BAPTISTS. 



67 



teresta of the Baptist churches of the three 

 1'rm incus. The most iinportuiit business of the 

 Civ-nit meeting was the consideration of a 

 proposition to incorporate Acadia College in 

 tin- si'lirmo of the university at Halifax, which 

 had heen established by the Government of 

 Nova Scotia as an examining university. Most 

 of the other denominational institutions of 

 tin- 1'rovince had associated themselves with 

 this university, and the Government had ap- 

 pointed five gentlemen to represent the Bap- 

 tist denomination in its senate. The conven- 

 tion unanimously decided that Acadia College 

 should not comply with the enactments of the 

 bill establishing the University of Halifax. It 

 also resolved that, in order to enable the col- 

 lege to maintain an independent position under 

 the circumstances, an appeal should be made to 

 the members of the churches to give it a new en- 

 dowment of $100,000. A resolution was passed 

 expressing confidence in the fidelity of the Bap- 

 tist brethren who had been appointed on the 

 senate of the university, but declaring that 

 while no infringement was intended on their 

 individual rights, it must be distinctly under- 

 stood that their acceptance of office " must not 

 be interpreted to indicate affiliation, direct or 

 indirect, of Acadia College with the University 

 of Halifax." 



A report was adopted protesting against the 

 desecration of the Christian Sabbath by the 

 running of rail way -trains and the consequent 

 employment of men in connection therewith, 

 and calling the attention of the Government 

 to the subject. 



V. BAPTISTS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 

 The anniversaries of the British Baptist So- 

 cieties began in London, on the 20th of April, 

 when the fifty-first annual meeting of the 

 Baptist Building Fund was held. The reports 

 showed that the annual contributions had in- 

 creased, and several legacies had been left the 

 fund, the contributions of the year amounting 

 to 1,700. The annual meeting of the Bap- 

 tist Union was held April 24th. The report 

 stated that during the year 20 new churches had 

 been formed, 30 new chapels had been built, 

 8,371 new members and 20,318 new Sunday- 

 scholars had been received. The sum of 58,804 

 had been spent in building chapels. Ninety- 

 three brethren had entered the ministry, and 

 55 ministers had died. The following amounts 

 had been received for benevolent schemes : 

 For the Home Mission Fund, 15,435 ; for the 

 augmentation of ministers' incomes, 2,670 ; 

 for ministers' widows and children, 15,161. 

 For foreign missions, the Particular Baptists 

 had raised 52,871, and the General Baptists, 

 9,471: altogether, 62,342; for the nine 

 colleges, 15,655. Adding to these contribu- 

 tions the amounts raised for ministerial sup- 

 port (estimated at 170,000), the offertories 

 at the communion (estimated at 20,000), the 

 contributions for Sunday-schools, Dorcas so- 

 cieties, and incidental objects, it waa thought 

 that between 600,000 and 700,000 were an- 



nually raised by Baptists for denominational 



purposes. 



The anniversary of the Baptist Missionary 

 Society was held April 27th. It was reported 

 that the entire receipts for the year had been 

 44,762 U 1 <,/. ; but there had been a falling 

 off of more than 2,000 in the contributions, 

 and an increase of 2,081 18. 4d. in expendi- 

 tures : there was, therefore, a balance due to 

 the treasurer of 4,354 12. Five new mis- 

 sionaries had been engaged in the service of 

 the society ; six missionaries had returned 

 home for their health, and three had died. 

 About 99.000 copies of parts of the Scripture 

 had been published from the mission press in 

 Calcutta, in the Bengali, Hindi, and Geno 

 languages. Selections from the Scriptures had 

 also been prepared for popular use, in attrac- 

 tive forms, with engravings. In Rome the 

 work of the missionaries had been prosecuted 

 with vigor and success. Many thousand copies 

 of the New Testament and of religious tracts 

 had been circulated. 



The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the Bible 

 Translation Society was held April 24th. The 

 income for the year had been 3,165. The 

 work of translating, printing, and distributing 

 the Bible was actively carried on in the various 

 mission-fields. 



The autumnal meetings of the English Bap- 

 tist Union were held at Birmingham, begin- 

 ning October 2d. About 950 ministers and 

 delegates from all parts of the kingdom at- 

 tended its deliberations. A resolution was 

 adopted condemning the Elementary Educa- 

 tion act of 1876 as unjust to nonconform- 

 ists, and prejudicial to the interests of na- 

 tional education, "inasmuch as it shows great 

 favor to denominational schools, which are 

 almost wholly in the hands and under the 

 control of the clergy of the Established 

 Church; tends to demoralize parents by en- 

 couraging them to seek pecuniary help, even 

 at the sacrifice of their conscientious convic- 

 tions, for the education of their children ; gives 

 the management of schools, with power to 

 compel attendance, to the guardians of the 

 poor and others not elected with reference to 

 such duties, and not properly responsible for* 

 the discharge of them ; prepares the way for 

 the dissolution of existing school boards ; and, 

 generally, is calculated to retard instead of ad- 

 vancing the establishment of a sound system of 

 national elementary education. . . . For these 

 reasons," the resolutions continue, " the as- 

 sembly cannot accept the act of 1876 as a 

 satisfactory settlement of the principles on 

 which the elementary education of this coun- 

 try shall be permanently based ; and, having 

 little confidence in the effectual working of 

 any conscience clause, anticipates the continual 

 recurrence of cases of oppression toward the 

 nonconformists, and recommends the imme- 

 diate formation of vigilance committees in con- 

 nection with every county association." 



The annual meetings of the Baptist Union and 



