"The council decided that it was not necessary for the Gentiles to be circumcised," answered Mr. Sterling. "Who were the Gentiles?" asked the father. "They were all the people who were not Jews." "You mean that they were discussing whether it was necessary for the Gentiles to be circumcised, and that it was decided that it was not necessary, and now do you say that nothing in this discussion was said about baptism having taken the place of circumcision?" "Oh, this may have been said in the discussion, but there is no record of it." "They would hardly have left it out of the record if there had been any mention of it in the discussion. I notice here in this chapter they give the different reasons for their views; but the word baptism is not mentioned. If baptism had taken the place of circumcision, would it not have been natural for one of the apostles to have said something like this: 'Why, of course it is not necessary to be circumcised, because baptism has taken the place of circumcision.' That would have settled the question." "I have another point," said Doctor Vincent, "but let's wait a few moments for Miss Dorothy's return." In a few minutes Dorothy rejoined the party and the Doctor remarked: "I can show you that the Bible teaches plainly that God will take the faith of the Christian parent for that of the child." "Do show it to us," said Dorothy, eagerly. "Paul declares that the faith of a parent makes the child holy and sanctifies the child." "I don't know what you mean by sanctifying the child, but show us that passage, Doctor." "Let me see if I understand your point, Doctor Vincent," said Mr. Page. "You assert that the Bible declares that the faith of a parent will make the child holy?" "Yes." "I want to see that passage." The Doctor turned to 1 Cor. 7:14 and read: "'For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; else were your children unclean but now are they holy.'" "Hello," said Mr. Page, "that sounds like it." "It is very plain," said the Doctor. "The apostle has said that a believer must not marry an unbeliever; but then someone may say: 'Suppose a believer has already married an unbeliever, must the believing wife leave her unbelieving husband?' 'No,' says Paul. 'The believing wife sanctifies the husband and thus the marriage is not unclean, but a proper one.' The fact that one of the parties is an unbeliever does not make the union an unclean one, but he says the child of such a union is holy. Note that. What does he mean by that word 'holy'? The Jews, according to the old covenant, regarded all who were not Jews as unclean or unholy; that is, as not partakers of the holy covenant. But all of Abraham's descendants were holy; that is, were partakers of the covenant, and Paul here states that the children of Christian parents, even though only one of the parents was a believer, were holy."