BAPTISTS. 



as follows: 1870, $800; 1871, $1,062; 1872, 

 $1,912; 1873, $2,670; 1874, $4,098.94. His 

 receipts for 1874 had been $3,783.24, leaving 

 a balance due him of $213.70. The convention 

 urged the churches to increased interest in the 

 department of missionary work recently estab- 

 lished in Calcutta, India, by the Kev. J. McLau- 

 rin and his wife. 



II. FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. The following are 

 the statistics of the Free-will Baptist Church, 

 as given in the Free-will Baptist Register for 

 1874: 



The number of quarterly meetings given in 

 the tables of the Register is 163, and the num- 

 ber of licensed preachers 121. The tables 

 show an increase from 1873 of two quarterly 

 meetings, twenty-five ministers, and fifty-three 

 members, and a decrease of thirty-three church- 

 es. The Register gives a list of twenty-one col- 

 leges, academies,, and other literary institutions 

 under the care or patronage of the Free-will 

 Baptists. There are a number of associations 

 of Baptists in America, which, in doctrine and 

 polity, are in general agreement with the Free- 

 will Baptists. From the best information re- 

 ceived respecting them, they are supposed to 

 number in the aggregate not less than twenty- 

 five thousand members. 



The twenty-second triennial General Con- 

 ference of the Free-will Baptists in the United 



States met at Providence, E. I., October 7th. 

 The Rev. D. W. C. Durzin, of New Hampshire, 

 was chosen moderator. The Committee on 

 Doctrine and Church Polity made a report, on 

 certain questions which had been submitted to 

 them, of which such parts were adopted as ex- 

 pressed the views of the Conference, to the fol- 

 lowing effect : To the question, " What course 

 should be pursued by our churches with those 

 who join other churches without asking a letter 

 from us?" answer was returned: "Such a 

 course is contrary to our church covenant ; " in 

 answer to the question, " When members are re- 

 ceived from Pedo-Baptist Churches by letter, 

 and ask for baptism and receive it, how are 

 they to be returned as received by baptism 

 or by letter ? " the direction was given that 

 they be returned as received by baptism. It 

 was decided not to be a violation of the usages 

 of the denomination to send women as dele- 

 gates to quarterly and yearly meetings, and to 

 the General Conference. It was declared that 

 " whereas the rite 06 communion is by the 

 New Testament left wholly to the discretion 

 of the applicant, " therefore " the Church may 

 not presume to pass upon the fitness of any 

 Christian to participate in the sacrament of 

 the Lord's Supper." In answer to various re- 

 solves and queries, relative to the reception of 

 members by letter from Pedo-Baptist Churches, 

 it was resolved : " That we believe Christian 

 baptism to be a personal act of public conse- 

 cration to Christ, and not the door into the 

 Christian Church ; that believers' baptism, and 

 immersion only as baptism, is a fundamental 

 doctrine of our church ; " and that, as a gen- 

 eral principle, it is not consistent with the 

 doctrine and polity of the Free-will Baptist 

 denomination to admit persons to full mem- 

 bership who have not been baptized (immersed), 

 but merely sprinkled, or poured, but that 

 "persons presenting letters from other evan- 

 gelical churches may be received by assenting 

 and conforming to the doctrines and usages of 

 our Church in the future." It was declared 

 destructive of all order to receive and accredit 

 a properly-expelled minister without a full 

 conference with the body expelling him, and 

 not in accordance with the policy of the 

 church, "for a ministerial council, however 

 called or organized, to assume to expel a min- 

 ister from the denomination, who is a member 

 in good standing in one of our churches." It 

 was also decided that a person may be a dele- 

 gate to the General Conference who is not a 

 member of the yearly meeting he represents, 

 provided he be chosen by the body he repre- 

 sents. 



The Rev. A. H. Merrill made a report of his 

 action as a corresponding messenger to the 

 Church of God in Pennsylvania. He had at- 

 tended the East Pennsylvania Elderships, the 

 principal body of this denomination, and had 

 been well received. There seemed to be a 

 general feeling, among those whom he saw, 

 that the two denominations were essentially 



