RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baptists
The demand for an agency for the publication and circulation of denominational and other religious literature led to the organization of the Baptist General Tract Society in 1824. Its headquarters were at Washington and it was under the general direction of Luther Rice. The complications that arose in connection with Columbian College and the superior publishing and distributing facilities offered by Philadelphia led to a change of location in 1826. In 1840 a revised constitution with the name American Baptist Publication Society was adopted. The society has
t> Vii • fQrmed an important factor in the
tion So- growth °f *ne denomination and it has ciety> kept abreast of its needs. The annual receipts of the publishing department at present amount to nearly $900,000 and in its missionary and Bible departments to about $200,000. Its net assets amount to about $1,600,000. The refusal of the American Bible Society to appropriate funds for the publication of a Burmese version in which the words for " baptize " and " baptism " were translated by words equivalent to " immerse " and " immersion " (see Bible Societies, III, § 2) led to the organization of the American and Foreign Bible Society (1836). The refusal of this society to secure the publication of an English version in which " immersion " should supplant " baptism " led to the formation of the American Bible Union (1850), which employed Thomas J. Conant, H. B. Hackett, and others to prepare a new version of the Bible with critical apparatus and notes. The New Testament and portions of the Old were completed. Hostility between the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Union was crippling to both and in 1883 both were compelled by a great denominational gathering to relinquish the field, the Missionary Union assuming responsibility for the publication and circulation of the Scriptures in foreign languages in its fields and the Publication Society undertaking to complete and circulate the Bible Union and the Anglo-American Revised versions, as well as the King James version.
Before 1840 the slavery question was agitated in Baptist circles. Many Southern Baptists, including leading ministers, were slaveholders, and nearly all were very sensitive to Northern abolitionist utterances. In 1843 the neutrality of the Foreign Mission Board was reaffirmed. With a view to making continued cooperation practicable, Richard Fuller, an eminent Southern Baptist, offered a resolution in the Triennial Convention for 1844 for the elimination from the consideration of the body of all matters foreign to the object designated in the constitution and declaring cooperation in the proper work of the body not to involve or imply concert or sympathy as regards other matters. This resolution was withdrawn in favor of one whereby the body disclaimed all sanction of slavery or of antislavery and left each individual free in a Christian manner and spirit to express and promote his own views on these subjects. Notwithstanding the adoption of this resolution the Foreign Mission Board was thought to have procured the resignation of an Indian missionary who
was a slaveholder. Southern Baptists were convinced that thenceforth slaveholders would be dis- 8 Th criminated against and that future
Southern sessions of tne Convention would be ren-
Baptists. dered tumultuous by attacks on slavery and rejoinders. A literary controversy between Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, and Richard Fuller awakened much interest and demonstrated the impossibility of harmony between Northern and Southern Baptists. Conciliatory measures were attempted on both sides; but the conviction had become overmastering among Southern leaders that the Baptists of the South could work more successfully with separate Convention and Boards. This policy was carried into effect in May, 1845, by 370 messengers from the various Southern States. Home and Foreign Mission Boards were at once constituted, and both these departments of work have been vigorously prosecuted. The Foreign Mission Board (Richmond) has for years conducted successful missionary work in Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Africa, China, and Japan, and has attained to an annual income of about $300,000. The total membership of native churches under the Board is reported (1905) as 11,423. The Home Mission Board (Atlanta) expends nearly $200,000 a year within the bounds of the Convention, in Cuba, and in the insular possessions of the United States. The Sundayschool Board (Nashville), besides furnishing Sunday-school papers and other requisites, publishes a number of books, and fosters Sunday-school work through a professorship in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and through district secretaries who labor throughout its constituency. Its annual receipts are about $125,000. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is cherished by the Convention, which nominates brethren from whom the members of its Board are chosen and receives its annual report.
After the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Foreign Mission Board of the Triennial Convention became the American Baptist Missionary Union, which has since had annual meetings in connection with the American Baptist Publication Society, the American Baptist Home Mission Society, etc. Women's auxiliary societies copperate with the Northern and Southern Boards.
The Baptist Congress is not strictly a denominational organization; but is supported by subscribing members and holds an annual meet- 9. The ing for the free discussion of current
Baptist questions of doctrine, polity, and life.
Congress jtg annuai reports furnish the public and with the most advanced thought. The
Peoples Baptist Young People's Union of
TTnion. America (1891 onward) seeks to promote Christian activity, intelligence, and denominational spirit among the Baptist young people of the United States and Canada.
Baptist owners of slaves were by no means indifferent to their spiritual welfare. It is estimated that there were 400,000 negro Baptists in the United States at the close of the Civil War. Most of these were members of the churches of their masters; but in the towns and cities many negro churches had
Baptists