BAPTISTS. 



employed 75 missionaries among foreign popula- 

 tions. 'Indians. .Mormons, and negroes; sustained 

 a Chinese school at San Francisco, Cal., and a 

 training school at Chicago, and published a 

 monthly periodical, "Tidings." It co-operates 

 with the American Baptist Home Mission So- 

 ciety and Baptist conventions in frontier States. 



The Women's American Baptist Home Mission 

 Society, Boston, received in the year 1888-'89, 

 $28,34'l>, and expended in salaries of missionaries 

 and teachers and payments to beneficiaries $25,- 

 505. It employed 37 agents. 



American BajMtt Historical Society. The 

 American Baptist Historical Society, Philadel- 

 phia, reported the amount of its building fund 

 in May. 1889, as $2,360. It had also $1,500 of 

 other invested funds. The library contained 

 7,468 volumes and a large number of manu- 

 scripts, some of them of very great value. Spe- 

 cial attention was given to the collating of 

 association and convention minutes, of which 

 the society had now 218 bound volumes. 



Baptist Ministers' Aid Society. The Baptist 

 Ministers' Aid Society of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, and Michigan, organized in 1885, 

 maintains a home at Fenton, Mich., for aged, in- 

 firm, and destitute Baptist ministers and mis- 

 sionaries, and the wives, widows, and orphans of 

 such residing in the States named in its title. 

 Eleven persons had been received into the home 

 in 1889, and $11,000 had been contributed to an 

 endowment fund. The home consists of a four- 

 story building with twenty acres of land, valued 

 at $50,000, to which a cottage has been added. 



Southern Baptist Convention. The churches 

 represented in this body include 1,194,520 white 

 members, with 15,894 churches and 8,548 or- 

 dained ministers, and returned 17,507 baptisms 

 in 1889. There are besides within the same terri- 

 tory 1,129,547 colored Baptists having their own 

 separate ecclesiastical organizations. The South- 

 ern Baptist Convention met in Fort Worth, Tex., 

 May 9. Judge Jonathan Haralson, of Alabama, 

 was chosen president. The receipts of the Home 

 M i-sion Board had been $167,576, of which $68,- 

 298 had been collected from the States, $61,953 

 raised and expended by co-operative bodies on 

 local fields, and $37,325 raised by co-operative 

 societies for building. The board "had employed 

 371 missionaries, who returned 1,182 churches 

 and stations, 267 churches and 336 Sunday 

 schools organized, and 4,477 baptisms as results 

 of their work during the year. Of the mission- 

 aries, 270 were laboring among the native white 

 people, 50 among the colored people, 30 with 

 foreign populations, including Indians, and 21 

 in Cuba. The board had assisted also in the 

 support of 45 colored missionaries. Five white 

 ministers had been employed as theological in- 

 structors among these people in Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi. The mission in Cuba, 

 which is under the charge of the Home Board, 

 returned 1,700 members, with an average attend- 

 ance of about 700 pupils in the day schools and 

 2,000 in Sunday schools. Twenty young men 

 \ven> preparing for the ministry, and a school 

 had been organized for their instruction. The 

 woman's societies had contributed $10,015 to 

 the funds of this board. The receipts of the 

 Foreign Mission Board had been $109,174, of 

 which the woman's missionary societies had 



contributed $21,223. The missions in China, 

 Africa, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan re- 

 turned 37 main stations, 124 out-stations, 78 

 missionaries (45 of whom were women), 29 or- 

 dained native missionaries, 57 native helpers, 62 

 churches, 2,213 members, with 409 baptisms dur- 

 ing the year, and 29 schools with 575 pupils. 

 Forty new missionaries had been sent out dur- 

 ing the past twenty months. The report of 

 the Theological Seminary showed that it had 

 $300,000 of endowment funds. The trustees of 

 the institution asked for $100,000 additional for 

 a building. A committee was appointed to con- 

 fer with the Northern Baptists in reference to a 

 celebration of the centennial of the establish- 

 ment of Baptist foreign missions. A special 

 committee was appointed to have the care of Sun- 

 day-school interests and supervise the publica- 

 tion of a lesson series. The following resolu- 

 tions were adopted concerning the determina- 

 tion of fundamental points of belief : 



Whereas, The different denominations have lately 

 been giving unusual attention to the subject of Chris- 

 tian union ; and 



Whereas, It is conceded to be a great desideratum 

 that Christians should agree in all important points 

 of doctrine and polity ; and 



Whereas, There is a standard recognized as authori- 

 tative by all Christians, viz., the Bible; therefore, 



Ji'esolved, By this society, representing nearly 2,- 

 000,000 communicants, that we recognize the gravity 

 of the problem of bringing different denominations to 

 see alike on important subjects concerning which 

 they now differ, and that we recognize in the teach- 

 ings of Scripture the only basis on which such agree- 

 ment is either possible or desirable ; also 



Hesolved, That we respectfully propose to the gen- 

 eral body of our brethren of other denominations to 

 select representative scholars, who shall consider and 

 seek to determine just what is the teaching of the 

 Bible on leading points of difference of doctrine and 

 polity between the denominations, in the hope that 

 they can at least help to a better understanding of the 

 issues involved ; and 



Resolved, That we heartily favor that the results of 

 such proposed conference of representative scholars 

 he widely published in all denominational papers, so 

 that the Christian public can be thoroughly informed 

 concerning these results, and that progress may be 

 made toward true Christian union. 



Baptist Premillennial Conference. A confer- 

 ence for Bible study of Baptist ministers holding, 

 besides the generally accepted evangelical doc- 

 trines, the doctrine of the premillennial advent 

 of Christ, was held in Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 18 

 to 21. The Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D., of Boston, 

 presided. The discussions, including addresses, 

 the reading of papers, and extemporaneous re- 

 marks, bore upon a variety of questions connected 

 with this doctrine. The aim of one paper was to 

 show that premillenmalism had been the faith of 

 Baptists from the beginning. It was said at the 

 close of the meeting that two hundred pastors in 

 different parts of the Union had expressed sym- 

 pathy with the premillennial movement ; that a 

 permanent organization was to be effected, a 

 treasurer appointed, and funds collected. 



Baptist Church Congress. The ninth annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Church Con- 

 gress was held in New Haven, Conn., Nov. 11, 

 12, and 13. The Hon. Francis Wayland, of 

 New Haven, presided. The programme of the 

 papers and discussions was as follows : " Pro- 

 posed Bases of Christian Union," Rev. T. T. 



