FREE-WILL BAPTIST CHURCH. 



FRIENDS. 



253 



The General Baptists, with whom the Free-Will 

 Baptists seek closer relationships, had in 1900 484 

 ministers. 423 churches, and 24,775 communicants. 



The thirty-first General Conference met at Har- 

 pers Ferry,* Va., Sept. 3. The Rev. R. D. Lord, 

 D. D., was chosen president. The Conference 

 Board reported concerning its transactions and 

 work for the past three years, and the field-secre- 

 tary gave an account of his labors, which had been 

 practically those of a home missionary. Since 

 the last General Conference, he had traveled 51,- 

 600 miles, given 470 addresses, and collected $15,- 

 200. He reported that the Rev. J. Taylor had 

 given 300 acres of land in New Jersey, subject to 

 the disposal of the conference; concerning the 

 nature and object of the proposed Twentieth Cen- 

 tury Loan fund, to be applied to needy churches, 

 which he suggested should be raised gradually; 

 and concerning the slow increase of church-mem- 

 bership, the importance of the Southern field, the 

 need of encouraging the Young People's move- 

 ment, the Manning Bible School, and a proposed 

 school at Midway, Tenn. Among a number of 

 proposed amendments to the constitution acted 

 upon, two, relating to the office of corresponding 

 secretary, were adopted. Committee reports were 

 presented, emphasizing the importance of main- 

 taining the doctrines of the Church and favoring 

 closer union with the Free Baptists of Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick and with the General 

 Baptists. Fraternal messengers were commis- 

 sioned to visit the conferences of these bodies, as 

 well as the general eldership of the Church of God 

 and the National Congregational Council. The 

 Union Association of Tennessee and the Piedmont 

 Association of West Virginia were admitted as 

 members of the conference. A report on temper- 

 ance was adopted, in which the liquor traffic, the 

 army canteen, the use of tobacco and other nar- 

 cotics, and the omission of the temperance lesson 

 from the series of Sunday-school lessons were 

 condemned, and Congress was asked to investi- 

 gate the effects of the liquor traffic on morals, edu- 

 cation^ health, material prosperity, etc. A report 

 on Our Country commended the establishment 

 of civil government in Cuba and the Philippine 

 Islands, deplored the existence of the mob spirit 

 and the lynching and burning of criminals, and 

 mentioned such institutions as Storer College 

 of this Church at Harpers Ferry and the Tus- 

 kegee Institute as instrumentalities calculated 

 to solve the race problem. The report on the 

 Bible cause referred with satisfaction to arche- 

 ological discoveries that throw light on the 

 Word of God. The question of establishing a 

 mission in Africa was regarded as the most im- 

 portant one that came before the conference. 

 The Rev. L. P. Clinton had been in Africa about 

 two years preparing the way for the founda- 

 tion of a mission on the borders of Liberia, 

 and had applied to the conference for assist- 

 ance and the adoption of his work. The confer- 

 ence voted unanimously to regard the opening in 

 Africa as providential, and advised the Confer- 

 ence Board to advise and assist Mr. Clinton. 

 Appropriations of such amounts as might be re- 

 ceived for the specific purpose were authorized to 

 be made for the new mission. The Church has 

 already a prosperous mission in India. The con- 

 ference recommended that church letters, as a rule, 

 should be sent directly to the church which the 

 applicant intends to join, rather than given imme- 

 diately to him. While holding that members ought 

 not to be received unless baptized by immersion, 

 the conference decided that if unimmersed persons 

 had been received, ihey could not be excluded for a 

 refusal to be rebaptized. The expression of the 



conference was given in favor of uniform laws of 

 divorce. Pastors were advised to -oicmni/e no 

 marriages of parties who wen: divorced i'or other 

 than scriptural reasons. A resolution \\-;is passed 

 discountenancing distinctions in the. employment 

 of labor on account of color. 



Free-Will Baptists in Nova Scotia. The 

 number of Free-Will Baptists in Xova Scotia is 

 given in the Register as 2,559. 



Free-Will Baptists in New Brunswick. 

 The Free-Will Baptist Church was organi/ed in 

 the province of New Brunswick with 2 ordained 

 elders and 6 churches. The last annual report 

 shows that the Conference has now 43 ordained 

 ministers, 156 churches, and 12,352 members. The 

 General Conference met at Marysville in the first 

 week in October. 



Two denominations have been organized and 

 incorporated by members who have withdrawn 

 from the Free-Will Baptist Church. The Primi- 

 tive Baptist Church was formed by persons who 

 disapproved of the , movements of the Free-Will 

 Baptists in the direction of ministerial education, 

 foreign missions, and Sunday-schools, although 

 they have since adopted Sunday-schools. The 

 Reformed Baptist denomination originated in 

 divisions in a number of Free-Will Baptist 

 churches on account of differences of views regard- 

 ing the doctrine of Christian perfection. 



FRIENDS. At the New York Yearly Meeting 

 of Friends the Board of Home and Foreign Mis- 

 sions made statements concerning work in Mexico, 

 among the Indians, and at the High Point Nor- 

 mal and Industrial School for Colored People. 

 The board unites w r ith the Woman's Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society and the Young People's Society 

 of Christian Endeavor in the support of a mis- 

 sion in China and with the American Friends' 

 Board in work in Cuba. The Woman's Foreign 

 Missionary Society has work in Japan, Africa, 

 and India. In addition to their cooperation with 

 the board and the Woman's Society, the young 

 people are supporting a missionary of their own. 

 A proposition for holding a. conference of yearly 

 meetings on temperance was received with ap- 

 proval. 



The thirty-eighth annual report of the Friends' 

 Freedmen's Association relates to the condition of 

 the school and farm at Christiansburg, Va. 



The Friends in the United States reported to 

 the late Christian Endeavor Convention concern- 

 ing the work of 402 societies enrolling 11,966 mem- 

 bers and raising for home. and foreign missions 

 and other purposes $8,223. 



The Friends' Africa Industrial Mission Board 

 is seeking to establish an industrial mission in the 

 Kavairondo country, in East Central Africa, near 

 the Victoria Nyanza. This country is as yet un- 

 touched by Christian missions. The people are 

 described as being low in civilization, but friendly 

 and intelligent. The mission will be begun when 

 $10,000 have been contributed for it; toward this 

 sum the board have $7,500 in cash and pledges. 



The Publishing Association of Friends at Plain- 

 field, Ind., has been in business eighteen years, 

 most of the time in Chicago, 111., and has built 

 up a considerable trade in books, tracts, and Sun- 

 day-school supplies. It publishes six periodicals, 

 all Sunday-school helps, which have reached a 

 combined circulation of nearly 200,000 copies 

 every three months, giving a total of more than 

 11,000,000 pages of religious matter a year for 

 the young people. It also does a considerable 

 work in the distribution of Bibles and tracts at 

 reduced prices, and in some cases without price. 



London Yearly Meeting. The statistical re- 

 port of English Friends presented to the London 



