76 



BAPTISTS. 



work had been performed in the States of Mich- 

 igan, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, 

 and Texas, and in the Indian Territory, and by 

 whose agency many churches had been organ- 

 ized and many Sunday - schools established. 

 No missionaries had as yet been employed in 

 foreign fields. Arrangements were made 

 during the meeting of the General Eldership 

 for the collection of funds for the foreign mis- 

 sionary work, and a decision was recorded to 

 co-operate with the Free-Will Baptist Board of 

 Foreign Missions. The book-agent reported a 

 business for three years of $8,743. The Board 

 of Publication reported that the Church Hym- 

 nal had been completed and three editions of 

 it sold, while the demand for the hymn-book 

 had not diminished. The sales of a tract on 

 the Washing of Saints' Feet having ceased, the 

 copies of it had been gratuitously distributed. 

 The subject of establishing a Book Concern 

 was referred to the Board of Incorporation. 

 The Board of Education had decided to estab- 

 lish an educational institution at Findlay, Ohio, 

 and the buildings for Findlay College were in 

 course of erection there. The sense of the 

 General Eldership was expressed to the effect 

 that brethren moving West would do well to 

 consider the propriety of settling in neighbor- 

 hoods already occupied by the Church of God, 

 or in colonies, so as to have the privileges of 

 the Church with them. Kesolutions were 

 adopted requesting brethren to oppose the 

 "growing desecrations of the Lord's day" by 

 the publication of Sunday papers, theatrical 

 performances, railroad excursions, and opening 

 beer-gardens, saloons, and places of amuse- 

 ment; declaring the question of the prohibi- 

 tion of the liquor-traffic the most important 

 issue before the people, and condemning all 

 kinds of license favoring that traffic ; and rec- 

 ommending to the Annual Eldership to require 

 a pledge of abstinence from the use of tobacco 

 from all candidates for license to preach. A 

 directory of the officers and several boards of 

 the General Eldership was ordered published 

 in the Church paper ("The Church Advocate," 

 Harrisburg, Pa.). 



V. Baptists in Ontario and Quebec. The sta- 

 tistics of the Baptist Churches of Ontario and 

 Quebec, by conventions, are as follow : West- 

 ern Convention, one association, 286 churches, 

 20,334 members, 964 baptisms during the 

 year; Eastern Convention, three associations, 60 

 churches, 4,440 members, 178 baptisms during 

 the year; Manitoba and Northwest Conven- 

 tion, 10 churches, 501 members, 47 baptisms 

 during the year; total, 356 churches, 25,275 

 members, 1,1 89 baptisms. Including the Grand 

 Ligne Mission Churches, there are also 25 or 30 

 Baptist Churches within the two provinces, not 

 connected with the associations. The number 

 of members in communion with them is esti- 

 mated at about 1,100. 



VI. Baptists in Great Britain. The English 

 "Baptist Year- Book" for 1884 reports the 

 statistics of British Baptists: Number of 



churches, 2,593 ; of chapels, 3,738 ; of pastors 

 in charge, 1,939; of members, 304,802; of 

 Sunday-school pupils, 437,187. The number 

 of churches had decreased during the past 

 ten years, but the number of chapels had in- 

 creased by 566. The increase of Sunday- 

 school pupils during the same period had 

 been about 100,000. The Baptist Building 

 Fund at its anniversary in May returned a capi- 

 tal of 35,620. It had during the year voted 

 26 loans to the amount of 8,610. Twenty- 

 five new chapels had been opened during the 

 year, and eight had been enlarged. The ex- 

 penditure incurred had been 81,881, and 5,911 

 new sittings had been added ; but an indebted- 

 ness of 32,576 had been contracted. 



The ninety-second annual meeting of the 

 Baptist Missionary Society was held in London, 

 April 29th. The total receipts of the society, 

 general and special, for the year had been 

 59,784 ; and a debt of 3,215 had been in- 

 curred. Report was made of the condition 

 and operation of the missions, as follows: In- 

 dia, 27 principal stations, 130 sub-stations, 46 

 European missionaries, and 120 native evan- 

 gelists; Ceylon, 3 principal stations, 73 sub- 

 stations, 8 missionaries, 20 native evangelists ; 

 China, 3 principal stations, 62 sub-stations, 10 

 missionaries, 15 native evangelists; Japan, 1 

 principal station, 4 sub-stations, 2 missionaries, 



2 native evangelists; Africa, West Coast 

 (Cameroons and Victoria), 5 principal stations, 

 10 sub-stations, 2 missionaries, 6 school-teach- 

 ers, 8 native evangelists ; Central Africa (the 

 Congo), 5 principal stations, 13 missionaries; 

 West Indies, 7 principal stations and Calabar 

 College in Jamaica, 95 sub-stations, 7 mission- 

 aries, 43 native evangelists; Norway, 15 sta- 

 tions, 1 missionary wholly supported, 14 as- 

 sisted Norwegian ministers ; Brittany, 3 prin- 

 cipal stations, 25 sub-stations, 3 missionaries, 8 

 native evangelists; Italy, 9 principal stations, 



3 sub- stations, 3 missionaries, 10 native evan- 

 gelists. 



The Jamaica Baptist Union returned 2,343 

 baptisms with a net increase of 1,168 mem- 

 bers; 124 churches; and 28,027 members. 



The autumnal session of the English Baptist 

 Union was held in Brad ford, beginning October 

 6th. The Rev. A. Glover, of Bristol, presided. 

 A paper was read by the Rev. Dr. Angus, of 

 Regent's Park College, reviewing the statistics 

 of the denomination from 1863 to 1883. It 

 showed that the Baptist churches of England 

 had enjoyed during the period under review 

 a net increase of about 100,000 members, of 

 whom 60,000 had been added during the 

 first ten and 40,000 during the last ten years. 

 The increase of chapel accommodation had 

 kept pace with the increase in population, 

 and had probably done something to pro- 

 vide for the moving of the population and 

 the redistribution of the sittings necessary 

 to meet the altered conditions of different 

 neighborhoods. In all, 204,957 sittings had 

 been provided at a cost of 762,000, or an 



