BAPTISTS, 



75 



Waterbury Centre, Vermont ; Pike Seminary, 

 Pike, Wyoming County, N. Y. ; Storer Col- 

 lege, Harper's Ferry, W. Va. ; Rio Grande 

 College, Rio Grande, Gallia County, Ohio ; 

 and Ridgeville College, Ridgeville, Ind. The 

 income of the Education Society for the year 

 ending August 31, 1884, was $8,532; the in- 

 vested funds amounted to $10,616. The so- 

 ciety had aided eighteen students with appro- 

 priations of $1,119. The cash receipts of the 

 Home Mission Society were $11,019, and its 

 expenditures $9,824, of which $800 had been 

 added to the invested funds ; of these, the per- 

 manent fund now amounted to $9,340, and the 

 centennial fund to $900. A church extension 

 department of the work of the society had been 

 opened, in two divisions: one to be known 

 as the loan department, for the reception of 

 funds to be lent to churches for building pur- 

 poses for a term of years, without interest or 

 security; and the other, known as the gift de- 

 partment, for the reception of moneys to be 

 given to weak societies endeavoring to build 

 churches. The sum of $2,034 had been raised 

 for these objects. 



The receipts of the Foreign Mission Society 

 for the year had been $19,268. The permanent 

 fund of the society amounted to $8,700, and 

 the Bible-school fund to about $18,000. The 

 mission is in Orissa and Bengal, India, and re- 

 turns 438 resident and 128 non-resident mem- 

 bers, or 566 communicants, a native Christian 

 community of 1,004 souls, and 3,135 Sunday- 

 school pupils. Forty members had been add- 

 ed by baptism, and the native contributions 

 amounted to 500 rupees. Boys' and girls' schools 

 were maintained at Balasore, aSantal training- 

 school at Bhimpore, a girls' orphanage at Jella- 

 sore, other schools at Santipore, Dantoon, 

 Babaigada, and Palasbani ; besides sixty-three 

 ''jungle-schools," in which were 1,487 pupils. 



III. Seventh-Day Baptist Church. The follow- 

 ing return of members of this Church is pub- 

 lished in connection with the " minutes " of 

 the General Conference of 1884 : Number of 

 churches, 95; number of members Eastern 

 Association, 2,192 ; Central Association, 1,533 ; 

 Western Association, 1,936; Northwestern 

 Association, 2,230; total, 7,891. Number of 

 members in the foreign churches (Mill Yard, 

 London; Haarlem, Holland; Tewkesbury, 

 England ; Shanghai, China), 64. 



Seventy Sabbath-schools reported 5,523 pu- 

 pils; and the whole membership of the Sab- 

 bath-schools of the denomination was estimated 

 at 535 teachers and 6,000 pupils. 



The accounts of the Seventh-Day Baptist 

 Education Society were balanced at $44,957. 

 Reports were made of the condition of Alfred 

 University, Alfred Centre, N. Y., which has an 

 academic department and departments of 

 Philosophy and Didactics, Theology, Industrial 

 Mechanics, Fine Arts, Music, and Business, and 

 was attended by 393 students ; and from Mil- 

 ton College, Milton, Wis., which was attended 

 by 258 students. 



The receipts of the Seventh-Day Baptist 

 Tract Society had been $10,161, while the 

 amount of its special funds was $8,630. One 

 million seven hundred and sixteen thousand 

 pages of printed matter were on hand in the 

 depository at the time of making the report. 

 The net resources of the printing-house were 

 returned at $9,354. The society was publish- 

 ing a general weekly paper, a general mission- 

 ary paper, and a Sabbath-school paper; a 

 quarterly review, which had not proved profit- 

 able, and would be given up; and a Dutch 

 newspaper in connection with its aggressive 

 work in Holland. An American Scandinavian 

 paper was contemplated. 



The total receipts of the Seventh-Day Bap- 

 tist Missionary Society, for the year ending 

 September 14, 1884, were $10,239. Besides 

 this, $1,500 had been raised in local contribu- 

 tions. Reports had been received from 28 home 

 missionaries. The foreign mission, at Shanghai, 

 China, returned three missionaries, two native 

 preachers, three native teachers in two day- 

 schools, and 63 pupils. 



The Seventh-Day Baptist General Confer- 

 ence met in its seventieth annual session at 

 Lost Creek, W. Va., September 24th. Albert 

 Whitford presided. The new churches of Tex- 

 arkana, Ark., and Daytona, Fla., were received 

 into the Conference. Upon the suggestion of 

 the Committee on Denominational History, 

 the Conference extended a general invitation 

 to individual members and churches to pre- 

 serve by writing or printing all noteworthy 

 facts relative to the Church and its work, and 

 to furnish their material, unless they have other 

 use for it, to the committee. The Committee 

 on the State of Religion reported a net increase 

 in the denomination of 143 members, and that 

 the greater portion of the increase was found 

 in connection with what were called the weak- 

 er churches. A Woman's Executive Board 

 was constituted for the purpose of enlisting 

 the women of the denomination in its various 

 benevolent enterprises, and of raising funds for 

 the same. A Ministerial Bureau of seven mem- 

 bers was constituted, whose duty was defined 

 to be to receive applications of ministers de- 

 siring places for work and of churches wanting 

 ministers, and to make such recommendations 

 as they might deem best in all such cases. 

 Resolutions were passed recommending total 

 abstinence from all that intoxicates, as the only 

 consistent and safe principle upon which to 

 carry on the temperance reformation, and de- 

 claring it the duty of both national and State 

 governments to prohibit the traffic in intoxi- 

 cating drinks. 



IV. Chnrcli of God. The fourteenth Trien- 

 nial General Eldership of the Church of God 

 met in Wooster, Ohio, May 28th. Elder George 

 Sigler, of Pennsylvania, was chosen Speaker. 

 The Board of Missions, reporting for three 

 years, stated that it had employed thirteen 

 missionaries for the first, eight for the second, 

 and eight for the third of those years, whose 



