BAPTISTS. 



churches in Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Mis- 

 sissippi, and Texas, agreeing with this church 

 in doctrine but having no organic connection 

 with it, number several thousand members. It 

 is thought that the total number of members 

 of these outside bodies will not fall far short 

 of 25,000. The list of Freewill Baptist insti- 

 tutions of learning for 1878 includes the fol- 

 lowing colleges and schools : Bates College, 

 Lewiston, Me. Rev. Oren B. Cheney, D. D., 

 President ; Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich. 

 Rev. D. W. C. Durgin, D. D., President ; West 

 Virginia College, Flemington, W. Va. Rev. W. 

 Calegrove, A. M., President; Ridgeville Col- 

 lege, Ridge ville, Ind. Rev. S. D. Bates, A. M., 

 President; Storer College, Harper's Ferry, W. 

 Va. (normal and academic departments in 

 operation) ; Rio Grande College, Rio Grande, 

 Ohio; Nichol's Latin School, Lewiston, Me.; 

 New Hampton Institution, New Hampton, N. 

 H. ; Austin Academy, Center Stafford, N. H. ; 

 Whitestown Seminary, Whitestown, N.Y.; Pike 

 Seminary, Pike, Wyoming County, N. Y. ; Roch- 

 ester Seminary, Rochester, Wis. ; Wilton Colle- 

 giate Institute, Wilton, Iowa ; Maine Central 

 Institute, Pittsfield, Me. ; Lyndon Literary and 

 Biblical Institute, Lyndon Center, Vt. ; Ran- 

 dall Academy, Berlin, Ohio ; Green Mountain 

 Seminary, Waterbury Center, Vt. ; Lapham 

 Institute, North Scituate, R. I. 



The "Morning Star," weekly, the "Little 

 Star" and " The Myrtle," Sunday-school papers, 

 " Lesson Papers for Sunday Schools," and a va- 

 riety of denominational books, are published 

 at the printing establishment in Dover, N. H. 



The anniversary meetings of the benevolent 

 societies of the church were held at Lyndon 

 Center, Vt., in the first week of October. The 

 receipts and expenditures of the Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society had been each $18,345.98, and 

 the net indebtedness of the Society was $5,020, 

 being $1,026 less than the amount reported at 

 the previous anniversary. The sum of $26,320 

 had been subscribed for the foundation of a 

 Biblical school in connection with the mission 

 in India, of which $25,000 had been secured 

 by payment and interest-bearing notes. The 

 school, it was expected, would be opened in 

 March, 1879. Four missionaries had sailed for 

 their field of labor in October, 1877, two of 

 whom had been sent by the women of Rhode 

 Island and New Brunswick. The total receipts 

 of the Woman's Missionary Society had been 

 $5,596, and its expenditures $3,671. Many 

 new auxiliaries and bands had been organized, 

 and a general agent of the Society reported 

 that forty-three such associations had been or- 

 ganized under her direction. The sum of 

 $1,460 had been contributed for the school at 

 Harper's Ferry, W. Va. 



III. THE SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. The 

 Seventh- Day Baptist General Conference met 

 for its sixty-fourth annual session at Plainfield, 

 N. J ; , September 25th. Elder W. C. Whitford 

 presided. Fifty-two churches were represented 

 by letter, and three churches applied for and 

 VOL. xvin. 4 A 



were granted admission to the Conference; 

 among them, one at Haarlem, Holland. The 

 Executive Board of the Sabbath-school de- 

 partment reported that the total number of 

 Sabbath schools in the Church was 84, and 

 the total number of members in the Sabbath 

 schools was 7,018. The trustees of the Sev- 

 enth-Day Baptist Memorial Fund reported that 

 no change had taken place in the amount and 

 condition of the fund, but that its income had 

 been reduced in consequence of the shrinkage 

 of rental values, in which all property suffered. 

 A paper was read, which had been prepared 

 by the order of a previous Conference, on 

 " The Difference between the Seventh-Day Bap- 

 tists and the Seventh-Day Adventists." The 

 principal points of difference were shown to 

 be relative to the spiritual nature of man, on 

 which the doctrine of the Seventh-Day Bap- 

 tists is more clearly in accord with that of the 

 so-called orthodox churches than that of the 

 Seventh -Day Adventists, and on the nature of 

 the final retribution of the sinner. The sub- 

 ject of preparing an exposition of the principles 

 of the denomination, which was standing over 

 on a minority report made to the previous Gen- 

 eral Conference, was referred, with the report, 

 to a committee, who were instructed to report 

 upon it to the next Conference. Resolutions 

 were adopted asserting the importance of main- 

 taining unity of faith and Christian coopera- 

 tion, and of guarding against every tendency 

 to disintegration among the churches of the 

 denomination, which were described as widely 

 scattered throughout the United States, Great 

 Britain, Holland, and "thus constantly brought 

 into contact with various forms of religious 

 error and skepticism" ; and declaring that the 

 Church is the only organization through which 

 all moral and religious reforms should be car- 

 ried on, and that the Sabbath reform, " both 

 in respect to the day and the manner of obser- 

 vance, is one of the most important reforms of 

 the age." 



The annual meetings of the Missionary, 

 Tract, and Education Societies were held in 

 connection with the meeting of the Confer- 

 ence. The Missionary Society had to consider 

 a proposition for the transfer of its work to 

 the General Conference. A report was adopted, 

 declaring the full transfer inexpedient, But 

 recognizing that a change in its Constitution, 

 which would make all the members of the Con- 

 ference members of the Missionary Society, was 

 desirable. An amendment to the Constitution 

 was proposed, under the operation of which 

 the members of the Society shall consist of the 

 delegates to the General Conference in Confer- 

 ence assembled, together with all other persons 

 who have become life members by the payment 

 of $25. The Missionary Board was instructed 

 to continue its efforts to secure a laborer for 

 the mission in China, which has been for a long 

 time without a missionary, and send him to 

 that field as soon as practicable. The proceed- 

 ings of the meeting of the Tract Society showed 



