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. CHAPTER V. HANDLING THE THREE THOUSAND. That evening Sterling opened the discussion: "Miss Dorothy, I have listened in these discussions to what are evidently stock passages of the immersionists. But let us go deeper into the matter." "But why do you call them stock passages of the immersionists?" asked Dorothy in surprise. "I did not get them from any immersionists. I told you I thought I saw passages in the Bible teaching immersion and you said no. I was asked to show these passages and I have been showing them." "Very well, we will not dispute on that point, my fair debater, but I will try now to show you that it was impossible that immersion could have been intended in these Bible passages. I think I can show you that certain baptisms could not have been immersions." "Good for you," said the father. "Now the contest is getting spicy. Show that immersion was impossible and you have won the day." "Father, you speak as if Mr. Sterling and I were engaged in a battle. My only desire is to learn what the Bible teaches about baptism, and I shall certainly follow its command as nearly as I can, cost what it may. Why do you say immersion was impossible, Mr. Sterling?" "Because in the account of the baptisms on the day of Pentecost we are told that three thousand persons were baptized and that of course could not have been done by immersion in one day." "Were they all baptized in one place?" asked Dorothy.