DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



DISEASE. 



205 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The General 

 Christian Missionary Convention of the Dis- 

 ciples of Christ was organized at Louisville, 

 Ky., in October, 1869. Its second annual 

 meeting was held in Cincinnati on the 20th of 

 October, 1871. Nearly all the States were 

 represented. The board reported the entire 

 receipts for the year past $48,123.33, against 

 $36,699.08 received the previous year. The 

 number of additions to the church, the result 

 of missionary work, was 5,611 against 3,340 

 the previous year. By a table appended to 

 the report of the board, it appears that the 

 greater part of the contributions to the treas- 

 ury came from the States of Ohio, Missouri, 

 Kentucky, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 

 sissippi, Pennsylvania, Iowa, West Virginia, 

 Michigan, Nebraska, Georgia, and Kansas, in 

 the order in which they are named. The 

 'greatest numbers added were in the States of 

 Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Kentucky, 

 West Virginia, Mississippi, Indiana, Georgia, 

 Kansas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska. 

 For the mission which the board had under- 

 taken to establish in Jamaica nothing was done 

 during the past year. There were no funds 

 with which to aid the work, and the board 

 had refrained from giving the show of help 

 when they could not afford the substance. At- 

 tention was called to appeals from Mississippi, 

 Alabama, and Georgia, in regard to the evan- 

 gelization of the colored race. The Mississippi 

 Cooperation partly support one colored preach- 

 er, who is laboring successfully. Statistics were 

 presented in the report showing that a large 

 majority of the preachers are dependent upon 

 secular pursuits for support. From a partial 

 summary of facts from States and parts of 

 States, it appears that the ratio of preachers 

 devoting themselves wholly to the ministry is 

 only about one to fourteen churches. Meas- 

 ures were taken for the circulation of tracts, 

 and for the publication of a missionary monthly. 



In October, 1870, a delegation from the Ohio 

 Christian Missionary Society (Disciples of 

 Christ) visited the Ohio Baptist State Conven- 

 tion with messages of fraternal sympathy. 

 The message was cordially responded to, and a 

 committee were appointed by the Convention 

 to visit the Missionary Society at its next meet- 

 ing. The meeting took place on the 25th of 

 May, 1871. The Baptist committee presented 

 an address which included a clear statement 

 of the belief of the Baptists, noting the points 

 on which the two denominations were supposed 

 to agree, and those on which they were sup- 

 posed to differ. The address was kindly re- 

 ceived, and responded to, by the Missionary 

 Society, who appointed a committee to visit 

 the next State Convention of the Baptists, and 

 make a suitable response to their communica- 

 tion. Their address of response was prepared 

 in time to be laid before the Christian Mission- 

 ary Society for approval at its October meet- 

 ing. It is the clearest and most definite state- 

 ment of the belief of the Disciples that has 



been given to the public. It notices only the 

 points in which a difference had appeared 

 between them and the Baptists : 



1. The Deity and Personality of the Holy 

 Spirit. The Disciples admit what is meant by 

 this doctrine, but "object to propounding any 

 dogma concerning the Holy Spirit in any un- 

 inspired terms whatever as a test of faith or 

 of fellowship," that regeneration is the work 

 of the Spirit using the word of truth as an in- 

 strumentality. But, while Baptists believe that 

 the Spirit directly influences the mind and the. 

 heart of both sinner and saint, Disciples limit 

 His direct influence to Christians, through whom 

 the Spirit acts upon the unregenerate. 



2. Regeneration, in the view of the Dis- 

 ciples, "includes all that is comprehended in 

 faith, repentance, and baptism," and, so far as 

 it is expressive of birth, it belongs more prop- 

 erly to the last of these three than to either 

 of the former. The Disciples hold to a change 

 of heart as antedating baptism, and attach no 

 importance to the latter except as the former 

 has taken place. Baptism consummates the 

 change from an uncovenanted to a covenanted 

 state. 



Nevertheless (3 and 4), the act of baptism 

 is an essential condition to the remission of 

 sins. While those who believe and are bap- 

 tized are saved, those who are not baptized are 

 not saved, though they believe. 



5. The Disciples hold conversion as essen- 

 tial to church-membership; but they deem 

 "the deliberate and voluntary abandonment 

 of the world and open confession of the Son 

 of God credible evidence of conversion," when 

 there is no opposing testimony. 



6. As to the True Basis of Church Fellowship. 

 The disciples do not accept the distinction 

 made by the Baptists between " Ecclesiastical " 

 and "Christian" fellowship. To be in the 

 church scripturally is to be " in Christ," and 

 to be out of the church, or body of Christ, is 

 to be out of Christ. But, while they withhold 

 recognition from sects as churches of Christ, 

 they do not mean to deny the Christian char- 

 acter of many in these sects. Hence they do 

 not forbid these Christians joining them in 

 singing and prayer, or reject them from the 

 Lord's table. 



This statement is regarded as placing the 

 Disciples more nearly in accord with the Bap- 

 tist and with the Orthodox Churches in gen- 

 eral than they had been supposed to be. 



A correspondence of similar character and 

 tenor, with a nearly similar result, took place 

 during the year between the Baptists and the 

 Disciples in Iowa. 



DISEASE, GERM-THEORY OF. The sup- 

 posed fungoid origin of cholera has been made 

 the subject of a careful report by Assistant- 

 Surgeon Lewis, of the British Army, who un- 

 dertook the inquiry in India, pursuant to in- 

 structions from the Army Sanitary Commission. 

 It is limited to facts bearing on the cholera 

 theories of Hallier and Pettenkoffer. The sub- 



