BAPTISTS. 



during its history; yet the year's business as a 

 whole" had not been as successful as had been 

 hoped, the aggregate of sales $070,972 showing 

 a decrease of $l.r.4."i from the previous year. 

 the missionarv department the receipts had been 

 j*10S.!82. and the deficit of $1 1.910 at the beginning 

 of the year had increased to $1S.(>24. One hundred 

 and te*n missionaries and workers had been em- 

 ployed. 374 Sunday-schools organized. 644 per- 

 MUIS baptized. 2.828 Sunday-schools and individ- 

 uals aided by gifts of Bibles, books, and periodi- 

 cals, and 747 institutes held. 



Home Mission Society. The meeting of the 

 American Baptist Home Mission Society, May 

 23 and 24. was its sixty-ninth. The receipts 

 $706.833 had been sufficient to liquidate the debt 

 of $32.201 with which the year was begun, meet 

 all current expenses on a large scale, and leave 

 in the treasury a balance of $203. Of the ex- 

 penditure. S21L710 had been for mission work, 

 $2.~1.2ti3 for education, $79.799 for expenses of 

 administration and collection, and $32,201 for the 

 debt of the previous year. Eleven hundred and 

 ninety-nine laborers liad been supported wholly 

 or in part by the society, 279 missionaries and 15 

 teachers among the foreign population, 53 mis- 

 sionaries and 101 teachers among the colored 

 j>eople. 20 missionaries and 23 teachers among 

 the Indians. 14 missionaries and 6 teachers among 

 the Mexicans, 12 missionaries and 5 teachers 

 among Cubans and Porto Ricans, 3 teachers 

 among the Mormons, and 578 missionaries among 

 Americans. The society aided in the mainte- 

 nance of 31 schools established for the colored 

 people. Indians, and Mexicans, 7 day-schools for 

 the Chinese. 1 day-school in Utah, 1 in New Mex- 

 ico, and 1 in Cuba. Nineteen hundred and fifty- 

 four churches and stations had been supplied, 

 4.JMM} memlwrs received by baptism, and 81 

 churches organized. An unusual demand had 

 been made upon the board during the year for aid 

 from the loan and gift funds in the erection of 

 new meeting-houses. Fifty-two churches had 

 been aided. The attendance of pupils in all the 

 schools under the care of the society had been 

 exceptionally large, and a notable improvement 

 in the grade of preparation with which students 

 enter was mentioned. The original purpose for 

 which the schools were established that of pro- 

 viding a trained leadership, especially well-quali- 

 fied pastors and teachers had been kept steadily 

 in view ; and while industrial education had not 

 lx*en overlooked or neglected, it had been sub- 

 ordinated to the intellectual, religious, and moral 

 training. A resolution was adopted recognizing 

 the increased importance of the Indian work, and 

 the necessity of giving more attention to the edu- 

 cation of the Indian children since the withdrawal 

 of (Jovernment aid from the "contract schools." 



Missionary Union. The meetings of the 

 American Baptist Missionary Union took place 

 May 27 and 28. The report (eighty-seventh) 

 represented that during the early months of the 

 year it had looked as if an accumulated debt of 

 $111. (KM) might be increased to $160,000; but in- 

 stead of increase of debt the board were able to re- 

 port the entire payment for all the work of the 

 year closed, with a surplus; with which surplus 

 and the sum of $08.600 unexpectedly received from 

 the hequest of the late Daniel S. Ford, $73,000 had 

 l>een paid on the debt, reducing the amount of 

 it to $ 297. Further, about $50,000 had been 

 sent in for India famine relief. The total amount 

 of the receipts for the year (exclusive of the 

 India famine relief funds) was $687.706. The mat- 

 ter of cooperation between the colored Baptist 

 brethren, North and South, with the Missionary 



Tnion had been under advisement for several 

 vears. Now definite steps had been taken. An ar- 

 rangement had been made with the National Bap- 

 tist Convention, Louisville, Ky., for the joint em- 

 ployment of the Rev. Charles S. Morris, to visit 

 the" churches in the South, white and colored, in 

 behalf of .missions in Africa. Under a similar 

 arrangement of cooperation with the Lott-Carey 

 Convention, another colored Baptist body, the 

 Rev. C. C. Boone had gone as a missionary to 

 Palabala, on the Congo. 



The numbers returned from the mission fields 

 were: From the European missions, 1,231 preach- 

 ers, 1,000 churches, 103,762 members, 79,742 pupils 

 in Sunday-schools, 5,546 baptisms during the 

 year, $422,800 of contributions; from the missions 

 to the heathen, 1,278 preachers, 954 churches, 112,- 

 163 members, 39,981 pupils in Sunday-schools, 

 6,553 baptisms, $92,528 of contributions. 



Report on Coordination. A special joint 

 mass-meeting of the societies was held May 23, 

 to consider the report of the Committee on Co- 

 ordination appointed by the societies at the pre- 

 vious year's meeting. In the voting upon the 

 adoption of the report the parts were separated, 

 and each section was acted upon by itself. The 

 first recommendation, looking to a uniform quali- 

 fication for delegates, was adopted in such shape 

 as to read, " We recommend that the several 

 societies, after mutual consultation through their 

 executive boards, change their constitutions so as 

 to require the same qualifications as to voters, 

 and that the constitutional changes be submitted 

 at the anniversaries in 1902." The second recom- 

 mendation, providing for an annual " mid-year " 

 joint meeting of the executive boards or com- 

 mittees of the societies, was passed without de- 

 bate or division. The third recommendation, for 

 the consolidation of the missionary periodicals 

 into one, was rejected. The fourth section of the 

 report, recommending that all churches recognize 

 the claims of the general societies (Publication, 

 Home Mission, and Missionary Union) for con- 

 tributions, was opposed by the friends of the 

 women's societies, and was lost. The fifth recom- 

 mendation, deprecating special appeals, was like- 

 wise lost. The sixth section, providing for a com- 

 mittee of nine to consider district secretaryships 

 and collecting agencies, was adopted without ob- 

 jection. The report was then adopted in the shape 

 to which the meeting had reduced it, as a whole. 



Education Society. The Board of Manage- 

 ment of the American Baptist Education Society 

 reported at the annual meeting, June 25, that 

 grants had been made during the year to 5 in- 

 stitutions of $70.000 in all, conditioned on $235,- 

 000 additional being given by their friends. Six. 

 institutions had completed the sums, $180,000 in 

 all, required to secure pledges made by the society. 

 The society had in the year paid $97,885 to meet 

 $345,734 raised by 13 institutions. In eleven years 

 it had paid to Baptist educational institutions $1.- 

 001,567, while $1,867,683 had been collected othei* 

 wise for them, making an increase of Baptist edu- 

 cational endowments of $2,869,250. This result 

 had been made possible largely by the munificence 

 of Mr. John D. Rockefeller. The receipts of the 

 society for the year had amounted to $103,500, of 

 which $100,823 were from Mr. Rockefeller. The 

 payments had been $99,490, leaving a balance of 

 $4.010 in the treasury. 



Historical Society. At the annual meeting of 

 the American Baptist Historical Society, May 

 25, good progress was reported as having been 

 made toward replacing the library destroyed in 

 the burning of the building of the American Bap- 

 tist Publication Society several years before. 



