BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14331, 8 October 1910, Page 7

BAPTIST CONFERENCE.

BAPTISTS OF THE, PRESENT, PAST: AND FUTURE. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, Oct. 7. Tho Baptist Union Conference continued to-day. The treasurer’s report showed a debit balance of £l3O 8 s Id. In tho conrso of a financial debate, it was stated that for the' last three years tho debit balances were £l5O, £155, and £l3O respectively. The general donations averaged id per member per week. Of course, those who gave, contributed a great deal more than that, Many members gave little; or nothing. The present position was really duo *to the urgent demand for extension of home work: Monthly subscriptions were advocated, and it was stated an extra Id per week would mean an additional £IOOO per year. It was decided to recommend for tho consideration of the churches-some of the duplex envelopes for collections. * Tho Rev. J. J.' North submitted the Students’ Committee report. The committee recommended ftowo to be substituted for Kennedy as the text book for evidence in the first year’s course, and that ministers bo urged to direct tho attention of young men of promise and talent to tho claims of tho ministry, and that where practicable preparatory classes for such be initiated in connection with the churches. The report, was adopted. Mr. A. F. Carey (Christchurch)..presided in the evening, when the subject was, "The Baptists and their contribution to the world’s progress.'",' The Rev.-A. Dewdney (Brooklyn) dealt with Baptists in the past. Tlie [lev.' J. J. North (Wellington) speaking; of the Baptists of the present; said that brotherhood was what men sought after, and it was being stifled by Gcrlunnophobin, Dreadnoughts, and the black and yellow problems, , The Rev. A.' S. :Wilson (Wanganui) gave an address on Baptists in the future. The essence of thc'ir'belief lay in their grand baptismal ordinance. They stood not for the emblem of tho thing. but for the thing itself. The culture of the present dnv was the moat extraordinary ever seen. It Was a method of scientific realism. Looking at things as they were, and describing things as they tvere. In the union of churches there must fit* absolute freedom of teaching and preaching in things * non-essential, and unitv in things essential, and in all things charity. ; . At the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union's annual meeting* the following office-hearers acre elected : President, Mrs; Driver ; vice-presidents. Mesdames Knowles, Kernpton (Auckland), J. J. North (Wellington), Carey (Canterbury), Bovall (Otago), O: W.. Gage (Taranaki); secretary, Mrs. Findlay; treasurer; Mrs. Adams. ~