Henderson gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1911-19??, 1911-05-18
BAPTIST CONVENTION MEETS.
Great Southern Religious Body AS
sembIes at Observation-Disclosures
Present From All the Southern
States.

The Southern Baptlst oHNth'l"h,
body greater in number than the
British Parliament or the Congress
81 the United States, convened at
Jacksonville, Fla, yesterday with
delegates present from every State
IN the South. The convention is
made I'D Of messengers or delegates
from churches, associations, State
conventions, missionary societies
and Sunday schools. All Baptist
churches are independent. Therefore
the Convention has no authority to
bind the churches in its territory. Its
action is advisory, not compulsory:
Ministers and laymen are admitted
into the convention on the same
basis, without any official distinction
between the clergy and layman.
The Baptist cry through the ages
has been "A Church without a
Pope, and IL State without II king!
They have always held Hs II funda-
mental principle, that the individual
soul is competent to deal with God.
The Bible is their only creed and sole
guide in matters of faith and doe
trinp. From its teachings they hold
that all men are born in sin, and can
find salvation only through faith
in Jesus Christ. They accept the vi
cnriOua atOnement of Christ, believ-
mg in His death on the cross; His res
direction from the grave, and His
ascension to the right hand Of the
Father, as the foundation and secu-
rity of salvation. Baptists insist
upon what is called believers bAp-
tlsm as Prerequisite to church mem
brrship, in the independence of the
local church, and hold that each
church is spiritual, democratic
body, separate from the State, owing
allegiance to God. In the Baptist
church there are no priestly orders.
Ministers are sOlemnly Y set apart to
the work of the ministry without OF
fetal distinction, or authority, one
over another, the terms ''pastor,
and elder" being different names
for the same office.
The convention has three boards,
the foreign mission board, with
headquarters at Richmond, the home
mission board, with headquarters at
Atlanta, and the Sunday school
board, with headquarters at Nash
Vile. The work of the foreign board
il to preach the gospel in foreign
lands. The home mission board
looks after mission work in the home
field, which includes the Southern
States, Cuba and the Panama sec
ton. The Sunday school board Ii
the head Of the Sunday school work
and publishes Sunday school helps
periodicals. and books for Use in the
Sunday schools and young peoples
societies. The Southern Baptist The
uIOgical Seminary, the School of the
Prophets. located at Nashville, Ky.
is also under the control OF the
Southern baptist Convention.
According to the best available
figures, there are about 6,2SO, Oh!
Baptists OF this number 4 4,llO,S7:
are in the South; 2,2lS,91l of The
Southern Baptists are white, ,S9l,
962 cOlOred. They make up th'
largest religious denomination il
the South The Baptists are said tt
have 80 per cent. Of the church mem
hership of the South, the Methodist
% per cent, Catholics 10 per cent.
Disciples 5.O2 per cent, Presbyte
rians % per cent, EpiscOpalian'
l.07 per cent and all Others 80!
per cent.
The churches connected with thi
convention raised last year for car
rying on their work 50, ,474, III. o
this sum $l.336,519 was given 70
missions. The church property O
the Southern Baptist Conventions i
valued at $37, ,203,522.
The Baptists lay no claim to apos
tolic succession, but their churche
in their cooperative work, are mod
eIed after the churches found in tn
New Testament.
Roger Williams was not the frs
Baptist, as some enormously SUI
pose The history of the church run
back for hundreds OF years befor
his day. John Runyun, who live
nearly an hundred years before Wi
Hams was born, was Baptist. Wi
liams was, however, the first to be
come n Baptist on American sol
aud he organized the first America
Baptist church in Providence, R.
The first Baptist church in tn
South was constituted in South Cal
olina in 1852. The first establishe
in North Carolina was in 1853, i
Virginia l7l4, in Tennessee 177O,
Georgia 177l, in Mississippi 1880, i
Kentucky 1881, in Alabama 1S0;
in Florida 1888. In 1862, when tt
great Baptist persecution began
Virginia, there were only 800
Baptists in the whole country.
twenty-four years they had il
creased to $4,000 In 1890 thel
were $4,000. in 1912 175,OOO,
1925 23S,OOO, in 1910 57O,OOt
and in 1858 1,25S,765. Toda
there are in the South alone, 1901
l66.
In 1914 the Baptists of the Unite
States gave for missions $134, IL
and had only 64 missionaries Ell
plOyed. Last year they gave $S6;
5S5 for missions, and there were sc
missionaries on the foreign field.
1858 Southern Baptists raised 81
600 for foreign missions and 81
900 for home missions. There we
two foreign mission stations-one
Africa and one in China. In the
two fields nineteen missionaries we
at work. The home missions boa
reported seventy-seven missionari
at work, and 642 baptisms in t
same period. Last year S46O,1
was raised for foreign missions in t
territory of the Southern Bapt
Convention and there were 231 m
siOnaries on the foreign field. T
home hoard reported last We
$685. ,436, with ,066 missionaries
work, and 1S8,OO0 baptisms.