"Did I not tell you he was the most sensible Christian I ever found? He said, `Well!--after all, truly, any thing save the simple baptism with water was a man-made ordinance. The Ethiopian eunuch had no sponsors'-- I don't know who he was, but I suppose the hermit did--`and he probably made as true a Christian for all that' `In truth,' said I, `the institution of sponsors seems good for little children--friends who promise to see that they shall be brought up good Christians if their parents die early; but for a woman of my age, it is simply absurd, and I won't have it. Let me confess Christ as my Messiah and Lord, and baptise me with water in His name, and I am sure he will be satisfied with it. And if any of the saints and angels are not satisfied, they can come down and say so, if they think it worth while.' So--as he saw, I suppose, that _I_ was not going to do it--he gave in." "I hope it's all right," said David, rather uneasily. "David, I wish I could put a little sense into you. You are a good man, but you are a very foolish one. `All right!' Of course it is all right. It is man, and not God, who starts at trifles like a frightened horse, and makes men offenders for a word. The Lord looketh on the heart." "Ay, but Moses (on whom be peace!) was particular enough about some details which look very trifling to us." "He was particular enough where they concerned the honour of God, or where they formed a part of some symbolism which the alteration would cause to be wrongly interpreted so as to teach untruth. But for all else, he let them go, and so did our Lord. When Aaron explained why he had not eaten the goat of the sin-offering, Moses was content. Nor did Christ condemn David the King, but excused him, for eating the shewbread. I am sure Moses would have baptised me this morning, without waiting for sponsors or Lucca oil. This is a very silly world; I should have thought the Church might have been a trifle wiser, and really it seems to have less common sense of the two. How could I have found sponsors, I should like to know? I know nobody but you and Christian." "They told us, when we were baptised, that the Church did not allow a husband and wife to be sponsors to the same person. So we could not both have stood for you. It would have had to be Christian and Rudolph, and some other woman." "Rudolph! That baby! [Note 1.] Would they have let him stand?" "Yes--if you could not find any one else."