Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-21
BAPTIST ANNIvERsARIEs.

DOtngs Of the State Baptist COnVen.
 ton Yesterday-Interesti Pro-
 ceedings-SpIrited and Earnest Ad-
 dresses-HOme Mission Work. The Connecticut Baptist convention opened its sessions yesterday morning at 10:30 and was largely attended. It is held at the First Baptist church. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Dewhurst of Tor rington. President Wayland introduced the Rev. J. T. Mason, pastor of the church, who delivered an eloquent address of well come. In the course of his remarks he said: "It is customary for the pastor of the church in which the anniversaries are held to formally welcome the out of town mem- bers, but if the spirit of my people has not already made you feel at home, all the words could utter would be inadequate to make you feel comfortable. But we propose to give you grand welcome, and if the food runs out we will make it up in welcome.."
 The president thanked the pastor in be- half of the assembly for his welcome, and then delivered an address on the funda- mental principles of the Baptist anniver- saries.
 The officers elected were as follows: President, Francis Wayland of this city; vice president, John A. Dennison of Hart ford; secretary, the Rev. Philip s. Evans, New Haven: treasurer, w. F. Walker, New Britain, auditor, A. J. Crofut, South Norwalk.
 Committee on resolutions, the Reverends W. Mckinney (chairman), w. S. Swain, E. s. Miller and I. c. Brewer.
 Committee on works of young people, the Reverends Kittridge Wheeler (chair- man), Archibald Wheaton, T. E. Marble, J. D. Herr, 0. H. Brown and Henry Clark.
 The Rev. W. G. Fennelr of Middletown preached the annual sermon. His text was Matthew r; 20. Among other things he said:
 "We call ourselves the land of Christian liberty. We consider ourselves second peculiar people, through whom the world will be blessed, but we stand in fea1 day lest half dozen men in New York city, who are the representatives of the worst evils we have mentioned, should control the will of nation. What are we in the presence of all these mighty ob- structions?"
 The speaker then went on to say that the text explained away the difficulty and that everything was to be overcome by faith which is the germ of all possibility He next followed out the analogy of the grain of mustard seed and showed it's rela- l tion to Christian faith.
 "How many indications of unrest there are among Christian leaders today" .sMen are impatient for results; they 1 are giving themselves to special virtues ol l special vices; they are leaving the distinc tive work to which they were called and are trying to destroy the tree of sin by 1 clipping off some of it's branches. The1 again, hundreds of our members are in or 1 ganizations other than the church. They 1 represent beautiful ideals of moralit, l majority of cases it means power with drawn from the kingdom of Christ How ever commendable the motives; howeve excellent all these efforts, we feel that it i like the zeal of the Jews-not 'accordini | to knowledge Analyze the belief the, do possess and you will find it little nor than the acceptance of certain creed | They are building on some teaching or at tribute of God; vital faith must rest o1 God himself.
 The report of the board of trustees wa read by the secretary of the board, Rev P. s. Evans of this city. The resignation | of Rev. J. V. Carton and Rev. J. R. Stub bert from the board were noted and ! tIlUuCo pau tO Ullo 1opo 1sof. a. VI. dlL1cI D. D., of Bridgeport who died last June
 The past year, the secretary said, ha been one of little more than averag prosperity; 834 baptisms have been re ported during the year. as compared t 759 last year, making the ratio of increas about to every 23 members of the church In the mission churches there have beel 138 baptisms during the year, or one bap tism to every five members in the mission churches.
 Two new churches have been adde during the past year, the "Union church of Stamford and the "Howard avenu church" of this city. Three more lar.
 churches are engaged in erecting ne7
 buildings During the past year twent
 churches have settled new pastors, whil
 twenty-two are yet without pastors. Summary of reports from mission churcl
 es show that there are twenty-four missio
 churches in all, with twenty-one pastorl
 In these churches there have been 12S baI
 tisms in the past year, making total c
 649 members. For these churches $11
 1O1.73 has been raised for home expenses $1 ,312.47 has been given away by thes
 churches in benevolent contribution
 while s2, ,34666 has been given to the mis
 sion churches by the convention.