THE BAPTIST CHURCH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 154, 8 October 1910, Page 8

THE BAPTIST CHURCH.

COXFEKEXCE IX DUXEDIX. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The Baptist Union Conference continued to-day. The treasurer's report showed a debit balance of £l3O 8s Id In the course of a financial debate it was stated that for the last three yearn the debit balances were £loo, £155 and £l3O respectively. The general donations averaged % ( ] per member pei week. Of course those who gave contributed a great deal more than that. Many members gave little or nothing. At present the position was really due to the urgent demand for extension of home work. Monthly subscriptions were advocated, and it was stated an extra Id per week would mean an additional £IOOO per year. It was decided to recommend for the consideration of the churches some of the duplex envelope* for collections.

The Rev. Nojth submitted the Students' Committee report. The committee recommended Rowe be substituted for Kennedy as the text book for evidence in the first year's course, and that ministers be urged to direct thb attention of young men of promise and talent to the claims of the ministry, and that where practicable preparatory classes for such be initiated in connection with the churches. The report was adopted.

Mr. A. F. Carey (Christchurch) presided in the evening, when the subject was, "The Baptists- and their contribution to the world's progress." The Rev. A. Dewdney (Brooklvn) dealt with Baptists in the past. The Rev. J. J. North (Wellington)", speaking of the Baptists of the pivsent, said the brotherhood was what men sought after, and it was being stifled by Ormanphobia. Dreadl- - and the black and" yellow promlems.

The Rev. A. S. Wilson (Wanganui) gave an address on Baptists in the future. The essence of their belief lay in their grand baptismal ordinance. They stood not for the emblem of the thing but for the thing itself. Culture of the present day was the most extraordinary ever seen. It was a method of scientific realism. Looking at things as they were, and describing things as they were in the union of churches, there must be absolute freedom of teaching and preaching in things non-essential, and unity in things essential, and in all things charity. At the Baptist Women's Missionary Union's annual meeting the following office-bearers were elected: President, Mrs. Driver; vice-presidents, Mesdames Knowles, Kempton (Auckland), J. J. North (Wellington), Carey (Outer-, bury), Boyall (Otago), C. W. Gage (Taranaki); secretary, Mrs. Findlay; treasurer, Mrs. Adams.