76 



BAPTISTS. 



in all 1,443 missionary laborers, 642 church- 

 es with 61,062 members, 252 Sunday-schools 

 with 7,311 pupils, 754 schools with 702 native 

 teachers and 17,504 pupils, and 562 churches 

 and chapels. The total of contributions for 

 churches, schools, and general purposes, was 

 $44,588 ; value of missionary property, $19,852. 

 From the European missions in Sweden, Ger- 

 many, Russia, Denmark, France, and Spain 

 were returned 161 ordained and 307 unordained 

 preachers, 054 churches, and 66,146 members. 

 The whole number of baptisms during the 

 year was 10,602 5.532 in the European, and 

 5,070 in the heathen missions. In the special 

 work of translation, revision, and printing of 

 Scriptures, the revision of the Shan New Tes- 

 tament had been completed, and a new edition 

 partly stereotyped, while the Old Testament 

 was ready for printing. The Sgau Karen Old 

 Testament was under final revision and prepara- 

 tion. A new and revised edition of the Bur- 

 man Bible was going through the press. The 

 translation of the Old Testament into Assamese 

 was nearly done, and the New Testament was 

 under revision. Translations of the New Tes- 

 tament into the Lhota Naga and Angara! Naga 

 dialects had been beirun. Several missionaries 

 were engaged in translating the New Testa- 

 ment into different languages of the Congo. 

 The Rev. R. H. Ferguson had been commis- 

 sioned to reduce the Kachin language to writ- 

 ing, with a view to the translation of the Bible 

 into it. The missions in Russia are among 

 nominally Lutheran populations of Germanic 

 origin as the Letts and Esthonians the 

 churches among whom were gathered mostly by 

 agents of the German Committee of the Onion. 

 Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern 

 Baptist Convention met at Richmond, Va., 

 May 11, 745 delegates being present. The 

 convention is composed of delegates laymen 

 and ministers from each Southern State. It 

 is purely a missionary body, having no eccle- 

 siastical jurisdiction or control of the churches, 

 and does its work through the Foreign Mis- 

 sion Board, which has its office at Rich- 

 mond, and the Home Mission Board, having 

 offices at Atlanta, Ga. The former president 

 of the convention, the Rev. P. H. Mell, D. D., 

 Chancellor of the University of Georgia, who 

 had presided over the meetings for fifteen years 

 in succession, had died during the year. The 

 Rev. James P. Boyce, D. D., President of the 

 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was 

 chosen president. The Home Mission Board 

 had received during the year $48,023, while 

 $41,154 had been raised for the same purposes 

 by co-operative bodies (State and local boards). 

 It had employed 287 missionaries, occupied 

 1,114 churches and stations, and returned 4, 857 

 persons baptized, 431 Sunday-schools organized, 

 with 17,240 teachers and pupils, 306 churches 

 constituted, and 64 houses of worship built at 

 a cost of $54,068. The board had sustained a 

 mission in Cuba, in which, in a little more 

 than two years since the first church was or- 



ganized, 1,100 persons had been baptized, 17 

 missionaries were employed, 9 native preachers 

 had been engaged, 6 churches and 19 stations 

 had been supplied. Sunday- and day-schools 

 had been established, and $4,640 had been 

 contributed by the people in one year. The 

 Foreign Mission Board had been incorporated. 

 It returned an income of $86,385, and had 

 expended $82,775. Its missions were in Mexi- 

 co, Brazil, Italy, West Africa, and northern, 

 central, and southern China. The women's 

 missionary societies had contributed $18,000 

 in aid of the work. The various committee 

 reports on missionary work urged enlargement 

 of foreign mission enterprises, enforced the im- 

 portance of labors among the colored people 

 of the South, and commended the work among 

 the Germans, Chinese, and other foreigners in 

 the United States, and especially that in Cuba. 

 A collection of $3,600 was taken for sending 

 additional missionaries to Mexico. The two 

 boards were instructed to appoint a committee 

 to confer with a committee representing the 

 Northern Baptist societies, " not with a view 

 to organic union," but to consider what can be 

 done to adjust their several fields and agencies, 

 so as not to have conflict of agencies. The in- 

 vested funds of the Theological Seminary were 

 shown to amount to $315,000, and the real es- 

 tate to $200,000. The classes included 157 stu- 

 dents. 



German Baptists. The German Baptists of the 

 United States are organized into five confer- 

 ences the Eastern, Central, Northwestern, 

 Southwestern, and Texas Conferences. These 

 conferences returned in 1887, 13,187 members, 

 930 baptisms, and $127,742 of contributions for 

 missionary and other purposes. 



Colored Baptists. The Colored Baptists of the 

 United States are organized in three societies. 

 The Baptist African Missionary Convention of 

 the Western States and Territories (formerly 

 the Baptist General Association of the Western 

 States and Territories), formed in 1873, is in- 

 terested in mission work in Africa, where it 

 has a mission at Mukimvika, on the Congo. 

 The fourteenth annual meeting, held in 1887, 

 was attended by representatives of churches 

 and associations from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Missouri, Nebraska, and Indiana. The society 

 co-operates with the American Baptist Mis- 

 sionary Union. 



The Baptist Foreign Missionary Convention 

 of the United States, organized in 1880, at its 

 meeting in 1887 returned its receipts at $4,069, 

 and its expenditures at $4,018. Ten States 

 were represented in the roll of its members. 

 It has a mission among the Vey tribe on the 

 borders of Liberia. 



The American National Baptist Convention 

 was formed in 1886. The corresponding sec- 

 retary, Rev. Richard de Baptiste, who had 

 spent two years in gathering the general sta- 

 tistics of the colored Baptists, reported in 

 1887 that 26 institutions of learning were pro- 

 vided for them, with which were connected 



