66 



BAPTISTS. 



ment in them of $23,044. Eight new churches had 

 been or were being erected, 5 had declared for 

 stlf-support, 22 had reduced their applications for 

 aid, 12 new churches had been organized during 

 the year, and 720 baptisms were returned. The 

 total receipts of the board had been $27,980, and 

 the expenditures $30,382. The report on the 

 state of religion showed that in all the churches 

 18 ministers had been ordained during the year, 

 2.201 persons had been baptized, and that the 

 present number of members was 43,940, showing 

 a net gain of 089 members. Throughout the de- 

 nomination there had been 1 baptism to every 

 17 members. The churches had expended $390,- 

 865, of which $313,845 were on work at home and 

 $77,020 on work abroad; showing an average of 

 >7._!2 per member on work at home and $1.70 

 on work abroad, or a total average of $8.98 per 

 member; besides which special contributions had 

 been made to extraordinary objects. 



The main strength of the convention is in 

 Ontario and the Western provinces. In Lower 

 Canada the Baptists have 31 English-speaking 

 churches, with 2,100 members. Of the 19 churches 

 comprising the Eastern Association, 11 are as- 

 sisted by the Home Mission Board. Besides 

 the English-speaking churches there are 10 French 

 churches, with about 500 members, making the 

 whole number of members in the province of 

 Quebec about 2,600. 



Convention of the Maritime Provinces. 

 The annual Baptist Convention of the Maritime 

 Provinces met in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Aug. 

 23, the sessions being preceded by a ministers' in- 

 stitute on the preceding day. The Rev. Dr. E. M. 

 Saunders was chosen president of the conven- 

 tion. A communication was received from the 

 Free Baptist General Conference declining to 

 consider favorably the proposals of the Baptist 

 convention to cooperate in the work of education 

 and of foreign missions. The Foreign Mission 

 Board reported that its total receipts had been 

 $18,370, of which $4,862 had come from the 

 churches, $8,875 from the Ladies' Aid Societies, 

 and the rest from invested funds and other 

 sources. The accounts showed a deficit of $1,379 

 for the year, making an accumulated deficit of 

 $5,627. Additional contributions of $1,800 were 

 made to the foreign mission fund during the ses- 

 sions of the convention, making it possible to 

 show a reduction of the deficit. The report of 

 home missions showed but little if any advance. 

 Favorable reports were made by the university 

 and its associated institutions, particularly by 

 the Ladies' Seminary, the faculty of which was 

 to be enlarged. A decline was noticed in the 

 number of students preparing for the ministry 

 in attendance at the university. Additional 

 contributions were reported to the fund of $60,- 

 000, upon the completion of which a gift of $15,- 

 000 was promised to Acadia College by Mr. John 

 D. Rockefeller. The general receipts for all pur- 

 poses showed an increase for the year of $2,000 

 in Nova Scotia, but a decrease of more than 

 $1. 000 in New Brunswick and Prince Edward 

 Island. More than half of the contemplated Cen- 

 tury fund of $00,000 had been completed. A 

 commission of 6 brethren, 2 in each province, was 

 constituted to have charge of the raising of funds 

 for all the denominational objects. Estimating 

 for non-reporting churches, the number of mem- 

 bers was returned as more than 51,000, and 1,598 

 baptisms wore reported. 



Baptists in Great Britain. From the British 

 Baptist Handbook for 1902 it appears that the 

 gain in membership of the British Baptist 

 churches for 1901 was 7,330, compared with 



about 12,000 the year before, making the' 

 present total membership 372,998. The gain in 

 Sunday-school attendance was 4,000, giving a 

 total of 532,219 pupils. The triennial statistics 

 of Baptists in the world showed 4,454,699 Bap- 

 tists church-members in all, making a gain in 

 three years of more than 300,000, and of 748.000 

 in the last six years. Of this total gain in the 

 latter period, 524,000 were in the United States, 

 41,000 in Great Britain and Ireland, and 183,000 

 in the rest of the world. There were about 280,- 

 000 Baptist church-members in the British colo- 

 nies. Of these, 113,826 were in India, or about 

 one-seventh more than in Canada. 



The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land met in its annual spring session April 27. 

 'ihe president for the year, the Rev. J. R. Wood, 

 opened the meetings with an address in which 

 he spoke of the place and influence of the min- 

 ister and the danger to be apprehended from the- 

 presence of the commercial spirit in the Church. 

 The report of the council referred to an increase 

 of 7,320 members and 38 pastors in charge as 

 having taken place during the year. The receipts- 

 as figured up in the cash summary had amounted 

 to 95,012, of which 79,672 had been on ac- 

 count of the Twentieth Century fund. The ex- 

 penditure had been 12,500. An increase of 

 3,426 appeared in the Home Mission fund, by 

 which 109 churches in 21 associations, and 37 

 mission stations, with 79 mission pastors in all, 

 had been aided. The aided churches had 5,560- 

 communicants, with an average attendance of 

 9,095 persons, and 8,943 children in the Sunday- 

 schools. The responses to appeals in behalf of 

 the Annuity fund had been generous, and all an- 

 nuities would be paid in full. The sum total of 

 cash contributed and promises made to the Twen- 

 tieth Century fund (intended to be 250,000) to 

 the day of the meeting of the assembly had been 

 235,134; while 6,000 more had been promised 

 contingent upon the whole amount being raised. 



The capital of the Baptist Building fund stood 

 at 54,521. During the year 41 churches had re- 

 ceived grants, varying from 40 to 600 in each 

 case, to the extent of 30,040. The loans repaid 

 amounted to 12,389. Forty-four churches were 

 waiting for loans to an aggregate amount of 

 15,220, or more than the probable income for 

 the next fifteen months. 



A resolution respecting the education bill pro- 

 tested against the measure as one which would 

 lower the standard of national efficiency and per- 

 petuate and extend the injustice of the appoint- 

 ment by private managers of the teachers of 

 public schools, whose stipends it was proposed to 

 pay entirely out of the public funds. The bill, in 

 its main provision, was characterized as a further 

 endowment of the Established Church, and the 

 union would offer it a determined and unceasing 

 opposition. Another resolution called on all 

 friends of Sunday closing of public houses to 

 press the demand for a comprehensive measure 

 which would extend the blessing to the whole of 

 England. A proposition for the establishment 

 of a Baptist Union Sustentation fund, drawn 

 up by the late Mr. William Chivers, was sub- 

 mitted to the assembly, and was referred to the 

 committee for consideration. The plan contem- 

 plates the inclusion in the fund of the existing 

 augmentation and home mission funds of the 

 union; and the object of the fund is declared to 

 be " to secure a minimum salary to all duly ac- 

 credited ministers whose churches arc connected 

 with the fund, and to make provision for home 

 evangelization in new or needy districts." The 

 last business of the meeting was the announce- 



