BAPTISTS. 



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y the Rev. J. B. Cranfill, editor of the " Texas 

 Japtist Herald," who was reared among members 

 f this sect and believes himself familiar with their 

 octrines, polity, and modes of thought. One 

 ranch is represented as thoroughly antinomian in 

 ractice, with its theology as running into fatalism ; 

 nother branch as having articles of faith in all 

 sspects like those of the regular Baptists, its dec- 

 rations and practice differing from those of the 

 tter chiefly in the matters of feet washing and 

 issionary operations. A third branch is called 

 nited Baptists, and is made up of Missionary Bap- 

 tists and Hard-Shell churches that have come 

 together. It is not distinctly a missionary body, 

 but holds the form of the orthodox teaching con- 

 erning the doctrines of grace which have been ad- 

 ocated by Baptists from the beginning. Hard- 

 Shell Baptists of the second of the divisions men- 

 tioned hold the orthodox views concerning the plan 

 of salvation, the atonement, regeneration, repent- 

 ance, faith, human instrumentality, sinners' pray- 

 ing, and all the other doctrines that are commonly 

 believed among Baptists. The division among 

 Southern Baptists on the question of missions be- 

 gan less than three quarters of a century ago. The 

 Georgia Baptist Convention was organized while 

 the disintegration was going on, and when that 

 body came into existence there was not a Mis- 

 sionary Baptist Church in the State. There were 

 Missionary Baptists in many churches, but there 

 was no church that could have unanimously passed 

 a resolution approving the convention and its work. 

 The original constitution of the convention there- 

 fore provided that the body should be made up 

 not of messengers from churches, but 'of individuals 

 who would each contribute a certain amount annu- 

 ally to the support of missionary enterprises. 



Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. 

 The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec 

 met at Hamilton, Ontario, May 16. The Home- 

 Mission Board reported that its income had been 

 $22,299 and its expenditures $23,822. Twelve chap- 

 els had been built during the year, 8 churches organ- 

 ized, and 708 persons baptized under the direction 

 of the missionaries. The women in P]astern On- 

 tario were supporting missionaries in 7 fields and 

 those of Western Ontario in 11 fields, besides con- 

 tributing $1,000 to the Grande Ligne Mission. Much 

 evangelistic work was done by the co-operation of 

 pastors and deacons. The receipts for church-edifice 

 work had been $1,851, and the disbursements 

 $1,846. The loans made during the year amounted 

 to $1,300. Several churches had paid off and others 

 had reduced their indebtedness. The Grande Ligne 

 (French Canadian) mission had an income of about 

 $18,000 a year, without counting the receipts from 

 the pupils in the schools. The Feller Institute had 

 135 pupils, and had been obliged to refuse 50 for 

 want of room. The school at Coaticook, with 63 

 pupils, had been closed a part of the year on ac- 

 count of illness. Two pastors were preparing to go 

 among the French people, using both the French 

 and English languages. McMaster University re- 

 turned 173 students, 51 of them in theology; 

 Woodstock Boys' College, 122, the manual training 

 course, 51 ; and Monlton Ladies' College, 152 pupils. 

 The Sunday schools returned 37,002 pupils, an 

 average attendance of 25.390,' and contributions of 

 $18,776, of which $4,000 were for benevolences. 

 The income of the Board of Foreign Missions had 

 been $32,537, exceeding that of the previous year 

 by $1,271, and the expenditure $35.079. The mis- 

 sions, chiefly in India, returned 3.600 members, and 

 400 baptisms during the year, with village schools, 

 boarding schools, etc., in excellent condition. A 

 mission had been established in Bolivia, for which 

 a second missionary had been ordained. 



Baptists in the Maritime Provinces. The 



fifty-third convention of the Baptists of the Mari- 

 time Provinces was held at Amherst, Nova Scotia, 

 beginning Aug. 18. The Rev. J. C. Spurr was 

 chosen president. Among the delegates were sev- 

 eral women. An increase of about 800 members 

 by baptism was reported. Efforts had been made 

 to secure a subscription of $60,000 for the endow- 

 ment of Acadia College, upon the raising of which 

 a further amount of $15.000 was expected from 

 Mr. J. D. Rockefeller. Toward this sum $48,000 

 had been obtained. The convention, besides its own 

 local work in home missions, aids the mission of 

 Grande Ligne, Quebec, and in the Northwest and 

 British Columbia. The reports from these fields 

 indicated prosperity. 



British Baptists. The tables of the ''American 

 Baptist Year Book " give the Baptists in the United 

 Kingdom, 3,037 churches, 2,006 ministers, 364,729 

 members, and 15,950 baptisms during the year. The 

 annual meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Brit- 

 ain and Ireland was held in London, beginning April 

 25. The Rev. Samuel Vincent, of Plymouth, pre- 

 sided. The report of the council showed increase in 

 the number of churches, chapels, members, Sunday- 

 school teachers and scholars, pastors in charge (2,606 

 against 1,955 the previous year), and local preachers 

 (5,021 against 4,838), but the number of baptisms 

 had fallen from 16,113 to 15,950. The total receipts 

 including contributions to the several funds and 

 special contributions, had been 21,078. The asso- 

 ciation of Huntingdonshire, Cardiff College. 38 

 churches, and 28 persons had been received into 

 membership during the year. The Board of Intro- 

 duction had recommended ministers to pastorlcss 

 churches in upward of sixty cases. The council 

 had appointed a special committee charged with 

 the duty of ascertaining whether candidates should 

 be recognized by the Union as members of the Bap- 

 tist denomination. A scheme for providing a 

 course of biblical and theological reading for can- 

 didates for the pastorate was in course of prepara- 

 tion. A resolution was passed by the meeting de- 

 claring that " alike in the case of public elementary 

 schools and of the proposed Roman Catholic uni- 

 versity in Ireland there should be strenuous pro- 

 test against the devotion of public funds to the 

 support of denominational institutions. Baptists 

 are therefore urged to use their utmost influence to 

 prevent the creation and maintenance by Parlia- 

 ment of an Irish Roman Catholic university, and 

 to secure the substitution of unsectarian primary 

 schools controlled by representatives of house- 

 holders, for denominational schools under clerical 

 control in the villages and towns of England and 

 Wales." Another resolution called on Baptists to 

 give more earnest attention to the necessity for 

 immediate, more general, and more energetic tem- 

 perance work, and especially commended the dis- 

 couragement of the traffic in strong drinks and the 

 promotion of temperance principles and practice to 

 the churches and Sunday schools. 



The autumnal meetings of the Union, held at 

 Nottingham in the latter days of September, were 

 chiefly devoted to addresses and discussions. A 

 resolution was adopted protesting against the neces- 

 sity alleged to exist " in thousands of parishes " of 

 nonconformist parents sending their children to 

 day schools where the principles of the Church of 

 England are taught, and demanding that Parlia- 

 ment cease to subsidize schools "in which clerical 

 managers are free to teach, or to employ others to 

 teach, salvation by sacraments, auricular confession 

 to priests, and the sinfulness of attending noncon- 

 formist places of worship," and that, pending the 

 establishment of a really national system of educa- 

 tion, it take some action with a view to place an 



