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BAPTISTS. 



in a Cuban college for young women and in the 

 support of missionaries in the foreign field, and 

 had this year collected a Christmas offering of 

 $4,320 for the North China Mission. The pres- 

 ent was the third annual meeting of the Union. 

 American Baptist Education Society. 

 The third annual meeting of the American Bap- 

 tist Education Society was held at Birmingham, 

 Ala., in connection with the meeting of the 

 Southern Baptist Convention. Its report showed 

 that there were 140 Baptist institutions of learn- 

 ing in the United States, into whose necessities- 

 the executive board had carefully looked. Dur- 

 ing the past three years the society had aided 

 institutions in securing endowments to the extent 

 of 209,850. This sura, conditionally given, had 

 brought to the institutions aided an aggregate 

 of $1,165,000. If the present assets of the Chicago 

 university ($2,250,000) were added, the work of 

 three years would be represented by the total 

 sum of $3,415,000. 



II. Free-Will Baptist Church. The Free- 

 Will Baptist Annual Register and Year-Book for 

 1891 gives as the totals of the statistics of the Free- 

 Will Baptist churches : Number of yearly meet- 

 ings and single associations, 54, with 8 quarterly 

 meetings and 14 churches not connected witn 

 any yearly meeting ; of quarterly meetings, 201 ; 

 of churches, 1,630 ; of ordained ministers, 1,398; 

 of licensed preachers, 218; of members, 86,405. 



The Education Society received $3,078 during 

 1890, and returned $10,198 as the total amount 

 of invested funds in its hands on Aug. 31 of 

 that year. Thirteen institutions of academic 

 and collegiate grade are sustained by the denom- 

 ination. 



The receipts of the Home Mission Society for 

 1890 were $110,759; and the amount of its in- 

 vested funds was returned at $14,075. 



The Foreign Mission Society returned receipts 

 of $21,642, with invested funds of $35,449. 

 From the mission in India (Bengal and Orissa 

 Yearly Meeting) were reported 1,410 members of 

 the native Christian community, with 2,721 pupils 

 in Sunday schools and 3.520 in the day and gen- 

 eral schools. There are also connected with the 

 denomination a Woman's Mission Society, a 

 Temperance Union, a Sunday-school Union, a 

 Young People's Social and Literary Guild, and 

 a United Society of Advocates of Christian 

 Fidelity. 



III. Seventh -Day -Baptist Church. The 

 whole number of members returned in this 

 Church for 1891 is 8,748. Of this number 1,796 

 are non-residents. The statistical secretary 

 called especial attention in his report to this 

 class of members persons scattered over the 

 land and trying to observe the principles of 

 their creed in a state of isolation from their fel- 

 low - members. There are, he said, probably 

 many more little groups of Seventh-Day-Bap- 

 tist families than there are organized churches. 

 The Sabbath-school Board had reports from 75 

 schools, in which were 5,395 members, of whom 

 822 were officers and teachers. The trustees of 

 the Memorial fund returned an income for the 

 year of $6.495, and the total amount of endow- 

 ment funds realized as $116,748. The treasurers 

 of different institutions had received $14,422 for 

 notes paid direct to them and accounted part of 

 the Memorial fund. There were besides four 



parcels of real estate bequeathed to this fund, 

 the value of which was not yet estimated. 



The Education Society had received $1,795 on 

 interest account, and $2,600 on account of prin- 

 cipal; the endowment funds and securities to 

 its credit amounted to $45,088. It presented 

 reports from Salem College, Virginia, Albion 

 Academy, Wisconsin, Milton College, Wisconsin, 

 and Alfred University, New York. The last in- 

 stitution had an endowment fund of $51,514. 



The Tract Society had received $7,267. It 

 had a Hebrew Paper fund of $779, and a perma- 

 nent fund of $8,047. A minute adopted at a 

 meeting of the society declared that the argu- 

 ments set forth to sustain the observance of 

 Sunday " tend to destroy confidence in the di- 

 vine authority of the Word of God and to do 

 away with the sense of the obligation to observe 

 any Sabbath at all," and that the Seventh-Day, 

 people can hope to present effectually their dis- 

 tinctive principles only among those " who rec- 

 ognize the necessity of a Sabbath based upon 

 the Scriptures." 



The receipts of the Missionary Society, not in- 

 cluding receipts in the China field, had been 

 $11,939. The mission at Shanghai, China, re- 

 turned 4 foreign workers and 3 native preachers, 

 with 32 church members, 42 pupils in day 

 schools, and 4 additions to the Church during 

 the year, and 3,283 patients had been treated in 

 the dispensary. The mission church in Haarlem 

 Holland, returned 31 members. Although no 

 Jewish mission had been established, a contribu- 

 tion to that work had been sent to a missionary 

 in Austria. Reports were made from many 

 home mission stations. The Woman's Board, 

 co-operating with this society, had received 

 $3,051. 



The General Conference met at Westerly, R. I., 

 Aug. 19, under the presidency of Mr. George B. 

 Carpenter. The delegates to the council held in 

 Chicago, in October, 1890 (see " Annual Cyclops- 

 dialer 1890), reported concerning the satisfactory 

 character of the sessions and presented a copy of 

 the proceedings. As a representative body the 

 council surpassed any former gathering of the 

 people of the Church. Delegates attended from 

 the General Conference, from the benevolent so- 

 cieties and boards, and from 79 churches. The 

 Committee on Denominational History reported 

 that historical and biographical articles and pa- 

 pers on missionary history had been published 

 in the denominational journals, and urged that 

 the series should be completed and published in 

 collected form. Resolutions were adopted urg- 

 ing the demand for increased aggressiveness and 

 activity in promoting the movement for " Sab- 

 bath reform," with which the denomination is 

 identified ; expressing joy and approval over the 

 increasing interest in missions and in the higher 

 education ; reiterating the opposition of the con- 

 ference to the use and sale of intoxicating 

 liquors; condemning distinctions in regard to 

 immigrants based upon prejudice, race, or color 

 instead of other characteristics ; commending 

 the study of the issues presented by the " High- 

 er Criticism " in Bible study : and approving the 

 Christian Endeavor work of the young people. 



IV. Baptists in Great Britain. The Bap- 

 tist Union of Great Britain and Ireland met m 

 London, April 27. Col. James Theodore Griffin 





