BAPTISTS. 



55 



A Missionary Convention of Colored Bap- 

 tists of the South was held at Montgomery, 

 Alabama, in the last days of 1880, and organ- 

 ized the Baptist Foreign Missionary Conven- 

 tion of the United States, the object of which 

 was declared to be to give the Gospel to the 

 people of Africa and elsewhere through mis- 

 sionary and educational work. A scheme for 

 home missionary work was also devised. The 

 convention was attended by delegates from Ar- 

 kansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Vir- 

 ginia. 



II. SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. The sixty-sev- 

 enth annual meeting of the Seventh-Day Bap- 

 tist General Conference was held at Farina, Illi- 

 nois, beginning September 21st. Joshua Clarke 

 presided. Two new churches were admitted to 

 membership in the conference, and a third 

 church had been partly organized. A small 

 increase was reported in the number of mem- 

 bers of the church. The number added by bap- 

 tism had been greater than in any previous 

 year for a long time past, and the additions by 

 letter had exceeded the dismissions, but the 

 number of exclusions had been unusually large. 

 The number of Sabbath-schools was 94, with 

 6,913 persons attending them as officers, teach- 

 ers, and scholars. A committee which had 

 been appointed to co-operate with the friends 

 of civil liberty in Pennsylvania for the exemp- 

 tion of Sabbath-keepers from the penalties of 

 the Sunday laws of that State, made a report 

 of its work. It had solicited essays in support 

 of its efforts from men of several denomina- 

 tions and from professional men, and had se- 

 cured many expressions of sympathy, but had 

 not succeeded in getting any formal papers 

 prepared on the subject; and it had obtained 

 a large number of signatures to petitions. A 

 few persons declined to give their support to 

 the movement because it did not go as far as 

 they would have it, in that it did not seek the 

 unconditional repeal of the Sunday law. A 

 bill to protect ''religious liberty" was intro- 

 duced in the Legislature of Pennsylvania by Mr. 

 II. Gates Jones, and was supported by public 

 meetings and addresses prompted by the com- 

 mittee, but was opposed by persons who were 

 unwilling to tolerate any relaxation of the Sun- 

 day laws of the State ; and it failed to pass in 

 the Senate by lacking one vote of receiving a 

 constitutional majority, although twenty-five 

 votes were cast in its favor to fifteen against 

 it. The Committee on Denominational His- 

 tory reported that a complete history was in 

 course of preparation. 



The Seventh- Day Baptist Missionary Society, 

 whose anniversary was held in connection with 

 the General Conference, had sustained home 

 and foreign missions. The home missions re- 

 turned 20 missionaries and missionary pastors 

 laboring in 11 States, with 29 churches and 

 43 other preaching stations supplied, 26 Bible- 

 schools, and 212 " Sabbath - keeping " fami- 

 lies. The foreign mission is at Shanghai, Chi- 



na, and returned one missionary and hia wife 

 and one missionary teacher, two native preach- 

 ers, one Bible woman, one Sabbath-school and 

 two day-schools, a church of about twenty 

 members, and missionary buildings valued at 

 $7,400. The subject of extending missionary 

 work in Holland beyond the bounds of the 

 church at Haarlem was under consideration. 



III. OLD OE GENERAL BAPTISTS OF RHODE 

 ISLAND. The two hundred and eleventh anni- 

 versary of the Old or General Baptists of 

 Rhode Island was held in Coventry, Septem- 

 ber 7th, 8th, and 9th. The Rev. J. Porter 

 was moderator. The body consists of twelve 

 churches, containing in all about 1,200 mem- 

 bers. The churches reported no special re- 

 vivals, " but fair interest and general ' stead- 

 fastness.' " 



IV. THE BRETHREN, OR TUNKERS. The 

 Brethren are represented in twenty States. 

 Their churches return 1,578 ministers, 306 of 

 whom are in Pennsylvania, 248 in Indiana, 227 

 in Ohio, 142 in Illinois, and 133 in Iowa. 



The regular Annual Meeting of the Brethren, 

 or Tunkers, was held at Ashland, Ohio, in 

 June. As in former years, much of the time 

 of the meeting was spent in answering queries 

 from district meetings in regard to the mode 

 of dress. It was decided that a church letter 

 ought not to be given to a member who does 

 not dress in the uniform of the church ; that 

 only those who conform to the order of dress 

 be appointed on . committees to settle difficul- 

 ties arising on this subject; that those only 

 who dress themselves and wear their hair ac- 

 cording to the regulations should be appoint- 

 ed delegates to the annual meeting, in which 

 such only are permitted to speak; that sisters 

 may wear coats of a certain pattern (formerly 

 prohibited), and that they ought not to wear 

 hats. One of the journals of the denomina- 

 tion noticed as signs of the advances which the 

 Brethren were gradually making toward con- 

 formity with modern ideas, that the meeting 

 was held in the "Campus" and " under the 

 very shadow of a Brethren's College," and 

 that the standing committee held its sessions 

 in one of the recitation-rooms of the college, 

 " in which there stood at the self-same time a 

 musical instrument even a forte-piano " ; also 

 that a collection was taken for the building of 

 a meeting-house and parsonage in Denmark, a 

 thing that would not have been tolerated on 

 the grounds of the annual meeting sixteen 

 years before. These movements toward con- 

 formity with the world have resulted in the 

 formation of three parties among the Brethren : 

 the " Progressives " ; those who contend for 

 the old order ; and those who occupy a mid- 

 dle position, and deprecate, on the one hand, 

 departures from the established order of the 

 Brethren, and, on the other hand, intolerance 

 of differences and too rigid adherence to unes- 

 sential matters. 



A convention of Old-Order Brethren held in 

 Maryland adopted a protest against the course 



