BAPTISTS. 



71 



ing $2,933 borrowed money, had been $64,817. 

 and the disbursements $65,418. The estimated 

 value of supplies, clothing, etc., sent to mission- 

 aries in the field was $12,765. One hundred and 

 four missionaries had been employed during the 

 whole or part of the year, of whom 4 were stu- 

 dents from the Missionary Training School at 

 Raleigh, N. C. These missionaries had been dis- 

 tributed as follows : Among Americans on the 

 frontier, 6; among the colored people, 40; among 

 the Chinese, 4 ; among Bohemians, 1 ; among 

 Germans, 16 ; among Jews, 1 ; among Danes 

 ^and Norwegians, 4 ; among Swedes, 8 : among 

 Indians, 13 ; among Mexicans, 7 ; among Mor- 

 mons, 4. 



Missionary Union. The American Baptist 

 Missionary Union held its eightieth meeting in 

 Saratoga Springs, N. Y., May 28'. The receipts 

 of the society for the year from all sources 

 had been $485,000, and the appropriations $694,- 

 658, leaving an indebtedness of $203,596. The 

 Union employed 2.138 laborers, of whom 993 

 were connected with missions to the heathen, 

 647 were in Sweden, and the remainder were in 

 other countries in Europe. The 1,612 churches 

 returned a total of 185,228 members, with 90,996 

 pupils in Sunday schools, and 11.450 baptisms in 

 1893. A series of recommendations were adopted 

 respecting the policy to be pursued in the work 

 of the missions, in which the meeting advised 

 that the present methods of school work be con-, 

 tinned, but with such changes as will, if possi- 

 ble, increase their efficiency in promoting evan- 

 gelization ; that unceasing effort be made to im- 

 press upon native converts their duty to provide 

 for the education of their children ; that none 

 but outspoken and consistent Christians should 

 be employed as teachers in the mission schools ; 

 that the teaching of Christian truth should hold 

 the first place in the plans and efforts of all en- 

 gaged in mission-school work ; that the benefits 

 to mission schools of state inspection are un- 

 questionable and important, and to that extent 

 those schools should be subjected to government 

 control ; that the reception of grants in aid 

 from the British Government is possibly de- 

 fensible in view of the nature of that Govern- 

 ment and of the relation of the missionaries to 

 it, yet the utmost caution was recommended in 

 seeking and accepting such aid ; because (1) of 

 the tendency which a reliance upon it has to 

 secularize the aim of teachers and pupils ; be- 

 cause (2) of the danger of weakening the force 

 of Baptist testimony at home against the union 

 and in favor of the separation of Church and 

 state, wherefore the discontinuance of the cus- 

 tom was advised as soon as practicable ; and be- 

 cause (3) of the conscientious objections which 

 some of the missionaries have to the practice ; 

 that special caution be used in founding schools 

 and colleges, it being regarded as wise to wait 

 for a " widespread interest and a pretty unani- 

 mous call " before taking steps to establish them ; 

 that some form of manual service be required of 

 boarding-school girls, and that all Christian pu- 

 pils be expected to take some part, under guid- 

 ance of their teachers, in religious service, while 

 the industrial training of boys was also com- 

 mended ; and that single women sent out by the 

 Union be encouraged to devote themselves, as 

 far as possible, to educational work. In view of 



the financial situation no efforts were made to 

 enlarge the missionary work, and the society de- 

 cided to endeavor only to maintain the present 

 mission fields with all proper economy, sending 

 out new missionaries only when it might become 

 necessary to fill vacancies made by disease or 

 death. A committee was appointed to consider 

 the question of the relationship between the 

 Missionary Union and the several woman's mis- 

 sionary societies. 



The* twenty-third annual meeting of the 

 Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society 

 was held in Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 18, and 

 19. Mrs. S. C. Durfee, of Providence, R. I., pre- 

 sided. The total receipts of the society had 

 been $129,178. and the expenditures $127,880. 

 The receipts of the Home for the Children of 

 Missionaries had been $1,833, and the expendi- 

 tures $1,788. Of the 64 missionaries of the so- 

 ciety, 30 were laboring in Burmah. In India, at 

 Madras. 8 Bible women and 14 teachers were 

 visiting 46 zenanas and teaching 210 caste girls. 

 In Assam, 880 pupils were reported in the village 

 schools among Garos, Nagas, and Kohls taught 

 by graduates of the normal school at Tura. In 

 Japan, 16 Bible women were employed and 1.179 

 pupils were returned. In China the Bible 

 women's and school work was carried on steadily. 

 Work was going on among the women and chil- 

 dren in the Congo, and reports were made from 

 France and Sweden. The entire work of the 

 society included 64 missionaries, 400 native 

 teachers, 126 Bible women, and 294 schools, with 

 9,154 pupils, 578 of whom had publicly professed 

 themselves Christians. 



Southern Baptist Convention. The South- 

 ern Baptist Convention met in Dallas, Texas, 

 May 11. The Hon. Jonathan Haralson, of Ala- 

 bama, was chosen president. The report of the 

 Home Board of Missions showed that the treas- 

 urer's total receipts had been $73,321, of which 

 $11,145 had been on account of the Centennial 

 fund ; while of the disbursements, $39,127 had 

 been paid to missionaries. The report further 

 showed that $107,544 had been received and ex- 

 pended by co-operative bodies in missions and 

 church building. The Plome Board had every- 

 where strengthened the State boards, enabling 

 them to do a larger work and thus create a 

 wider interest in the churches for all mission 

 work at home and abroad. The woman's mis- 

 sionary societies had contributed $21,613 to the 

 work of the board. The missionary work had 

 been prosecuted among foreign populations, with 

 which are included the Indians ; among the 

 negroes ; among the native white people ; in 

 Cuba; and in aid of church building. The 

 work among the Indians had been confined to 

 the Indian Territory, and had been so successful 

 and so long continued that it now closely ap- 

 proximated in its character and conditions that 

 among the white people of the frontier. There 

 were now in the Indian Territory 16 associations, 

 301 churches, and 13,844 church members. The 

 work in Cuba still exhibited the same feature of 

 interest that had characterized it from the be- 

 ginning, and was described as " never so pros- 

 perous as now." One hundred and fifty new 

 candidates had been baptized. The convention 

 had been interested in the welfare of the negroes 

 from its very organization. At the time of the 



