"Doctor," said Dorothy after she had remained thoughtful for awhile, "is there not great danger in infant baptism that people will get the idea that salvation comes through a ceremony rather than from Christ? You spoke of the mothers thinking baptism would save their infants. If those mothers think so, then do you not see that the practice of infant baptism in a community helps to spread abroad in that community the idea that salvation comes by some outward magical performance?" At this point Dorothy was called to the door by a party of young people, who were returning from a walk, and who, seeing a light in the Page home, had run in for a few minutes. "Father," said Dorothy, "you must listen to the Doctor for me and give me the points when I return." CHAPTER IX. CIRCUMCISION TO THE RESCUE. "Let me say," continued the Doctor, "that I have not yet mentioned the strongest reason for infant baptism." The remark waked new hope in Sterling. "What is that reason, Doctor?" asked the father. "It is the argument of circumcision. In the Old Testament times the command was that every male child of Jewish parents should be circumcised. This circumcision made the child a member of the Jewish church and of the covenant of grace. Now in the Christian dispensation, after Christ came, circumcision was done away with and baptism was put in its place, and it is now baptism instead of circumcision that admits one into the church." "You are getting into deep water for me, but let me make the effort to catch your point. You say that in the olden times--" "Yes, in the days of the Old Testament." "Well, you say that in those days every male child of Jewish parents was circumcised and thereby admitted into the Jewish church, and so in the Christian church every male child--" "No, not simply every male child, but every child, both male and female, who was baptized was admitted into the Christian church." "Well, why this difference? If they circumcised only the males in the old church, why do you not baptize simply the males in the Christian church if baptism is put in the place of circumcision?" "There is no reason why the females, as well as the males, should not be baptized, but there was a difference in the matter of circumcision." "This is surely a new kind of argument for infant baptism." "I think it is a very natural one. God does not change his plans of dealing with his people. In the first covenant all Jewish children were admitted into the covenant simply because their parents were members of the commonwealth or church, and the condition of their admission was their circumcision. Now if God would admit the children in the old dispensation, would he not admit them also in the new? And what is the sign under the new dispensation? Is it circumcision? Oh, no; it is baptism. That seems plain and unanswerable."