188 



BAPTISTS. 



pies (Oampbellites), with 350,000 members ; the 

 Tunkers, with 8,200 members. The Regular 

 Baptists are the second largest religious denom- 

 ination of the United States, being exceeded 

 only by the Methodists, and, like the Methodists, 

 they are numerous in every State of the Union. 

 Their progress during the last three years has 

 not been great, the increase in membership 

 since 1859 amounting to only 41,000. 



The Baptists of the North have at present no 

 general convention of all the churches but their 

 large religious societies, viz. : the American 

 Baptist Missionary Union, the American Bap- 

 tist Publication Society, the American Baptist 

 Home Mission Society, the American and For- 

 eign Bible Society, may be regarded as a kind 

 of substitute in respect to the churches of the 

 Free and part of the Border States. The 

 Southern Baptist Churches have a Southern 

 Baptist Convention, which meets biennially, 

 and a Southern Baptist Publication Society. 



The anniversaries of most of the great reli- 

 gious societies of the Northern Baptists took 

 place last year at Providence, Rhode Island. 

 Notwithstanding the disastrous influences of the 

 war upon churches in general, the results of the 

 year were, on the whole, regarded as highly sat- 

 isfactory. The Missionary Union showed even a 

 small increase in its annual income, which this 

 year amounted to $95,193. Its missions num- 

 ber now 375 churches, with about 31,000 mem- 

 bers an increase over the last year of about 

 3,000. The Publication Society had issued 

 during the year forty-one new works, and re- 

 ceived $56,306. The Home Mission Society 

 had employed 90 missionaries, 12 of whom 

 preached in foreign languages, and its receipts 

 amounted to $87,894. The American and For- 

 eign Bible Society held its annual meeting in 

 the city of New York, May 26, and reported 

 its receipts for the last year to be $16,688. 

 Prior to the meeting, February 21, the Society 

 had found itself obliged to sell its Bible House, 

 in New York. Characteristic of the sentiments 

 animating the Baptist community in the North- 

 ern States on the state of civil affairs are the 

 resolutions which were unanimously passed at 

 the annual meeting of the Missionary Union. 

 They are to the effect that the officers and mem- 

 bers of the Missionary Union regard the " war 

 to put down the unprovoked and wicked rebel- 

 lion as a most righteous and holy one," and 

 that they believe " the institution of slavery to 

 have been the principal cause and origin of this 

 attempt to destroy the Government, and that a 

 safe, lasting and solid peace cannot be expected 

 short of its complete overthrow." Similar res- 

 olutions were passed by the great majority of 

 the Baptist Associations. It was observed, in 

 particular, that the New York and Philadelphia 

 Associations, both of which bodies had hitherto 

 contained a considerable number of influential 

 men of conservative views, endorsed, this year, 

 unanimously, the emancipation proclamation 

 of President Lincoln. 



Very little has been heard of the condition 



of the Baptist churches in the Seceded States. 

 At the beginning of 1862 the "Southwestern 

 Baptist," published at Tuskegee, Alabama, stat- 

 ed that besides itself there were only three other 

 Baptist papers published in the South. A mis- 

 sion has been established by Northern Baptist 

 missionaries among the negroes in that part of 

 South Carolina which, during the year 1862, 

 was occupied by the forces of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. 



The Baptists in England are divided into 

 three great classes: the General Baptists, who, 

 in the course of time, have become Unitarians 

 in sentiment; the New Connection of General 

 Baptists, who hold Arminian sentiments ; and 

 the Particular Baptists, who are Calvinists. 

 The latter arc by far the most numerous. The 

 statistics are not ascertained in England with 

 as great care as in the United States. In 1862 

 the number of (Particular) Baptist ministers in 

 England and Wales was reported as 1,806, in 

 Scotland 89, in Ireland 17; churches, 1,245; 

 members, 133,931 ; new churches organized 

 during the year, 7 increase of membership 

 during the past year, 9,458. The Missionary 

 Society of the Particular Baptists, which, 

 ten years since, sustained 45 missionaries, 

 and 114 native preachers, has now 66 mis- 

 sionaries and 148 native preachers and pas- 

 tors. Eight new missionaries were sent out 

 during the last year. The educational institu- 

 tions of the Baptists have of late received a 

 valuable increase by Mr. Spurgeon's college, 

 connected with the Metropolitan Tabernacle, 

 the new church of Mr. Spurgeon's congrega- 

 tions. The institute owes its origin entirely to 

 the zeal of Mr. Spurgeon in behalf of young 

 men who are anxious for mental improvement 

 and religious xi#efulness. The institute is called 

 the Pastor's College, and depends for its sup- 

 port upon Mr. Spurgeon, who devotes a consid- 

 erable portion of his income to its mainte- 

 nance. It contained at the close of last year 

 twenty-three young men, who were in training 

 for the ministry, and whose theological educa- 

 tion is under the special superintendence of the 

 pastor. Besides these there were upward of 

 a hundred general students, who, with the 

 others, receive instruction from paid profes- 

 sional tutors; The majority of the students are 

 engaged in business, but, with a view to intel- 

 lectual advancement, spend their evenings in 

 study and attendance upon classes. An impor- 

 tant movement toward a union with Congre- 

 gationalists and Presbyterians in one new de- 

 nomination was commenced last year, and sev- 

 eral prominent Baptist ministers, as Mr. Spur- 

 geon, declared themselves in favor of it. Many 

 associations, on the other hand, have declared a 

 determined opposition to it. 



Twenty-six of the thirty-eight associations 

 belong to the Baptist Union, which body held 

 its fiftieth annual session in London, April 25th, 

 1862, and unanimously passed a resolution ex- 

 pressing "unfeigned grief for the calamity of 

 civil war in the United States, and for the sin 



