BAPTISTS. 



75 



botanical gardens at Kew, England, and in 

 other European conservatories. The Japanese 



SQUARE BAMBOO. 



varieties are described in at least two Japanese 

 books, written early in the present century. 



BAPTISTS. General Statistics of the Regular 

 Baptists. The "American Baptist Year-Book " 

 for 1886 gives in its summaries of the statis- 

 tics of the regular Baptists in the United 

 States the following numbers : of associations, 

 1,305 ; of ordained ministers, 16,191 ; of 

 churches, 28,953; of additions by baptism, 

 135,840; of members, 2,572,238; of Sunday- 

 schools, 12.550, with 93,426 officers and 

 teachers, and 858,969 pupils. Value of church 

 property, $33,813,454. Amount of the year's 

 contributions: for salaries and expenses, $4,- 

 924,553; for missions, $709,163; for educa- 

 tion, $112,259; for miscellnneous purposes, 

 $1,367,831; aggregate, $7,113,808. In all of 

 North America, including the United States, 

 there were 1,329 associations, 29,886 churches, 

 16,780 ministers, and 2,675,594 members. The 

 membership in the other countries than the 

 United States is distributed as follows: in 

 Canada, 28,345; in Mexico, 487; in New 

 Brunswick, 12,172; in Nova Scotia, 24,160; 

 in Prince Edward Island, 1,672; in the West 

 Indies, 36,520. In South America, the Bap- 

 tists have in Brazil, in the missions of the 

 Southern Baptist Convention, 5 churches, 3 

 ministers, and 113 members. In Europe, 67 

 associations, 3,322 churches, 6,169 ministers, 

 6,911 baptisms, and 372,112 members were 

 returned. Outside of Great Britain, the de- 

 nomination is most numerously represented, 

 of the several European countries, in Ger- 

 many, where there are 33,483 members, and 

 Sweden, where 27,135 members are returned. 

 The Australian colonies returned 5 associa- 

 tions, 138 churches, 91 ministers, and 11,589 

 members, who were distributed as follows: 



in New South Wales, 934 members; in New 

 Zealand, 2,244; in Queensland, 1,093; in 

 South Australia, 3,218; in Tasmania, 150; in 

 Victoria, 3,950. The Asiatic missions return, 

 altogether, 5 associations, 764 churches, 500 

 ministers, 3,745 baptisms, and 66,422 mem- 

 bers. In Africa there were reported 2 asso- 

 ciations, 94 churches, 61 ministers, and 7,297 

 members. The total of the Baptist churches 

 in the world is 1,408 associations, 34,209 

 churches, 23,604 ministers, and 3> 135, 127 

 members, with, so far as was reported, 148,- 

 641 baptisms during the year. One hundred 

 and twenty -five institutions of learning in the 

 United States of which 6 were theologicnl 

 institutions, 29 universities and colleges, 27 

 schools for the education of young women 

 exclusively, 44 seminaries and academies for 

 young men or for persons of both sexes, and 

 19 institutions for the colored race and In- 

 diansreturned aggregates of 696 instructors, 

 16,426 pupils, 1,503 of whom were preparing 

 for the ministry, and real estate valued at $7,- 

 713,716. The returns of endowment funds and 

 income are still incomplete. 



Publication Society. The sixty-second annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Publication 

 Society was held at Asbury Park, N. J., May 

 29. Mr. Samuel A. Crozer presided. The re- 

 ceipts of the society had been $434,352 in the 

 business department, $134,255 in the mission- 

 ary department, and $27,492 in the Bible de- 

 partment, making a total of $596,099, and 

 showing an increase of $69,223 over the re- 

 ceipts of the preceding year. Forty-six new 

 publications had been issued, of which 228,- 

 500 copies had been printed; while 533,300 

 copies of new editions of former publications 

 had also been printed. Thirteen periodicals 

 for children, or for use in Sunday-schools 

 and helps in the study of the Sunday-school 

 lessons, were published by the society. Sev- 

 enty-nine agents had been employed as mis- 

 sionaries and in the distribution of publica- 

 tions, under whose instrumentality 1,293 per- 

 sons had been baptized, 37 churches constituted, 

 450 Sunday-schools organized, and 510 insti- 

 tutes held and addressed. Grants of libraries, 

 books, tracts, etc., had been made in 2,500 

 cases, to the money value of $12,133. It was 

 reported of the Bible work of the society, that 

 of the 38,595 copies of the Scriptures which 

 had been given away or sold, only 580 copies 

 of the Bible Union version and " Canterbury 

 Kevision" had been circulated, although all 

 of these that were desired had been granted ; 

 and of $28,000 received for Bible work, only 

 $50 were specially designated for any English 

 version of the Scriptures other than the "Au- 

 thorized Version." 



Home Mission Society. The fifty-fourth annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission 

 Society was held in Asbury Park, N. J., May 

 27. Mr. Samuel Colgate, of Orange. N. J., 

 presided. The total receipts of the society for 

 the year had been $382,314, of which $259,721 



