an exact picture of the spiritual
baptism. Surely Paul must have had the two baptisms in mind when he
wrote this."
"It looks mightily that way," said Mr. Page.
"Another thing," said Dorothy, all aglow with her interpretation of the
passage, "doesn't this show why Christ commanded baptism? You see, he
knew that every true Christian must pass through this spiritual
experience at conversion--the baptism of the Spirit--and he decided to
give his people an outward ceremony that would be a sign, or picture, of
the inward spiritual change that they must have, and so he commanded
immersion, as if he would say: 'Here is a picture of what I command of
everyone--this burial in the water and rising again; it is the picture
of that spiritual change that must occur in everyone that would be my
follower'. He commands two things, a spiritual burial and rising and a
material burial and rising; two baptisms, one of the Spirit to come
first and a baptism of the water to come second as a sign of the first
baptism."
"If that is true, Friend Sterling," said the father, "then it would seem
a pretty serious thing to change the form of the baptism. If the founder
of Christianity commanded these two baptisms, one a picture of the
other, then it looks to me mighty risky to tamper with either of them.
Now, if you put sprinkling in the place of immersion you destroy the
whole meaning in the work of conversion. The two don't go together at
all. You don't have a burial by sprinkling a few drops of dirt on a
person. It is not a matter of much water or little water. The important
thing is that it be a burial and rising again."
It was a new experience for Sterling, He had begun the discussion with
the thought that Dorothy would be delighted with the doctrines of his
great church. She had seemed on the point of joining. He was irritated
that the conversation had been hung up on the baptismal controversy.
Besides, the passages in favor of immersion bewildered him. His
religious life had been spent largely among close adherents of
Presbyterianism and he had rarely heard his doctrines called in
question. Whenever he had heard allusions to the Baptists and their
beliefs it was generally accompanied with a smile or a sneer and he had
come to regard the dippings of the Baptists as a joke. The passages
which they had just considered unveiled New Testament baptism before him
in a new light, and while he could not believe that immersion was Bible
baptism, yet he felt that he could never as formerly treat immersion in
a joking manner.
The discussion was becoming exciting for him. He saw that the battle was
on. As he thought of Dorothy drifting away from his faith and his church
he had a sinking of heart, and yet he also felt that if he could not win
her by the truth to his position he would not win her in any other way.
Consequently he warmed to the fray.
He had promised to join the family circle on the next evening and resume
the discussion. His work kept him closely confined at his office during
the morning. He hurried home for a tennis game in the afternoon, and
promptly that evening he appeared in the library at the Page's ready for
the contest.