Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1903 — MEET OF BAPTISTS. [ARTICLE]

MEET OF BAPTISTS.

GREAT NATIONAL GATHERINGS HELD IN BUFFALO Convention Draws Attention to This Great Branch of Christian Church Maintains 44,829 Churches and 30,809 Ministers. . The annual missionary meetings of Baptists held in Buffalo serve to draw attention to this great branch of the Christian family. According to the latest official returns there are in the entire country 4.830,402 communicants of the Baptist belief. They are gathered into 44,829 churches and are served by 30,809 ministers. The gains last year were 376 churches, 048 ministers and 61,399 members, a net gain of about lty per cent. The baptisms were 233,098. Multiplying the number of communicants by Three, it would be safe to say that the Baptist adherents are about 13,000,000 in num-ber—one-sixth of the population of the nation. The educational institutions established and managed by Baptists in the United States, including theological seminaries, universities, colleges, academies* etc., are 214, with property valued at $25,000,000, and endowments worth $24,000,000 more. The students in these institutions number 47,000, of whom 3,300 are. studying for the ministry. Of the total Baptist churches and membership in the United States, more than two-thirds are hi the South, and of those in the South more than half are negroes. These have their own organizations for missionary and other work, but it is incorrect to speak of them as differing denominationally from the Baptists of the North. They are all one body, and so regard themselves in every respect. JThe fact that the Baptists are purely congregational in government, and recognize no ecclesiastical authority higher than the local church, sometimes leads to a misunderstanding of their organizations and methods. With them voluntarism in religious matters and church dependency are carried to the highest development The Baptists of the North number 1,000,000 communicants and it is these who are holding their meetings in Buffalo.

Up to a few years prior to the Civil War the .Baptists of the entire country met together for their missionary anniversaries. But the differences that grew out of slavery led to a division in 1845, and after the war it was felt that the membership had become too large to make its union in benevolent work practicable. The principal societies meeting in But falo this year are the American Baptist Missionary ’'Union (foreign missions), with headquarters in Boston; the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia, and the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York City. The Missionary Union carries on lta main work in the Philippines, Japan, China, India and Africa. It also gives aid to some churches in continental Europe, in Russia, Sweden, Germany, France and Denmark. The last year has had encouragement and progress. The t<rol receipts from all sources were $722,767, in some respect* the best showing in any one of the 89 years of the'SocktyLa-history. There is a small deficit of $20,000, made’necessary by enlargement of the work at some points. The baptisms for the year were 7,553 in the churches of Asia and Africa and 6,381 in those of Europe, and the present membership in the churches in heathen lands is 113,418, and in Europe, 108,061. The Home Missionary Society has for its field the United States, including 'Alaska, Cuba, Porto Rico, but not including the Philippines, which are still regarded as foreign mission territory. It has also a gratifying work in Mexico. Its operations Include the planting of churches, supporting pastors, building meeting houses and evangelizing the communities in the West and Northwest. It also maintains schools of high grade among the negroes of the South, and is engaged in extended labors for the foreign population in our large cities and for the Chinese. The gross receipts of the society for the last year were $621,387. The expenditures slightly exceeded the receipts. The 1,310 missionaries report, in all, 6,883 baptisms in the year. The publication society, as its name Implies, issues books and periodicals called for by the churches and other societies in their Sunday school and evangelistic work. Each of these three societies has permaneiit property, invested fundA securities, etc., amounting to sl,000,000 or thereabouts. They are great business corporations, conducted on sound principles, ns well as large and effective missionary societies, seeking in every way to extend Christianity.