BAPTISTS. 



B 



BAPTISTS. Statistics. The " American Bap- 



1 1st Yearbook " for 1898 gives statistics of the Baptist 

 churches in the United States, of which the follow- 

 ing is a summary: Number of associations. 1,60!) ; 

 o!' churches, 43.897 ; of ordained ministers, 27,855 ; 

 of members of the church, 4,055,806 ; increase dur- 

 ing the year by baptism, 198,432 ; number of Sun- 

 day schools, 22,529; of officers and teachers in the 

 same, 172,082: of pupils, 1,628,971; of meeting 

 houses, 12,708, with seating capacity for 2,621,300 

 persons; of parsonages, 1,475; value of church 

 property, $89,857,207. Amount of contributions: 

 For church expenses, $9,021,818 ; for Sunday-school 

 expenses, $422,540; for State missions, $317,667; 

 fur home missions, $306,931 ; for foreign missions, 

 Jj:i!)!).Sl4: for education, $108,205; miscellaneous 

 contributions, $1,417,094. 



The " Yearbook " also gives as statistics of the 

 Baptists of the world : In North America, includ- 

 ing besides the United States, the provinces of 

 Canada (925 churches, 573 ordained ministers, 

 5,252 baptisms, and 89,470 members), Central 

 America, Mexico, and the West Indies, 44.593 

 churches, 28,066 ministers. 205.843 baptisms, and 

 4.190.031 members; South America (Argentine 

 Republic, Brazil, and Patagonia), 23 churches, 14 

 ministers, 257 baptisms, and 1,150 members ; 

 Europe (including Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, 

 Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, 

 Holland, Italy, Norway, Roumania and Bulgaria, 

 Russia and Poland, Spain. Sweden, and Switzer- 

 land), 3,989 churches, 2,97i ministers, 23,239 bap- 

 tisms, and 469,290 members ; Asia (including Cey- 

 lon, China, India, Assam, Burmah, Japan, Orissa, 

 and Palestine), 1,291 churches, 769 ministers, 5,405 

 baptisms, and 114,587 members ; Africa, 96 

 churches, 79 ministers, 483 baptisms, and 5,977 

 members ; Australasia, 230 churches, 153 ministers, 

 1,107 baptisms, and 18,089 members; total for 

 the world, 50,222 churches, 32,052 ministers, 236,- 

 334 baptisms, and 4,799,124 members. 



The "Yearbook " gives for the Baptist institutions 

 of learning, comprising 7 theological seminaries, 

 94 universities and colleges, and 77 academies and 

 seminaries, 2,215 instructors, 33.580 students, $27,- 

 387,772 of property, and $16.190,931 of endow- 

 ment funds. Thirty-four Baptist charitable insti- 

 tutions (hospitals and orphan and other homes) 

 return property valued at $1,626,121. 



Missionary and Benevolent Societies. The 

 annual meetings of the Northern Baptist societies 

 were held in Rochester, N. Y., May 16 to 23. 

 The meeting of the Woman's Baptist Home Mis- 

 sion Society was held May 16. The report showed 

 that the society was free from debt, and had a 

 small balance in the treasury. It had received 

 $70,506, while its disbursements and unpaid lia- 

 bilities at the close of the year aggregated $69,907, 

 leaving a balance of $668' with which to begin the 

 new year. It had further distributed supplies to 

 frontier missionaries, industrial schools, and other 

 objects of its care, amounting in value, according 

 to the estimates of the donors, to $10,094. Of its 

 funds, $2,019 had been expended for the support of 

 workers in schools of the American Baptist Home 

 Mission Society and $2,161 had been paid into the 

 treasuries of State conventions in frontier mission- 

 ary States. One hundred and twenty-six mission- 

 aries had been employed at 96 stations in 85 States 

 and Territories in the United States and Mexico 

 viz., 15 in frontier work (including Utah), 6 among 



the Chinese, 24 among Germans, 1 among Jews, 2 

 among Danes and Norwegians. 12 among Swedes, 

 14 among Indians, 8 among Mexicans, 46 among 

 negroes, and 1 on detail service. Twenty-one stu- 

 dents had been graduated from the training school. 

 Missionary Union. The eighty-fourth annual 

 meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union 

 was held May 17 and 18. The treasurer reported 

 that the total receipts for the year had been $849,- 

 477, of which sum $287,355 were credited to dona- 

 tions, $99,916 to the four woman's societies, $151,267 

 as the gift of John D. Rockefeller toward the 

 extinction of the debt, and $142,561 to the contribu- 

 tions of the Church for that purpose. The dona- 

 tions from the churches, not including the contri- 

 butions for the debt, were $31,056 more than those 

 of the year previous. The appropriations for the 

 work of the year from Oct. 1, 1897, to Oct. 1, 1898, 

 had been originally $423,126, or $114,271 less than 

 those of the year before. To this sum f 57,859 had 

 been added during the year. Applications for 

 much more than the amount granted to the mission 

 fields had been received, and the money could have 

 been profitably employed, but the Executive Com- 

 mittee had felt the necessity of avoiding debt, and 

 had reduced the scale of operations to an extent 

 that could not be continued permanently without 

 sacrificing precious interests. While it was repre- 

 sented that the European missions had never been 

 more prosperous than during the past year, a spe- 

 cial survey was given of the Asiatic missions. The 

 pressing of the Chinese into Burmah, where they 

 are becoming an important element of the popula- 

 tion, was mentioned as a problem demanding par- 

 ticular consideration. The seminary at Rangoon 

 was proving a very important agency for the sup- 

 ply of preachers and teachers for the several nation- 

 alities. The printing press and its work were be- 

 coming more and more important. The mission in 

 Burmah, begun in 1873, had made a great return 

 for the labor expended upon it, and gave large 

 promise for the future. Of the races in the coun- 

 try, the Karens had been the most attractive, and 

 had received the most attention, but the Burmans 

 were by far the more important people. No mis- 

 sion had been more fruitful during the past few 

 years than that in Assam. The hill tribes the 

 Garos, the Nagas, and others had become to the so- 

 ciety what the Karens in Burmah had been a few 

 decades ago ; but the importance of reaching the 

 Assamese was insisted upon. The Telugus had be- 

 come associated with the greatest triumph in the 

 shape of revivals and the spread of Christian experi- 

 ence in the history of modern missions. The Chinese 

 and Japanese missions were also referred to as mak- 

 ing notable advances. Certain important points set 

 forth in this paper were, first, the necessity of contin- 

 uing the prominence given in the past to direct evan- 

 gelistic work. "All other forms of work should be 

 subsidiary to this. The ultimate aim of missions is 

 to plant Christianity ; its extension must be rele- 

 gated to the native churches, and they must not 

 depend upon the board for their own missionary 

 extension." There should be at the first favorable 

 moment the organization of individual believers into 

 independent churches. Second, the Union must re- 

 quire of its missionaries a fluent command of the 

 vernacular. Third, it is a wise policy to change at 

 this time, or soon in the future, the method of con- 

 ducting the schools, in some countries at least. 

 There should be a concentration of schools, with a 



