BAPTISTS. 



buildings of these institutions is $8,170,449; 

 and the amount of their endowment funds, so 

 far as they are reported, is $7,896,525. 



Including the United States, British Amer- 

 ica, Mexico, and the West Indies, the Baptists 

 have in North America 1,202 associations, 

 29,521 churches, 17,226 ordained ministers, 

 and 2,607,899 members, with 135,890 baptisms 

 during the year. In Brazil, they have 3 

 churches, 3 ordained ministers, and 70 mem- 

 bers, with 20 baptisms reported; in Europe, 

 66 associations, 3,279 churches, 6,037 ordained 

 ministers, 366,691 members, and 3,773 bap- 

 tisms; in Asia, 5 associations, 765 churches, 

 486 ordained ministers, 66,165 members, and 

 4,734 baptisms; in Africa, 2 associations, 94 

 churches, 56 ordained ministers, 7,251 mem- 

 bers, and 50 baptisms ; in Australia, 5 associa- 

 tions, 138 churches, 91 ordained ministers, and 

 11,589 members; in all, 1,280 associations. 

 33,800 churches, 23,889 ordained ministers, 

 3,059,635 members, and, so far as reports are 

 given, 144,467 baptisms during the year. 



Publication Society. The sixty-first anniver- 

 sary of the American Baptist Publication So- 

 ciety was held at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., May 

 29, 30, and 31. Mr. Edward Goodman pre- 

 sided. The receipts of the society for the year 

 have been: in the business department, $400,- 

 277; in the missionary department, $108,358; 

 and in the Bible department, $18,241 ; in all, 

 $526,876, or $56,080 less than the receipts of 

 the previous year. Sixty-seven new titles had 

 been added to the catalogue of publications. 

 Eighty-six missionaries had been employed in 

 connection with the missionary department, 

 tinder the superiutendence of which, also, 127 

 colored ministers and students for the ministry 

 and 98 Sunday-schools had been furnished 

 with libraries, besides other aid given to min- 

 isters and Sunday-schools; 50 churches and 

 462 Sunday-schools had been organized ; and 

 498 Sunday-school institutes had been held. 

 Reports were also made in connection with 

 this department from the German Baptist Pub- 

 lication Society in Germany, and the Swedish 

 Baptist Publication and Tract Society in Stock- 

 holm; of the organization of a Baptist mis- 

 sion, with a school of 47 pupils, at Erzeroum, 

 in Armenia; and of publications in the Ar- 

 menian and Turkish languages. The Bible 

 department reported concerning its work in 

 distributing the Scriptures, by sales and grants, 

 in the various States and Territories, and sev- 

 eral foreign countries. 



Home Mission Society. The fifty-third annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission 

 Society was held at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 

 May 27. Mr. John B. Trevor presided. The 

 Executive Board reported that the receipts for 

 the year, including conditional or annuity funds, 

 had been $447,379, and the expenditures $353,- 

 126. The debt had increased from $54,331 to 

 $117,988. Seven hundred and two mission- 

 ary laborers had been employed in the United 

 States, Canada, and Mexico, under whose au- 



spices 139 churches had been organized, 3,317 

 persons baptized, and 740 Sunday-schools, hav- 

 ing 48,802 attendants, sustained. Aid had 

 been given, with $29,799 of gifts and $27,255 

 of loans, to 113 churches; and additional sit- 

 tings had been provided for 31,138 persons. 

 Fifteen institutions for the education of teach- 

 ers and preachers had been sustained among 

 the freedmen of the South, together with a 

 university in the Indian Territory, and an 

 " International School " at Monterey, Mexico. 

 Eleven of these institutions were incorporated. 

 The sum of $140,000 had been added to their 

 endowment funds. They returned in all, 103 

 teachers and 3,241 students, 355 of whom were 

 studying for the ministry. With the assistance 

 of the John F. Slater fund, industrial educa- 

 tion had been actively carried on in the insti- 

 tutions for the colored people, in some or all 

 of which had been taught, besides the literary, 

 scientific, and theological branches, carpenter- 

 ing, furniture-making, house-painting, brick- 

 making and mason-work, shoe-making, print- 

 ing, agricultural and horticultural work, sew- 

 ing by hand and with machines, dress-making, 

 millinery, laundry-work, and cooking. 



Missionary Union. The seventy-first annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Missionary 

 Union was held at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 

 June 1st. The Rev. Edward Judson, D.D., 

 presided. The Board of Managers reported 

 that the total receipts of the society for the 

 year had been $395,699, and the total of ap- 

 propriations, $446,315, leaving a deficit in its 

 accounts of $50,616. In view of the growth 

 of the debt of the Union, which was accounted 

 for by the statement that the enlargement of 

 its work had exceeded the contributions of the 

 churches, a resolution was passed to the effect 

 that " as the special and primary object of this 

 society is direct evangelization by the preach- 

 ing of the gospel and the circulation of the 

 Scriptures, the Executive Committee be ad- 

 vised to consider the expediency of diminishing 

 the unduly large amount of money expended in 

 educational work, that thereby the preaching 

 force may be increased, or at least may not 

 be diminished at this crisis; the retrenchment, 

 which seems to be imperatively demanded, be- 

 ing made to fall so far as possible on the work 

 of education, and the burden of this work being 

 thrown more and more on the native converts, 

 to Christianity." A suggestion was also ap- 

 proved, to be conveyed to the Woman's Foreign 

 Mission Societies, of "the importance and desir- 

 ableness of -diverting some considerable portion 

 of their increasing contributions from the work 

 of education to which they are almost entirely 

 devoted to the support of direct evangelistic 

 work for the conversion of the men, women, 

 and children in heathen lands." The reports 

 from the mission-fields showed that there were 

 in the Asiatic and African missions in Bur- 

 mah, Assam, the Telugu district of India, among 

 the Chinese in China, and at Bangkok, Siani, 

 in Japan, and among the Bassas and on the 



