THE BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 20610, 9 October 1930, Page 8

THE BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

Thk Baptist Church of New Zealand, whoso delegates meet in conference in our city to-day, is part of a worldwide religious organisation. Coming into existence three centuries ago largely as a protest against tho exclusiveness and intolerance of a ' State church, it has grown in a remarkable way, until to-day it is computed to bo the largest Protestant denomination in tho world, numbering over eleven million members. Its genius makes it international. It is rooted in every country, and the Baptist World Alliance links all into an organic whole. Tho name “ Baptist ” was first given in scorn, and is not the most appropriate, since tho church stands not for the emphasis upon a rite, but upon great principles which involve tho rite. Its members would say that they are not Baptists because they baptise. They baptise because they are Baptists. Believing in tho supremacy of the Scripture and in the absolute liberty of the individual soul, they bow to the dictates of no ecclesiastical court, either in matters of belief or polity. The rights of the soul are inviolate. Tho church seeks to maintain the spirituality of its membership by demanding that those who join its ranks shall give evidence of a renewed life. Its individualism is not incompatible with a fervent social passion and among its leaders have been such reformers as the late Dr John Clifford. Its colleges, both in Britain ahd America, have contained men of profound scholarship, who have made no mean contribution to the literature ot theology. Nor have its principles meant ecclesiastical exclusiveness. Many of its leaders have been and are eager to share in the movement towards reunion. They believe that the challenge of the hour demands a closer union of Christian forces, and that such a comprehensive union is possible as need not involve the sacrifice of essential principles. The Baptist Union in New Zealand is composed of seventy churches, and its foreign missionary activity is concentrated upon a field of over a million souls in East Bengal, India, where evangelistic, medical, and educational work of a high order is being carried on. To consolidate and advance its enterprise in both tho dominion and India is tho purpose of the conference which begins today, and. more than Baptists will wish it success in that task.