The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-05-17
Will MEET SOON |
Southern Baptist Convention TO Hold An
uual Session in Few Gays.
NUMBER SIX MILLION

VUIHUAaA UAN N&2AAIV1s
The Convention Will Be Numerically
Larger Than Congress or the Brit
ish Parliament, but Is Advisory
Only in Character, and Is Different
From Most Such Bodies.
Greater number than the the Bri-
tish parliament or the congress o.
the United States, the Southern Bap-
tist convention will meet in Jack
sonville, Fla, on Wednesday, May
17, with delegates present from
every Southern State.
The convention is made up Of
delegates from churches, assoc!a-
tions, State conventions, missionary
societies and Sunday schools. All
Baptist churches are Independent.
Therefore the Convention has no
authority to bind the churches in
it's territory. It's action is advisory,
not compulsory. Ministers and lay
men are admitted into the conren-
ton on the same basis without any
Official distinction between the clergy
and laymen.
The convention has three boards:
The foreign mission board with head
quarters at Richmond, the home mis-
sion board, with headquarters at At
lanta. an6 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
missionary work in the home field,
which includes the Southern States,
Cuba and the Panama section.
The Sunday school board is 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
oligical seminary, the School Of the
Prophets, located at Louisville, Ky,
is also under the control Of the
Southern Baptist convention.
According to the best available fig
ures, there are about 6,2SO,64s Bap-
fists. Of this number 4,110,S73 are
in the South, 2,21S,911 of the Sou
thern Raptists are white, 1,Ss1,s62
colored. In the Northern States
there are 1,190,29S Baptists. There
are 22,43S churches connected with
the Southern Baptist convention.
They make up the largest religi.
Gus denomination in the South. The
! Baptists are said to have 3e.5 pei
cent of the church membership o1
the South, the Methodists 26.5 pei
cent, Catholics 1879 per cent, Dis
ciples SO per cent, Presbyterians
40 per cent, Episcopalials IT and
all others SO per cent.
The churches connected with this
convention raised last year for carry.
ing on their work s9,474,777. o.
this sum s1,336,519 was given fol
missions. The church property ot
the Southern Baptist convention j:
valued at s37,2S3,522.
Roger Williams was not the frs
Baptist as some enormously suppose
The history Of the church runs back
for hundreds of years before his day
John Runkun, who lived nearly al
hundred years before Williams wa:
born, was a Baptist. Williams was
however, the first to become a Bap
tist on American soil, ard he organ
lied the first American Baptis
church in Providence, f. I.
The first Baptist church in thu
South was constituted in South Caro-
lima in 1882. The first established
in North Carolina was in 1858, II
Virginia 1714, in Tennessee ITO
in Georgia It'll, in Mississippi 1850
in Kentucky 1871, in Alabama 1903
in Florida 1888.
In 1852, when the great Baptis
persecution began in Virginia, there
we're only 5000 Baptists in the whole
country. In "a years they had in
creased to $4,000. In 1870 there
were $4,000. in 1912, 175,000; il
1925. 23S.O00; in 1910, $4,000
and in 1853, 1,25S,765. Toda,
there are II the South alone 4,i10,
S73.
In 1914 the Baptists of the United
States gave for missions s134,i12
) and had only 64 missionaries EN-
ployed. Last year they gave $3.50,
5S5 for missions, and there were S0C
missionaries on the foreign field. II
1853 Southern Baptists raised s21,
600 for foreign missions.
There were two foreign missic1
stations-one in Africa, and one il
China. IN these two fields 19 mis-
sionaries were at work. The hom'
missions board reported II mission
aries at work, and 642 baptisms Il
the same period. Last year $3.50,
, 731 was raised for foreign missions
; in the territory Of the Southern
BAPTIST convention and there Were
: 231 missionaries on the foreign field
, The home board reported last yea
s2S3,436 with 1.066 missionaries a
: work and 1SS,000 baptisms.
Means Cheaper Clothes.
That the ways and means commit