Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-06-02
MEET OF BAPTlSTS.
GREAT NATlONA+ GATHERINGS
HELD IN BUFFALO.
Convention Draws Attention to This
Great Branch of Christian Church
Maintains d4.S29 -hurches and
3O,SO9 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 arc in the entire
country 4.330, 49, conn unicants of the
Baptist belief. They are gathered into
A. so churches and are served By 30,S09
ministers. The gains last year We're $40
churches. CHS ministers and 81, 399 mem
bers, net gain OF aoout l = per cent
The haptiSms were 233,09S. Multiplying
the number of commandments by three, it
would be safe to say that the Baptist
adherents are about rs, coo, 0G0 in mum
ber-one-sixth Of the population of the
nation. The educational Institutions es-
tab!ished and managed by Baptists in
the United States. including theological
seminaries, universities, colleges, aeade-
mics, etc. are PA, with property valued
at $25.000,0O0, and endoWments worth
$24,00O,0O0 more. The students in these
institutions number 1900, of whom s.
800 are studying for the ministry.
OF the total Baptist churches and
membership in the United States, more
than two thirds are in the South, and of
those in the South more than half are
negroes. These have their own organ
izations for missionary and other work,
/ but it is incorrect to speak of them as
differing denominationally from the Bap-
lists Of the North. They ale all one
body, and so regard themselves in every
respect The fact that the Baptists are
purely congregational in government. and
bisrh-
er than the local church, sometimes leads
to misunderstanding of their organiza-
tons and methods With them voluntar-
ism in religious matters and church de-
| tendency are carried to the highest de-
! velopment
The Baptists of the North number
| 100000 COMMITMENTS and it is these
| who are holding their meetings in Buff
| falo.
! Up to a few years prior to the Civil
War the Baptists OF the entire country
met together for their missionary ami.
versaries. But the differences that grew
out of slavery led to a division in 1915,
and after the war it was felt that the
membership had become too large 70
make its union in benevolent work prac
ticabie.
The principal societies meeting in Buff
/ falo this year are the American Baptist
| Missionary Union Foreign missions),
with headquarters in Boston; the Ameri-
can Baptist Publication Society of Phila-
delphia, and the American Baptist Home
Mission Society Of New York City.
The Missionary Union carries on its
main work in the Philippines, Japan,
! China. India and Africa. 1t also gives
aid to some churches in continental Eu-
rope, in Russia, Sweden, Germany,
| France and Denmark. The last year
has had much of encoura cement and pro-
gress. The total receipts from all sources
were ST22, 767, in some respects the best
showing in any one of the 50 years Of
/ the soeietys history There is a small
/ deficit of $4,000, made necessary by
enlargement of the work at some points.
/ The baptisms for the year were 1853 in
the churches of Asia and Africa and
! 1881 in these of Europe, and the present
membership in the churches in heather
/ lands is 1f3,41S, and in Europe, 10S061.
The Home Missionary Society has for
its field the United States, including
Alaska, Cuba, Porto Rico, but not in
Guiding the Philippines. which are still
regarded as foreign mission IeFflloFg. 1t
has also a gratifying work ia Mexico.
It's operations include tbs planting of
churches, supporting pastors, building
meeting houses and evangelzing the com
munities in the West and Northwest. 1t
also maintains schools of high grade
among the negroes of the South, and is
engaged in extended labors for the for
eign population in oar large cities and for
the Chinese. The gross receipts of the
society for the last year were $GzI,3S7.
The expenditures slightly exceeded the
receipts. The 1910 missionaries report,
IN all. 5,Ss3 baptisms in re year.
The publication society, ms its name
imptes. issues books and periodicals call
ed for by the churches and other socie-
ties in tl.r Sunday school and evange-
i listic work Each of these three socie-
ties has permanent property, invested
/ funds securities. etc, amounting to ST.
/ 100000 or thereabouts- They are great
business corporations, conducted on sound
business principles, as well as large and
effective missionary societies, seeking in
every way to extend Christianity.