52 



BAPTISTS. 



many, 4,917; in Denmark, 547; in Holland, 

 745 ; in Poland, 505 ; in Russia, 232 ; in Tur- 

 key 108 in Sweden, 17,383; in Port Natal, 

 172'- in St. Helena, 250 ; in the West Indies, 

 15 106. The Baptist Union of Germany, Den- 

 mark Holland, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, 

 Turkey, and Africa employs 200 missionaries 

 and colporteurs. The Swedish Missionary 

 Union employs 68 missionaries at stations in 

 Sweden. The Swedish Baptists have a build- 

 ing fund of 280 for furnishing loans for the 

 building of plain houses of worship, a poor 

 fund, and the Bethel Theological Seminary for 

 the instruction of ministers, which in 1877 had 

 21 students. Serampore College, India, under 

 the control of the (English) Baptist Missionary 

 Society, had 300 pupils. Besides their general 

 missionary and other societies, of which notices 

 are given in the " Annual Cyclopaedia " from 

 year to year, the Baptists of Great Britain sus- 

 tain the China Inland Mission, with 157 labor- 

 ers, and the Palestine Mission, established in 

 1870, which reports two missionaries at Nab- 

 lus, with three baptized converts, upward of 

 80 children in the schools, and about 30 attend- 

 ants at the mothers' meetings. They have also 

 numerous general and local societies for the 

 aid and relief of ministers and the care of the 

 widows and children of ministers, and a Bap- 

 tist Tract Society, having for its object " to 

 disseminate the truths of the Gospel by means 

 of small treatises or tracts, in accordance with 

 our views as Calvinists and Strict Communion 

 Baptists, 1 ' the income of which for 1876 was 

 1,469. 



The annual meeting of the Baptist Union 

 of Great Britain and, Ireland was held in 

 London April 29th. The statistical tables 

 showed that 1,825 pastors, 3,381 evangelists, 

 270,000 members, and 370,000 Sunday-school 

 scholars were connected with the churches 

 represented in the Union. An increase was 

 shown in all important particulars. Two new 

 associations had been formed for home mis- 

 sionary work. 



The autumnal meetings of the Union were 

 held at Leeds, beginning October 9th. The 

 first day's session was devoted to the subject 

 of missions, and a paper was read by one of 

 the secretaries of the Society comparing the 

 condition of its missions in 1848 with the con- 

 dition in 1878. It showed that in 1848 the 

 total number of European missionaries wholly 

 supported by the Society was 58, and that their 

 labors were supplemented by those of 159 

 native teachers and preachers. In 1878 the 

 Society employed the same number of mis- 

 sionaries, 58, that it had supported thirty years 

 before; but the native force consisted of 199 

 missionaries and evangelists, with 611 unpaid 

 Sunday-school teachers and helpers. The con- 

 tributions in 1848 were 21,876 ; in 1878, 42,- 

 2 >4, special funds being excluded in both cases. 

 The report of the Home and Irish Mission 

 showed that during six months the Mission had 

 spent 2,680. A resolution was adopted ap- 



proving the measure by which the Baptis'c 

 Home Mission had become connected with the 

 Baptist Union, urging the churches to make 

 annual collections for the Mission, recommend- 

 ing the associations each to appoint a repre- 

 sentative on the committee, and advising that 

 special efforts be made to raise its income to 

 10,000 a year. 



The receipts of the Baptist Missionary So- 

 ciety for the year ending with the anniversary, 

 May 1st, were 50,069, and the expenditures 

 during the same period were 37,873. Favor- 

 able reports were made of the progress of the 

 missions in France and Italy. Opposition had 

 been manifested to the work of the Society in 

 Norway. 



The Baptist Zenana Mission reported at its 

 anniversary, May 3d, that it employed about 

 twenty lady visitors and about thirty-six na- 

 tive teachers and Bible women at various im- 

 portant points in India. It had received dur- 

 ing the year 2,772 for general purposes, and 

 1,205 for the homes which it was intended 

 to build for the lady workers in India. 



The Baptist Home and Irish Mission Society 

 reported at its anniversary in May that it con- 

 ducted in Ireland 17 principal stations and 211 

 sub-stations, at which 21 missionaries and 

 other persons were employed, and the average 

 attendance was 6,000 hearers. In England, 

 the Society supported 25 churches, and indi- 

 rectly supported 28 other churches, which 

 were attended by an average of 7,500 hearers, 

 and with which were connected 2,856 mem- 

 bers and 3,038 Sunday-school scholars. The 

 cost of the operations of the Society for the 

 year in England and Ireland had been 5,215. 



The Bible Translation Society during the 

 year ending in May, 1878, issued 28,470 copies 

 of the Scriptures. Its receipts for the year 

 were 2,093. It is translating and distributing 

 the Scriptures in various tongues, particularly 

 in the languages and dialects of India. Of 

 the translations now in hand, those into the 

 languages of Japan and Orissa were nearest 

 completion. 



IX. GENERAL BAPTISTS. The one hundred 

 and ninth annual meeting of the Association 

 of General Baptists was held in London, June 

 17th. The Rev. Thomas Goadby presided. 

 The statistical reports showed that the total 

 number of members in the churches connected 

 with the Association was 24,943, with 179 sep- 

 arate churches, 109 pastors, 384 local preachers, 

 and 4,515 teachers in Sunday schools. There 

 had been 1,175 members added by baptism, 

 and the net increase of members during the 

 year was about 250. 



The annual meetings of the Baptist Union 

 of Scotland were held at Edinburgh about the 

 first of November. The Union had just en- 

 tered upon its second decade, and a review 

 of its history showed that, while it began 

 with 50 churches and 3,850 members, it had 

 grown to consist of 81 churches and 8,163 

 members, with 7,670 pupils in the Sunday 



