Baptists Mobilized for Missions A. L. VAIL n BV 2520 .V3 1911 Vail, Albert L. 1844-1935 Baptists mobilized for missions BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS Baptists Mobilized for Missions By y ALBERT L. VAIL Author •THE MORNING HOUR OF AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS" Philadelphia American Baptist Publication Society Boston Chicago St. Louis Toronto, Can. Copyright 1911 by A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary Published June, 1911 THE HISTORICAL PREVIEW This book attempts to trace the history of combina- tion among American Baptists for missionary pur- poses. Substantially this implies the parallel proc- esses for all other purposes. Baptists have neces- sarily followed the same general lines in all their attempts to work together, because those lines have been determined by fundamental principles common to all of them and applicable to all situations. The two basal principles bearing on the movements now to be held in view are individualism, involving local independence, and fellowship in co-operation. The central problem has been and now is to preserve the liberty of a radical democracy, and secure at the same time the highest efficiency on the widest fields. The solution of this problem is not so easy prac- tically as it is theoretically. The attempt to adjust has not always been consistent ; and particularly, sensitiveness for individualism and its liberties, with the involved suspicion of centralized authority and all tendencies toward it, has nm a fluctuating survey through the whole course. Our purpose is to follow the survey, observe its involutions and advances, and gather from the whole such suggestions for the illumination of the co-operative problems of the 5 6 THE HISTORICAL PREVIEW present and the future as our eyes may open to see. This purpose sets aside, at once and entirely, all details of field operations, a multitude of things that would be legitimate or essential in a history of missions. It also eliminates all issues of adminis- trative organization except such limitedly as may seem to bear so close relations to the main problem as justly to give them claim on our attention. The spinal cord of our investigation is authoritative con- stituency. Involved in this or tributary to it are various questions concerning the basis of constitu- ency, the relations of the constituents to any and all agencies employed for effectuating their designs, and in general whatever throws light on the central problem. The author's book, " The Morning Hour of Amer- ican Baptist Missions," treats the topic of this book in the formative years, as one element of the mis- sionary history of the denomination prior to 1815. The founding of the General Convention for For- eign Missions (commonly called the Triennial) was the culmination of that process and at the same time a revolution away from it. Equally, it was the basis of all that followed, both in conflict and construc- tion. Taking " The Morning Hour " as our guide, we find that the earlier Baptist missionary combina- tions were a growth, involving the individual, the church and the Association, in various adjustments, until the missionary societies arose. These so- cieties began with a resumption of the individual THE HISTORICAL PREVIEW 7 basis, and they, so based, became the foundation of the larger structure that appeared in 1814. Sub- stantially all that can now be known of that earlier history is in '' The Morning Hour." The knowledge of it is essential to the most perfect understanding of the day that followed that dawn throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, as ap- pearing in the following pages. This book takes up this one element where the other left it, and carries it through to the present time. The analysis of the materials used is not alto- gether easy or satisfactory on any plan, but the arrangement adopted seems on the whole the most appropriate, that is : To carry through separately six main lines of development, placed in the order of their beginnings — the Triennial Convention and the Missionary Union, the State Conventions at their origins, the Tract-Publication Society, the Home Mission Society, the Southern Convention, and the Northern Convention. The first two are treated as one because they were peculiarly one in fact, being a continuous life under two names and constitu- tions ; also because their line is preeminent in the volume and intensity of its conflicts, and in its con- structive significance in the realm of combination. The general issues were fought out and wrought out in those two, from 18 14 to 1900, with unequaled fulness. This fact seems to the writer to warrant the position given them and the space they occupy. CONTENTS Page I. The Triennial Convention 9 II. The American Baptist Missionary Union 28 III. The State Conventions 46 IV. The American Baptist Publication Society 60 V. American Baptist Home Mission So- ciety dy VI. The Southern Baptist Convention.. 80 VII. The Northern Baptist Convention.. 89 VIII. Doctrinal 104 IX. Practical 142 Notes 157 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION " Delegates from associated bodies of the Baptist denomination formed in various parts of the United States for the purpose of diffusing evangelic Hght through benighted regions of the earth," met in Philadelphia, May i8, 1814. They organized " The General ^Missionary Convention of the Baptist De- nomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions." Although the name does not indicate home missions and ministerial education, both were anticipated by the founders whenever the way for them should open. Article II of the constitution originally stood as follows: "A triennial Convention shall, hereafter, be held, consisting of Delegates, not exceeding two in number, from each of the several missionary societies, and other religious bodies of the Baptist denomination, now existing, or which hereafter may 9 lO BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS be formed in the United States, and which shall each, regularly, contribute to the general Missionary Fund, a sum amounting, at least, to one hundred dollars per annum." That churches are here understood to be included among the other " religious bodies of the Baptist denomination " seems evident from the next article, where provision is made that the Board shall be composed of " members of the said societies, churches, or other religious bodies aforesaid." And the inference is justified that churches are introduced here as they are because the Convention thought of them as standing first as missionary organizations after those societies which were ex- clusively missionary. The constitution, then, placed the Convention's constituency solely in Baptist or- ganizations, and ranked these in the order of mis- sionary societies, churches and others, miscellane- ous, all such as were operating for the promotion of any enterprise of the denomination. In confirmation and exposition of this understand- ing, a decisive document appears. Immediately on the adjournment of the Convention, and in pur- suance of the design in appointing Luther Rice as the chief promoter of the whole movement, that energetic agent put forth his sinewy hand to grasp all helping hands everywhere. This he did in con- sultation with his associates in the leadership, no doubt, though in large measure he was given that freedom in details naturally granted to his ability, THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION II devotion, and popularity. How he proceeded ap- pears in his report to the Board for the first year in this service, dated May 25, 181 5. He had issued an address to the Associations in order through them to reach the churches, and since some delay would necessarily ensue on this line, he had supplemented it by correspondence with individuals. The report shows the agent's idea of the constitu- ency to be reached: " Two objects were particularly in view — to engage the Associations in the mission- ary cause, and to open a channel of intercourse be- tween the Board and all the Baptist churches in the United States." Among the Associations he listed several bodies of collateral character, as *' The Sabbatarian General Conference," " The An- cient Order of the Six Principles," and one called the " Emancipating Society." He gives a concise summary of these bodies, with more or less details of their missionary attitudes and activities. Count- ing all the irregulars with the Associations, he mus- ters one hundred and fifteen as already actively co- operating or confidently expected to do so when sufficiently informed. The prominence given to the Associations and through them to the churches, does not mean any disparagement of the missionary societies. On the contrary, the promotion of these as auxiliary to the Convention was actively continued by the agent and others. In a letter to the Board, dated June 19, 1816, a few days after the meeting of the Board, 12 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS and presumably embodying matter which had been verbally laid before that body, Mr. Rice reported some of his activities in promoting missionary so- cieties, showing that he was accustomed to turn his attention to them when the other methods were re- laxed and when situations arose favorable to this method ; for he said : " As the period of the Asso- ciations approached, arrangements were made for meetings, the object of which was the formation of missionary societies. At four successive meetings of this kind the satisfaction was enjoyed of assisting in the organization of as many societies of this de- scription," which were " all in Kentucky." At the conclusion of its first triennial meeting. May, 1817, the Convention, perhaps in response to inquiries, entered on its records, " as the deliberate sense of this body, that the delegates and proxies, or their substitutes, appointed by the mission societies, Associations, and churches, united in the General Missionary Convention, do continue as constituting the said Convention till the time of the next tri- ennial meeting." The elements of constituency here remain the same as three years earlier, but the order is changed ; the Associations, not then spe- cifically named, coming next to the societies, and the churches last. A list is recorded of the bodies send- ing delegates, which are summarized by the reporter as follows : forty societies, two Associations, and one church. The societies were partly foreign mission and partly mixed, with a few " female " and THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION I3 " juvenile." The representations by the Associa- tions were both indirect, one by the Missionary Board of the Georgia Association and the other by the General Committee of the Charleston, S. C, Association, which committee was educational. The one church was the Ogechee, of Georgia, for which Luther Rice appeared as " proxy." These facts seem to have justified the order in which the three classes were recorded. To this list another was added of about one hundred and fifty societies not sending representatives, but having contributed to the Convention. Evidently at this date the so- cieties were nearly the whole thing practically. At this meeting the constitution was slightly changed, but in nothing affecting constituency. On that point practical unanimity had been reached, which continued, so far at least as concerns any ac- tion of the Convention or its Board, for twenty-one years, except that in 1823 the restriction of each organization to two representatives for one hun- dred dollars, without regard to its contributions above that amount, was changed to one representa- tive for the first one hundred dollars and one for every additional hundred dollars. It should be said, however, that very soon other views in this field secured wide acceptance among the friends of the Convention, which were expressed in other connections, and which, if they had been pressed, might have caused radical changes. After noting briefly some items in the development of 14 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS the now established order, we will observe the course of that variation which ran into the sug- gestion of a collision. First, then, notice the movement of the fixed order. In 1823 representatives appeared from mis- sionary organizations, some with the Baptist name and others without — State, county, African, female, etc., and educational — ^but only one church. In 1829 the churches and the State Conventions, the latter then just getting into action, made a better pro- portionate showing. Otherwise the variety ran about as previously, and continued substantially the same still later. Secondly, consider the revival of the original view "of the proper basis for a general or national organization. It had been sought in the Associa- tions almost exclusively before the rise of the mis- sionary societies. These last were most available in 18 14, and consequently the Triennial Conven- tion was based originally on them almost entirely, and so continued for several years. But the revival of the earlier method was promoted by the appear- ance of the State Conventions. A prominent pref- erence appeared for the Associations as the basis for the State bodies, as they had been from the beginning for all organizations larger than them- selves. The churches secured but small recognition in that connection, partly because of the difficulties in transportation. The State Conventions started on a quite miscellaneous basis, as did also the Gen- THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 1 5 eral Tract Society and the Home Mission Society. All of these will claim our attention later, but now we are dealing with the Triennial. In this connec- tion a vision arose of the State Conventions as the basis of larger organization, and this vision naturally first fixed its eye on the already existing general body. Two distinguished discussions with this tend- ency appeared in the " American Baptist Maga- zine." Acquaintance with them will illuminate our understanding of the background of the situation. Therefore to them we turn. In 1823 and 1824 "Backus" (who was Francis Wayland, then a pastor in Boston, and subsequently president of Brown University) published six let- ters in the magazine discussing the Association in various aspects. The fifth letter raised the ques- tion as to the best method for wider co-operation by Baptists, and the sixth opened thus : " My last letter closed with the question, How may a general union of our churches throughout the United States be accomplished? I shall now suggest the answer to it. Here I confess I distrust myself." Having reiterated the principle of the independence of the churches and recognized the general readiness of the people to support education and missions, provided that a practical plan could be devised, and having called attention to the available basis in the Asso- ciations, he proceeded : " We see then that the As- sociations are in possession of all the information we could desire, if it could only be regularly col- l6 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS lected. We see they are representative bodies, and could declare the faith and practice of their churches " — representative, he means, empowered to devise methods " consistent with established prin- ciples." Returning next to the main question, he said, " The model of our system of general and State governments will at once suggest itself to every American." The Associations could concen- trate resources and information in the State Conven- tion, whose duties would be to ascertain the condi- tion of all the churches in the State, locating the points of need and encouraging the churches " to systematic exertion in the cause of Christ " through the Associations, the funds so accumulated to be passed on to the State body and thence distributed to State and foreign missions, for the former of which a Board of Management would be provided. So he came to his concluding proposal : " The State Conventions might send delegates " to form a gen- eral convention. " Under this body might be placed the general missionary and educational concerns of the denomination." Recognizing that these " are, in a measure, under that general superintendency at present," in the Triennial Convention, he stepped to the hilltop of his intention in these words : " But it is evident that the system of representation is very imperfect, and is far from being so constituted as to combine the general sentiment of our whole church. The convention at present is composed of delegates from missionary societies, and, of THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION I7 course, must, in its very nature, be mostly composed of persons elected from the vicinity of its place of meeting. And besides, were the meeting ever so universally attended, its foundation is radically defective. A missionary society is not a representa- tive body, nor can any one of them speak the lan- guage of a whole denomination. Most of them are female societies, which have no influence beyond their own members. But it is needless to pursue this subject." The letter closed with a yet wider view of the possibilities of this proposed national body, through correspondence and co-operation with European Baptists, " and thus the Baptists on both sides of the Atlantic would be united in a solid phalanx," which could be utilized in " a general book system," promoting intelligence and raising money " for the propagation of the gospel," unify- ing the faith and " exciting all our churches to every laudable exertion for the extension of re- ligion." The author closed with an appeal to ap- proaching meetings and the people generally not to consider his suggestions " visionary," but to give them " serious consideration " or propose something better. It is beyond doubt that W^ayland did not write for himself alone in this argument and plea. The fact that he was a young pastor surrounded by older leaders, for whom he had great deference, would make this morally certain even if nothing more were available. But more is available. The State B l8 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS Convention of Alassachiisetts was organized a few months later than the appearance of the letter from which we have jnst been quoting. The call for it was signed by Baldwin, Bolles, Williams, Going, and Wayland. With it went a proposed constitu- tion, which contained this provision, " Whenever a General Convention, formed from State Conven- tions throughout the United States, shall be formed, or designed, it shall be in the power of this Conven- tion to send delegates to meet in such Convention, and to instruct them to enter into any arrange- ments to promote the interests of religion, not in- consistent with this constitution, nor with the gen- eral declaration on which it is founded." This was slightly, but not substantially, amended before adoption. It makes certain that in Massachusetts the determining conviction was settled in 1824, that a national convention was not far away, and that it would be composed of delegates from the State Conventions. (The Massachusetts declaration was not followed by any State, but it had been incor- porated a month earlier in the constitution of Maine, which precisely duplicated it as it was in its original draft.) In the magazine of April, 1826, " Candidus " entered into a free discussion of questions liable to appear at the meeting of the Triennial Conven- tion a month later. Toward the close he took up the item of constituenc3\ The views he presented were the same as those of Wayland two years THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION I9 earlier, and were applied to the general body already existing in the same way as his predecessor had applied them to the general body then anticipated. He said : " Another subject of equal importance will probably be at this time agitated. It is the con- stitution of the Convention. It has been doubted by some of our most judicious men whether this was the best method of fixing the representation. It is certainly very unequal in its operation, and is very far from collecting with certainty the united wisdom of our brethren. . . But to illustrate the practical efifect of the present system, it will be suf- ficient to refer to the minutes of the last Con- vention [at Washington]. There were present in all but fifty-one delegates. Of these, fourteen — that is, five more than appeared from all New England, and nearly one-third of the whole body — resided in the District of Columbia. Now, if we proceed upon the principle that taxation and representation should be proportioned to each other, this arrangement is most manifestly unjust. . . These difficulties have suggested to many of our wisest brethren the idea of having the second article of the constitution so altered that all the members of the General Con- vention shall be appointed by the State Conven- tions." Having affirmed that the State body could better secure an actual and general representation, he continued, " The General Convention would thus become a strong bond of connection between all the dilTerent portions of our denomination scattered 20 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS over this widely extended country, and would bind them together in, it may be hoped, indissoluble union." The question of change in representation did not come before the Triennial Convention in 1826. as evidently desired by *' Candidus." This resulted partly perhaps from the fact that in that meeting attention was intently directed to perplexing prob- lems more immediately pertinent to the work of the Convention. The Board of Management was moved from Washington to Boston, and the educational enterprise was abandoned. This involved a long and strenuous consideration of the efficiency and standing of Luther Rice and Columbian College. The report of the meeting in the magazine said : " The session was a peculiarly laborious and trying one. On some subjects of great importance there was considerable conflict of opinion and feeling. But it is believed that toward the close much har- mony of both feeling and judgment prevailed." The conditions here disclosed made a good reason w4iy a question of constitutional revision, almost certain to lead to extended discussion and possibly additional disturbance of harmony, might have been withheld, which in more propitious times would have been put forward. But two actions of the Convention indicate the working of the thoughts previously promulgated by " Backus " and " Candidus." First, the Com- mittee on " Domestic Missions," John M. Peck, THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 21 chairman, urged more extended and systematic operations, but proposed nothing concerning a directing organization. This was responded to by the Convention in the following resolution: "That this Convention will heartily rejoice in the adoption of such general measures in relation to domestic missions as shall be calculated to unite the energies of the whole denomination in systematic missionary labors in our country, either by the co-operative efforts of State Conventions and Associations, or other eligible means." This may be reasonably con- strued as a compromise between varying judgments in the committee and back of it, leaving the work- ing out of details to a later date. Secondly, the report of the committee on State Conventions is not available, and we are left to infer its con- tents from the action of the Convention responsive to it, which instructed the corresponding secretary to correspond with the State Conventions, " so- liciting their co-operation in the object of this Con- vention [foreign missions], and inviting them to send delegates to its next triennial meeting, . . and also to correspond with the missionary societies in such States as may not have formed such Conven- tions." Here is again token of compromise and postponement along the lines of current agitation over the representative problem. Presumably the Triennial Convention thought that in these actions it had relieved itself of the troublers. But if so, it was mistaken. 22 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS When it met in 1829 its attention was claimed by a communication from a respectable source, the Hudson River Association. It ran as follows : " Resolved, that this Association view with peculiar satisfaction the progress of our denomination to- ward a state of happy and united co-operation in the formation of State Conventions and local As- sociations. . . We feel impressed with the belief that the time has arrived when we should have some regularly constituted bond or center of union to- ward which, as a denomination, we might look. We do therefore respectfully request the Baptist Gen- eral Convention for Missionary Purposes to take into consideration, at its meeting in Philadelphia in April, 1829, the propriety of forming an Amer- ican Baptist Convention for General Purposes, to assemble triennially in some central part of the United States." The authors of this seem to have abandoned entirely the thought that the Convention they were addressing should or could become such an organization, but they regarded it as the proper leader in the movement proposed. Their communication was referred to the Com- mittee on State Conventions, whose report was adopted, thus : " This Convention does in the most perfect manner embrace within the bounds of its purview, all that appears to be contemplated in the recommendation of the Hudson River Associa- tion." By what interpretation of terms this deliver- ance could have been regarded as true is a mystery, THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 23 when the Triennial Convention then had ehminated education from its purview, had restricted its mis- sionary operations to the Indians in this country and the pagans in other lands, and was neither doing nor proposing to do anything else anywhere. The original design to make it both home missionary and educational, which had a temporary and unsatis- factory trial following its second meeting in 181 7, had now been definitely abandoned. This produced a new situation, throwing the sentiment for a re- vision of the constitution on the point of constitu- ency, previously voiced by " Candidus," in the direc- tion of another organization and for general pur- poses, precisely the idea that, earlier than " Candi- dus," had been promulgated in Massachusetts. The situation had been further modified by the founding of the Baptist Tract Society, now a thrifty institu- tion five years old. It is also highly probable that the position here taken helped toward the starting of the Home Mission Society three years later (i). That having been accomplished, the three general Societies and the State Conventions absorbed the at- tention until the rupture in 1845. A review of the Convention of 1829 appeared in the magazine for July of that year. The editor states that it was from " a valued correspondent," and was inserted " with much pleasure." This cor- respondent tells that the meeting, well representing the Atlantic States, but without a representative from beyond the mountains, " was delightfully liar- 24 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS moniotis. Perhaps no equal number of brethren, many of whom had never before seen each other, ever met for legislation on important questions, who were more perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment." The differences, which were frankly and fully discussed, " related principally to modes of action rather than to meas- ures, and the decisions to which the discussions led were almost uniformly unanimous." Having re- called the fact that the difficulties of combination in the past had arisen not so much from strife as from isolation and ignorance of each other, he summar- ized historically as follows : " The Associations and State Conventions have done something toward mar- shaling these detachments into combined, active, and efficient array. The General Convention has been of the utmost service in preparing the way for a perfect and general co-operation. We may hope that there may be a rapid advance toward this de- sirable result." Turning now our attention more directly toward the composition of constituency and searching for change, we are led nine years forward. In 1838 a revision of the constitution was unanimously adopted, which swung the Triennial Convention back from its position hitherto and toward the original basis of Baptist missionary organization in a fundamental element. This change aligned it with the General Tract Society and the Home Mission Society, which had incorporated this element in THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 2$ their systems from their beginnings. The Conven- tion added to its provisions for representation of various Baptist bodies the clause, " and of indi- viduals of the Baptist denomination." These indi- viduals came into relations with it, and continued in them on the same financial terms as the represent- atives of organizations, which were substantially as heretofore. What considerations and motives lay behind this change I do not know, but the presumption seems fair that the other two general bodies, more recently arisen, were reaping pecuniary benefits, if no others, through the individual constituency, which the older sought to share. This indicates either an increase or a persistence, or both, of the sentiment favorable to the more complex ground of membership (2). Passing on, we next move up to the threshold of the last meeting of the Convention prior to the de- parture of the South. Our purpose is to open a glimpse into the relations of constituency to the agitations of that bubbling time. The magazine for April, 1842, contained an editorial, official, en- titled, " The Acting Board." The authors were in the rapids and their stress of spirit quivers through it. Following statements of the ordinary difficulties in their task, they say : " There are also other obstacles which our Board have to meet, some of which arise from the nature of the civil institutions of the country; some from the peculiarities of our present history; and some from the nature of our 26 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS ecclesiastical polity. There are many influences ad- verse to the cause of missions among us that fur- nish occasion for deep regret. There are not want- ing those who feel at liberty to assail the Board in a manner calculated to destroy public confidence, and, of course, to diminish its resources. The grounds of objection are various. Some maintain that an Association embracing both extremes of the union must necessarily be accessory to the per- petuity of sectional evils; others, that if the wicked are allowed to cast into the common treasury, the displeasure of Heaven must consequently rest upon the whole institution." The third criticism specified relates to the efficiency of the Board. Thus it ap- pears that at this juncture two out of the three criticisms definitely enumerated, and presumably re- garded as most serious, were addressed to the char- acter of the constituency — one protesting against the association with slavery, and the other against receiving contributions from those not Christian. In 1844 changes were made on some minor points in finance related to membership, perhaps in re- sponse to more radical desires, for the committee, to which some undefined proposals were submitted and whose report was adopted, reported adversely to disturbing "' the constitution and by-laws under which we have so long and happily acted." The last meeting of the Triennial Convention was a special one convened November 19, 1845. O^^ the next day a constitution was provisionally adopted THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION 2/ for the American Baptist Missionary Union, under which name the Northern part of the old organiza- tion designed to continue after the departure of the Southern members, then already consummated. In this meeting about one hundred and twenty-five con- stituencies were represented by one or more persons each. They were two general societies (American and Foreign Bible Society and x\mericaa Baptist Publication Society); five State Conventions; ten individual subscriptions; twenty missionary soci- eties, various, women's predominating; twenty- seven Associations ; and sixty churches. They hailed from the States covering the territory from Maine to Pennsylvania, inclusive, except one church in Delaware, one individual in District of Columbia, one society in Kentucky, and the Indiana State As- sociation. This meeting was continued by adjourn- ment till the following May, when the Triennial Convention gave place to the Missionary Union. Its actions that find their permanent significance in the latter body will be considered under its name. II THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION The special meeting of the Triennial Convention, which had been adjourned in November, 1845, pend- ing legal adjustments, resumed and completed its session in May, 1846, when, on the twenty-first of that month, the constitution was permanently adopted, and the Missionary Union started with about seven hundred life-members. The third article of the constitution said : " This Union shall be composed of life-members. All the members of the Baptist General Convention who may be present at the adoption of this constitution shall be members for life of this Union. Other persons may be constituted life-members by the pay- ment, at one time, of not less than one hundred dollars" (3). Here is a membership without precedent. The position which was at first taken by the General Convention for Foreign Missions — that is, on a basis of Baptist organizations solely, is totally aban- doned. At the same time, the miscellaneous mem- bership, combining individuals and organizations (against which it for a time had held out, but to which it had later succumbed, following the Pub- lication and Home Mission Societies), is also totallv 28 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 2<) abandoned. Of the whole variety of elements hitherto in view anywhere, the Missionary Union takes a single one — one that no preceding Baptist missionary organization had taken solely or con- spicuously — and planted itself exclusively on indi- vidual life-membership. This life-membership was conditioned entirely on money. The fund securing it might come from any source; the source of the fund might name any individual for the membership secured by its one hundred dollars; but the indi- vidual member having been enrolled, he was amen- able to no one, and could not be deprived of his membership by any one. This constitutes a revo- lutionary reversion, and more, without a parallel in the whole course of the history of which it is a part. It therefore solicits, if it does not demand, extraordinary scrutiny. Why did the framers of this document so completely cut out the people and repudiate conditions of character in those who were peculiarly bulwarked by prerogatives in administra- tion under a life tenure, who was responsible for it, and what induced the people who had been the life of the Triennial Convention to accept it? This strange thing was not done inadvertently. The Committee of Xine that proposed this constitu- tion in November, 1845, l^^^l been appointed for this purpose by the Board of the Triennial Convention in the preceding September. It was a strong com- mittee and eminently honorable — Spencer H. Cone, Francis Wayland, Richard Fletcher, Ileman Lin- 30 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS coin, Baron Stow, John M. Peck, Elisha Tucker, William R. Williams, and William Colgate. Doctor Stow is the chief source of information at this point, so far as the present writer knows, and the most competent because his was the central posi- tion, as secretary of the committee, in shaping the discussion in the correspondence through which it was conducted. The following statement of the course of construction and adoption of the consti- tution is based on his records (4) : The Committee of Nine, meeting soon after its appointment, recognized serious differences con- cerning the structure of the organization which was to succeed the Triennial. These differences were conspicuously represented on the committee by two very influential leaders — Cone, chairman of the committee, and Wayland, president of the Conven- tion. Cone proposed that the members from the Middle States agree on a plan, those of New Eng- land do the same ; the two to be harmonized through correspondence among the committeemen. This was attempted. Cone wrote a constitution, which was sent to Boston after having been approved by his three colleagues in New York and Peck in Phila- delphia. The New England side looked to \\''ay- land as scribe, and he prepared a constitution. This was sent for inspection to New York, as the other was to Boston. Doctor Stow states that the two showed " a wide diversity of opinions, . . the views of Doctor Cone being eminently democratic, those THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 3I of Doctor Wayland insisting on greater power in the executive agency." The ensuing correspondence " resulted in the preparation of two new forms, which, in some respects, came nearer together. By correspondence the differences were still further diminished, but on some points there was a very decided disagreement." The foregoing is general. To be understood it must have read into it some account of what, mean- time, went on in the New England end of the committee especially. On receiving Cone's plan. Stow submitted it to Lincoln and Fletcher, and re- ported to Cone that Boston proposed a few altera- tions ; the only points of difference being two. One related to the name ; the other proposed honorary life-memberships, granting privilege of discussion, but not vote (5). This makes it certain that the New York constitution, as amended by Boston, was " eminently democratic," modified only to the ex- tent of helpless honorary life-members. In his let- ter to Cone conveying these facts. Stow said : " I am highly gratified with your plan as a whole. . . There may be spirits who will endeavor to introduce restrictive elements ; but you may be assured that our leading New England brethren desire nothing of the kind, and will stand with you in resisting everything that is not broadly catholic." This let- ter was dated October i, and the writer says that he is going the next day to Providence to " lay the whole before Doctor Wayland," whose plan pre- 32 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS sumably had been in Boston at least as long as that of Cone, and had probably induced the honorary life-membership proposal as a compromise between the two. But two weeks later Boston proposed to New York a " convention of life-members, with limited powers and responsibilities," saying : " Our object has been to combine the popular and con- servative elements, and interpose such checks and balances as shall insure safety in the action of the machinery." A week later still, Stow wrote to Cone, concerning " the structure of the organiza- tion," saying : " The difference is so wide that I see not how we shall be likely to come together unless we can have a meeting of the whole com- mittee." Again a week later he repeated this con- viction, and so it stood until the whole committee met the day preceding the assembling of the Con- vention to which it was to report. Following the adjournment of that meeting of the committee, Stow wrote in his diary : " After a laborious ses- sion of nearly nine hours, we agreed unanimously on a draft to be submitted to the Convention. This is the first ray of light that has pierced our dense darkness. May it be the presage of a full day." It is conclusively testified that the unanimous adoption of the constitution, substantially as reported, was the result of the magnanimity and eloquence of Doctor Cone (6). From the foregoing the conclusion seems to be unavoidable that Pres. Francis Wayland was more THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 33 responsible than any other person, and ahiiost cer- tainly than all others combined, for this constitution. He was president of the Convention. He was a colossal influence in the denomination, and he knew it. He was very resolute in having his own way in things that he deemed important. He stood im- movably for every element in the constitution he had drafted that seemed to him essential to effect- iveness in administration and the prevention of *' any sudden irruptions of popular excitement " (" Memoir of Baron Stow," p. 206). Therefore no way appeared to secure agreement in the com- mittee unless Doctor Cone should make the bulk of concession, which he did (7). But we cannot get an adequate perspective at this point until our view has been still more widened. Wayland's pertinacity was entrenched in an extraor- dinary general situation. The withdrawal of the South, together with the peril consequent on the divergence of preferences on the part of those who remained, left the foreign mission outlook very dark and dubious. Where was the money to come from to fill the financial gap caused by the Southern departure? What could the efifect be but disas- trous if, in addition to the depleted support, the Convention should be irreconcilably divided on or- ganization? These questions loomed large in the eye of that hour. To those people the missionary cause was precious beyond expression. Judson was in the United States and would be in the Conven- C 34 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS tion. His presence intensified the tenderness of ttie solicitude as the presence of no man to-day any- where could intensify it. The impression was dis- tributed throughout the denomination that a retreat was inevitable at the very best; that some of the missionaries must be recalled, and the more pessi- mistic feared that the whole work was on the eve of great disaster. Perhaps the Baptist heart in the Northern States has never been so anxious, cer- tainly never more anxious, about its foreign mis- sions than it was when the special meeting for re- organization assembled in 1845. Thence resulted an unusual preparation for concession on all pos- sible points in order to save the unity of spirit to face the frowning future (8). The unanimous adoption of the constitution of the Missionary Union, in November, 1845, was not the end of the division of sentiment which had pre- ceded it. A widespread discontent with the basis of control promptly found expression in the follow- ing May after the final action adopting the consti- tution. The discontent was strong in New York State (9), and on the consummation of the or- ganization. Rev. Alfred Bennett of that State of- fered this resolution : " That any church or other religious body, choosing to represent itself in one annual meeting only upon the payment of one hun- dred dollars, shall enjoy for the time being all the rights and privileges of a member." This was re- jected as unconstitutional. On a reconsideration. THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 35 however, and further discussion, it was referred to the Board of Managers " for their considera- tion, to report at the next annual meeting." Mr, Bennett explained that he himself was satisfied with the constitution, but acted for " some beloved breth- ren who were strongly attached to the principle of annual church representation," to use the language of a reporter (lo). When the Board met in 1847, it declined to " de- cide a question of such magnitude, involving a fundamental principle of our organization and as- sociated with interests of the gravest character." The first reason given for this hesitancy was the very small attendance both of the Board and the Union, the meetings being in Cincinnati. Addi- tional reasons were, " the brevity of the period since the constitution was adopted," and insufficient time for proper consideration. The recommendation was therefore made to the Union " that the subject be referred to a special committee of nine, whose duty it shall be to give it a thorough investigation," and report a year later. The report to the Board by this committee of nine, in 1848, was a very elaborate document for one of its class and time. The discussion of the whole issue raised by the exceptional character of the new constitution had been widely extended. The report succinctly summarized the arguments on both sides, but it threw itself into the conflict on the side of the constitution (11). Here the com- 36 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS mittee was divided, but the minority supported a unanimous report in the interest of harmony. The report closed with a recommendation and a sugges- tion. It recommended that the Union inquire more fully than the committee had been able to do, " how far the feeling in our churches " favorable to the proposed amendment was increasing or decreasing. The suggestion was that if the Board should dis- cover that among " numerous and honest friends of missions in the churches " a sufficient demand for the introduction of annual memberships appeared to warrant any action, it should take the form of an amendment providing for annual membership of " any church, or religious body, or individual," on the payment of at least fifty dollars. With this was coupled the recommendation that any such in- troduction of representative membership should pro- vide that the representatives should not represent " in the popular and full sense of that term." This report was accepted by the Board and " presented to the Union." The Board also directed the home secretary " to address a circular to every member of the Union, requesting his opinion on the question now at issue " (12). When the Board assembled in May, 1849, the secretary, to whom the investigation had been com- mitted, reported, and his report was referred to a committee of five, which presented to the Board at the same meeting an analysis of the responses from members, with observations and recommendations THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 37 on the same. The presentation shows that " about seventeen hundred members had been addressed, of whom eight hundred and thirty-one iiad responded. Of these, four hundred and twelve favored the amendment and four hundred and nineteen opposed. Of the affirmative voters, forty-one were satisfied with the constitution, but " consent to the change for the sake of peace," and seven prefer a lower sum than fifty dollars for an annual membership. The States favoring the amendment were New Hamp- shire, \'ermont, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all on a close vote except Connecticut, Ohio, and Michigan, which returned larger majorities ; and perhaps New York should go into this list, for its vote was: Yes, one hundred and thirty-five ; No, one hundred and eight. Opposing on small majorities were Maine and New Jersey, supported by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania more strongly. Delaware and Wisconsin were unanimously in favor, while In- diana was equally divided. The committee con- cluded that the Board would be " less justifiable in recommending the proposed change in the con- stitution than at any former period since its adop- tion," and that the large e.xpense attending the re- cent canvass rendered it unjustifiable to repeat that process. This was adopted by the Board and pre- sented to the Union as its decision, which was final. So ended the protracted effort to secure the amendment as proposed by Mr. Bennett. The orig- 38 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS inal question was whether a church might send an annual representative for the same money as secured a hfe-membership for an individual, and the three years' agitation failed to get that question be- fore the Missionary Union, If it had reached that goal the indications are that it would have met about an equal division. Two years later, 1851, Nathanael Colver, pastor at Tremont Temple, Boston, offered in the Board this resolution : " That the Board recommend to the Union that they add the following clause to Article III of the Constitution: 'And any church paying twenty-five dollars annually may represent it- self in this body until the contributions shall reach one hundred dollars, constituting a life-member- ship.' " The meaning of this last clause seems to be obscure, uncertain whether the church or an in- dividual is to be the life-member on the basis of these payments, the church meantime having a tem- porary representation. Probably the latter was in- tended, for thus the church would be accorded some recognition without permanent departure from the fundamental position of the Union on life-mem- berships. This interpretation is sustained by the fact that Doctor Colver had previously placed him- self on record as opposed to church representation ("The Christian Reflector," September 2, 1847). But whatever its meaning, the resolution was laid on the table. Having thus disposed of Colver's scheme, the Board " recommended to the Union, at THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 39 its next session, the following alterations to the third article of the constitution " — words providing for annual memberships at fifty dollars each. When this reached the Union, 1852, it was negatived by a majority of eight in a total vote of one hundred and twenty, without debate (13). For seven years next following, the Union had rest from trouble directly on the revision of the constitution. But trouble enough of other kinds appeared. A deputation went East and an agita- tion arose. Some cherished plans of the mission- aries suffered interruption, at which they were grieved. They also felt that in other ways a dis- position was manifested to develop a more central- ized or imperious control at home. A revolt thence arose, and the secession of several missionaries be- came a serious menace to the work. The protest- ants were not reticent, and their complaints ran into the character of the administration, even to the con- stituency of the Union. Thus the slumbering oppo- sition to the sole life-membership plan received en- couragement from a new quarter. Soon two propo- sitions pressed for recognition — one on a simplifica- tion of the administration of the Missionary Union, and another on the consolidation into one of the missionary organizations of the denomination. These, especially the last, carried, either in solu- tion or openly precipitated, the desire for a change of basis of control (14). This brings us to the threshold of some new lines of procedure. 40 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS In 1858 " a paper from a meeting of ministers in Boston on the consolidation of our denominational societies," was laid before the Board, and by it re- ferred to a committee which reported recommend- ing the Union to appoint a committee, in response to similar action by the Publication and Home Mis- sion Societies, to report the following year. This recommendation was adopted by the Union. Also a committee was named by the Board to consider the simplification of the organization of the Union it- self, with special reference to saving time at the annual meetings. This committee, while recognizing the imperfections of the constitution, still thought its efficiency hitherto a good reason for leaving it undisturbed ; but suggested that " some practical em- barrassment complained of might be relieved were the Board to affirm the decision of the chair this morning, that members of the Union have the right to submit motions to the Board." Hon. J. M. Linnard submitted a minority report in view of the decision to leave the constitution untouched, in which he proposed that business be brought directly before the Union and disposed of without the inter- vention of the Board. This was amended to pro- vide that a committee be appointed to report the next year any amendments to the constitution that it might deem expedient. Neither of these actions under which the two committees went out to pre- pare for the next year may seem relevant to constitu- ency directly, but indirectly they bear on it, as the THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 4I outcome will show. Behind them was a popular call for representation in the Missionary Union, which they somewhat voiced and which they will feel more forcefully in a short time. In 1859 the committee of the Board on revision proposed various modifications addressed mainly to the principal points in the discussions of the preceding year. On constituency it proposed, which proposition was adopted by the Union, annual mem- berships as follows: " Regular Baptist churches con- tributing annually to the Union, funds not desig- nated for life-membership, may appoint each one annual member, and an additional annual member for every one hundred dollars contributed." So it stands in the report of the majority of the com- mittee and amended in the Board. Doctor Welch submitted a minority report, but who, if any one, was with him, or wherein his proposal differed from the majority, the records do not show. (The ma- jority report had required two hundred dollars for each additional representative of a Baptist church, but in the Board this was reduced to one hundred.) When the Union assembled it received a com- munication of such significance as to warrant seri- ous attention. It was from a convention of Bap- tists who had met in New York tluring the pre- ceding week on a call from a committee of the New York State Convention. It consisted of " over eight hundred delegates from nearly five hundred churches and other corresponding bodies located in 42 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS the Eastern, Middle, and Northwestern States," to consider " the expediency of consohdating or re- constructing the benevolent societies connected with the Baptist denomination." Covering the topics of consolidation and simplification, ten resolutions had been adopted, which were now submitted to the Missionary Union. Of these, the seventh touched constituency as follows : " That in the opinion of this Convention an elective membership of annual delegations should be substituted for life-member- ship in all our general organizations, so far as it can be done consistently with existing obligations to life-members." (This convention will have fuller attention under the Northern Baptist Convention.) The popular pressure, which reached the high tide of its expression in the convention just noted, seems to have been felt by the Board, for, in ad- dition to the amendment admitting annual members from the churches, it proposed also the abolishing of its own meeting before the meeting of the Union, and granting the right to the Union to act inde- pendently of the Board in proposing amendments and acting on them after one year's notice. This was also adopted by the Union, which proceeded to use its new authority in proposing several amend- ments for consideration the next year. In i860 " the various amendments to the con- stitution " were given to a committee of nine, who returned them the next day with some modifications, and they were again postponed for a year. In 1861, THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 43 out of the whole material thus accumulated, this was adopted : The continuance of all life-members " constituted such previous to the adoption of this amended constitution, and who shall not voluntarily surrender their right " ; one annual member from any regular Baptist church contributing; a second annual member if the contribution reaches one hundred dollars ; and an additional one for every additional two hundred dollars; "any individual may constitute himself, by the payment of one hun- dred dollars, a member for one year " ; any indi- vidual, church, or local Association of the Baptist denomination that supports a missionary or mis- sionaries may name an annual member for every hundred dollars contributed ; and " any individual may be an honorary member for life by the payment during one financial year of not less than one hundred dollars," every honorary member having a vote so long as he continues an annual contributor " and a member in good standing in a regular Bap- tist church." And having done all this in celebra- tion, perchance, of their emancipation, the brethren rested on their laurels for eleven years (15). But, in 1872, attention to revision was aroused by the president of the Union, Pres. Martin B. An- derson, who, in his opening address, suggested that our organization should be changed, so as to secure a comparatively small body for deliberation, and a series of mass meetings, for several days in succes- sion, at various points in our country." This sug- 44 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS gestion was referred to a committee that sub- mitted a report, not recorded, which, after being " discussed at length," was entrusted to the Board to be carried over to the following year. A com- mittee of the Board, after consultation with " similar committees " of the Home Mission and Publication Societies, recommended that the article on con- stituency in the constitution be struck out, and its place taken by a system of representatives of State Conventions and general Associations and the Brit- ish Provinces of North America, seven from each, and one additional for every four thousand church- members. But the Board threw this whole scheme overboard and reported adversely to any change in the constitution. Its report was adopted by the Union, 1873, whereupon Dr. Franklin Johnson gave notice of his intention to present the rejected pro- posal to the Union, but this intention was never executed by him or any one else so far as appears. Ten years of silence on this line followed, when another movement started in the Board, under what impulse does not appear ; but out of it nothing came except the acceptance of all missionaries of the Union as members by virtue of their office. This was in 1884, after which revision was postponed for three consecutive years on the plea of pressure of important business, and then silence became per- petual. After careful consideration, running through three years, considerable revision in details was ac- THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 45 complished in 1895. Two points touched terms of membership. First, the amount on which a church might send an additional representative was reduced from two hundred dollars to one hundred dollars. The most significant feature in this action was the avowed purpose of it, " to increase the representa- tion from the churches in the annual meetings of the Union." The significance of this is accentuated by the fact that it is the first time in the records of the Missionary Union that this idea finds place. It appears in the fiftieth year from the origin of the Union, and may be regarded as marking the culmination of that conflict over constituency which had been continuous, more or less and actively or passively, nearly all the way. Secondly, it was pro- vided that no person should be a member or vote unless a member in good standing in a regular Bap- tist church. These two actions close the course in the nineteenth century and open the way to the radical and comprehensive adjustments reaching all the general organizations of the Northern States in the first decade of the twentieth century. Ill THE STATE CONVENTIONS During the third decade of the nineteenth century the State Conventions bloomed into a position of in- terest to our present purpose. Briefly we turn to them for such Hght as they may afford. We notice their utterances on constituency, also slightly as sidelights on the situations amid which they arose and the purposes which they cherished. Our atten- tion is confined to those originating in this decade, because they set forth substantially all that we re- quire. We take them in the order of the dates at which they adopted their first constitutions. GEORGIA The movement toward the General Association of Georgia began in the Sarepta Association, 1820. In the next year the Georgia and Ocmulgee Asso- ciations supported it. The Georgia called a meeting of representatives of Associations to consummate the movement, to convene at Powelton, June 27, 1822. Before that date Sarepta had met with a change of mind, and only the other two appeared. But their few delegates invited to seats with them all the members of the church with which they were assembled and all brethren present who were mem- 46 THE STATE CONVENTIONS 47 bers of other Baptist churches. Rev. A. Sherwood, who had set the ball rolling originally, preached a powerful " written discourse " on the divisions and jealousies in the State. He was followed by Rev. Jesse Mercer, first in a prayer of the same tone, and secondly, in an exhortation " melting the entire assembly to tears." The constitution named as con- stituents the '* Baptist Associations in the State of Georgia, or as many of them as may think proper to accede to the terms of this Convention." " The General Baptist Association of the State of Georgia " proposed to be " the organ of general communication for the denomination throughout the State," and to give advice on application. Delegates were to be not less than three nor more than five from each Association. The purposes in particular were to facilitate " union and co-operation " and " the revival of experimental and practical religion," " to promote uniformity of sentiment and disci- pline," provide for ministerial education, to " corre- spond with bodies of other religious denominations on topics of general interest to the Redeemer's kingdom, and to promote pious and useful educa- tion in the Baptist denomination." SOUTH CAROLINA This body dates from 1821, but its constitution was adopted on December 2, 1822, having been pre- sented by a committee appointed two days earlier. This action had been deferred from the preceding 48 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS year in the hope of securing a fuller representation of the Associations. " The State Convention of the Baptist Denomination in South Carolina " was the name of the organization. It proposed to " consist of Delegates from the several Baptist Associations in the State, who may approve the measures here adopted ; and of Representatives from other religious bodies of the Baptist connection, concerned in the promotion of the same objects with the Convention : the number of Delegates and Representatives bearing always a just proportion to the number of their con- stituents." The purposes proposed Avere increase of evangelical and useful knowledge, " vital, practical religion," education, particularly for the ministry, missions " among the destitute both at home and abroad," Sunday-schools and " religious education in families," " it being understood that the whole is to be conducted on a plan of accordance with that adopted and pursued by the General Conven- tion of the Baptist denomination in the United States, and generally in aid of their important, laud- able undertakings." It was provided in the plan that was outlined that the distribution of funds should be at the discretion of the Convention or its Board, subject to the wishes of the donors of desig- nated contributions, with the understanding that " a valuable part "of the general fund should go to the General Convention, for foreign missions and min- isterial education, the remainder to be used at home. THE STATE CONVENTIONS 49 VIRGINIA The last meeting of the General Committee of Correspondence, which was the second State-wide body of Virginia Baptists, was in 1822. Having nothing to do, this organization had dwindled until this meeting was composed of only three persons, who decided to let it die. But on the way home two of them, James Fife and Edward Baptist, planned a successor with larger purposes. In consequence of prejudice against the title " Convention," they called it " General Association." On June 7, 1823, a few persons met in Richmond and started it, to be " com- posed of representatives from the several Asso- ciations in the State, which may choose to unite," four from each, without financial conditions; and of representatives from Bai)tist missionary societies in the State, one representative from each society on the basis of twenty dollars annually; and "each society contributing fifty dollars annually, or up- ward, shall be entitled to two representatives." The purpose was to furnish " ministerial labors in desti- tute places in the State." The Associations were left free to raise funds in any way preferred, and a ])lan for auxiliary societies was recommended. ALABAMA " Delegates from the several societies of counties, congregations, and villages met at Greenborough, October 28, 1823, adopted a constitution, elected a Board of Managers, and appointed fifteen domes- 50 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS tic missionaries " for work in the State and west Florida. This information is in a letter from Rev. J. A. Ranaldson, secretary of the Convention and its chief promoter, written a month after its organiza- tion. He states that seventeen county societies auxiliary, and nearly the same number of " Ladies' societies," had been formed at that time (" Latter Day Luminary," January, 1824, p. 19). " The His- tory of the Baptists of Alabama," by Dr. B. F. Riley, pp. 37, 38, says that about twenty delegates were present and that nearly half of them were from seven women's societies. The constitution gives the name, " The Baptist State Convention of Alabama," to consist of " delegates from missionary societies, churches, Associations, or other religious bodies, which may regularly contribute to the sup- port of its objects. Each church and congregational or village society shall be entitled to one representa- tive — county societies to three and Associations to five." Strong preference appeared for the county method. The objects named were missions, " re- ligious instruction throughout the State," and aid for the General Convention in foreign missions and ministerial education. CONNECTICUT In 1822 the Hartford Association appointed a committee to call a meeting in the November follow- ing, one representative from each church, to devise a plan for a State Convention. The meeting in THE STATE CONVENTIONS $1 response sent out a plan, an address, and a call to the churches to send representatives to an adjourned meeting, October 29, 1823. Thirty churches sent representatives, who organized, " with much har- mony," " The General Convention of the Baptist Churches of the State of Connecticut and Vicinity." It began with a strictly church constituency, but the next year it added " any other Associations or indi- viduals conforming to the constitution and con- tributing five dollars a year. This eventually intro- duced quite a number of useful delegates." The lowness of the membership fee seemed to add at- tractiveness to the connection. In 1814 " The Con- necticut Society Auxiliary to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions " had been founded. On the appearance of the State Convention it disbanded, turning over its concerns to the new organization, which left missions, home and foreign, in the hands of the latter. MAINE " The Baptist Convention of the State of Maine " adopted its constitution June 24, 1824. It was orig- inated by delegates from four Associations, the movement here culminating having begun in the Cumberland Association in 1822. It was to be " composed of delegates chosen by the several As- sociations in Maine in such manner as each Asso- ciation shall prescribe," one for every ten churches. Its objects were to promote acquaintance between 52 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS churches and Associations, to cultivate brotherly love, to aid needy ministers and students for the ministry, to promote union in doctrine and church discipline, domestic and foreign missions, and " the general interests of Zion in this State, and as far as our influence may extend." MASSACHUSETTS Some brethren attending the meeting of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, May 26, 1824, named a committee to prepare and circulate a call for a meeting to found a State Convention, and with this call a proposed constitution. The meet- ing thus induced convened November 10, and adopted the proposed constitution after full discus- sion and some amendments. The great object of the " Baptist Convention of the State of Massachu- setts " was declared to be " to promote the cause of Christ by means of affording greater facilities for concert and co-operation among the Baptist churches in Massachusetts and other churches as- sociated with them " [in Associations extending into other States]. The constituency was solely in Associations, one representative for every five churches. Provision was made for correspondence with similar conventions in other States, and with other religious bodies, including the General Con- vention, Triennial, and that other General Con- vention then anticipated to " be formed from State Conventions." THE STATE CONVENTIONS 53 VERMONT The beginning in this State was in October, 1823, when a number of brethren " met in conference or sort of convention " to consider the founding of a State organization. They appointed a committee to draft a constitution and call a convention from churches and Associations. This resulted in the organization, October 26, 1824, of " The Baptist Convention of the State of Vermont and Vicinity." The vicinity was lower Canada. The object of the Convention was " to unite the wisdom and energies of the Baptist denomination in this State and vicinity ... in missions and other important measures for the advance of the Redeemer's kingdom." Pro- vision was made for contributions to the General Convention for foreign missions. The constituency was in Associations, missionary and education so- cieties, and individuals. Each of such organiza- tions contributing any amount might send one dele- gate, and two if the amount reached fifty dollars. Any individual contributing five dollars annually might be a member for life, and, for fifty dollars at one time, a life-member of the Board of Trustees. Missionary societies in the churches were urgently recommended. RHODE ISL.\ND The original intention w^as to include Rhode Is- land in the Massachusetts Convention, but this was abandoned. On May 12, 1825, " a number of minis- 54 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS ters and brethren of the associated Baptist churches in this State and vicinity " met in Providence, or- ganized the " Rhode Island State Convention," adopted a constitution, and adjourned to August 4, " to give time for further reflection," when, after amendments, the constitution was finally adopted and the organization completed. This meeting represented eight churches in Rhode Island and three in Massachusetts. It proposed missions, home and foreign, and ministerial education. It started a paper, which soon stopped. Its members were to be representatives of churches and mission so- cieties, with individuals on the basis of at least one dollar each annually. NEW YORK " The Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York " resulted from the union of two earlier organizations — The Hamilton Missionary So- ciety, originating in 1807, and The Baptist Do- mestic Missionary Convention of the State of New York, originating in 1821. The union of these was consummated in an amendment to the consti- tution of the older body. May 18, 1825, when it took the name standing first above. It was to be com- posed of those who subscribed to the constitution and paid into its treasury at least one dollar an- nually. Ten dollars in cash at one time made a life-member, and " any number of persons asso- ciated for missionary purposes upon a constitution THE STATE CONVENTIONS 55 adapted to the interests of this Convention may be- come auxihary to this Convention." Any member of an aiixihar}^ paying his dollar to it thereby be- came a member of the State body, and any auxiliary or individual might name a member of the Board of Directors on the payment of fifty dollars, and an additional member for each additional hundred dollars. " The object of this Convention shall be to send the gospel and other means of promoting the knowledge of God among such of our fellow- creatures as are destitute, and that either stationary or occasional as prudence may dictate and funds admit." In connection with this reorganization and combination, an enthusiastic address was sent out, carrying a scheme in which every Association might become an auxiliary, every church a branch of the auxiliary, and every church-member a contributor to this branch for missions, all to be gathered to- gether in the State fund. NEW HAMPSHIRE " Pursuant to previous appointment, delegates from several churches in the State of New Hamp- shire met , June 21, 1825, for the purpose of forming a State Convention." The constitution pre- sented by a committee, previously appointed for that purpose, was adopted after being amended in one point, " so as to leave it optional with the churches to elect such persons as delegates to the Convention as they may think proper." This in- 56 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS dicates that the original draft placed some restric- tion on the churches in this particular, but what is not known. At the meeting next year sixteen churches were represented. A chartei of incorpora- tion appeared, and the delegates mentioned in it were authorized to " form themselves into The Baptist Convention of the State of New Hamp- shire." By-laws and regulations were adopted, from which it appears that all pastors of Baptist churches in the State were ex-officio members, and other min- isters and brethren as they might be appointed by Baptist Associations " wholly or in part within the bounds of this State." The charter authorized the Convention to hold and use property for home and foreign missions, ministerial education, " and any other religious charities which they may deem proper." OHIO " The Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the State of Ohio " was organized May 22, 1826, and its constitution adopted the next day, by a con- vention called by the Cincinnati Baptist Mission So- ciety. The members of this organizing assembly were all from churches, except those from two gen- eral missionary societies and two special — one of women and the other of youth. The constitution provided for delegates from churches, Associations, and societies, churches and societies being restricted to one delegate each and Associations to three — all THE STATE CONVENTIONS 57 on condition of contributing to the Convention's funds. The purpose was to promote " the general prosperity of the Redeemer's cause, particularly within the bounds of this State." PENNSYLVANIA The Philadelphia Association, on suggestion of the Lower Merion Church, instituted the move- ment for a State organization, in 1823, by naming a committee to correspond with other Associations. Two years later this committee begged to be dis- charged, seeming to have failed to get any response, and the business was referred to the " Domestic [Philadelphia] Missionary Society." But nothing appears to have been done until a meeting of rep- resentatives of five local missionary societies (16), which resulted in the organization, July 4, 1827, of " The Baptist General Association of Pennsyl- vania for Missionary Purposes." Its design was " to spread the gospel in Pennsylvania, and to ex- tend its operations to other States, as its funds may allow." Membership, individual or society, was con- ditioned on ten dollars, one representative from a society for every ten dollars. NORTH C.\R0LINA At its meeting, March 26, 1830. the North Caro- lina Baptist Benevolent Society, then three or four years old, adopted " without a dissenting voice," the resolution " That this Societv be transformed into a 58 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS State Convention." The constitution of this, " The Baptist State Convention of North CaroHna," adopted at the same time, names as " primary ob- jects," education for the ministry of those approved by the churches to which they belong, mission vv^ork in the State, and " co-operation with the Baptist General Convention of the United States in the pro- motion of missions in general." Membership was open to any Association, church, society, or indi- vidual, on the basis of Baptist church-membership and " every ten dollars paid into the treasury." NEW JERSEY Agitation for a State organization began not later than 1823. The result appeared, July 27, 1830, in a meeting of representatives of churches and the New Jersey Missionary Society, at which " The New Jersey Baptist State Convention for Mission- ary Purposes " was organized and its constitution adopted, with the " primary object " to " spread the gospel in New Jersey, and to extend its operations as its funds may allow." Any person or society con- tributing ten dollars or more annually might have one representative for every ten dollars, " provided that every representative shall be a member of, or delegated by, some particular Baptist church or society." Analysis of these fifteen State Conventions, orig- inating in the third decade of the nineteenth century, THE STATE CONVENTIONS 59 with reference to their first constituencies, shows seven bases, variously combined. They were the Association, the missionary society, the education society, any Baptist society, any local society, as county, etc., the church, and the individual. They agreed on the financial condition in much variety. They show that the Baptists in this field were far from uniformity, and they partly explain those differences, adjustments, and fluctuations that ap- peared early and have persisted to the present time. IV THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY The Baptist General Tract Society originated in the concurrent convictions of individuals and their union in an organization of that name. The state- ment of its purpose, in its constitution of February 20, 1824, took this simple form: "Its sole object shall be to disseminate evangelical truth and to in- culcate sound morals by the distribution of tracts." Although not embodied in the constitution, two sentiments found otherwise clear declaration. One related to the dissemination of distinctively Baptist views, and the other avowed the purpose and ex- pectation to promote denominational unity. The Society declined to become -at all auxiliary to any interdenominational organization, or allied in any way with such, and argued the importance of de- nominational independence and advocacy beyond what could be possible in any alliance of that nature. At the same time its constituency had no denom- inational quality, — indeed, no character quality of any sort, either for members or managers. The whole deliverance of the constitution concerning constituency was as follows : " Any person may become a member of this Society by paying the sum of one dollar annually. The payment of ten 60 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 6l dollars at one time shall constitute a person a mem- ber for life. . . Any person by paying twenty-five dollars at one time shall be a director for life. The presidents of auxiliary societies shall be ex-officio members of the Board of Directors." It was also provided that the Society should elect seven direc- tors annually, and that the officers of the Society, chosen at the same time, should be ex-officiis mem- bers of the Board of Directors. This Board was given entire control of the administration, including the selection of publications. Thus the whole con- trol lay in the individuals constituting the Society, totally without conditions except the one dollar or the ten dollars or the twenty-five dollars. This re- produced the earlier missionary society constituency, on the sole basis of money, as it had not been re- produced by any State Convention or other mis- sionary organization, and it entirely abandoned the denominational organization and character as basis ; for it did not provide for representation from any Baptist bodies, except as its auxiliaries might be such, these being recognized only as substantially a part of itself; and in the form of constitution which it recommended to them, no condition of membership appeared but this : " Any person by paying [fifty cents or one dollar] annually, may become a member." Moreover, it provided no re- striction concerning character for officers or man- agers, which restriction hitherto had been common, if not invariable, from the beginning, in America. 62 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS These provisions, in connection with the right of two-thirds of the members present at any annual meeting to change the constitution without notice, made it possible, by the use of money, to divert and pervert the whole institution from the designs of the founders. With slight changes, not materially affecting the foregoing statements, the constitution continued as at first for sixteen years. The Society devoted it- self to its simple task, and found friends from the start. Its first annual report, 1825, shows thirty- eight auxiliaries, ten depositories, and twenty-five agents. These were not expensive, and tracts were furnished at cost to all in any way co-operating. Questions of organization and administration seem to have been quietly handled when they arose. The contrast between it and the Triennial Convention and Missionary Union is very marked in this par- ticular, and in less degree between it and the Home Mission Society. The first noticeable change per- tinent to the present purpose grew out of a re- organization that was called for by expansion. To that we proceed. In 1840 the report of the Board was largely his- torical, showing the development of the work from the beginning. This led to the recognition of the call to more rapid expansion, and thence the mind of the meeting moved, with apparent unanimity, to reorganization adapted to larger operations. The name became, " The American Baptist Publication AMERICAN' BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 63 and Sunday School Society," with its object " to publish such books as are needed by the Baptist denomination, and to promote Sunday-schools by such measures as experience may prove expedient." The general plan of organization remained the same, with one important exception — the provision that all the officers and directors, including a vice-president from each State, " shall be members of Baptist churches." Any Sunday-school or tract society might become an auxiliary by a simple process, without money, with one delegate, but the previous provision for representation of such bodies on the Board of the Society ceased. The annual member- ship continued at one dollar, but the life-member- ship rose in value from ten to twenty, and the life- directorship from twenty-five to fifty. The num- ber of directors, which was at first seven and later fifteen, was now carried to twenty-one. Fifteen years passed with only slight changes, when another general revision of constitution came in this manner: In 1854 the Board was instructed to submit to the Society at its next annual meeting " such a modification of the constitution as will adapt it to its increasingly national character." Ac- cordingly, the Board reported that while it did not think any revision possible that would much in- crease the national character of the Society, it had obeyed instructions, and it laid its work before the body. All the changes proposed were adopted in committee of the whole except one, but the Society 64 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS in its final action reversed this exception, restoring the preference of the Board to its original place. This left the basis of membership as follows : " Any person may become a member of this Society by paying annually the sum of five dollars [previously raised from one to two dollars], or any regular Baptist church [never before recognized], or auxili- ary society may appoint a member by the annual contribution of five dollars, and an additional mem- ber for each additional twenty dollars. Twenty dol- lars, paid in sums of not less than five dollars, shall be requisite to constitute a member for life, and fifty dollars, or a sum, which in addition to any pre- vious contribution, shall amount to fifty dollars, shall be requisite to constitute a manager for life." The provision that officers and managers must be church-members was eliminated, and instead of it the provision was inserted that one-half of the managers might be ministers of the gospel (17). After a silence of seventeen years the spirit of revision again found voice in 1872, when a com- mittee was named by the Society to consider and recommend. It recommended that life-members and honorary life-members be restricted to those made prior to June i, 1873, and that annual dele- gates be authorized from the Conventions and Gen- eral Associations of the States and Territories of the United States and " the British North Amer- ican Provinces," seven from each, and an addi- tional delegate for every four thousand Baptist AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 65 cluirch-members ; also three representatives from each of " our other National Denominational So- cieties." The committee itself proposed that this be referred to the Board " with instructions to re- port at the next annual meeting." It was referred " with power," and the Board used the power to suppress it. Thereupon notice was given that it would be introduced the following year. But the notice seems to have miscarried, for it did not appear again. Another silence of seventeen years brings us to 1889, when the final action prior to the adjustments of the twentieth century was taken. In that year the report of the Board e.xi)ressed the opinion that " the time has come when the Society should still more fully recognize the principle of church dele- gation in its membership." The substitute for the third article of the constitution as now proposed by the Boaril was approved by the Society, as follows : " This Society shall be composed of delegates, an- nual members, honorary life-members, and life-man- agers. Any Baptist church, in union with the de- nomination, and contributing to the Society, may appoint one annual delegate. If the sum contributed during the fiscal year amounts to one hundred dol- lars, the church may appoint a second delegate, and an additional delegate for every one hundred dollars contributed. Any District or State Association re- porting contributions of one hundred dollars or upward to the Society during its last fiscal year may E 66 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS appoint one delegate. Each delegate must present to the secretary of the Society a certificate of ap- pointment, signed by the clerk of the church or Association appointing him. Any member of a regular Baptist church may become a member of this Society by paying annually the sum of fifty dollars. One hundred dollars, paid in sums of not less than twenty dollars yearly, shall be requisite to constitute a member for life, and two hundred dol- lars paid at one time shall be requisite to constitute an honorary manager for life. The sum named in the case of the church, Association, annual mem- ber, life-member, and manager, must be paid during the fiscal year ending the thirty-first of March next preceding the meeting of the Society." AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY The definite and total abandonment of home mis- sions by the Triennial Convention left that field comparatively vacant in the face of great need rapidly increasing. The rise of the State Conven- tions, emphasizing missions within State borders, measurably met the vacancy. But the need for a national combination of forces in this interest pressed accumulatingly on many minds. If the Tri- ennial Convention had faced the other way during the last half of the third decade of the century, if it had put itself into the home field and blown a bugle for support there, no doubt it w'ould have been sustained by a vigorous following. But its en- tanglements hastened the concentration of its ef- forts otherwise, and its actions and utterances in 1826 and 1829 turned the home mission hopes of its friends away from it. Meantime, the General Tract Society had taken up one line of operations that the advocates of a national organization had con- templated. Simultaneously attention had been more or less diverted to the State bodies, then getting into action against considerable criticism and opposition, which might be expected to increase and intensify against a larger combination. But defiant of all ad- 67 68 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS verse conditions, the larger home mission sentiment Hved, grew, and soon found expression. The leadership in this movement appeared in Massachusetts, central in the oldest Baptist society for home missions, located in Boston. Responsive to the desire of individuals in that vicinity, Jonathan Going secured leave of absence from his pastorate in Worcester, Mass., and went on a tour of inspec- tion westward. The ardent eyes of these New Eng- landers were specifically on the Mississippi Valley, though generally scanning the whole nation. The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society received Going's report and widened the outlook. It sent a deputation for consultation and arousement to New York and Philadelphia, with the result that the American Baptist Home Mission Society was or- ganized in New York, April 27, 1832. This Society, arising eighteen years after the General Convention for Foreign Missions and eight years after the Gen- eral Tract Society, rounded out the general mis- sionary organization of American Baptists in the three bodies that were destined to become permanent and powerful. It thus discloses a high-tide date. The Home Mission Society compressed the ex- pression of its purpose into this terse sentence: " The great object of this Society shall be to pro- mote the preaching of the gospel in North America." Its scheme of constituency, however, was not so simple. Gathered from several articles of its con- stitution, these elements appear: Any person can AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 69 become a member by " contributing annually to its funds," no amount named; a life-member for thirty dollars; a life-director for one hundred dollars; " any Baptist church, or Association, or State Con- vention, or missionary society that contributes an- nually to the objects of this Society, shall be en- titled to be represented by one or more delegates in its annual meetings " ; " any Baptist missionary society may become auxiliary by agreeing to pay into the treasury of this Society the whole of its surplus funds [above what it expends directly in its own field], and sending to the corresponding secre- tary a copy of its constitution and annual reports, mentioning the names of its missionaries and the fields of their operations " ; " the officers of auxili- ary societies shall be ex-officio directors of this So- ciety " ; but " all the officers, executive committee, agents, and missionaries of the Society shall be members of some regular Baptist church, in general union with the body of that denomination." Con- stitutional amendment was provided for by a two- thirds vote of the members, on recommendation by the Executive Committee or motion of a member after one year's notice. The avowed conception centrally in relation to organization of the Home Mission Society at its inception was very broad and benevolent. " It has never been designed that the Society should narrow or embarrass the operations of the State Con- ventions and other societies less extended in the yO BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS range of their exertions, now laboring in the field of home missions. It was hoped that it might rather envelop and unite them, giving greater harmony of effort and greater efficiency, and preventing alike the embarrassing interference and collision of two societies in the same sphere of labor, and the neglect of those regions, which, though greatly destitute, were without the purview of any existing institution. One leading object in the establishment of the So- ciety has been to combine in one sacred brotherhood all the friends of domestic missions among our de- nomination throughout the United States." Details of its plans justify this claim. Any Baptist or- ganization, from a State Convention to a church or less, might become an auxiliary and be represented in the management on the generous terms already stated. To facilitate responses from local bodies, the So- ciety sent out two forms of co-operative organiza- tion, " the one for those larger societies, whose labors cover an extended region, and who are them- selves surrounded and upheld by their auxiliaries ; the other for the minor institutions, which it would be desirable to form within the limits of the larger, and comprising the male or female members of a particular church, or both, or the inhabitants of a particular town or county, and whose labors would be directed rather to the accumulation than the dis- bursement of missionary funds." Both of these were only suggestive. AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY "Jl For the first a " form of constitution " was pro- posed. This provided for the membership of such individuals as contribute to its funds, either directly or through any auxiliary to it, the members of the sub-auxiliary being made members of the auxiliary on the basis of this contribution, thus securing a share in the delegation to the Home Alission Society. Accompanying this was a " stipulation " between the " parent society '' and the auxiliary, in seven speci- fications. Drawn from these two documents, these points in the co-operation may be set down here. The auxiliary must operate on the same general principles as the Society. Its funds, after meeting incidental expenses, shall go into the treasury of the Society, " with directions as to the section of the country in which it shall be expended in missionary labors, should the [local] executive committee deem it important to give such directions." Right to appoint missionaries was granted to the auxiliary under reasonable restrictions, blank commissions be- ing provided by the Society for that purpose. When more funds than an auxiliary has are needed in its field, the Society may provide them, directly or through the auxiliary. Joint appointments of agents, payments of their salaries, and reception of their reports were provided for. " Definite arrangement where practicable shall be made between this Society and such auxiliary as to the amount or propor- tion of the receipts which each shall receive." The Society reserved the right to co-operate in like ^2 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS manner with any other organization within the bounds of the auxihary, but not connected with it. For the minor bodies, whether deahng directly with the Society or indirectly through an auxiliary, " rules " were proposed, in connection with which these minor bodies were called " Auxiliary Associa- tions," to distinguish them from the auxiliaries that have the " constitution." These auxiliary Associa- tions, while officered institutions, were understood to be practically only collecting agencies, with quar- terly and annual meetings reporting to a larger body. This plan was at once the most complex and the most popular appearing so far among us. It pro- vided a method by which any company of Baptists, however small and isolated, might become con- stituent in the national combination, securing the impetus of the whole and preserving its own auton- omy to an extent conducive to its sense of respon- sibility and contributory to its enthusiasm. After the plan had been in operation for nine years, the Society issued an appendix to its report, composed of extracts from the communications of various State bodies and an exposition, in response to in- quiries, of the method, in all of which no note of discontent appeared. This explanatory appendix was continued for several years, touching many points, and adapted to suppressing any dissatisfac- tion that might arise as well as promoting the multi- plication of auxiliaries. How far discontent may AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION' SOCIETY 73 have induced these promulgations can only be con- jectured. But that so cumbersome a system would sooner or later run into trouble was inevitable, and in due time it spoke out largely though quietly and called to revision. In 1846 the report of the managers revealed the difficulty and proposed a remedy. The Board said, " The principles upon which the constitution of the Society is constructed were originally adopted with the laudable purpose of combining the energies and liberality of the whole denomination in a great effort to promote its important object. With that desire in view, the membership, auxiliary relation, and representative system which it provides for are almost unlimited, being based to a great extent upon merely nominal contributions to its funds. Besides its directorships and memberships for life, pro- vision is made for membership by an annual con- tribution of any amount of money, however small ; it invests with the full rights and privileges of the Society, any number of delegates which may be appointed by conventions. Associations, societies, and churches which contribute an indefinite sum to the treasury, and superadds the members of all auxiliary bodies, without specifying even so much as an indefinite contribution upon which their mem- bership shall be based. It also creates fifty directors annually, who are entitled to the privileges of the Society, with no obligations whatever to bear its burdens, and renders all the officers of the auxiliary 74 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS bodies, by virtue of their offices, directors in this. Ever since the adoption of the constitution it has been seriously regarded by many of the firm friends of the Society as embodying a latitudinarian com- pact vi^hich admits of evils without a sufficient tend- ency to counteracting advantages; which confers privileges without that strict reference to the prin- ciples of justice and equity which are essential to the harmonious co-operation of individuals; and which has a tendency to confuse the deliberations of the Society and its Executive Board. The So- ciety has realized more or less inconvenience from these sources at its anniversaries in the difficulty, if not impossibility, of deciding on the title of claimants to a vote, and the successive Boards of management also have suffered embarrassment from the conflicting policy and claims of its auxiliaries. In view of these and the difficulties that may here- after arise out of them, and against which it is wise to guard, the Executive Board have, with great unanimity, agreed to recommend certain amend- ments to that instrument for the adoption of the Society, believing that, under existing circumstances, they will be found to embody a plan of operation calculated to secure harmony in counsel and ef- ficiency in action." The changes thus proposed were adopted in the Society " by more than two-thirds of the mem- bers present." This action left delegates, life- members, and life-directors on the following terms: AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 75 "Any Baptist church, in union witli the denomina- tion, may appoint a delegate for an annual contri- bution of ten dollars, and an additional delegate for each additional thirty dollars " ; thirty dollars paid at one time secured a life-membership; "and one hundred dollars paid at one time, or a sum which in addition to any previous contribution shall amount to one hundred dollars," a life-directorship. In 1854 a movement toward a more democratic administration began in an assault on the preroga- tive of the life-directors. The Executive Board was " instructed " to propose at the next meeting a con- stitutional change that " shall allow the Society to have a voice more directly in the election of the Board of Managers." The response to this instruc- tion occupies considerable space in the report of the Board. The action of the Society having been mandatory, the Board had no option, but must pre- sent a plan. This it did, but immediately announced that it was not done voluntarily and argued against its adoption. The argument boils down to this : The original idea in associating the life-directors with the officers, chosen by the Society, in the election of the Board of Managers, was intended as a com- pensation for the larger contributions made by them, and was the only prerogative attached to their liber- ality; doubtless some, or many, of them had taken this distinction into account in making their larger contributions; the proposal to deprive them of it had been under consideration previously, but had 76 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS always been deemed inexpedient. The presentation of the Board prevailed with the Society, and the attempt to reduce the powers of the life-directors failed. The next year the attack took the form of a proposal that these directors be given all privileges except voting in the meetings of the Board. This compromise was carried over one year, and in- definitely postponed in 1857. Two years later the democratic party rallied with a more radical proposal, no less than the total elim- ination not only of the life-directorship, but also the life-membership, while raising the cost of each church representative, after the first two, to fifty dollars, and providing for individual annual mem- berships on payment of ten dollars. An amendment to the constitution embodying these points was adopted by a majority vote for consideration a year later. It was then given to a committee, who re- turned it so modified that it went over another year, and then was postponed indefinitely by a vote of seventy-five to fifty-one. This was in 1861. Meantime, " in view of the manifest desire for changes in our constitution on the part of many in this Society," a committee was appointed in 1859 to consider and report the next year. Out of this came, in i860, with slight modification in 1861, a compromise which preserved life-members, life-di- rectors, and church representatives on the old terms, but which placed the appointment of the Executive Board, as well as continued the election of the AMERICAN BAPTIST lIOiME MISSION SOCIETY yj officers, in the Society, thus sweeping away the pre- rogative of the Hfe-directors hitherto grounded in their larger financial contributions — the result at which the agitators had aimed directly seven years before. The adjustment thus reached remained for twelve years, when undercurrents came to the surface through the managers. In 1871 the Society directed the Board to give at the next annual meeting " a report for the forty years past." This was done in detail, including names, fields, and terms of serv- ice of all missionaries, amounts received from and appropriated to each State, etc. This report opened with a general view of the societies and the churches in their differences and combinations for missions, showing how the society grows out of the churches, operates for them, and resolves back into them, be- ing a temporary necessity to meet existing condi- tions. Through this shines the suggestion of criti- cisms which come out more definitely in these sen- tences : " There are those who think the Society is less subject and less serviceable to the churches on account of its life-members and life-directors. In their judgment it is coming to hold a position and have a power over the churches that are to be feared. In the judgment of others the churches are in much greater danger from their own de- linquencies and from the carnality and the covetous- ness of many of their members than from the So- ciety." The conclusion of this part of the report 78 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS is an appeal for co-operation in home missions, beginning with organization in each church, to reach out to its Association, and through it to the State Convention, " and each State Board should know and counsel and co-operate with the Home Mission Society," the latter giving " information and inspira- tion to the State Conventions, the State Conven- tions to the Associations and the Associations to the churches." This line of communication concludes thus, " Cautiously and prayerfully do your Board call attention to this, and . . . believe the time has come when you will judge it necessary to so far change your constitution, and the character if not the time of your anniversaries, as to adjust them to the demands of your work, present and prospec- tive. They will therefore, at the proper time, recom- mend a substitute for the third article of the con- stitution." The recommendation was " to the effect that the third article of the constitution be so changed as to make the Society hereafter to consist of present life-directors, life-members, and delegates, appointed annually by the State Conventions and General As- sociations; in number, seven from each such body, and one additional for every ten thousand church- members," " After some discussion, this proposed amendment was referred back to the Board," with the request that it confer with the Boards of the other societies, and if possible present a plan on which the basis of the delegation for each society AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 79 shall be substantially the same." Here this busi- ness disappears permanently from the records. The silence following continued for fourteen years, when, in 1886, it was broken by the Board recommending the elimination of the life-director- ship and the increase of the cost of a life-member- ship from thirty to fifty dollars. These recommenda- tions were adopted by the Society, after which the third article of the constitution stood as follows : " The Society shall be composed of annual delegates and life-members. Any Baptist church in union with the denomination may appoint a delegate for an annual contribution of ten dollars and an addi- tional delegate for each additional thirty dollars. Fifty dollars shall be requisite to constitute a mem- ber for life." VI THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION The constitution of the Southern Baptist Conven- tion was adopted May lo, 1845. It proposed to provide " a plan for eHciting, combining, and direct- ing the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort for the propagation of the gospel, . . to promote foreign and domestic missions, and other important objects connected with the Redeemer's kingdom." The founders, in their address to the public, said, " The constitution we adopt is precisely that of the original Union." As relates to constitu- ency, this was true substantially, and literally for the greater part, in application to the prior con- stitution as it was at the time of the separation. We recall that it had been changed in 1838 from a basis in Baptist organizations exclusively to these in conjunction with individuals. The Southern Con- vention started on the same basis, " consisting of members who contribute funds, or are delegated by religious bodies contributing funds." The finan- cial terms in detail duplicate those of the Triennial Convention of the same date (18). In the meeting at which the Southern Conven- tion was organized the following bodies were repre- sented : Churches, one hundred and forty-seven; 80 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 8l Associations, ten; State Conventions, three; educa- tional institutions, two ; missionary society, one ; and *' Kentucky," Isaac McCoy. In a resolution fixing the date for the meeting of 1846, " individuals, churches, and other bodies " were named as mem- bers. No territorial limitations were recognized ; but, on the contrary, an ardent call for help was ad- dressed " to all America and to all Christendom." The Convention began as tri-annual. Its second meeting, 1846, was designated as " The First Tri- ennial." The next one was in 1849, when its meetings became biennial, and so continued till 1867 when change was made to annual. Its fourth meeting therefore, which was its first biennial, was in 185 1. Then appeared an attempt to introduce life-members on the basis of two hun- dred dollars. This was recommended by the Board of Domestic Missions, on the plea that churches and individuals could be induced to contribute more liberally for securing a life-membership than with- out such encouragement. This recommendation was referred to a committee, whose report was adopted that " it would be inexpedient to make any change at present." The next sign of discontent with the constitution was in 1859, when a foreign missionary moved a committee of three from each State to consider and report on the revision of '* our present system of missionary operations." This was changed by the Convention to one from each State " in connection r 82 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS with the Board." A strong committee was named, and a full discussion arose on its report, and an amendment which was incorporated in it. The report, as adopted, declared any change not ex- pedient. The records do not show what changes were desired, but intimations seem to look toward the questions of the appointment of missionaries by churches and the relations between evangelizing and civilizing efforts. However that may be, this item was followed immediately by a motion from the president of the Convention, " R. Fuller," who took the floor for that purpose, with an amendment to the constitution providing " that no person shall be a member of this Convention who is not a mem- ber in good standing in a regular Baptist church." This went over in charge of a committee to the next meeting, 1861 ; but the records do not again recognize it, though the committee in charge of it consisted of President Fuller, still in that office, and two other leading members, all of whom were present. In 1866 a committee to suggest changes in the con- stitution, apparently without restrictions, reported only the change from " Confederate States " to " United States." Likewise, when the next year the meetings became annual and the constitution was re- vised in adaptation to the change, nothing more was done except to adjust the terminology of payments. But in 1869 the proposal of ten years earlier again appeared, restricting membership to THE SOUTIIERX BAPTIST CONVENTION" 83 members of Baptist churches, with which was joined the new measure to admit a delegate from each Baptist church contributing any sum to the Convention, " and for each one hundred dollars an additional delegate." Both of these measures failed of adoption. In 1871 still another committee on con- stitution was sent out, but the only recommendation it brought was that the committee be discharged, which was approved, apparently with cordiality and promptness. This seems to show that the senti- ment friendly to a more denominational member- ship and church recognition had diminished or be- come discouraged. In 1874 an issue arose on the personnel of dele- gations within constitutional limits. It appears to have resulted from dissatisfaction with an action of the credentials committee, and developed in this way : The Committee on Credentials, in connection with its report of the enrolment, presented " the following resolution for the adoption of the Con- vention, Resolved, That, in the sense of this com- mittee, the Convention has no right to dictate to the States or their instructed delegates as to who shall represent them in this body, provided the applicant be within the requirements of the constitution." Immediately " Bro. S. H. Ford " responded with this: ''Resolved, That it is the sense of this body that no delegation is entitled to represent its con- stituency by any person not appointed by that con- stituency, or from its territorial limits." This was 84 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS laid on the table, but the next day, on motion of its author, it was referred to the Committee on Creden- tials. Later than this action, the report of this committee was adopted as originally offered — .that is, without Brother Ford's resolution. In 1876 a committee of one from each State con- sidered " what changes, if any, in our constitution or policy are needful to increase the efficiency of the Convention and bring it in closer sympathy with the denomination." It proposed a new article, which may tlirow light backward on the issue of two years earlier, as follows : "'In voting upon any matter before the Convention, the delegates of each State shall be authorized to cast the entire vote to which their States are respectively entitled, when- ever three delegates from diffenent States shall unite in a call for such vote." Another recom- mendation would change the power to amend the constitution from two-thirds without previous no- tice to a majority on one year's notice. The re- port was laid over for a year and then rejected. But a year later a quite voluminous change in the third article was made, striking out the pro- vision for representation of the " great collateral societies " on the basis of one thousand dollars each, and inserting in its place the titles of twenty-one organizations that for every five hundred dollars were authorized to send one delegate. Those so designated were the State bodies co-operating with the Southern Convention and certain co-operative THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 85 organizations covering less than a State or parts of two States. The hmitation of the number of delegates for each of these, on the five-hundred- dollar basis, was to funds expended by it " for objects similar to those in the prosecution of which this Convention may be actively engaged " — that is, foreign missions, home missions, Indian missions, and Sunday-school work, the delegates to be for- mally appointed and certified by the bodies repre- sented by them. For the next seven years nothing occurred need- ing our attention ; but in 1885, one word in the third article was changed. The question of the eli- gibility of women to seats in the Convention having been raised, a committee of one from each State was given the problem, and it proposed to substi- tute " brethren " for " members," which was done. Therefore a missionary meeting of women took ac- tion, which was transmitted to the Convention, affirming that they did not desire independent or- ganization, but wished to be represented in the Convention through their " respective State Con- ventions, as heretofore." The next year the sisters, as a working constituency, received cordial appre- ciation and approval. Three years later, 1888, several changes came in a group, on the report of a committee appointed the preceding year, (i) The list of twenty-one names of co-operating bodies, adopted ten years earlier, was erased, and in its place appeared the phrase, 86 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS " any State Convention or General Association," on a basis of five hundred dollars annually contributed. (2) The financial condition of membership for in- dividuals or Baptist bodies was increased from one hundred dollars to two hundred and fifty. (3) " District Associations which co-operate with this Convention " were admitted without financial speci- fication. Under this arrangement the Convention was soon embarrassed by too large an attendance, and for this reason, in 1891, a call appeared for a reduction of members by eliminating the representatives of Associations. An amendment to the resolution em- bodying this call was proposed which would change the whole membership from the financial to the numerical basis. The motion was laid on the table, two hundred and thirty-one votes to one hundred and eighty-two; but the next year a motion pre- vailed for a committee to consider the reduction of attendance and report a year later. It so re- ported, 1893, recommending either of two plans suggested. The first was wholly numerical, ten from each co-operating State, five from the Dis- trict of Columbia, one from each co-operating Asso- ciation, and one for " each four thousand white Baptist membership," or major fraction thereof, " within these States and the District of Columbia." The second plan was the same as the first in the first two items, as above, but with a basis of fifteen thousand in the third, while a fourth was added, THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 87 " one representative for every five hundred dollars actually paid into the treasuries of the Boards " (hiring the year. Action was deferred, and the re- })ort printed in the minutes. In 1894 the same com- mittee tried again. This time it brought two re- ports: one from the majority, six members, and the other from the minority, five members. The two agreed in expunging from the constitution the provision for the representation on the basis of five hundred dollars, which was adopted. Beyond that the majority report called for a wholly numerical basis, while the minority adhered to the financial, and increased the cost of membership from two hun- dred dollars to three hundred dollars. The whole report in the points of difference was laid on the table, four hundred and forty-two to one hundred and forty-two. But, as the last action of this ses- sion, this report was taken from the table and ordered referred for further consideration to a com- mittee, and the Chair appointed the same inhar- monious committee, w^hich reported the following year, this: "After full and thorough consideration, your committee has found itself unable to come to any unanimous agreement as to a change in the basis of representation, and therefore recommends tiiat, for the present, the basis shall remain as it is now, and request that the committee be discharged." The protracted effort to shift the Convention from the financial to the numerical basis reached its most strenuous stage at that time. The conclusion then 88 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS adopted continues unchanged. The minority has either accepted the situation and continued co-opera- tion under the aegis of the clause in the above re- port '' for the present," or has agitated outside, with but little exception. The most impressive attempt, though not the only one, to bring this issue to the front in the Convention, was perhaps that made by the Florida Baptist Convention in 1906. The re- sponse made to it, on the recommendation of a strong committee and without discussion, was as follows : " Your committee appointed to consider the overture from the Florida Baptist Convention to eliminate the financial basis of representation from our constitution begs leave to report that while re- specting fully the convictions of the brethren send- ing said overture, and with all courtesy and regard for their motives in the matter, we deem it entirely inexpedient to raise this issue again in our Conven- tion. It has frequently been presented in one form or another in past years, and has always resulted in no action at all or in an action unfavorable to eliminating our financial basis of representation. . . Believing, therefore, that this Convention regards its present basis of representation as scriptural in principle, and abundantly justified by experience, we recommend that no action be taken looking to a reopening of the question." VII THE NORTIIERN" BAPTIST CONVENTION Having considered the three Northern Societies separately and the Southern Convention on the same plan, we now look along the lines tiiat led to the Northern Convention. This will partly carry us over the same period and in the same company, but with a purpose and prospect which so far we have purposely neglected in anticipation of what now follows. The Southern Convention started as a unit distributing its work among its Boards. The three Societies in the North were independent units, and the processes through which they came, 1910, into combination in the Northern Baptist Convention are now to be observed. The culmina- ting stage in the processes, during a few years past, are quite familiar to many, and taken by them- selves might possibly be regarded as not requiring any consideration in this connection. But those discussions and adjustments occupying the first decade of the present century are not independent of the past ; on the contrary, they are involved in and evolved from those discussions and adjust- ments in the three Societies separately, at which we have glanced in preceding pages. Going back sixtv years and standing with the 89 90 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS Northern Baptists at the middle of the nineteenth century, we see that the Societies carried in them- selves naturally a struggle between the centrifugal and the centripetal forces. Each society had a foot- ing and a force calling inevitably for continuance in isolated action, but it was equally inevitable that the spirit common to them all, supported by con- tributory forces, must sooner or later express itself in a call to closer association. How the pull be- tween these two would balance, and when and to what practical results it would lead, must depend in part on the differences, the frictions, and the fraternity between them. The Missionary Union at first was the main obstruction organically to the centripetal current. The others were more demo- cratic, and most conditions were favorable to the maintenance and increase of their democracy. We have seen how the contest between democracy and autocracy moved in the Missionary Union, the former slowly overcoming the latter, and how, with an easier way and less disturbance, the others moved in the same direction. It was only when all of them had reached substantially the same position in rela- tion to the churches as paramount in missions and the supremacy of the people through the churches, that they found easy going toward organic uni- formity as forerunner of closer connections. Mean- time the element of friction in administration came more to the front as a protest and a warning. These two fell in with the fundamental fraternity. They THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 9I were commanded by it and commanded it simulta- neously. The supporters of the three Societies were mainly the same people, which tended all the way to level up the whole road and get all concerned into readiness for advance harmoniously. The Northern Baptist Convention did not happen. It came when and as it did because the three Societies had come when and as they had. Turning now from the general to the particular, let us first find the situation relative to co-operation as it existed from six to ten years after the appear- ance of the Missionary Union. In 1853 the Pub- lication Society met in Philadelphia, May 4; the Home Mission Society, in Troy, N. Y., May 13; the Missionary Union, in Albany, N. Y., May 19. In 1854 the first of these met in Philadelphia, Fifth Church, May 1 1 ; the second in Philadelphia, Spruce Street Church, same date ; the third in the same place as the second, but a week after its adjourn- ment. In 1855 the Home Mission Society convened in Brooklyn, N. Y., May 9; the Publication So- ciety in Chicago, May 11; and the Missionary Union, in the same building, May 15. In 1856 the Home Mission Society assembled May 9; the Pub- lication Society, May 12; the Missionary Union, May 15 — all in the same place, Oliver Street, New York. This seems to be the first time that the three so appointed their annual meetings, in time and place, that the same persons could conveniently at- tend all of them. In 1857 the Publication Society 92 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS led off with a meeting of one day, May 12, in Boston; the Home Mission Society followed on the next day, closing on the fourteenth ; and the Mis- sionary Union began on the twenty-first; all in the same city, but in three different places. Now, in these years, while indication appears in the dates and places of meeting of an increasing disposition to make it easy for the members of one to attend the meetings of another, still no sign is discoverable in the records of any one of them that it knew of the existence of the others, except as the general and customary invitation to visiting brethren may be so construed. The first break in this silence of the records comes in the last of the years just specified, when the Home Mission Society recommended " to the Execu- tive Board the inquiry, Whether the anniversary business of this Society may not profitably be com- pressed into one day, with the hope that the other Societies will so compress their business as to ac- complish the anniversaries of all the Societies in one week." This cautious recommendation seems to involve the hope that the future will find the So- cieties meeting in the same place and on contiguous dates. But the records are empty of even a recom- mendation, possibly we would be justified in saying a suggestion, that any two of them might with pro- priety confer on this subject. But the next year, 1858, brought into view the first recognition by the Societies of the agitation THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 93 that had been gathering volume during these years for closer touch between them. They all met in Philadelphia in three separate places, but on such dates as rendered their meetings continuous. The Home Mission Society came first. The report of its Board contained no reference to the recommen- dation made to it at the preceding meeting of the Society concerning a reduction in time to bring all the meetings into one week. But its first action, after the report of the credentials committee, was the authorization of a committee " to confer with a committee of like number from the Missionary Union and the Publication Society, with a view of harmonizing the efforts and operations of these several Societies, and of devising plans and meas- ures by which the operations of said Societies may be rendered more effective, and their business at- tended with less expense; and that said committee report to this Society at its next annual meeting." Under the caption " consolidation " the report of the Board of the Publication Society, the next to meet, said, " Much has been said of late years on the consolidation of the Societies. Your Board, having no personal object to attain, and no desire but to serve the churches in the best possible man- ner in the great work of extending Christ's king- dom, would respectfully recommend the Society to appoint a committee, who in connection with com- mittees from the other Societies, should any be ap- pointed, shall earnestly and thoroughly canvass the 94 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS desirableness, practicability, extent, and mode of consolidation. This committee to report at its next annual meeting." The response of the Society to this recommendation was a duplication of the action of the Home Mission Society previously taken, not using the word " consolidation." The Missionary Union came last, and its records show two additional sources of the current actions in the Societies. First, in the meeting of its Board, preceding that of the Society, " a paper from a meeting of ministers in Boston on the consolidation of our denominational societies," was presented and referred to a committee. Secondly, the committee opened its report with the recognition of a recent action of the American and Foreign Bible Society, followed by the Home Mission and Publication Societies, and on this basis recommended action, " under the precise resolution adopted by the above- named Societies," which was carried into effect. The joint Committee of Fifteen, five from each Society, to which the problem of adjustment or con- solidation had thus been referred, held four meet- ings, but met with serious misfortune in the illness of its chairman, resulting in his death. The delay thus caused deferred its last meeting to so late a date that it deemed itself unable properly to accom- plish the purpose for which it had been named, and, therefore, after providing for a statement to this effect to be made to each Society, it adjourned with- out day. THE NORTHERN' BAPTIST CONVENTION 95 The reports above provided for were duly made in 1859, Along with them came a communication from a large representative Convention that had been held in New York, where the Societies met, a few days prior to their meeting. Some reference to the communication from this Convention is made in our treatment of the Missionary Union. It ap- propriately has more extended consideration at this point. That over eight hundred delegates, from nearly five hundred churches and other correspond- ing bodies, assembled in anticipation of the annual meetings of the Societies to consider the problems committed to the Committee of Fifteen, was a fact of distinct significance, and that its members repre- sented widely distributed regions added to the sig- nificance. Its communication opens with the dis- avowal of any assumption of " power to legislate," but with the hope that suggestions may be made in- ducing " our people to enter with united and en- during zeal " on the missionary work before them. It resolved that " the number of our general organ- izations should be no larger than is necessary " to efficiency; that the two Baptist Bible Societies should be united under one management ; that " the work of foreign evangelization should be, so far as prac- ticable, committed to the care of one organization "; that the constitution of each of the evangelizing or- ganizations should be so modified as to bring the work and the contributions into the closest prac- ticable connection ; that " an elective membership 96 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS or annual delegations should be substituted for life- membership in all our general organizations " ; that the church should be induced " to adopt systematic and thorough measures of collection," looking to- ward the total abolition of collecting agencies. Pro- vision was made for laying this judicious and pro- gressive communication before the three Societies, as well as the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Baptist Free Mission Society. This was done. Each of the three Societies whose course we are tracing received it, and referred it respectfully; but none of them recorded any further recognition of it, nor did any of them renew its committee on this subject or in any other way give it any attention subsequently (19). In fact, nothing additional of this nature that need detain us ap- peared until the opening of the movement culmina- ting in the Northern Convention. After the war a great practical call in the South and West seized the attention of the Home Mission and Publication Societies. This provided both rea- son and excuse for disregarding constitutional prob- lems when so many of them had been so far ad- justed. The efforts to satisfy the desire for the union of the Bible Societies, though sincerely prose- cuted by them, failed, and finally, in 1883, the solu- tion was found in a special convention composed chiefly of representatives of the State Conventions. The problem of the two foreign mission organiza- tions, which had grown out of slavery, worked it- THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 97 self into a solution. " The abolition of slavery rendered the continuance of the Free Mission So- ciety unnecessary, except to take care of legacies," and its field in Japan was taken over by the Mis- sionary Union. But during these years the two sentiments, which were necessarily interlinked, continued and in- creased — the sentiment for closer association of all Baptists in missions and that for closer connection between the people generally, and the churches spe- cifically, with the control of mission administra- tion. (The justification of what has already been written about the unification tendencies is largely in the fact that unification cannot go very far without dealing with the basis of membership. The Con- vention of 1858 joined the two, calling for con- solidation and the representative basis ; and when the time came to get the Northern Convention go- ing it was necessary to secure a uniform basis of membership in the Societies. But before that the progress in both of these elements had been con- siderable, and the dual sentiment had not only been maintained, but accelerated.) In 1871 the Home Mission Society appointed a committee " to confer with similar committees from the other Societies, and to arrange for future anni- versaries." Similar action was taken by the Pub- lication Society. The Missionary Union was con- tent with a general resolution that it " seems de- sirable " to hold the anniversaries at the same time G 98 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS and place. Nothing more appears of this or related to it, unless it was in the Home Mission Society the next year. Then a proposal from the Board for a revision of the basis of membership was referred back " with the request that they confer with the Boards of the other Societies, and if possible pre- sent a plan on which the basis of delegation for each Society shall be substantially the same." The suc- ceeding silence shows that this reach forward was premature. But in years soon following the Societies or their Boards attained to some temporary co-operations, the Bible Convention furnished a sample of what might be done when there was a push for it, the women's societies arose, and conferences and com- binations between them and the general Societies in the same kinds of work came on, the Young People's Movement got under way, involving the consideration and action of the Societies, the com- missions on Stewardship promoted combination; all these and similar influences combined to lead the Baptist mind generally toward the close of the nine- teenth century into an attitude that, consciously or unconsciously, made a broader and more permanent output inevitable. The effective call to this end, the answer to which began at once and continued, marked the close of the century, being the opening address of the presi- dent of the Home Mission Society in 1900. This Society was the first to meet, and this address pro- THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTIOxV QQ posed three things " for such highways of com- munication as shall make practically impossible a conflict of plans." They were: "First, a better understanding of method and more uniform plan in securing offerings for the various treasuries." " Secondly, a better understanding concerning the relative amounts required for the various depart- ments of work." " Thirdly, a better understanding as to the relations of the Societies in the execution of their work." Responding to this call, the Society requested the " sister Societies " to join in the ap- pointment of a commission to consider these and kindred recommendations, reporting the next year. They did so; the Publication Society using the words " apportionment " and " unification," and the Missionary Union, the phrase, " closer co-operation in all our work." Discussing many things, accepting some and re- jecting others, this joint commission, as the central thing recommended that the Societies adopt a uni- form basis of membership, to be agreed on by their Boards and brought before them in 1902, which was adopted and done (20). The result in 1902 was that the Home Mission Society and the Publica- tion Society secured the same terms of membership, with which those of the Missionary Union agreed except in two particulars, namely, it made all its missionaries members of the Society while in serv- ice, and it provided that any individual Baptist or local Association supporting a missionary or mis- lOO BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS sionaries, might name a member for every fifty dollars contributed. The terms of membership in which the three agreed were these: All life-members previously constituted ; any Baptist church contribu- ting any amount was entitled to one representative, and one additional for every fifty dollars con- tributed, up to ten members; any individual might become an annual member for ten dollars, and an honorary life-member for fifty dollars, with a vote so long as he continued an annual contributor; and every vote was conditioned on membership in a Baptist church. This amounted potentially to a con- solidation of the Societies. It was now within the power of the attendants to carry any measure through the three Societies and elect the same per- sons to the same offices in all of them. In this year, 1902, also appeared a movement, in response to a recognized popular desire, to bring about a more perfect co-ordination or co-operation, if not consolidation, of the Societies, This coming before these bodies led to a joint committee named by them to consider the whole field and report a year later. This report, made as designed, op- posed the consolidation of the Societies or their missionary magazines, or the inauguration of an additional magazine issued jointly by them, or the incorporation of the women's organizations in the general bodies ; but it recommended closer affiliation between all of them practically and the establish- ing of a reference committee of nine as mandatory THE NORTH ER.V BAPTIST CONVENTION lOl arbitrator, which, however, was never practically recognized. This report was adopted by a joint meeting of the members of the three Societies in 1903, which action was secured under strong pres- sure for harmony and rest from this kind of dis- cussion. That it was not universally satisfactory is evident from events soon following. In 1907 a conference met in connection with the annual meetings of the Societies. It had been called by a committee consisting of one executive officer of each of the three Societies, " acting upon the re- quest of those interested in the subject, and with the approval of their respective Boards, and represent- ing their joint committee on the anniversaries." This conference precipitated the tentative organ- ization of the Northern Baptist Convention, which organization was made permanent the following year, and entered on a course of adjustment to the Societies, which reached its culmination in 19 10. The decision then was that organic consolidation was impracticable for legal reasons ; but, instead, the Societies adopted such recommendations of the Northern Convention as rendered them in effect its Boards of Administration. The Baptists of the Northern States with great unanimity hailed this consummation as eminently acceptable and opening a prospect of enlarged prosperity for this portion of the denomination in its missionary work. Two chief purposes were avowed, more or less, through- out these processes ; first, to secure a representa- 102 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS tive body authorized appreciably to express the mind of the Baptists of the North on all topics deemed appropriate ; and, secondly, to impart unity and efficiency to their evangelizing and missionary enterprises. In this last element the Northern Con- vention comes within the scope of the present writ- ing, and, in this aspect of it, nothing remains but to record the conclusions to which it came touching the constituency of the missionary combination finally resulting. Consequent on the concessions in constituency made by the Societies to the proposals of the Con- vention, nearly all of which were accepted, they came to a uniform basis of membership, as fol- lows: All life-members and honorary life-members are continued as such ; annual members may be appointed by Baptist churches, one from each church and one additional for every hundred members, but not more than ten from any one church ; all mis- sionaries of the Society during service; "all ac- credited delegates to each annual meeting of the Northern Baptist Convention." The accredited delegates to the Northern Baptist Convention are in these classes : One from each Baptist church, and one additional for every hundred members ; ten from any Baptist State Convention, and one addi- tional for every ten district Associations in it above the first ten ; accredited officers and members of Boards of Managers of co-operating organizations, including the women's societies in co-operation with THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION IO3 the Baptist Home Mission Society and the Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, formerly the ]\Iission- ary Union. (Previously Associations had had gen- erous recognition, now abolished. State Conventions had been admitted less fully, and with them all " denominationally recognized missionary, educa- tional, and philanthropic organizations."') The reader now has before him all the facts, in substantial completeness, since 1814, with a sum- mary of the substance of earlier developments, showing the processes through which the Baptists of the United States until 1845, ^^^^ those of the North and South since then, have almost totally transformed the whole basis of membership in their missionary organizations. They began with indi- vidual, non-denominational members, conditioned only on money. They end with delegates from Bap- tist churches, or bodies based on churches, slightly but not effectively modified, in the North ; and, in the South, with " brethren " who contribute two hundred and fifty dollars annually, or are delegated by Baptist bodies so contributing, and one repre- sentative from each district Association co-operating without specified financial condition. VIII DOCTRINAL The present purpose is to discuss briefly a few of the main issues that have caused the controversies concerning constituency in the organizations whose courses we have been reviewing. This discussion seeks only to get as good a footing as may be for a hopeful outlook into a Baptist future of homo- geneity in the elements involved. This is to be done in the light of the past and for the use of the present and the future. American Baptists have expended relatively much time, talent, and temper on these problems, so much that one may be excused for thinking that they have wasted some. Faith in their growing wisdom and widening vision encourages the hope that their future will be wiser than their past has been in the realm of co-opera- tion ; and that, through the blending of their con- structive genius and irenic spirit, they may attain at the same time a more effective combination and a no less perfect liberty. Toward this result the following considerations are submitted. DEMOCRACY AND AUTOCRACY The broad general issue, undergirding all others, is between the people and the managers. The peo- 104 DOCTRINAL I05 pie cannot control directly and firsthand in general enterprises. This raises three questions : Shall the people control at all? Shall they control wholly or partly? On what plan can they best control? The term " the people " is now used indefinitely. It may be defined on an individual or an organiza- tion basis, a financial, denominational, or Christian basis, for instance; but the present inquiry reaches beneath all such distinctions dealing with the peo- ple combined on any basis. Shall the people control, shall the groundwork of co-operation be democratic in whole or in part ? It will probably be granted that Baptists can give consistently only one answer to these questions. In- dividualism is the root idea of the denomination in combinations. When combination comes individ- ualism does not repudiate itself, but it does regulate itself, and its only consistent regulation of itself among Baptists is in harmony with itself; that is, on a basis of democracy in the local combination. And when the local combinations reach into wider ones they do not deny their democracy, but they do adjust it. That is. however far Baptists may extend their co-operative organizations and opera- tions, all authority should be resolvable back into the people. They may let out the lines of their control variously, but they must never let go the lines entirely. To do that is to trifle with their own responsibility to God. Theoretically the position here aftirmed has al- I06 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS ways been recognized, perhaps among us, but some- times the lines have been so far elongated and attenuated that practically the democracy has ab- dicated. True, it has always had the club in re- serve, the club of withholding funds. If the peo- ple are not satisfied with the management, they can control or overthrow it by refusing to con- tribute to the cause it represents. This argument has been advanced repeatedly by the advocates of a more autocratic administration, but it is a poor argument, for two reasons; first, the best people are least disposed to use the club. They will endure much that they think unwise or even wrong in mission management, as in other, before they will resort to it; for it always seems to have a vision of bigotry, a voice of quarreling, and a hand of violence; and, secondly, the argument is poor be- cause it is wrong — wrong in that it is inconsistent, cowardly, and shiftless. Freedom, courage, and energy alike dislike it. The right way for a free people is to keep themselves under their responsi- bility for the Lord's business by keeping their hand on the direction of that business as closely and as firmly as is consistent with the most efficient prose- cution of it. To sneak away from the work under the ultimatum, which always wears an aspect of covetousness, the ultimatum, " I will not give any- thing," has always been unworthy of us and is more unworthy now than ever before. The people stand over against two antiphonals. DOCTRINAL IO7 eitlier of which may become an antagonist — the or- ganization and the administration. It is not neces- sary for either, but it is sometimes possible for the first and always for the second. The organiza- tion may be such that the sup])orters cannot reach it with control. The administration is different. A Board of Management must of necessity have dis- cretionary powers for large operations. In propor- tion, other things being equal, as the same individuals continually constitute the Board, and are left unchal- lenged in their management, they tend to become careless of the wishes of their constituency or con- temptuous toward them. This is not to suggest fre- quent changes in the personnel of the Board ; the best persons for doing its business should compose it without regard to continuity of service; but it is a suggestion, which, however, no observant person needs, that the people keep close to the ad- ministration, sympathetically always, suggestively on occasion, and strenuously in an emergency. Who- ever says that in a position of power without being watched he is not tempted to become careless or contemptuous, in that saying proclaims either his own perfection unwisely or his own folly surpri- singly. Therefore the people should construct their organizations open to the ramifications of their own thinking, and clothe their Boards of administration with harness buckled to encourage pulling and dis- courage prancing. Baptists, above others, are held to this conception I08 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS of missionary organization by their conspicuous ac- ceptance and advocacy of the two most apphcable fundamentals, freedom and fidelity, liberty and loyalty, the essential equality of the brotherhood and the undivided authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are fundamental and fundamentally construct- ive. They are doctrines, but practical and prac- ticable. And they have no closer connection with the Christian experience than with the Christian service, whether that service be considered in its divine or its human relations. The authority, the dignity, the sanctity of Christ is as profoundly and as pervasively in one saint as in another. It is therefore no part of Baptist " statesmanship " in missions, or elsewhere, to despise or defy or evade the brotherhood. This conception may recur in points of detail later on; it is now set out com- prehensively. Details aside, it is laid down as fundamental in the soundest foundation, that the organization for missions which holds the whole people most closely to the center of administration, is most consistent doctrinally as well as most effect- ive practically. CONTRIBUTIONS AND CHARACTER Having laid the democratic principle as a working basis, we meet as the first issue arising out of it, that between financial contributions and the char- acter of the contributor. This at once opens a com- plexity and challenges analysis. The question ap- DOCTRINAL IO9 pears, What kind of character; social, moral, eccle- siastical, doctrinal, spiritual? The analysis might be extended, but that would increase the confusion which, with these five, is already enough. And these are more than we find historically. Look- ing for the searchlights that have been turned by Baptists on the character of contributors to mis- sions, we find only those that can be resolved into three — the moral, the doctrinal, and the ecclesias- tical. Chronologically they appear rather in this order, but in the interest awakened by them and the attention given to them in the aggregate, the doc- trinal holds the lowest place, partly because it has been absorbed in the ecclesiastical, one's church- membership being taken as a certificate of his ortho- doxy ; but limitedly, the orthodoxy of the con- tributor who comes into control has been noticed separately in those organizations in which the con- tributor may become a voting or a managing mem- ber on the financial basis solely. But this issue belongs under the next caption. The spiritual char- acter of the contributor has hardly been considered because it has been viewed as not essential or dis- regarded, like the doctrinal, as certified by the ec- clesiastical. The ecclesiastical will have separate treatment in this discussion, and is therefore omitted here. This leaves the moral issue, which may be disposed of at once. The issue between the financial and the moral in the contributor has always been involved and no BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS sometimes acute, perhaps more so now than ever in the past, at least in one aspect of it. The first Baptist missionary organizations were on a financial- individual basis. Neither the doctrinal nor the ecclesiastical consideration was recognized practi- cally. Any one who paid the initiation fee was therefore a member, though from the beginning he was not therefore necessarily eligible to place in the management. At first, the possibility that any dan- ger might lie here was so slight that apparently little or no thought was given to it. The Triennial Con- vention laid down its longer lines more tightly. Earlier than it, the opinion evidently was that any one who took interest enough on any ground in the uplift of the lowly to contribute to a missionary so- ciety was qualified to become a voting member. And later than 1814, the organizations that perpetuated the original basis of membership perpetuated this view of it in the main. But gradually the issue in its earlier form has gone out with the disappearance of the methods of organization with which it was involved. In our time the moral issue has come into prominence in the discussions over " tainted money." Much more radical views of the relation of the way in which a man got his money to the acceptability of it for missionary purposes have come to the front. That grist is still in the mill. So far as the grinding has progressed at the time of this writing and according to the understanding of this writer, the newer conviction has not prevailed DOCTRINAL 1 1 I effectually very far. While a considerable senti- ment has found expression in favor of going behind the funds offered to scrutinize the methods by which they were accumulated, and reject the result if the process proves to have been discreditable, this senti- ment has failed to get appreciable grip on the machinery of missions, because it has failed to com- mend itself to those who have determined the result. This is called the newer conviction, because it has not been noticeably advanced until recently. The understanding of our predecessors appears to have been, with substantial unanimity, that " the altar sanctifies the gift"; that no matter through what channel the stream of money has flowed, if it flows into the mission treasury, let it flow. And why not? The business of Christianity is to cleanse the polluted and convert the perverted. Why does not this apply to money and the use of it? If, for in- stance, a saloonist offers to missions a dollar gained in his business with the alternative, expressed or implied, that if it is not accepted it will be put to immoral uses, does not that lay a duty concern- ing the future of that dollar on the missionary peo- ple, the duty to convert and cleanse it? To reject it insures the continuance of its " taint," and the responsibility for its character and service falls on those who, by accepting it, might have changed both. But while this seems to be a sound principle it is confessedly dangerous because of temptations in- hering in it. It involves a possible temptation to 112 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOI^ MISSIONS solicit the aid of the saloon, which, of course, should never be done. It also involves more distinctly, and at the same time more subtly, the temptation to fraternize with it, either by speech of approval or apology or by silence of rebuke or protest. If in any of these ways, or any other, to receive and cleanse the dollar involves polluting the re- ceiver, let it be rejected. The argument, then, for declining the so-called " tainted money," appears to be for the protection of the weak rather than the guidance of the strong. If it is needed as a pro- tector, apply it as such; but if it is not, save the dollar. Due weight should also be given to the consideration that motives in receiving such aid may be misconstrued by the world to the detriment of spiritual interests. But this is perhaps seldom sig- nificant unless the receiver succumbs to the tempta- tion just mentioned. But much confusion and vacil- lation will be avoided here by applying inflexibly the comprehensive principle that a church should never ask anything from any source except itself, nor undertake anything that it cannot do with no help from beyond except from God. CHARACTER AND CONTROL This issue and the preceding are closely related, but clearly distinct. To accept funds from the heterodox or the immoral is one thing; to place these characters in control is another thing and radically different. The " fathers " recognized the DOCTRINAL II3 distinction usually from the first and were guided by it. The prevaihng method in the earher local societies was what might be called the split method, which admitted to control in part on the financial basis, but not wholly. Money made membership, and membership held the voting right up to the election of the directing power ; but there it was curtailed, for no matter how many voters might appear without regard to character, they must re- gard character in the candidates for whom they voted as administrators. The Massachusetts Bap- tist Missionary Society, 1802, opened membership to all comers with the cash, but it restricted place on the Board of Management to Baptists. Its ex- ample was followed generally. The Triennial Con- vention on its Baptist-organization basis was prac- tically secure at this point. But the Tract Society, 1824, fell away entirely, making no condition of character in its control ; and the Home Mission So- ciety pushed its outreach after constituency so far that it might have brought some into relations of control without character conditions. But both soon recovered the lost connection between char- acter and control. So far as these lapses occurred, they were quite certainly always the result of heed- lessness rather than a definite defection from the principle of ultimate control lodged in those of the highest character consonant with the design of the organization. The discussions in this field were confined mainly ][ 114 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS to the character of the contributor in relation to membership and not to giving or to managing. This issue came out with exceptional fulness in 1842, at least so far as manifest in official discus- sion. In that year an official editorial in the maga- zine recognized existing criticism of the Triennial Convention because it received contributions from the ungodly, but the criticism was not dignified with any reply, which suggests that it was not con- spicuous. But two months earlier the same editorial writer had argued at considerable length for ad- mission to membership of all contributors. The editorial said : " If a person can sympathize in any measure with the condition of the heathen in their present state of moral degradation, and has knowledge enough of the gospel to perceive that the heathen would be benefited by it, if its divine precepts were communicated to them, he has all that is indispen- sable for membership in such an association. He has not everything that is desirable certainly for such a service [for that he 'must have been made alive from the dead,' and become a consecrated church-member], but it certainly is not an indis- pensable qualification for membership in a mis- sionary association that a man be a Christian. Such manifestly was the view taken of this subject by the framers of the constitution of the Triennial Convention. They named as persons to be asso- ciated, members of the Baptist denomination, in- cluding both churches and congregations. This is DOCTRINAL II5 a broad platform, upon which all may stand. Such is the nature of this work that the most of those who will be attracted to it will be a devoutly pious people, but if any should come with their offerings, who have not yet attained to the liberty of the sons of God, let them not be frowned away. It is the altar that sanctifies the gift." This quotation is a quite fair and full expression of what seems for a long time to have been the prevalent view. The reader will observe that it confuses the two things that we have just been separating — contributing and voting. In this it was representative of the general mind at that time. We have moved to stricter ground concerning membership and the control which it involves, if not concerning the right of some classes of transgressors, at least, to be con- tributors at all. UNITY OF CHARACTER IX CO-OPERATION' What has now been said leads to the considera- tion of the unity of the Christian character and of the Christian work. This issue, in its first element, puts itself into this question: May a Christian have a dual character; may he be one character for one connection, and another — a different, a contradictory — for another connection ? May he construe himself as constructed in compartments, morally and spirit- ually, so that in one association he may rightly close one or more compartment of character, ignore it, and sail on without taking account of it, as he may Il6 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS not do in another association? May he accept and apply a different set of moral principles in business from those recognized in religion, different in so- ciety from those in the church? Or must he not recognize his Christian character as a unit, indi- visible, with all the principles essential to it any- where also essential to it everywhere? Reversing the view, and so reaching our theme in its second element, the problem gets into this form : May the non-Christian be recognized as dual in relation to Christian work? Are we justified in so recognizing him in the prosecution of any enterprise in which we are engaged as distinctively Christian? Specifically, when a company of Christians establish a missionary organization, whose essential purpose, always paramount, is evangelism, on a wider field, of the same sorts of sinners and by the same proc- esses as these Christians contemplate when they found a church — and after conversion, the edifica- tion in the spiritual life of the converts on the same principles and in the same processes — may these Christians bring the non-Christians into any other relations to the missionary society than the relations recognized for them in the church? Or, on the other hand, does the fact that one part of the same kind of enterprise is local and the other general, or one part operated by a single church and the other by a combination of churches, or one field cultivated by Christians combined in a church or churches and the other field by the same Christians DOCTRINAL 11/ combined in a missionary society — do any such dif- ferences release tlie Christian in one relation from those principles that are obligatory in the others? These questions nm the divider between the two fields we were previously considering, and eliminates the confusion formerly appearing of the two char- acters, contributor and controller, in the non-Chris- tian. And it seems self-evident that as our Baptist missionary' organizations have left out of mem- bership those who did not come into church-mem- bership, they have reached a more consistent posi- tion, set their feet on more solid ground, strength- ened their testimony against all error, and disfel- lowshiped more decisively all worldliness, thus set- ting a higher standard for the church life, the spir- itual life, and the missionary life. The period with which the preceding paragraph ends might easily explode into several questions, some of which can be better picked up farther along than here. One question, however, seems to cling to this connection with special significance: Are not our missionar}' operations now bringing into recog- nition or prominence as parts of missionary methods, some processes, hitherto not recognized or emphasized, which strengthen the former argument for mixed elements in membership? Do not the educational, the medical, the philanthropic, gener- ally, as they are now looming large on the mission- ary horizon, look toward partnership in management for those who. while not qualified for church-mem- Il8 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS bership, still have so intelligent and sincere a sym- pathy with the minor modes of the missionary thought, that courtesy, or a genuine fellowship in these modes, may justify a reversion on this point? That is, if a man has the money for a school or a hospital among the heathen, but does not believe in Christ or in the Baptist conception of Chris- tianity, but still gives his money for humanitarian purposes, should not the rigidity of the lines of control, or the terms of membership, be relaxed? Two replies to this style of inquiry are suggested : First, these minor methods are not new. More than is usually recognized, our predecessors had these things in view, and the thought that the pagan needed the by-products of Christianity for his com- fort and culture in the things of this life. Some of the earlier attempts among the American Indians emphasized them and made them the ground of ap- peals to all classes of civilized citizenship. More than a hundred years ago Baptist appeals to other Christians and to all men for support for the work of the English in India made this consideration prominent. This sentiment in the school aspect once met opposition that now seems to have disap- peared, and some of our earlier missionaries in the East were deeply grieved because their plans for schools were thwarted by official opposition at home. Secondly, the sentiment always evident has now come more to the front largely through the in- crease of facilities and resources, with a wider DOCTRINAL 1 1 9 opening of opportunity through poHtical changes. This involves a profound peril, the depth of which may be increased by that indifference to the doc- trinal, and through it the spiritual, the disintegrating power of which has not yet spent itself. The peril is that both the volume and the tone of our mis- sionary evangel will be damaged by the insistence of the minor to the comparative exclusion or the positive dilution or pollution of the major. If our educational and philanthropic work shall cease to be a means to the higher end, and shall become the end to which the spiritual shall be subordinated, or with which it shall be placed on equality, then our guilt at once and our shame later will be in- evitable. For that reason the higher ground, in the field now under consideration, to which we have come, should be sedulously maintained, fortified, and perfected (21). "the money BASIS'" This discussion has now reached a station dis- tinctly within denominational lines. Here it meets an issue, strenuous in the past and the present, commonly called, " The Money Basis." This phrase has been common among Baptists for a long time, but it has not always reached a common interpre- tation. Strictly speaking, the money basis means that money is the sole condition of standing. That alone makes it properly " the basis." In that sense I20 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS it has had place in Baptist missionary organizations, but has now lost it. It should never have had the place. For a spiritual people to lay down a finan- cial test as the sole condition of participation in the management, or in any relation of influence to the management, of their spiritual enterprises, is discreditably inconsistent. This was the chief stain on those earlier Baptist missionary organizations which had so many creditable characteristics. And it is to the denomination's honor that with the bringing of mission management nearer to the people and more closely into connection with the churches, this kind of money basis has disappeared. We may be more the victims of the money mania in some things than our predecessors were, but not in this thing. When the Baptists separated in 1845, the Southern Convention perpetuated this stigma carried over from the former connection ; and the Missionary Union not only adopted it, but laid it on with broader brush and in deeper tint. But both have wiped it out, and all collateral Baptist or- ganizations have joined in its elimination. This has occurred in a commercial era while some strong tides bore the other way. But when we say " money basis " with the mean- ing that the contribution of money, or its equiva- lent, is made a condition of control or member- ship, we are dealing with another proposition. Bap- tists have usually maintained this condition. They should never abandon it. It is Christian distinctly DOCTRINAL 121 and honest essentially. There is no exclusiveness or inequity in saying to those who can help and will not help, " You cannot ride well and you shall not drive at all." Every church should say that to every member in local relations. Rare exceptions aside (for which mollifying adjustments can be made easily and consistently), as a general proposition it stands securely that when one's interest falls dead at the line of financial contribution, especially where financial need is steady and great, the delinquent forfeits all rights of recognition. Let him come into the meeting before the contribution or let him stay out till after the benediction. God offers no benediction to him who has money but will not devote it to God's work; and the people of God in every combination in his name should be as he is. This makes the financial condition a test of char- acter, and so lifts it into the realm of character. The sole money condition, " basis," antagonizes and discredits its spiritual character, but this glorifies it and works with it (22). The failure to discriminate at this juncture has caused confusion of thought and unprofitable dis- cussion. The denomination arose in conditions which swung it sharply toward an unreasoning im- pulse against financial exaction and exactness. The effect has persisted naturally. Our good will, therefore, has had more difficulty in expressing it- self in money than the good will of some other good people. Directly we have well escaped, but 122 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS indirectly the effort may still tinge our thinking. For instance, the sound conception of a church as spiritual may, by a little warping, minimize the financial obligation in church relations until the New Testament teaching on stewardship in property is abandoned or depleted, the whole spiritual life thus being damaged. Interlinked with this, the in- dependence of the church, as a supremely divine institution, has been and is magnified until some Baptists seem to think that a Baptist church ought to be admitted unconditionally into full member- ship in any organization calling itself Baptist. But this name has no sanctity and no authority in such relations as those under consideration, in which a Baptist church should come under the same tests as other co-operators ; if it will not help, let it not vote. THE CHURCH AND OTHER BODIES The last point in the preceding section points to the church in missions. We use the word church in the ordinary and proper Baptist meaning of it — ^the organized congregation. So understood, it has caused much discussion, first and last, involving and evolving much heat, by friction or otherwise. It may be added that heat and light have not always kept even step in some of these discussions. The historic material pertinent here may properly be gathered under four captions — Excluded, Exclusive, Ranking, and Related. That is, first, the church has been considered as excluded from the list of mis- DOCTRINAL 1 23 sionary bodies, missions not being regarded, at least in the co-operative aspect, as touched by the duty or the right of a church. It has also, secondly, been viewed as itself exclusive of all other missionary organizations, the church being conceived of as not only missionary, but as holding the whole mission- ary commission in its sole control, so that it should neither relegate it to individuals on one side nor to co-operative organizations, whether composed of churches or not, on the other side. This view has been modified, thirdly, into the ranking, which means that the church, while not exclusive of other agencies in missions, is the first and highest, rank- ing all others, and at least the preferable missionary body. And, fourthly, the church having been ac- cepted as one among missionary agencies, the prob- lems of its relations to the others have caused frequent discussions and differences, ramifying vari- ously. I. Excluded. How far have Baptists regarded the church as excluded from the missionary service? This question requires two answers. First, essen- tially, that is, in the spirit and law of its life, never —except under the influence of such antinomianism, " hyper-Calvinism," as excluded individuals in the same manner. Baptists have sometimes and in some sections fallen into this error so far that they have regarded the preaching of the gospel to sinners as no part of their duty or privilege. Manifestly, when this is true individually, it involves the 124 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS churches composed of such individuals. Anti- nomian churches necessarily exclude themselves from missions and missions from themselves. Secondly, Baptist churches who have escaped this error have been more or less slow in including mis- sions among their duties on grounds of polity or policy. At some times they have felt that the New Testament polity rendered it impracticable for churches to combine effectively in the wider opera- tions ; at other times, while not regarding the polity as raising insuperable difficulty, they have held back from the ordinary processes of missions on grounds of policy, in view of the possibility of bringing dis- cord and disaster to the churches by the introduction of the larger business into them, or into the Asso- ciation in which they were combined under the same general conceptions as those of the churches locally. How far have these two views affected American Baptists? Very little in the first one. When the English Baptist Missionary Society arose, it en- countered distinct opposition from antinomianism ; but when Baptists in America began to organize for missions, they met no opposition from that source. Throughout this country, without a single exception, the strong " Calvinistic " centers and lead- ers were the strong missionary centers and leaders. Essentially the churches were missionary all over the land as really as they are now. But on the grounds of polity and policy they were disposed to DOCTRINAL 12$ base the larger operations on individuals or on societies which were themselves composed of in- dividuals, when it was well understood that the in- dividuals who were to be the main or the sole sup- porters of such societies were members of Baptist churches. Following the founding of the Trien- nial Convention and continuing to the present, once strong but now weak, if not dead, a disastrous opposition arose, sprung partly from antinomian- ism, though some of it was in missionary people, who were affected by considerations of polity, policy, and other things. 2. Exclusive. The extreme position from that just considered is more modern. Both rest on a high appreciation of the church, but the results of the two appreciations are antipodal, because they themselves rest on different grounds. The church has been excluded from missions under the appre- hension of its family character and duty. This has been, as just now stated, because those emphasizing the fellowship element in the church felt that the mission work could be prosecuted by other organ- izations as well or better, and at the same time the church be shielded from those injuries which might come from the addition of the larger operations to the local. But, on the other hand, the church has been viewed as excluding all other organizations on the ground that the " Great Commission " was given to the church in such way that it was not at liberty to transfer any of it to any other, no matter 126 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS of whom composed or how organized. This view lays the whole missionary burden on the church directly, but it seems to many to involve difficulties in administration that should be avoided if possible without infraction of fundamentals, and they have not seen that any fundamental required a method so loaded with impracticable elements. Recently the excluding contention has been very active in some parts, has gone to greater extremes perhaps than earlier, and has caused unhappy discussion. But the preference for the direct connection of the indi- vidual churches with the mission or missionary to whose support it contributed, is not so fresh as may be thought. It appears more or less all the way, from as far back as its enlistment of the great advocacy of Doctor Wayland seventy years ago or more, and even earlier than that. It may be safe to say that some have always sympathized with it, at least in the form of " designated funds," the right to which has always been recognized for churches and individuals, though the managers per- haps have never viewed it, even in this milder form, with favor because of the involved difficulties in ad- ministration. But in recent times the elevation of the emphasis on the church to the exclusion of all other organiza- tions has rooted in mQH"e seriously doctrinal prob- lems. When it is carried to the affirmation that the church alone has divine authority to prosecute missions, it takes on a " high church " aspect in- DOCTRINAL 12/ consistent in Baptists, as well as infringes individ- ualism, and it fails to find support in Scripture. With earnest reiteration, if not vehement and posi- tive to the limit, it is sometimes said that our Lord gave the Commission to the church and to no one else. But it is not so written. No evidence ap- pears that any church, in the sense of an organized body, was present. An assembly was there, but so far as appears it was a crowd rather than a church, in the present meaning of those terms. So far, however, this exclusive view has not been able to make much headway practically. It finds itself driven to that degree of organization beyond the churches against which it protests, or it fails to hold its friends to sufficient volume, continuity, and com- bination of support to get ahead very far. 3. Ranking. Somewhere between the excluded and the exclusive place, the church comes in as the ranking member of the missionary forces. Esca- ping from the excluded and repudiating the exclu- sive, it steps into the chief place. It is recognized as the first missionary organization and the last. Before Boards and societies, before committees and conventions, it stands, primary chronologically, dis- tinctively and effectively ; and when they have all disbanded and disappeared, it remains. This is in- herent constitutionally and continually. A truly Christian church holds this place by virtue of its nature. Those who have the mind of Christ are necessarily missionary. To this they are impelled 128 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS by his love, and to this they are propelled by his law. The result is spontaneous, first in the indi- vidual and secondly in the church, which is the central focus of the Christian life. The present time needs but little emphasis of this thought theo- retically. As evinced in the historical part of this work. Baptists have ever tended toward this posi- tion, however restrained by their emphasis on other aspects of church life or by the " cold shoulder " of those managers who have appreciated their own ability to manage. Indeed, so far has the recog- nition of the church as the ranking force in mis- sions gone in the opening decade of the twentieth century, that it has reached relatively an extreme as marked as the opposite a hundred years earlier. In some quarters it is heralded widely now that mission work is the great or the greatest or the only work of a church. But this is not true with- out large modification. This modification was never more needed, perhaps, than now for the highest quality and the longest reach of missions themselves. Let us get our heads clear and reflect a little. The New Testament teaches comprehensively and logically. The order in which its books have been placed by Providence formulates its logic. This remark applies to the doctrine of missions as to every other doctrine. If we are in danger of an excessive relative emphasis on missions, the sub- stance and the order of the New Testament in- struct and warn us. Consider. The farewell words DOCTRINAL 129 of Jesus in person contain the great command- ment of conquest, but the bulk if not all of the New Testament comes after his departure. This is in accord with his own intimation while in the flesh. During that time he instituted preliminary missions imbedded in preliminary teaching, the vol- ume of the latter exceeding that of the former. Departing, he expanded the missionary outlook to cover the whole world and all time. But this last was to his disciples, as individuals, collected, but not combined. And then he went away, leav- ing the remainder of the divine order to be un- folded under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as he had provided. The order of that unfolding was on the same general plan and in the same dominant elements as appeared in his sojourn on earth. The New Testament, after the Gospels, is the book of the church ; first, as a simple organization, and, sec- ondly, for a complex indoctrination.. This indoc- trination focalizes in the church as an organiza- tion adjusted to the whole Christian life. This teaching is adjusted to the churches, and is for their edification in their individual members and in their combination of individuals. Rounding out this course of constructive teaching, the New Testament places the book of Revelation, whose soul is con- flict and conquest and whose great eye glows the coming ages through. The combined Christian life, following the indoctrination that alone can qualify I 130 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS it for the conflict and the conquest, has disclosed to it in this last book the path it must tread. And there inspiration leaves it under the awful and adequate assumption that this educated life will know the way to go, and go that way through all time till He comes. All that we here epitomize concentrates into this : The primary business of a Christian church is to make character through truth. Its secondary business is to bring others into dis- cipleship for the same character-building through the same processes. And this second part is so scantily commanded, if indeed it is enjoined at all on a church, because when the first part, indoc- trination, has been done according to the divine plan, the second part, evangelization, will take care of itself according to the involved life, and there- fore needs no command. When, then, we magnify evangelization or missions to the minimizing of in- doctrination of all disciples in all the truth, we re- verse the order of the New Testament and guar- antee to our missions a faltering future and a beg- garly harvest. In this conception of it we realize and magnify the church as the ranking missionary organization. As it comes to itself in this concep- tion, it will take the place of first rank in missions as easily, as fearlessly, and as exultingly as an eagle takes the sun. 4. Related. From the three views of the church so far presented, the fourth and final view emerges. The church is the first, the ranking, mis- DOCTRINAL I3I sionary organization. So far as Christians are obligated to missions by the command of Christ or the normal impulses of their own life, it would seem to be the only one for the loyal disciple and within available limits. Why should a disciple of Christ wish to do any Christian w^ork through any other organization than that which Christ has estab- lished as the home, the school, and the instrumen- tality of the Christian Hfe? This question is fairly raised for many applications, but in no other than the missionary is the answer more obvious. For this term is only another for evangelism, soul- saving, and spiritual upbuilding such as the church stands for in its immediate activity. So soon as a church gets into the spirit of these things as they lie at or within its own threshold, it gets into the spirit of the same things beyond and still beyond, so far as the human material extends, throughout the world. Then when it recognizes in these things its immensely supreme enterprise and responsibility, if not its only one, and adjusts itself to its larger endeavor in the same kind, why should it seek, desire, or admit any other than itself for this expression of itself? The only reasonable answer seems to be that no reason exists, unless it is in the practical problems inherent and ines- capable in expansion of area and the consequent separation and attenuation of evangelizing and edi- fying agencies and operations. The whole church cannot go to the whole world literally. For this a 132 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS combination of churches is necessary, at least in ordinary conditions, and out of this necessity issues may arise whose solution requires or suggests other organizations, with which the churches ally them- selves practically if not organically. This raises questions concerning the principles and methods of the relations of the churches to the others. Bap- tists have been able to raise a sufficient number of such questions to whet their logic, consume their time, and test their tempers. (i) At the base a fair question asserts itself, which, while not strictly pertinent perhaps, still sends its entanglements into others, the relevancy of which is evident. It is a question of individual- ism and its problems that runs in here. The in- dividual always must be held in view, because he is primary and inextinguishable and, therefore, basal in the sound solution of all problems of organiza- tion. The question touches the reserved right of the individual to act independently of the church whenever he chooses to do so, including the right to act with any outside missionary body, giving to it what otherwise would go to the church in mis- sions. The reply to this proposition should take into account two fundamental principles. One is general, applicable to all questions of the modi- fication of individualism through combination. As has already been said, when the individual enters the church he does not deny his individualism, but he does modify it or the application of it. He DOCTRINAL 133 voluntarily puts limitations on it, enters into an agreement with the church that he will restrain himself in some things and apply himself in others in consequence of the claims of the church on him as a member, which it would not have if he were not a member. Some of these may be speci- fied in form and detail, but the greater part of them usually and wisely are implied and adjustable. Now, this general law applies to individualism in missions. Is it right for a church-member to divert his activity or sympathy from any efforts of his church to those of the same class in another church or no church? Apply this question anywhere, and then everywhere hold the individualism to its honor or honesty in the matter touched. May a man honorably, can a man honestly, set up his indi- vidualism against his church, positively or nega- tively, so long as he is a member of it? Is he not bound by honorable implication, if not by honesty under agreement, to do any kind of good through his own church that he desires to do and is able to do (provided, of course, that his church is doing that kind of good), unless perchance it does not need all he has for that cause? Ought not church- membership to be so understood, in the largest liberty, as to bring an answer of loyalty to the church in all such questions? If one does not so understand, does he have enough of the right kind of fellowship with it to be a member of it? The specific answer relates to missions distinct- 134 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS ively. Does not the conclusion just reached apply to missions? It does, and with a tightening grasp. Its voice now is more resonant and authoritative than before. The reason for this is that missions carry the member into one of the two distinctively church functions, its specifics, which it should never abandon; and this specific is that one in which the church always needs all the support that any member can give. While the function of home edification is primary essentially, its limits are more attainable. Some churches are able to provide more means for home uses than they can well use, but no church has resources, financial or other, to meet all the needs of missions, not only in general, but also in the particular fields in which it is enlisted or ought to be. Any missionary denomination could soon put millions more into its missions without extravagance or obtrusion beyond the proper fields of its endeavor. These considerations emphasize the devoted adjustment of individualism to the co- operative relationship in missions through the church. (2) The way now seems opening to bring the churches together for activity in missions over an area as extended as may be desired and feasible. If we have come so far harmoniously, we seem ready to close the discussion and proceed to busi- ness. We have only to rouse the churches to send their representatives authorized to formulate the common missionary purpose in an organization ade- DOCTRINAL 1 35 quate to the effort and consistent with Baptist prin- ciples. But in this statement of our attainment we discover that we have not quite attained. In some sections our proposal brings us into collision with a strenuous protest from a large number of brethren who are respectable among the orthodox in general and conspicuous in missions, both as to enthusiasm and efficiency. This protest was never more ample and earnest than now in some parts of our country, which seems to make it necessary to fold the tent of congratulation and unfurl again the banner of discussion. The protest arresting us is venerable in the past and virile in the present. Let us meet it in the open and see what we can do with it. In brief, we are assured that our projected procedure is a robust heresy, that Baptist churches cannot com- bine on this plan, that they must act singly, or adopt an agent independently established, or send mes- sengers who, when they meet, act as individuals and as totally independent of the churches sending them as if those churches had not sent them. This affirmation is based on the assumption that a Bap- tist church may not, because it cannot consistently with its divine constitution, become a constituent in any other organization or delegate its authority to act for it anywhere. As one reflects on the possible implications and ramifications of this proposition, he probably sees that it opens a fine field for ambuscades, masquerades, and conclusions 136 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS that do not conclude. This is written courteously and confidently. The writer has respectfully con- sidered the arguments supporting this protest as ad- vanced by " the fathers " and the children. He believes it to be indefensible, and will test it scrip- turally, logically, historically, and actually. To do this elaborately would require much space, too much ; but concisely will not require much. a. Scripturally. By this is meant positive state- ments in the Scriptures. If such should be pro- duced, even one would be conclusive for a sound Baptist; but not one can be produced. The New Testament nowhere forbids a church to combine its operations with the kindred operations of any other organization. No more does it forbid a church to embody its authority in a member as its repre- sentative either to act singly or jointly with other like representatives anywhere. That the earliest churches, under apostolic guidance, appointed their members to carry their benevolence abroad, is writ- ten ; but it is not written that any restrictions in these particulars v*^ere laid on them. They were probably instructed or advised how to conduct the business, or left to their own judgment and the advice of Paul, but neither is stated. If it had been the divine design to lay down restrictions in such relations for permanent application, the record of this character furnishes enough pertinent opportunity, and the fact that nothing of this kind appears argues that the Lord did not intend to com- DOCTRINAL I37 mand, or even intimate, that churches should not use Hberty in such procedures, restrained only by their spiritual sense and their common sense in ap- plying the appropriate logical implications and sug- gestions. Of positive Scripture none is written. b. Logically. Are the views to which we demur justified by any logical implication? Does the New Testament lay down any law or promulgate any principle rendering these church actions disorderly ? It does not. It does affirm some limitations and it does imply more, but they are not of this nature. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and a Baptist church is composed theoretically of those who are separated from the world. From these two facts many restrictions flow logically. The " separation of Church and State " comes clearly enough from these sources. The State has divine authorization, indeed ; but its constitution and mission are so different from those of the church that alliance be- tween them is inconsistent, although some measure of mutual recognition is not. But no law or prin- ciple of Christianity militates logically against the union of Baptist churches, on the basis of their sameness of nature and purpose, in doing anything to which duty calls them, and putting their joint authorization into any agency acting for them in the same kind. Let us discriminate and clarify. Clear thinking will be helped by discrimination between the two kinds of general organizations, namely, those that 138 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS do not arise out of the churches and consist of their members authorized to act for them, and those that do so arise and act. The organizations of extraneous origin or materials or authorization have been and still are. The protest against the union of churches with such, through representatives or in the recognition of churches as constituents in them, has logical standing-ground. But whatever reason for this method of combination in missions may have existed in the past, no reason for it now exists. Likewise, the former grounds of the excluded and exclusive attitudes of the church have largely dis- appeared. The ground on which this protest now makes its final stand is '' made ground," artificial, not naturally produced when the churches recognize themselves as missionary organizations and respond to the impulse to move together in missions. This remaining obstruction of their liberty at this point is superimposed, not inherent in those principles which this writing has been setting forth and fol- lowing where they lead. Probing for the root error in the thinking of those who object to a general organization on a plan of church representation, we find it in their misapprehension of the nature of such organization. They view it as an independent and authoritative entity. Some of them have squandered much ratiocination in working out a series of independent Baptist bodies, detached or strung together by a not clearly defined cord of connection — church, DOCTRINAL I39 Association, State Convention, larger body — each complete in itself and flying in its own orbit on its own authority. This seems to them necessary to the preservation of liberty. But suppose that that final body be considered not a body but a hand, not an authority but an instrument, reaching out only where the body from which it springs, directs it, and vanishing away when it breaks connection with the body in which all the authority for its every action resides, the body of the people in the churches. Under this conception the whole fear for liberty becomes only a scare, and a scare at a phantom, because that hand projected from the body has no independent or authoritative entity, its whole existence being administrative under control. Those who fear for liberty on this basis manufac- ture their own alarm when they institute a need- less extraneous authority. c. Historically. It is easy erroneously to proclaim conclusions as historical when the proclaimer has not surveyed the whole historic field. This easy error has appeared in modern discussions of the matters now in hand. We hear it in high places that a Baptist church cannot delegate its authority, be represented, that messenger is the only proper title for the brother who is sent by a church to an Association, or anywhere else, and that these views are the old Baptist views. Now that is not true. From the time that Associations became numerous enough to be a basis for comparisons. I40 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS Baptists in all parts of this country have used the words messenger, delegate, and representative inter- changeably; they have instructed their messengers how to act, and left them free to act on their own judgment in matters of importance to the churches ; and they have sent their messengers or delegates or representatives to thousands of delegated meetings, without losing a scrap of their freedom. How have they done this? By writing into their constitutions of combination, until one wearies with reading it, that these co-operative bodies have no authority over the churches. So long as that is done, reen- forced by constitutional limitations of fields of ac- tion, and the people keep their eyes open, freedom is in less danger than a baby in its crib or the sun in its heavens, or anything between the baby and the sun. But the people must keep their eyes open! It would be impossible to advance ten sentences in a discussion along these lines, if the discussion were worth anything, without repeating in substance what has been said again and again by Baptists through- out the past hundred years. d. Actually. As a matter of fact, every Baptist church continually delegates its authority in the ordinary course of its life, and this it does of necessity. It cannot live without doing it. Some logicians solemnly assure us that a church cannot delegate its authority because " delegated authority cannot be delegated," and all the authority the church has is delegated to it by the Lord (22). DOCTRINAL I4I But every preacher among these confident logicians will go into the pulpit next Sunday and preach by delegated authority, the authority of the church. Then the church will delegate the sexton to buy a broom, without limiting the price. Moreover, if the pastor preaches error and the church does not stop him, or if the sexton pays more for the broom than the church approves, then the church is re- sponsible for the heresy and must pay for the broom. The Lord will hold it responsible in the one case and the law in the other, both on the basis of delegated authority delegated. Now, if a church can and may do these and like things by itself, why cannot two churches, or more or many, delegate their representatives to meet and act by their au- thority, in a committee or a convention, for doing the Lord's business anywhere and everywhere, from sweeping the meeting-house to preaching and teach- ing to the ends of the earth, with equal and per- fect right and safety? (23) IX PRACTICAL Some things have not yet been said that perhaps ought to be said. They have been left out with the understanding that they could be brought in more appropriately in a group under the caption " Prac- tical." They are suggested by the " Historical " and the " Doctrinal," and this treatment of them is de- signed to be supplemental to the preceding pages. In relation to what has gone before, they are as- sumed to be additional, cautionary, or modifying. THE PRACTICAL PLEA FOR THE POPULAR BASIS Our discussion of the doctrinal began with the recognition of democracy as the only consistent Baptist base. In that connection the opinion was recorded that control in missions should be held closely to the people because all the dignity and sanc- tity of discipleship is equally in all of them. Noth- ing was there said of the practical importance of this close connection. But something needs to be said, because it is impossible to hold the interest of a free and intelligent people permanently to a cause from the management of which they are separated. This is true everywhere in the program of democracy. Even if the people themselves set a chasm between 142 PRACTICAL 143 themselves and the administration, their interest in it will lag. It will lag along the lines of both conscience and intelligence. This statement is so obvious that its defense seems unnecessary. But it may not be unprofitable to emphasize it a little in connection with the missionary cause. The importance of the administrative recognition of the people broadly and practically only begins to show itself in the popular convention, in the right to hold opinions and express them, the opportunity also to hold a check-rein on " officialdom " and make the Board understand that it is not a " boss." That part of it is not much more, though it is some more, than the froth of it. The solid substance of it is behind that and beneath it. This is true even in " a great convention " unless its members are care- fully culled from the multitude before they are sent to it. Two errors have been quite common at this juncture. One error is that of the many who think that they know offhand how to manage as well as the few who have been endowed by nature and educated by experience for that business. They do not, and they never can, without a miracle in them that probably will not be wrought for them, at least till they give more attention to the business. The other error is that of the managers who seem to think that they have closed the discussion when they have announced that they understand the needs and possibilities better than the people do. Usually that is true (24). Grant that more wisdom applic- 144 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS able to the business of a Board of Management may sometimes be found under a sunbonnet than under the silk hat of a member of the Board; still, as a rule, the member is wiser and better informed than the sister. Give the managers, then, all the supe- riority in the business of managing that they may reasonably claim, and come back to their error when they think that they have ended the discussion by claiming this distinction. They have hardly begun it. It cannot be finished until it is carried freely and vigorously into the realms of prayer and gift. It must cultivate the broadest fields of supplication and stewardship. On the human side, prayer is the vital breath of missions in a sense so significant that perhaps it may be called distinctive. Certainly not more else- where than in missions can the right spirit be generated and maintained without it. And here in highest degree prayer is sacrificial, intercessory, vicarious. So far as it advances toward perfection it is absorbed in the atonement and abides close by the cross of Christ. This prayer is profound, patient, strenuous, and serious. It repudiates self- gratification and retires into Gethsemane. It shrinks from applause and tastes of anguish. The increase of applause for brilliancy and wit in our mission- ary assemblies, parallel with the decrease in them of this kind of prayer, relatively, is an outstanding and admonitory sign. It marks a decadence of that quality of spirituality for which there is no sub- PRACTICAL 145 stitute on earth or in heaven. As it is lost out of the missionary Hfe that Hfe dies. How may it be retained and perfected ? By keeping intact the closest connection between those who pray and that for which they pray. What is the line of that closest connection in the field before us? It is the line of recognition of responsibility. How are Baptists to be kept in the finest sense of their re- sponsibility for their missions? By being kept in the closest authoritative relations to them. For such a people as they are and in such atmosphere as they breathe to-day, no other prescription can be compounded anywhere in the universe. Others may do their kind of praying best on some other plan, but Baptists cannot. " Missionary statesmanship " in council is no more a substitute for this than is applause in convention. In missions we have not discussed democracy till we have related it to prayer, and prayer specially of this distinctive type. It is the central significance of the whole problem of or- ganization, the key to the entire discussion of mis- sionary administration. The prayer for missions depends on the realization of responsibility for them, and this among Baptists finds its root in the closest possible connection of those who pray with the con- trol of that for which they pray. The connection between the closet and the con- tribution is central and continuous. This is true commercially and spiritually. The gage of the giv- ing for missions is determined, both in its finan- K 146 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS cial figures and its divine power, by the prayer of the givers. It is true Hterally that as people enter through the right kind of prayer into fellowship with the mission cause they will give more to it. The problem here, in " dollars and cents," is not first one of apportionments or programs of any kind or all kinds, but of prayer. All plans fall short with those who do not pray, and those who pray will give anyway, on any plan or no plan at all. Plans facilitate, but they do not create. Op- portunities solicit the smaller fractions of steward- ship, but they do not call out the greater units of it. So long as the agent or the church must go to the giver in order to get the gift, real giving has hardly begun. When real giving gets under way, the giver will seek the agent or the church with his gift, and he will not be content until he has de- posited it in values of respectability in the light of the cross. So far we have thought of the gift in terms of human finance. But more important is right thinking in terms of divine finance. When money gets into relations with the kingdom of God it becomes subject to another kind of calculation, a higher kind, the heavenly kind. A hundred cents may make a dol- lar or ten dollars or a thousand dollars. The dol- lars they make depends on what God puts into them. Without the infusion of divine power they may, though discreetly expended, come to little or nothing in the coin of the realm of missions, PRACTICAL 147 but with every added volt of divine power their efficiency rises and rises until it soars beyond human understanding. Wlien Jesus said what he said about " the widow's mite," he was not jesting. It was not a jesting time even if he had been sometimes a jester, lie was philosophizing, revealing, in the shadow of the cross and its light. He meant what he said, that she had given more than all the rich. That was not true in terms of human commerce, but it was true in terms of divine compensation. That saying set forth for all time the truth that money measures up into multiplications of spiritual effects as God puts his power into it, and God puts his power into it on the condition of the giver's fellow- ship with Christ, expressed in self-sacrifice. That is the law of the kingdom concerning money for missions. It ramifies the whole host of the re- deemed, and multiplies its proof of itself chiefly as it works among the givers of small sums who give as the widow gave. Herein may be expounded the saying that the rich enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty. Men may applaud those whom they call " the large givers," but God applauds those whom he calls the large givers ; and Jesus left the authoritative definition of this phrase lying loose in the temple where it may be picked up by those who can take it. Therefore, once more, the system of missionary organization that calls and keeps those who pray best nearest to the center of ad- ministration and on the highest plane of recognition 148 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS is the system that, first and last, secures the largest contributions and of the best kind for missions. (25). THE LAST PULL ON THE KNOT The practical problem of how best to connect the contributors with the control is always present. Often for Baptists it has been perplexing. The immediate managers, being human, tend to give the people a back seat, and the people, being human, tend to take the front seat or leave the meeting. The motives on both sides may be various, and are quite certain to be mixed. Therefore from this source the greater part of the discussion of organ- ization has come, tempting to collisions of judg- ment and frictions of feeling, reen forced by those honest differences in perspective which have been noted in the historical and doctrinal presentations already completed. This confusion has been en- hanced by the varieties of condition and environ- ment. What is best practicable in one field may not be in another. The Baptist system and spirit re- quire flexibility and variety. But beneath these, cer- tain permanent principles should be recognized as regnant in all variations. Three at least arrest our attention — practicability, equity, and efficiency. Missions stand as the crown of the industrial sig- nificance of Christianity. They mean business, and they are wronged when they are not scrutinized with the business eye and weighed in the balance PRACTICAL 149 of the business judgment. This stewardship is im- perative for economy and facility. When an issue appears between sentiment (not involving a law or principle of the Lord of the vineyard) and prac- tical point, sentiment should be subordinated. The most practicable thing must be done, the thing which in the largest view can be got at and got through most advantageously. Apply this to the basis of membership and its implications in mis- sionary combination. Where the representation is of churches, within an area sufficiently liinited to make practicable a direct representation of each church, the senti- ment favorable to such representation may be given full swing and ought to be. Associations are cut to the cloth of this proposition. They are bounded in adjustment to the easy reach of all the churches composing them. The Associations are not only the first organizations after the churches chron- ologically, but also effectively as expressions of de- mocracy in all its fellowships, including the mis- sionary. They have served a great purpose and done it well. They should be conserved and perfected in the interest of the largest local combinations of the churches. When we come to State bodies the case is not so clear, but it grows clearer with the lapse of time and the multiplication of facilities. At the origin of the State Conventions some States were too large for the church basis. It was right sentimentally, but wrong practically on account of 150 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS the breadth of area and the difficulties of travel. The wisdom of the " fathers " then expressed it- self, more or less, in basing the State bodies on the Associations as the instruments of the churches. This was democracy at its best in such situations. Swinging our observation beyond State areas, we must begin to challenge the church basis for the same reason that the earlier State Conventions chal- lenged it. With every expansion it takes on more impracticability. It ought not to be used because it cannot be used. What the future may hold, on earth or in air, for transportation I do not know. The time may come when a traveler can cross the continent as cheaply and as quickly as he can now cross Texas or Delaware. But as transportation now is, organization from ocean to ocean is not practicable on a church basis. It is so impracticable that it is in peril of becoming fantastic. " It is not business." It recognizes a sentiment with which this writer sympathizes thoroughly in practicable applications, as it also caters to the selfishness and vanity of those who wish to visit the neighboring city for missionary or other purposes, but it is ruled out on the test of practicability. Equity reen forces the argument from practica- bility against church representation continentally. No matter where the meeting is, the inequality is always there and cannot be avoided. It places a special privilege within the reach of a small circle of churches against the great multitude of them. PRACTICAL 151 The special privilege may be moved from place to place, but the moving does not change its nature, which is ine(|uality. It is like shifting the pain pro- duced by a disease from one part of the body to another. The pain remains the same, and its source the same ; get at the source, eradicate the disease, and the pain is gone. The foregoing considerations are yet again strengthened by the demand for efficiency. A con- vention in which the great or greater part is changed from year to year is necessarily inefficient com- paratively, and this is increasingly so when the new members are gathered promiscuously on the basis of local and personal convenience. Such an assem- bly must be inferior as a deliberative body. It can- not handle the Lord's business with the highest efficiency. It can and will become the victim of manipulators whenever such arise, under whatever motives, for it lacks ability to penetrate their de- signs or combine against them when they are known. (Some unanimous votes are not complimentary to the intelligence of the voters.) If any one says that these considerations will never have any ap- plication to a Baptist missionary meeting, he therein suggests, or proclaims, that his knowledge of mis- sionary Baptists is open to enlargement. This writing has been moving toward the avowal of a hope. The hope is that that jumbled system of representation, or playing at representation which does not represent, in large Baptist bodies for de- 152 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS liberation on the Lord's large business, may be suc- ceeded by a system that shall contribute at once to respectability, equity, and efficiency. Has not the time come and is not the intelligence available to get on a basis of uniformity that will shield decisions from local gusts, lift them above reprehensible in- fluences, and make them the expression of the finest intelligence and the loftiest character of the whole denomination, whose honor and interests are in their keeping ; while assembling real representatives, year by year, from the closest contact with the whole people? The writer avows this hope and will cherish it, grateful for present encouragements and defiant of all disappointments. And may he not venture suggestions, on the plea of his sympathy if not his capacity? Between the churches and the largest organizations it seems nec- essary to choose some one intermediate body as the swivel on which the adjustment and the joining turn. What shall it be? As things now are, the choice appears to lie between the State Convention and the Association. In favor of the Convention two facts are evident. One is that a full representation, carefully chosen and actually available, with but slight exception if any, would be morally certain. The other is, that an assembly so constituted would usually and eminently command the respect and confidence of all con- cerned. Against it two objections arise. One is that it is too far removed from the people, which PRACTICAL 153 would tend to impair its popular influence in ways both legitimate and illegitimate. The other is that a body so constituted is, in fact, more liable to be " packed." The evil flowing from this liability would operate through suspicions even when no ground existed for them. Manifestly a State-wide body opens the way for " rings," both as specters and realities, to such an extent as to constitute a genuine objection to this plan. But, to illustrate in the use of the most available existing bodies, sup- pose that the Southern Convention should be com- posed of members named by the tributary State Conventions, on an average of thirty or more to the State ; and the Northern Convention should be similarly constituted on a State delegation of about half tiie number of the other; what then would we have? We would have two general assemblies, named by the representatives of the churches, through one or more intermediaries, of about five hundred members each, in a presumably equitable distribution throughout the brotherhood ; and each assembly would be qualified in a high degree to deliberate with the best wisdom available in its con- stituency. In favor of the Association two reasons appear. One is that it is as near the whole people as is possible on a practicable and equitable basis. It would most immediately, widely, and variously rep- resent denominational thought. If then our demo- cratic propaganda is genuine, if our profession of 154 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS democracy is not demagoguery, that is a prime con- sideration. The other advantage in this plan is that the- members would be freer to be themselves and to say what the people wished them to say. They would carry a consciousness of immediate respon- sibility at home beyond that of the other representa- tion, and stand at the same time clearer of that subtle atmosphere of centralization which becomes more voluminous and vigorous as the appointing power is itself more centralized. Again here two objections are recognized. One is that an assembly so constituted would be inferior in general wisdom, learning, and dignity, knowledge of the work in hand, competency for terse and pertinent discussion, and possibly in other particulars. As to the validity of this objection opinions will differ. So far as it holds, is not the judgment just that its weakness would enfold a needed strength, that such a body would include certain lighter elements, if you please, of as much value as some of the heavier, and that in the aggregate no loss would ensue to discussion? The other objection to this plan is that it is im- practicable. The Associations will not respond ; we will have a widely distributed representation in theory only, and practically be no better off than on the confused and inequitable methods that still prevail. To meet this objection, consider several things. First, this method has never been given a fair trial under the present favorable conditions. The Association has been and is recognized limit- PRACTICAL 155 edly, but so overshadowed by other elements as to discourage it. Secondly, the only way to give it a fair trial is to give it the whole tield, put it on its metal by putting the whole responsibility on it. Thirdly, widen the way for it. Give it a generous proxy privilege. Make it possible for two or more Associations to unite their representation in one representative, with full voting privilege, accept credentials on the wire, or the wireless, when neces- sary. Put the whole on a twentieth-century basis for business, and see if the Associations will not come. Now, suppose that the two great missionary Conventions should be composed of members com- missioned in this way exclusively, on a scale to bring into each of them a thousand or more chosen as nearly as possible by the people themselves in a multitude of local centers, what would we have? A larger assembly, but not unwieldy, highly com- petent, and preeminently able to hold the whole people to whatever it might propose, with a con- stancy and a sympathy probably impossible in any other way. Would we not ? THE IDEAL DELINEATED The ideal is this : A convention composed entirely of representatives chosen by the Associations that are in sympathy and co-operation with the work which the convention is to direct. The representa- tion is to be on a basis of equality throughout the whole constituency. This excludes all individual or 156 BAPTISTS MOBILIZED FOR MISSIONS official or other special membership privileges ; it being held that while the sentiment that would honor missionaries, officials, or any others worthy of honor, but whose personal interests are involved in the actions of the convention, is excellent, it is not available in this connection. Let them be honored in other ways, and let them be heard so far as the business calls for such hearing, as others are. But this convention is for deliberation and ac- tion on the business as authorized by those to whom the business belongs. It has no right to do anything in any other capacity, as it has no right to conceal anything it does from its principal, the people. It may arrange mass meetings for the popular pro- motion of missions, perhaps ; but all such should be distinct from its sessions for business. It should give all the time necessary to the full consideration of the business, and none should be sent to its sit- tings who will not do that. Better ten Associa- tions unite on one representative, competent and faithful, who may speak and vote for them all. The mixed method, by which one individual or church or society comes in on one line of authoriza- tion and another on two or more, has been produced and maintained usually by compromises between partial and local preferences and prejudices. Are we not almost sufficiently mature to disregard and discharge all these in order to secure a system at once equitable at the base, symmetrical in the super- structure, and efficient in the administration? NOTES (i) The central, if not the sole, intention of the Hud- son River Association in its call for a convention " for general purposes " is clearly indicated in its correspond- ing letter to other Associations, in which it says: " There is one object of great importance that we ardently de- sire to see accomplished, and which we would recom- mend to your serious and prayerful consideration, namely, The formation of a Domestic Missionary So- ciety, which shall embrace our whole denomination in every State of the Union." — Page 23. (2) Although the Triennial Convention at its origin excluded the individual membership, we may be sure that that change from the formerly common method was not wholly approved. Intimation in this direction comes in a pamphlet entitled, " The Constitution of the American Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel, established January i, 1817." This Society was founded by some reputable Baptists of Philadelphia and vicinity, at Great Valley, Pa. The chairman of the meeting was H. G. Jones, pastor at Lower Merion, an eminent de- nominational leader, who was a founder of the Trien- nial, one of its Board of Commissioners from the first, becoming recording secretary of that Board in 1817. The secretary was Thomas Roberts, pastor of the Great Valley Church, member of the Triennial's Board a few months later, and leader of a company of missionaries who went under its appointment in 1821 to the south- ern Indians. The preacher of the sermon was John M. Peck, then a student in Philadelphia, though having 158 NOTES been in the pastorate for several years previously, and who was appointed by the Triennial Board in the May following its missionary to the West. That these men should start another general missionary society on the ground of the Triennial at that date raises questions. The points in their constitution differing from that of the older organization may answer some of the ques- tions. It provides for admission of " all who love the Redeemer of every denomination," but it makes the Baptist control distinctly evident. It provides for the rejection of any society as auxiliary for any reason, and for the exclusion of any individual member on grounds of heresy or immorality, or any other " impropriety," as judged by the Society or its Board. The terms of admission when compared with those of the Triennial were very low. Any Baptist church or society needed to contribute only five dollars for one annual representative, with increasing sums for addi- tional representatives. Any approved individual could be an annual member for four dollars, a life-member for fifty and a life-director for one hundred. But three- fourths of the managers must be Baptists. Honorary members without votes were provided for. Provision was made for representation in " any other public body; more especially the General Convention of the Baptist denomination in the United States of Amer- ica for foreign missions." This shows cordiality to- ward the Triennial, and may indicate a disposition to do all foreign mission work through it. The leading ob- jects of the new organization were " to bring the fol- lowers of the Saviour to a nearer knowledge and union with each other"; to lead Baptists "not only to a mu- tual acquaintance and fellowship with one another, but to concentrate all their efforts, like a glorious phalanx, under the banners of the gospel; to promote acts of beneficence and good will, and to disseminate every- NOTES 159 thing good and excellent among their fellow-men "; to promote missions and lay a foundation of a fund for ministerial education. It was also provided that any money remaining unused at any annual meeting should go into a permanent fund, " the principal and interest of which shall be left to accumulate until it shall amount to twenty thousand dollars," after which the income was to be used at the discretion of the Board. The points in which this program differed from that of the Triennial Convention were: Membership other than Baptist; easier financial conditions of membership; the accumulation of a permanent fund; and in letter but not in spirit and intention, ministerial education and home missions. Both of these last were taken up by the other body at its triennial meeting in the May following, toward which this new Society may have contributed; and the presumption is that that course on its part so far reduced the discontent with it, that the new organization lost some of its significance to its supporters and dwindled away from lack of sup- port. It had provided for its second annual meeting at Lower Merion, Pa., but so far as I know it never met again. Although the three men most prominent at its birth have found large place in Baptist records, this Society seems to have no recognition in any of them. Its significance is in its voicing certain missionary con- ceptions not formally expressed in the Triennial, and not at that date recognized practically by it. This " American Baptist Society " was the first Baptist mis- sionary' organization in America that combined the in- dividual and the organization constituenc\- and that proposed a permanent fund. — Page 25. (3) The method of securing a large number of mem- bers at first is explained by Doctor Stow: "Our object was to create at once a body that could organize and l6o NOTES proceed to business, and we could think of no other plan so feasible and which would conciliate good feeling on the part of such as might be at the trouble and expense of attending an extra session. We do not, however, at- tach much importance to that item. It appeared to us a happy mode for the transmigration of the soul from one body to another " (" Memoir of Baron Stow, D. D.," p. 210). But others took it more seriously. Doctor Sharp cited it as one of his reasons for dissatis- faction with the plan, making hundreds of life-members, autocratic and unalterable, dependent on the incident of being present at a given time (" The Christian Re- flector," November 19, 1846). — Page 28. (4) Writing in protest against a published statement, giving the impression that he claimed to have been the sole author of the constitution of the Missionary Union, Doctor Stow explained: " I stated that I knew the meaning of every word and syllable of the constitution, as I had transcribed it seven times, and spent weeks of labor and prayer in its preparation. . . The outlines of the constitution were agreed upon by the four New England members of the committee, and the labor of preparing the instrument was committed to me." This statement need not be taken inharmoniously with the position ascribed to Doctor Wayland in the text. He was appointed to draft a constitution, and Doctor Stow's statement relates to his own work as scribe in trying to harmonize the two constitutions and formu- late the conclusions of the New England part of the committee, but the outline on which the four members agreed was that of Doctor Wayland. — Page 30. (5) Dr. Daniel Sharp was the most distinguished mis- sionary leader among the Baptists of Boston at this time, though partly retiring from activity because of his age. NOTES l6l It is a safe assumption that he was consulted during the discussion of the constitution. Being requested, after its adoption, by the New York correspondent quoted elsewhere, and others, to express his views, he wrote a letter for publication, addressed to the New Yorker. Replying to his correspondent's assurance that there was much dissatisfaction with the constitution, he said: " I am glad there is. I never approved of it. Had my opinion been regarded it would never have been adopted. I would have opposed it publicly and strenu- ously but for my peculiar position. I was apprehensive that if I took part against it my motives would be misunderstood. Having resolved to withdraw from all share in the management of foreign missions, I also resolved to leave the new organization to those who favored the experiment, and stood ready to regulate the working of the new machinery. Having, however, been frequently urged to make known my views, I feel that I may, without impropriety, break the silence which on this subject I had intended to keep." He mentions four objections to the constitution, three of which relate to constituency. First, he doubts the wisdom of life- members on the payment of one hundred dollars, or on any terms. He says: "A permanent power is given them more important than the value received. Who knows whether, hereafter, these life-members will be missionary or anti-missionary men?" His second ob- jection is that it places the members of the Union, and through them its Executive Committee, too much above and beyond the influence of Christian churches. . . The churches who raised the funds should, by their dele- gates, have a voice in choosing the committee to whom the affairs of the missions are intrusted." In the third place, he protests against the method of making the first life-members, as mentioned in a previous note. Opposition to the constitution, with attempts to amend L 1 62 NOTES it, appeared on the floor at the time of its adoption, in at least these particulars: (i) The word American in the title as too broad. (2) Terms of life-membership too liberal, liable to admit the heterodox, the immoral, and slave-holders; also too cheap. (3) Opens the way to local control or excessive influence. (4) Too aristo- cratic, some thinking it " high time that the voice of the common people was heard in these conventions," and wanting the churches recognized. — Page 31. (6) On January 30, 1846, Doctor Stow wrote to Mr. Cone: " Ever since that blessed meeting of the General Convention, in November last, I have intended to write to you, tendering my personal thanks for the noble part which you acted on that occasion. Knowing fully, as I did, your views and feelings on various points, I regard your course with admiration and almost wonder. A richer spectacle of Christian magnanimity I have never witnessed. Pardon the freedom with which I write. My heart guides my pen. I shall ever associate that precious occasion with the grace of God bestowed upon yourself as the chairman of the Committee of Nine" (" Memoir of Baron Stow, D. D.," p. 211). Later Doctor Stow wrote at some length for the memorial of Mr. Cone, in which he used these words: " It is due to Mr. Cone to say that he was in favor of a more simple organization, as better suited to the genius of the denomination. . . Concessions were made on all sides, but it was plain to all that the greatest were made by Mr. Cone. The next day the constitution was reported as the unanimous product of the commit- tee. Mr. Cone made the requisite explanations, and defended every article and every provision as earnestly as if the entire instrument had been his own favorite offspring. The committee, knowing his preference for something different, were filled with admiration at the NOTES 163 Christian magnanimity which he there exhibited " ("Life of Rev. Spencer H. Cone," p. 311). In 1855 Doctor Wayland wrote to Mr. Cone's sons, for use in the "Life": "When the draft was agreed upon the duty of advocating it in the public debate was, by common consent, assigned to him. Of the manner in which he performed this service there has never been but one opinion. I have frequently heard it remarked that no man in our country, of any pro- fession, could have done it so well. In all the discus- sions he exhibited great readiness and acuteness, with perfect knowledge of his subject and his audience, en- forcing his views with an irresistible eloquence, which carried the final vote without, I believe, a single dissent- ing voice. The adoption of that constitution was owing more to your father's efforts than to those of all the rest of us put together. Without him I do not believe that it could have been carried '' (" Life of Rev. Spencer H. Cone," pp. 479, 480). — Page 32. (7) Whoever may dislike Doctor Wayland's work at this juncture should, however, not judge him harshly or hastily. If he is to be judged at all, it should be by those who can see his problem from his position. He had been closely and prominently associated with the Triennial Convention for fully twenty years, having been regarded by good judges as its most influential member as early as 1826. His sympathy with foreign missions was profound and intense. His jealousy for the decorum and respectability in righteousness of the Baptist denomination was the same. The Triennial had been the scene of exhibitions that distressed and hu- miliated him. Now that slavery had been eliminated as the chief source of confusion and discord, in a rea- sonable view of the situation, though some of its more vehement antagonists were seeking to give it an irrele- 164 NOTES vant recognition in the Missionary Union, he was pe- culiarly concerned to devise an organization that would secure the exclusion of it and all other alien topics, and guarantee respectable procedure and effective adminis- tration. Personally he was considerably an aristocrat, dignified, reserved, exacting. His experience as an educator had cultivated these constitutional proclivities. He had reached that age at which strong men are some- times most prone to assume authority over their asso- ciates, and he naturally somewhat transferred his esti- mates of the campus to the convention. Therefore he so desired to prevent untimely agitations and unseemly exhibitions, " popular irruptions," that that desire domi- nated his influence in this connection. It should also be remembered, that doubtless he had already become settled in those views of church repre- sentation which a few years later were widely published, which views strengthened his desire to prevent the di- rect representation of the churches in the Union. His device fitted in all around, gave the churches a quasi representation in part through the life-members whom they named, but deprived them of all actual, manage- able representation. — Page 33. (8) On the floor of the Convention two honored mis- sionaries, temporarily at home, spoke. Mr. Abbott, of Arracan, said: " I arrived on my native shores on Fri- day last, and almost the first thing I heard was that it was a time of great declension; that the South had filed off and formed a new Convention; that a similar move- ment was contemplated in the North; that the brethren would probably come together under excited feelings, and that there would be conflicting interests, much clashing of sentiment, and not a little quarreling. Old, gray-headed men shook their heads, and feared for the stability of the mission interests." NOTES 165 Mr. Kincaid, of Burma, said: "For several weeks past, some six or eight perhaps, I have been almost constantly traveling [in Vermont, New York, Pennsyl- vania, and New Jersey]. I found a large number of our wisest and most prudent and experienced men fearing the worst; . for the most part they seemed to indulge but gloomy anticipations" (" H. K," in "The Baptist" Nashville, Tenn.. January 17. 1846). These men testi- fied that the spirit of the meeting had completely changed their impressions. A glimpse into that spirit, as manifested on the unanimous adoption of the con- stitution, is given by John M. Peck in a letter appear- ing in " The Baptist." of Nashville. December 6, 1845. He wrote: "The tears started in the eyes of the presi- dent. Doctor Wayland, and his voice was unusually tremulous as he announced the decision. Doctor Cone burst outright with audible sobbing. . . Never did I witness such a scene: never do I expect to witness the like again on earth." — Page 34. (9) Following the meeting of the New York Baptist State Convention, in 1846. a "respectable minister in one of the flourishing cities " of that State, wrote Doc- tor Sharp an anxious letter, in which he said: "I sup- pose you are aware that there is considerable dissatis- faction with the third article of the constitution. And It prevails among those who have been and still are among the foremo.st friends and supporters of missions. They think that we cannot do better than adhere to the old democratic principle of representation." He reported that, on the day preceding the State Convention, a mis- sionary meeting was held, at the close of which the meeting, including not less than one hundred and fifty ministers, voted unanimously a request that the Board of the Union at its next meeting recommend such change as will admit to representation any church or 1 66 NOTES Other religious body of the Baptist denomination. Another reporter said this action was taken without discussion. (Alfred Bennett preached to that meeting, and ninety life-members of the State Convention, who were present at its meeting which began the next day, were probably well represented in the missionary meet- ing.) The correspondent of Doctor Sharp further said that this question involved " the union and peace of the denomination in the great work of missions," and " if the representative principle should not be introduced into the constitution next spring I tremble at the con- sequences. My own opinion is that a large number of ministers and churches will cease to co-operate with the Union. I do not say that I should, but I am confi- dent that others will " (" Christian Reflector," Novem- ber 19, 1846). — Page 34. (10) The records as published seem to be incomplete at this point. The features added and credited to a re- porter are from the report of the meeting in the " Bap- tist Memorial," June, 1846, p. 191. The claim of un- constitutionality seems to have been well made, based on the last article of the constitution, which provided that '' alterations may be made in this constitution only upon the recommendation of the Board of Managers." This gave the Board absolute control over such action. The Union at first rejected Bennett's resolution en- tirely, but on reconsideration recognized it so far as to refer it to the Board. It should perhaps be said in this connection, in fair- ness to Mr. Bennett, that whatever satisfaction he may have expressed at that time with the constitution, should be taken with some modification. As suggested in the preceding note, he really did not like the con- stitution, but was not disposed to begin amending it immediately. The speech of Sheardown, of Pennsyl- NOTES 167 vania, is reported as opposing the amendment, but was introduced by an expression of regret that the constitu- tion was such as it was, and probably a majority of the Union at that hour were dissatisfied with the autocracy of the organization but satisfied to let it alone for the time being. — Page 35. (11) The reasons presented in favor of amending the constitution, as summarized by the Committee of Nine, were three: (i) The life-membership is an innovation. Does it not tend to a "religious aristocracy"? The life-members may become so unworthy as to be " blotted by a righteous indignation from the church books," but here they remain " ineffaceable." Or they may never have been church-members, may be " profli- gate and blasphemous." Even if they are tolerated, is it not better to have an annual representation of dif- ferent character to offset them? (2) "The missionary work is properly the work of the churches, the task be- longs to them, the spiritual Israel, that should not share it with the ' Philistine and the Canaanite.' " Make not only the officers and missionaries Baptist, but the whole control. (3) To have a missionary movement like that of the early times we must model it after those times, " slope at least . . . toward a better and more primitive state of things, when each of our churches shall sustain its foreign missionary as well as its pastor." — Page 35. (12) The Union took no action. The Board consulted members of the Union only. So far as appears, neither executed the recommendation of the committee, unless the only " honest friends of missions in the churches " were the life-members of the Union. — Page 36. (13) At this meeting Doctor Herron, senior pastor of a Presbyterian church, which had kindly opened its 1 68 NOTES house for the use of the Union, was made a life-mem- ber on an appropriation from funds secured at the meeting. This leaves the situation with a Baptist in- dividual or church, or other body, unable to secure an annual membership on any terms, while a Presbyterian is admitted for life, without making application, on funds contributed by the Union itself. — Page 39. (14) In the report of the Committee of Nine, a year earlier than this, and on whose recommendation this investigation was instituted, its understanding of the sentiment of the people in the churches was given, and is here summarized. In the Middle States, and a con- siderable portion of New England, '' the great majority of the churches probably prefer, for the present at least, the retention unchanged of the existing basis." In Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, portions of Ohio, and in western New York, " large numbers " probably prefer annual membership in whole or in part. The Connecti- cut State Convention acted favoring the annual system on fifty dollars. In Ohio one Association had called for annuals exclusively, and two for them in connection with life-members. The Convention of this State voted for representation. The Michigan State Convention, with but one dissenting vote, called for admission of annual members. At a meeting in Le Roy, N. Y., " several valued members voted " for annual representa- tion of contributors, not " churches as such," but the latter was the general desire. — Page 39. (15) The reader can readily see the wide difference between the constitution of 1846 and that of 1861 in relation to constituency and control. The fifteen years between these two dates had been a period of substan- tially continuous attempt to break down the wall that had been set up between the people who were most NOTES 169 deeply interested in missions and the management of the missions in which they were interested. It was true that any contributor of one hundred dollars, whether individual or collective, could have an indirect or nomi- nal representation in the management through a life- member. This representation, however, was not only defective but precarious. With this many were not satisfied. The agitation, started immediately after the adoption of the constitution and the passing of the special conditions of anxiety and emotion then preva- lent, was not ephemeral. It was persistent and, though thrown back repeatedly, still persisted in some form until after fifteen years it overrode the resistance and swept the obstruction out of the way. Necessarily this contest was hurtful to the mission cause, and must bear its part of the responsibility for the unhappy condition into which the whole enterprise fell. Without attempt- ing to distribute the responsibility, we are compelled to recognize that in these years the work of foreign mis- sions, as represented in the Missionary Union, had fallen into a very unhappy condition. Deep concern for its future was widespread among its warmest friends and most judicious supporters. In the years just im- mediately preceding the culmination of the campaign for change in the constitution, two pamphlets appeared that illuminate the scene from opposite sides. Their authors were representative men, William Crowell and Francis Wayland. Neither of these publications ever passed the pamphlet stage, and they are therefore com- paratively unknown. This seems to justify the follow- ing use of them. Rev. William Crowell issued his " Church-members' Manual " in 1847, based partly on a manuscript of Professor Knowles, and in consultation with Doctors Ripley, Sears, Sharp, and Stow. So far as the author knew, it was " the first attempt to exhibit the Baptist 170 NOTES church polity in systematic order." The second edi- tion of it appeared in 1852. In these years, covering partly the period of the contest with which our text is concerned, the author held a conspicuous place as a teacher of Baptist polity. It is not, therefore, surprising that in 1859, eighteen prominent Baptists of New York called Mr. Crowell out to give what light he could on the agitation then culminating. They were pastors and others; among the pastors, William Hague, B. T. Welch, Pharcellus Church, and A. H. Burlingham. They asked him to discuss missionary organizations of American Baptists with reference to the then current discussion, either in an address to an audience that they would con- vene, or in a letter to them for public use. He chose the letter, which was dated May 4, 1859. His discussion was comprehensive, but we now need only one feature of it. Having related how the Triennial Convention had arisen and fallen, he proceeded: " Next came the ex- pedient to remedy the error with human wisdom, bor- rowed from ' the denominations,' and the constitution of the Missionary Union, with its exclusive life-mem- berships and its complicated ' breakwaters,' came forth, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. No man could suppose for a moment that such a thing was the out- growth of Baptist principles. How it came upon us, unless as a judicial visitation for our sins, it is difficult to tell. Constituted as if for eternal duration and growth, a few years have produced a general conviction that it is unscriptural, un-Baptistic, not longer to be borne than it can safely be got rid of. Its history has been in singular contrast to its name, for disunion has marked its progress at every step." Doctor Wayland's pamphlet appeared in the same year with Mr. Crowell's. It does not show any evidence of having been asked for by any one. It seems to have been the voluntary expression of its author's solicitude. NOTES 171 It is extremely pessimistic, opening with a dark de- lineation of the situation, with this outcome, '' At this rate our missions will soon cease altogether." He makes a quite elaborate effort to indicate remedies. The substance of it is that missionary organization should be localized as much as possible. The church is recognized as the normal missionary organization, and individual churches should send out their own mission- aries. Beyond this his thought rallies on the Associa- tion and other local combinations of churches. " If this could be accomplished we should be at once relieved from all the machinery of Boards, committees, secre- taries, treasurers, and agents, inasmuch as every church, or cluster of churches, could be all this to itself." Turn- ing to home missions, he said: " Here we seem to need some central arrangement that shall be the medium of intercourse between the parties." Under this head he soon reached the proposal that the support of foreign missions be provided by the East alone, the West be- ing excused from participation, while aided by the East in home frontier work. The effectuating of this pamphlet would have been the extinction of the Ameri- can Baptist Missionary Union, with nothing provided to take its place, except single churches and local combina- tions, about 1861. instead of what did occur at that time. Doctor Wayland's pamphlet reveals no recogni- tion of the possibility of that admittance of the people into closer contact with the Union, then so far advanced that it was substantially accomplished. — Page 43. (16) The five societies that induced and supported the founding of the Pennsylvania General Association were all in or near Philadelphia, and were auxiliaries of the Philadelphia Baptist Missionary Society, which had come from 1804, but the auxiliaries were of recent ori- gin.— Page 57. 172 NOTES (17) The original privilege to change the constitution at any annual meeting without notice, which had been given to two-thirds of the members present, had been withdrawn about 1850, and the provision for one year's notice substituted. This was continued in 1855. — Page 64. (18) Article III of the Southern Convention was as follows in full: "A Triennial Convention shall consist of members who contribute funds, or are delegated by re- ligious bodies contributing funds, and the system of rep- resentation and terms of membership shall be as follows, viz: An annual contribution of one hundred dollars for three years next preceding the meeting, or the contri- bution of three hundred dollars at any time within the said three years shall entitle the contributor to one representative; an annual contribution of two hundred dollars, as aforesaid, shall entitle the con- tributor to two representatives; and so, for each addi- tional one hundred dollars, an additional representative shall be allowed. Provided, however, that when ap- plication shall be made for the first time by bodies, or individuals, to be admitted into the Convention, one delegate shall be allowed for each one hundred dollars. And provided, also, that in case of great collateral so- cieties, composed of representatives receiving contribu- tions from different parts of the country, the ratio of representation shall be one delegate for every thousand dollars, annually contributed for three years, as afore- said; but the number of representatives shall never ex- ceed five." — Page 80. (19) That the Convention producing this communica- tion represented a significant constituency is beyond question. Why the movement lapsed permanently at once is not clear, but those who are perplexed by it, and NOTES 173 sufficiently interested in it, may well consider that the way in which the committee reported was final, unless the subject should be taken up afresh; that the mana- ging bodies probably had not much sympathy with some parts of the tendency indicated; that two of the Societies were in the midst of a considerable revision of their own constitutions on points of administration, and were naturally disposed to get that business out of the way without embarrassment from the other, these re- visions generally being in the direction of the popular pressure; that the third, the Publication Society, re- sponded to the Convention's desire concerning the union of the two Bible societies, promptly opening com- munication with the American and Foreign Bible So- ciety; and that the Civil War soon absorbed the atten- tion of all parties. — Page 96. (20) In connection with the annual meetings of the Societies in 1901, a mass meeting of all of them was held, in which discussions followed the lines of the re- port here mentioned. Similar mass meetings in other years of this decade strongly influenced both tendencies and results. — Page 99. (21) The principle here maintained seems to the writer to be applicable as closely on all fields as is necessary for the preservation in all denominational work of all denominational principles. That its modifi- cation, and possible abandonment, will come first in missions, foreign leading and home following, is in- tensely indicated by present manifestations. But are we justified in any affiliation in missions that we are not prepared to accept in evangelization and other church activities at home? Are not our obligations to be accurate and inflexible in interpreting and applying our loyalty precisely the same there as here? Are we not 174 NOTES in danger of pushing or drifting into a dualism of char- acter, in evangelism and construction, the parallel to which in business and politics would be called immoral? This is recognized as a searching question, and it is pressed as a pertinent question. The tests and the perils at this point that seem to be opening before us are as subtle as they are serious, and we should gladly be con- strained to gird up the loins of our minds to the logic of loyalty and the loyalty of logic. — Page 119. (22) The debaters in these fields sometimes become so absorbed in the discussion that they leave Baptist ground without seeming to know it. When they quote these political maxims — delegated authority cannot be delegated, representation involves taxation, etc., they seem to forget that these are legislative terms, that a Baptist church has no legislative authority, and if it had it does not recognize a political dictum as having any authority over it. Stay on Baptist ground in eccle- siastical fundamentals, and a great part of these discus- sions end before they begin, for these fundamentals take the breath of life out of them. Baptists can, indeed, lose their liberty to a general organization, but they are not in danger of doing so while they stay on their own ground, build on their own foundation, and guard their own premises. Their danger comes when they aposta- tize sufficiently to put into the hands of such organiza- tion the business that they ought to keep in their own hands through the churches. And that is what is done by those who establish a convention " composed of in- dividuals," who neither represent the people nor are responsible to them, and then place under this authority the missions supported by the churches. — Page 121. (23) Once already in the Northern Baptist Conven- tion the peril has been recognized of too large attend- NOTES 175 ance. What was the response? Drop the Associatioas. Once at least in the Southern Baptist Convention tlie same problem has produced the same response. In both instances this solution seems to have been adopted without much consideration. But it involves the era- sure of the only possible basis of an approximately democratic representation without the peril, if not the certainty, of an unwieldy body. Can we not furnish better "statesmanship" than that? Ought we not to be able to foresee that a liberal, direct church represen- tation, in a general convention of popular interest, with present facilities for assembling, must necessarily bring too many people for practical utility in the business of the convention? Recall that in 1872, Pros. Martin B. Anderson thought the anniversary meeting of the Mis- sionary Union too large, and called for a reduction in the attendance, " so as to secure a comparatively small body for deliberation." and " a series of mass meetings, for several days in succession, at various points in our country," in place of the popular elements at the meet- ings of the Union. His plea was recognized, referred, and "smothered." If it was pertinent then it is vastly more pertinent now. Soberly, fathers and brethren, is our delectation over the "great convention" — great meaning big — creditable to our intelligence? For popu- lar effects, for education, encouragement, and enthu- siasm, yes; but for deliberation and direction, no. — Page 141. (24) The position taken in the text concerning the superior knowledge and wisdom of the managers may be fairly open to modification. God reveals his mind to those like minded with himself. Wisdom in spiritual things predominates in those, other things equal, who are predominantly in harmony with God; and harmony with God is not conditioned on natural powers. The 176 NOTES pure in heart see God and the poor in spirit have the kingdom of heaven. Many people who are not man- agers have as good sense naturally as the managers have, and they are better judges of missionary prob- lems in proportion, as they have more of the mind of Christ. A prayer meeting of plain men or women may get nearer the throne, and so receive more light on the way of the kingdom than the Board has. God is not pleased when a man is honored in spiritual adminis- tration because he has political influence or much money. These observations are in close connection with some of the greatest perils of missions. — Page 143. (25) A thought does not appear distinctly or defi- nitely under the practical plea for the popular basis, which should run in solution through the whole of that section. It is the thought of the close relation between the recognition of the people and their education in all mis- sionary problems. This relation is very intimate, deli- cate, and potent. It is pervasive, persistent, and cumu- lative in its effects. It cannot be adequately traced, still less tabulated, but its fruitage is widespread, va- rious, and eminently valuable. We have a multitude of Baptists in the United States who could quickly be qualified for efficiency in the higher places of our mis- sionary administration, if only their attention were thoroughly centered on the work. Is it a dream that we may have a multitudinous constituency contribu- ting and praying in that large and high equipment? — Page 148. Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01234 0610