El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-01
Baptist World Alliance
Meets In Philadelphia
CHURCH'S LARGE MEMBERSHIP.

! lists are far ahead of any other re-
Hgious organization. OF the $4,000
ministers of all denominations, Prot
estant, Catholic Jew and Mormon, 49,
$50 are of Baptist utilization. Two
ministers out of every seven among
the Protestant churches of America
ere affiliated with bodies of the Bap-
fist faith. The denomination has a large
number of schools for the education Of
it's clergy. Many of their schools are
richly endowed and much encourage
ment is given to the young men of the
.:1urch I'D take Up the work Of the
ministry.
Baptists Supreme in South.
The Baptists hold first rank among
all denominations in every one of the
southern states, except Oklahoma. They
also have the largest number of COM
municants in Maine, Rhode Island, and
the District Of Columbia. 1t is easy to
explain the ascendancy of the Baptists
in Rhode Island, since it was here that
the Baptist church had its beginning
in the United States. Rhode Island
was, as a matter Of fact, colony
whose beginning may be traced direct
ly to the Baptist church, for it was
here that Roger Williams planted the
-Irst churcn q PrOvid snCe all :nc Few.
Mr.. Clark the next one at Newport. The
colony was chartered as a haven for
the Baptists, who were prosecuted in
other colonies
The ascendancy Of the Baptist church
in the south is due in large measure
to the great proportion of the negro
race holding to that faith More than
two-thirds of all the negro church
members in the United States are affil-
filiated with one or another of the
Baptist bodies of the country. There
are more than OO0, geo negro Baptists
OdistS, the next church of their choice.
about 40 percent of al the Baptists in
America are coIored. OF the 5000 900
negro Baptists nearly five-sixths be-
long to one organization, known as the
National Baptist association. n ma
jority Of the smaller Baptist bodies
are composed entirely Of colorsd peo-
pie.
Old-TwO-Seed Spirit.
One of these bodies is the O1d-Two-
Seed-in the-S Spirit Professionalism Bap-
fists, an organization which fiourishes
in some Of the southern and southwest
ern states. The sect sprang from the
curious theology of one Elder Daniel
Parker. He held that mother Eve
bore two sets of children, one set be-
ing of cody origin and the other set
OF satanic origin Their childl en- and
their childrens' children, down through
S-1I SSLSIdlIOHSs nave OF the
nature Of their fathers and the whole
theory of predestination is based on
the assumption that the one race is
doomed to eternal punishment and the
other elected to eternal salvation.
The first important split in the Bap-
fist church in America took place over
this very question Of predestination.
One wing OF the church held to the doc
trine of free will and the other SUBJ
scribed to the Calvinistic theory Of
Generalization. Those who beloved in
predestinatiOn asserted taht it would
be as wrong for the chu. CHI to try TO
bring about the salvation OF the heath
en- races, as it was for Uzzah to try to
stay the ark when it was abo,-t to fall !
into the road They held that to send |
out missionaries was to interfere with ,
the Divine plan, and that If the heath |
en- were to be saved 1t would DO with |
out human interference. These Bap- |
lists were at first in the ascepdancy |
in the church, and were known vari- !
ously as Anti-MisSion Baptists, Hard |
Shelf Baptists and Old School Bap- |
lists.
OriglnatiOn OF Name.
The word Baptist as the descriptive |
name of a body Of Christians was not |
CHOSEN by them, but by their oppo-
nents. 1t was first used. so far as is |