62 



BAPTISTS. 



an excess of $4,000 over the previous year. 

 The report of the American and Foreign 

 Bible Society shows that the expenditures were 

 $14,650, and the receipts $16,054. A resolu- 

 tion was adopted, declaring, in regard to the 

 intent and meaning of the sixth item of the 

 basis of union with the American Baptist 

 Publication Society, that the American Bap- 

 tist Publication Society shall prosecute the 

 Bible work as now carried on by the Amer- 

 ican and Foreign Bible Society, with such 

 equitable modifications as may from time 

 to time be directed by the Union Society, to 

 the extent of means furnished, etc. The Bap- 

 list Home Mission Society has undertaken 

 to raise half a million dollars, to establish a 

 seminary in each Southern State, primarily for 

 the benefit of the freedmen, but open to all. 

 Upward of $100,000 was reported to have 

 been raised and properly invested. The twen- 

 ty-seventh annual meeting of the American 

 Baptist Free Mission Society was held in June, 

 in Cincinnati. The Rev. E. de Baptiste, a col- 

 ored clergyman of Chicago, and already pres- 

 ident of the colored consolidated American 

 Baptist Missionary Convention, was elected 

 president, and resolutions favoring a union 

 with the latter body were passed. The Bap- 

 tist National Theological Institute and Uni- 

 versity held its annual meeting in the First 

 Church, Washington City, June 21st. The 

 prospects of the institute, which conducts 

 seven schools, with three hundred adult col- 

 ored pupils, in the city, were reported to 

 be excellent. 



The open-communion question caused a 

 great deal of discussion within the Baptist 

 communion. The Rev. C. H. Malcom, of Rhode 

 Island, sent out a circular, inviting Baptists to 

 sign a declaration of faith in the general Bap- 

 tist doctrines, but allowing "entire freedom to 

 each church to fix its own terms of com- 

 munion." He says that about thirty Baptist 

 ministers, including one or two college presi- 

 dents and four doctors of divinity, have signed 

 the paper. The circular is as follows : 



" In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 

 and of the Holy Ghost ! Amen ! "We, whose 

 names are hereunto affixed, deploring divisions 

 in Christ's Church, do hereby solemnly pledge 

 ourselves to advocate, and, as far as possible, 

 to form a union of evangelical Baptists on the 

 basis of those cardinal principles which they 

 have for many generations asserted namely : 

 the word of God, the supreme rule of faith 

 and practice in matters of religion ; the head- 

 ship of Jesus Christ as the only king in this 

 kingdom, so that the civil power may not con- 

 strain the conscience in spiritual concerns; 

 repentance and faith prerequisite to baptism ; 

 and immersion the only act of baptism. "With 

 these principles as a foundation of agreement, 

 we earnestly promise and covenant to have 

 toward each other a forbearing and loving 

 spirit ; to tolerate diversity in belief and usage 

 in things not essential ; to grant entire freedom 



to each Church to fix its own terms of com- 

 munion ; to cherish soul-liberty ; to seek for 

 the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, for a blame- 

 less and devout life, for abundant labors in the 

 cause of Christ, for the salvation of souls, and 

 for an entire consecration of property, time, 

 and talents, to the glory of God the Father, 

 through Jesus Christ our Lord." The over- 

 whelming majority of the Baptists of the 

 United States declared themselves decidedly 

 against the principle of allowing freedom to 

 each Church to fix its own terms of com- 

 munion. In December, a new Baptist paper 

 was established in New York, the Baptist 

 Union, to plead the cause of open communion. 

 The first National Baptist Sunday-School 

 Convention met in St. Louis, in November, 

 1869, and passed resolutions requesting the 

 American Baptist Publication Society to ap- 

 point a general Secretary for the Department 

 of Sunday-school Work, recommending the or- 

 ganization of the Baptist Sunday-schools into 

 State and District Conventions, the establish- 

 ment of a Sunday-school teachers' paper, and 

 the publication of a Baptist Sunday-school 

 manual, and expressing the hope that the 

 American Baptist Publication Society, in co- 

 operation with the Sunday-school Board of 

 the Southern Baptist Convention, will arrange 

 the assembling of another National Sunday- 

 school Convention. According to the Ameri- 

 can Baptist Year Boole for 1870, the statistics 

 of Baptist Sunday-schools were as follows: 





The Baptist Year Bool: for 1870 enumerates 

 46 Baptist periodicals in the United States and 

 British North America, namely, 31 weeklies, 

 2 semimonthlies, 12 monthlies, 8 quarterlies. 



