BAPTISTS. 



The number of Sunday-schools is 5,251 ; of 

 officers and teachers, 56,515 ; of scholars, 

 473,664; amount of benevolent contributions 

 by Sunday-schools, $122,143.10. 



The following table gives the number of 

 Baptists in other parts of North America : 



Great Britain and Ireland. The Baptist 

 Hand-look, of London, for 1871, gives the fol- 

 lowing statistics for the United Kingdom: 

 England, associations, 30; churches, 1,910; 

 chapels, 2,397; members, 170,380; Sunday- 

 school scholars, 251,085. Wales, associations, 

 9; churches, 511; chapels, 550; members, 

 54,853 ; Sunday-school scholars, 50,626. Scot- 

 land, associations, 1; churches, 110; chapels, 

 109; member?, 7,053 ; Sunday-school scholars, 

 4,396. Ireland, associations, 1 ; churches, 37; 

 chapels, 37; members, 1,389; Sunday-school 

 scholars, 1,052. Total, associations, 41 ; church- 

 es, 2,568; chapels, 3,093; members, 233,675; 

 Sunday-school scholars, 307,159. The number 

 of ministers is : In England and "Wales, 1,922 ; 

 in Scotland, 55; in Ireland, 25; total, 1,990, 

 of whom 436 are without a charge. 



The statistics of other countries in Europe 

 are, according to the American Baptist Year- 

 Boole, as follows : 



The latest report from the Swedish churches 

 gives for Norway, 262 members ; in Sweden 

 and Norway, 216 churches, 8,686 members. 



The following table gives the summary for 

 the world, for 1870 and 1871 . 



The Northern Baptist anniversaries for 1871 

 were held in Chicago, 111., in the third week 

 in May. The American Baptist Bible and 

 Publication Society was formed by a consoli- 

 dation of the American Baptist Publication 

 Society and the American and Foreign Bible 

 Society, which was agreed upon in 1870. The 

 societies had acted during the year as one; 

 but, at the annual meeting, a communication 

 was read on behalf of the Board of the Ameri- 

 can and Foreign Bible Society, setting forth 

 that legal difficulties had interposed to pre- 

 vent the full transfer of its effects to the con- 

 solidated society ; that a bill to remove them 

 had been passed by the New York Legislature, 

 but was returned by the Governor without his 

 signature; and that a bill prepared by mem- 

 bers of the Bible Society opposed to the union 

 had been passed, repealing the act under 

 which the measures to form a union had been 

 taken, thus leaving matters as they were be- 

 fore the effort at union was made. The board 

 felt that they had used all the legal means in 

 their power to consummate the union. 

 ^ The consolidated society is the Bible Pub- 

 lication, Sunday-school, and Colporteur So- 

 ciety of the Baptists. Its business and be- 

 nevolent departments are kept entirely dis- 

 tinct. The former department is self-supporting. 

 The society has stereotyped about eleven hun- 

 dred publications. The receipts for the year 

 previous to making the last report were, in 

 the business department, $274,439.99, and in 

 the missionary department, $57,709.60, the 

 sum ($332,149.69) showing an increase of $10,- 

 350.50 over the receipts of the previous year. 

 Nineteen new publications were issued. Sev- 

 eral hundred thousand copies of periodicals 

 were circulated regularly, and 123,000 copies 

 of the Bible lessons for Sunday-schools. The 

 new Sunday-school books were thought to be 

 of an improved character. A new hymn-book 

 was published just before the close of the fiscal 

 year, after four years of careful preparation. 

 Besides the Sunday-schools which were aided 

 and visited by agents of the society, 308 new 

 ones were organized, with 11,000 scholars. 

 The progress of the work among the freedmen 

 was reported favorable, and the fact that the 

 Christians of the South are earnestly enlist- 

 ing in it was recognized with pleasure. A 

 work is also carried on prosperously among 

 the Germans, in America. A German pastor, 

 of Buffalo, New York, stated that " the Ger- 

 man Baptists are themselves doing something 

 in this direction. They have a weekly paper 

 with a circulation of 3,500, and a Sunday- 

 school paper with a monthly circulation of 

 8,000. They also publish tracts." 



The attention of the society was called to 

 the propriety of publishing tracts in Spanish. 

 Resolutions were passed, advising the publi- 

 cation of a work in tract form, " to refute the 

 errors of Campbellism," and, of a series of tracts 

 to present, in a condensed form, "the most im- 

 portant facts and events of Baptist history." 





