Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-12
eAPTIsTs TO MEET SOON.
The Southern Convention Will Be Held
at jacksonville.

at Jacksonville.
Greater in number than the British
parliament or the congress Of the
United States, the Southern Baptist
convention will meet in Jacksonville,
Fla, on May II with delegates pres
ent from every state in the south.
The convention is made up of mes
sengers or delegates from churches,
associations, state conventions, mis-
sionary societies and Sunday schools.
All Baptist churches are independent.
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 be-
tween the clergy and laymen.
The Baptist cry through the age has
been "A church without a Pope, and
a State without a King" They have
always held as a fundamental princi-
pie, that the individual soul is compe-
tent to deal with God. The Bible Is
their only creed and sole guide in mat
ters of faith and doctrine. 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 vIcarious atonement OF
Christ, believing in his death on the
cross: his resurrection from the grave,
and his ascension to the right hand
of the Father as the foundation and
security of salvation. Baptists insist
upon what Is called believers baptism
as a prerequisite to church member
ship, in the independence Of the local
church, and hold that each church Is
spiritual, democratic body, separ-
ate from the state, owing its first alle-
glance to God. In a Baptist church
there are no priestly orders. Ministers
are solemnly set apart to the work Of
the ministry without official distinc-
tion, or authority, one over another,
the terms pastor" bishop" and EEL
der" being different names for the
same Office.
The convention has three boards;
the foreign mission board, with head
quarters at Richmond, the home mis-
sion board with headquarters at At
lanta, and the Sunday school board
with headquarters at Nashville. The
work of the foreign board Is to preach
the Gospel in foreign lands. The
home mission board looks after work
in the home field, which includes the
southern states and the Panama Sec
ton. The Sunday school board is the
head of the Sunday school work, and
publishes Sunday school helps, period
icals and books for use in the Sunday
schools and Young Peoples societies.
The Southern Baptist Theological
seminary, the School of the Prophets,
located at Louisville, KY, Is also un-
der the control Of the Southern Bap-
tist convention.
According to the best available fig
ures, there are about 6,2S0,649 Bap-
lists. OF this number 4,110,873 are in
the south, 2,218,911 of the Southern
Baptists are white, 1,S91.902 colored.
In the northern states there are L.
100, ,293 Baptists. There are 22,43S
churches connected with the Southern
Baptist convention. They make up
the largest religious denomination in
the south. The Baptists are said to
have 39.5 per cent Of the church mem
bership of the south, the Methodists
26.5 per cent, Catholics 15.9 per cent,
Disciples 5.2 per cent, Presbyterians
49, per cent, Episcopalians IL per
cent and all others SO per cent.
The churches connected with this
convention raised last year for carry
ing on their work S9,474,777. OF this
sum $1,336,519 was given for mis-
sions. The church property Of the
Southern Baptist convention Is valued
at $37,2O3,522.
The Baptist lay no claim to apos-
tolic succession, but their churches, In
their cooperative work, are modelled
after the churches found in the New
Testament.
Roger Williams was not the first
Baptist as some enormously suppose.
The history of the church runs back
for hundreds of years before his day.
John Runyun, who lived nearly a
hundred years before Williams was
born, was a Baptist. Williams was,
however, the first to become Baptist
on American soil, and he organized
the first American Baptist church in
Providence, R. I. The first Baptist
church in the south was constituted
in South Carolina in 1882. The first
established in North Carolina was in
1888, in Virginia 1714, in Tennessee
177O, in Georgia 1771, in Mississippi
1880, in Kentucky 1881, in Alabama
1903, in Florida 1888. In 1852, when
the great Baptist persecution began
in Virginia, there were only 5000 Bap-
lists in the whole country. In twen-
ty-four years they had increased to
$4,000. In 1890 there were $4,000, In
1912 175,OOO, in 1925 23S,00O, in 1S40
$40, 900, and in 1853 12,25S,765. Today
there are in the south alone 5,031,166.
In 1914 the Baptists of the United
States gave for missions $134,11 and
had only 81 missionaries employed.
Last year they gave $S65,5S5 for mis-
sions, and there were 800 missiona-
ries on the foreign field. In 1853 South
ern Baptists raised $4,000 for foreign
missions and $4,000 for home mis-
sions. There were two foreign mis-
sion stations-one in Africa, and one
in China. In these two fields 19 mis-
sionaries were at work. The home
mission board reported II mission
aries at work and 642 baptisms In the
same period. Last year $46O,797 was
raised for foreign missions in the ter
ritory of the Southern Baptist conven-
ton and there were 231 missionaries
on the foreign field. The home board
reported last year 2S3,436 with 1,O66
missionaries at work and $4,000 bap-
tisms.