BAPTISTS. 



67 



missionary to the heathen during the ensuing 

 year. One minister was ordained. 



The Southern Baptist Convention met at 

 Charleston, S. 0., May 6th. The Rev. James 

 P. Boyce, D. D., of Kentucky, was chosen 

 President. The "Home Mission Board" re- 

 ported its receipts for the year to have been 

 $23,260.54. The Board had employed during 

 the year fifty-one missionaries and agents, in- 

 cluding the native preachers. Under its di- 

 rection 150 Sunday-schools had been organized 

 during the year, with 2,466 pupils and teachers, 

 twenty churches had been organized and thir- 

 teen meeting-houses built, 204 stations had 

 been supplied by its missionaries, and 1,045 

 baptisms had been administered. During thirty 

 years of the operations of this board, the ag- 

 gregate receipts had amounted to $925,255.71, 

 and 34,970 baptisms had been administered, 

 1,940 Sunday-schools organized, and 4,650 

 churches and stations supplied. The indebt- 

 edness of the Board amounted to $20,727.94. 

 The contributions for the Indian missions had 

 fallen off. The receipts of the Board of Foreign 

 Missions for the year had been $33,218.35. 

 Reports were made of the condition of the mis- 

 sions in China and Italy. In China, churches 

 were established at Canton, Shin Hing, Tung 

 Chow, and Shanghai, with a total of 203 mem- 

 bers. Fifty baptisms had been administered. 

 The native converts had been liberal in con- 

 tributions. A chapel had been built at Shang- 

 hai by the Kev. M. Yates, and presented to 

 the convention. Forty-four persons had been 

 baptized in connection with the Italian mission 

 at Rome. The fund for the chapel at Rome 

 amounted to $21,794.88, and had been in- 

 vested in United States securities. It was 

 announced that a legacy of $5,000 had been 

 left the convention by Eugene Levering, Esq., 

 of Baltimore, Md., to be divided equally be- 

 tween the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions. 

 The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was 

 commended. The Rev. Dr. E. Lathrop, of Con- 

 necticut, addressed the convention in behalf 

 of the American Baptist (Northern) Home 

 Mission Society, offering Christian salutations 

 and presenting the resolutions which were 

 adopted by that society at its meeting in 1874, 

 proposing a regular fraternal intercourse, and 

 interchange of messengers with the Southern 

 Convention. In response, ten messengers were 

 appointed to attend the next meeting of the 

 American Baptist Home Missionary Society, 

 and a resolution was adopted, declaring that 



Inasmuch as the convention have cordially re- 

 ceived the messengers of the Home Mission Society, 

 and appointed a committee to nominate correspond- 

 ing messengers to meet them at their approaching 

 anniversary, and inasmuch as this convention has 

 always received similar overtures from their North- 

 ern brethren in the same fraternal spirit, it is scarcely 

 necessary to declare again that we cherish, for this 

 and all other evangelical societies of oirr Northern 

 brethren the kindest feelings, and bid them the 

 heartiest " God speed in their noble work." 



And inasmuch as the wide extent of our terri- 

 tory and other causes (not necessary to enumerate) 



render it neither probable nor desirable that our 

 Northern and Southern organizations should be 

 merged into one, we are all the more solicitous^ that 

 we should preserve the most fraternal relations, 

 while each strives to do the work of the common 

 Master in its own appointed sphere. 



The Rev. Dr. Cutting, of New York, Secre- 

 tary of the American Baptist Educational Com- 

 mission, explained to the convention the pur- 

 pose of the work of that society, and invited 

 attention to its effort to raise, in connection 

 with the celebration of the centennial of Amer- 

 ican Independence, a large fund in aid of the 

 several Baptist institutions of learning. A res- 

 olution was adopted recommending this pro- 

 ject, and the plans of the Educational Commis- 

 sion in connection with it, to the favor and 

 active cooperation of the ministry and mem- 

 bers of the churches throughout the Southern 

 States. In reference to the education of the 

 colored people, the Convention adopted a re- 

 port declaring that " the emancipation and en- 

 franchisement of the colored people, without 

 adequate preparation for the responsible duties 

 of citizenship, devolved an imperative obliga- 

 tion on those who precipitated this change, to 

 take effective measures for preventing what 

 was intended as a boon from becoming a. curse 

 Northern Christians have a duty to perform 

 requiring patient labor, comprehensive and far- 

 reaching plans, and a beneficence far beyond 

 what has yet been evoked for the elevation 

 and salvation of the colored people. The sol- 

 emn duties of Northern Christians should not 

 be pleaded as an excuse for our neglect of a 

 personal duty and privilege. Every considera- 

 tion of interest, humanity, and love of the Gos- 

 pel, should impel us to energetic and prudent 

 measures for the religious instruction of this 

 class of our people." The convention having, 

 in the lack of schools of its own for this pur- 

 pose, adopted the policy of sustaining its stu- 

 dents at the institutions controlled by the 

 American Baptist Home Missionary Society, 

 the report declared large contributions for this 

 purpose to be desirable. It recommended, in 

 addition to this method of instruction, that min- 

 isters' institutes be held at convenient points in 

 the different States, under the direction of the 

 Home Mission Board, at which suitable in- 

 struction should be given to colored ministers 

 and the more intelligent colored brethren on 

 the rudimental doctrines of the Gospel, and in 

 the faith and practice' of the primitive Church; 

 that missionaries be appointed, whenever the 

 means were afforded, to labor among the col- 

 ored people ; and that help should be given the 

 colored churches in organizing and conducting 

 Sunday-schools. 



II. FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. In the following 

 table is given a summary of the statistics of 

 the Free-Will Baptist churches, as they are 

 found in the Free -Will Baptist Register for 

 1876. The returns show an increase from the 

 previous year of one quarterly meeting, twelve 

 ministers, and 1,499 members, and a decrease 

 of seventy -two churches 



