BAPTISTS  , a

body of Christians, distinguished, as their name imports, from other denominations by the view they hold respecting the ordinance of baptism (q.v.) . This distinctive view, common and peculiar to all Baptists, is that baptism should be administered to believers only . The mode of administration of the ordinance has not always been the same, and some Baptists (e.g. the Mennonites) still practise baptism by pouring or sprinkling, but among those who will here be styled modern Baptists, the mode of administration is also distinctive, to wit, immersion . It should, however, be borne in mind that immersion is not peculiar to the modern Baptists . It has always been recognized by Paedobaptists as a legitimate mode, and is still practised to the exclusion of other modes by a very large proportion of paedobaptist Christendom (e.g. the Orthodox Eastern Church) . We shall distinguish here between two main groups of Baptists in Europe; the Anabaptists, now practically extinct, and the modern Baptists whose churches are in nearly every European country and in all other countries where white men reside . I . THE ANABAPTISTS The great spiritual movement of the 15th and 16th centuries had for its most general characteristic, revolt against authority . This showed itself not merely in the anti-papal reformation of Luther, but also in the anti-feudal rising of the peasants and in a variety of anti-ecclesiastical movements within the reformation areas themselves . One of the most notable of these radical anti-ecclesiastical movements was that of the Zwickau prophets, (Marcus Stubner, Nikolaus Storch and Thomas Munzer) : the most vigorous and notorious that of the Munster Anabaptists . Although . they have been called the "harbingers " of the Anabaptists, the characteristic teaching of the Zwickau prophets wasnot Anabaptism . (See, however, ANABAPTISTS.) For although Munzer repudiated infant baptism in theory, he did not relinquish its practice, nor did he insist on the re-baptism of believers .

The characteristic teaching of the Zwickau movement, so closely linked with the

peasant rising, was the great emphasis laid upon the " inner word." Divine revelation, said Munzer, was not received from the church, nor from preaching, least of all from the dead letter of the Bible; it was received solely and directly from the Spirit of God . It is this daring faith in divine illumination that brings the Zwickau teachers most nearly into touch with the Anabaptists . But if they are not typical of Anabaptism, still less are the later representatives of the movement in the last sad months at Munster . The beginnings of the Anabaptist movement proper were in Zurich, where Wilheld Reubli (148o-1554), Konrad Grebel (d . 1526), Felix Manz (d . 1527) and Simon Strumpf separated from Zwingli and proposed to form a separate church . They repudiated the use of force, advocated a scriptural communism of goods, and asserted that Christians must always exercise love and patience towards each other and so be independent of worldly tribunals . But their most radical doctrine was the rejection of infant baptism as unscriptural . They rapidly gained adherents, among whom was Hans BrOdli, pastor of Zollikon . Their refusal, however, to baptize infants, and the formation of a separate church as the outcome of this refusal, brought upon them the condemnation of Zwingli, and a number of them were banished . This act of banishment, however, drove Jorg Blaurock, Konrad Grebel and others to take the step which definitely instituted " Anabaptism " : they baptized one another and then partook of the Lord's Supper together . This step took them much farther than the repudiation of paedobaptism .

It formed a new religious community, which sought to

fashion itself on the model of primitive Christianity,. rejecting all tradition and accretions later than New Testament records . Its members claimed to get back to the simple church founded on brotherly love . The result was that their numbers grew with astonishing rapidity, and scholarly saints like Balthasar Hubmaier (ca . 1480-r 528) and Hans Denck (ca . 1495-' 1527) joined them . Hubmaier brought 1 ro new adherents with him, and in 1525 himself baptized 300 converts . This baptism, however, was not immersion . Blaurock and Grebel baptized each other, and many adherents, kneeling together in an ordinary room . Hubmaier baptized his 300 from one bucket . The mode was sprinkling or pouring . In all this the Anabaptists had maintained one central article of faith that linked them to the Zwickau prophets, belief in conscience, religious feeling, or inner light, as the sole true beginning or ground of religion; and one other article, held with equal vigour and sincerity, that true Christians are like sheep among wolves, and must on no account defend themselves from their enemies or take vengeance for wrong done . Very soon this their faith was put to fiery test .

Not only were Catholics and Protestants opposed to them on doctrinal grounds, but the

secular powers, fearing that the new teaching was potentially as revolutionary as Mtinzer's radicalism had been, soon instituted a persecution of the Anabaptists . On the 7th of March 1526 the Zurich Rath issued an edict threatening all who were baptized anew with death by drowning, and in 1529 the emperor Charles V., at the diet of Spires, ordered Anabaptists to be put to death with fire and sword without even the form of ecclesiastical trial . A cruel persecution arose . Manz was drowned at Zurich and Michael Sattler (ca . 1495-x527) burned to death after torture in 1527; Hubmaier was burned in 1528 and Blaurock in 1529i and Sebastian Franck (1499-1542) asserts that the number of slain was in 1530 already about 2000 . Two results followed from this persecution . First, the development of a self-contained and homogeneous community was made impossible . No opportunity for the adoption of any common confession was given . Only a few great doctrines are seen to have been generally held by Anabaptists—such as the baptism of believers only, the rejection of the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith as onesided and the simple practice of the breaking of bread . This last, the Anabaptist doctrine of the Lord's Supper, was to the effect that brothers and sisters in Christ should partake in remembrance of the death of Christ, and that they should thereby renew the bond of brotherly love as the basis of neighbourly life . In the second place, the persecution deprived the Anabaptists of the noble leaders who had preached non-resistance and at the same time provoked others to an attitude of vengeance which culminated in the horrors of Munster . For Melchior Hofmann (ca .

1498-1543 or 1544) having taken the Anabaptist teaching to

Holland, there arose in Haarlem a preacher of vengeance, Jan Matthisson or Matthyszoon (Matthys) (d . 1534) by name, who, prophesying a speedy end of the world and establishment of the kingdom of heaven, obtained many adherents, and despatched Boekebinder and de Kniper to Munster . Here the attempt was made to realise Matthisson's371 ideals . All who did not embrace Anabaptism were driven from Munster (1533), and Bernt Knipperdolling (ca . 1495-1536) became burgomaster . The town was now besieged and Matthisson was killed early in 1534 . John (Johann Bockelson) of Leiden (15510-1536) took his place and the town became the scene of the grossest licence and cruelty, until in 1535 it was taken by the besieging bishop . Unhappily the Anabaptists have always been remembered by the crimes of John of Leiden and the revelry of Munster . They should really be known by the teaching and martyrdom of Blaurock, Grebel and Hubmaier, and by the gentle learning and piety of Hans Denck—of whom, with many hundred others, " the world was not worthy." For the teaching of the Anabaptists, see ANABAPTISTS . Reference has already been made to the reason why a common Anabaptist confession was never made public . Probably, how-ever, the earliest confession of faith of any Baptist community is that given by Zwingli in the second part of his Elenchus contra Calabaplistas, published in 1527 . Zwingli professes to give it entire, translating it, as he says, ad verbum into Latin .

Whatever

opinion may be held as to the orthodoxy of the seven articles of the Anabaptists, the vehemence with which they were opposed, and the epithets of abuse which were heaped upon the unfortunate sect that maintained them, cannot fail to astonish those used to toleration . Zwingli, who details these articles, as he says, that the world may see that .they are " fanatical, stolid, audacious, impious," can scarcely be acquitted of unfairness in joining together two of them,—the fourth and fifth,—thus making the article treat " of the avoiding of abominable pastors in the church " (Super devitatione abominabilium pastorum in Ecclesia), though there is nothing about pastors in the fourth article, and nothing about abominations in the fifth, and though in a marginal note he himself explains that the first two copies that were sent him read as he does, but the other copies make two articles, as in fact they evidently are . It is strange that the Protestant Council of Zurich, which had scarcely won its own liberty, and was still in dread of the persecution of the Romanists, should pass the decree which instituted the cruel persecution of the Anabaptists . After Munster had fallen the harassed remnants of the Ana-baptists were gathered together under Menno Simonis, who joined them in 1537 . His moderation and piety held in check the turbulence of the more fanatical amongst them . He died in x56r after a life passed amidst continual dangers and conflicts . His name remains as the designation of the Mennonites (q.v.), who eventually settled in the Netherlands under the protection of William the Silent, prince of Orange . Of the introduction of Anabaptist views into England we have no certain knowledge . Fox relates that " the registers of London make mention of certain Dutchmen counted for Anabaptists, of whom ten were put to death in sundry places in the realm, anno 1535; other ten repented and were saved." In 1536 King Henry VIII. issued a proclamation together with articles concerning faith agreed upon by Convocation, in which the clergy are told to instruct the people that they ought to repute and take " the Anabaptists' opinions for detestable heresies and to be utterly condemned." Thomas Fuller (16o8-166r) tells us from Stow's Chronicles that, in the year 1538, " four Anabaptists, three men and one woman, all Dutch, bare faggots at Paul's Cross, and three days after a man and woman of their sect was burnt in Smithfield." In the reign of Edward VI., after the return of the exiles from Zurich, John Hooper (bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, d . 1555) writes to his friend Bullinger in 1549, that he reads "a public lecture twice in the day to so numerous an audience that the church cannot contain them," and adds, " the Anabaptists flock to the place and give me much trouble." It would seem that at this time they were united together in communities separate from the established Church . Latimer, in 1552, speaks of them as segregating themselves from the company of other men . In the sixth examination of John Philpot (1516-1555) in 1555 we are told that Lord Riche said to him, " All heretics do boast of the Spirit of God, and every one would have a church by himself, as Joan of Kent and the Anabaptists." Philpot was imprisoned soon after Mary's accession in 1553; and it is very pleasing to find, amidst the records of intense bitterness and rancour which characterized these times, and with which Romanist and Protestant alike assailed the persecuted Anabaptists,<a letter of Philpot's, to a friend of his, " prisoner the same time in New-gate," who held the condemned opinions .

His friend had written to ask his

judgment concerning the baptism of infants . Philpot in a long reply, whilst maintaining the obligation of infant baptism, yet addresses his correspondent as, " dear brother, saint, and fellow-prisoner for the truth of Christ's gospel "; and at the close of his argument' he says, " I beseech thee, dear brother in the gospel, follow the steps of the faith of the glorious martyrs in the primitive church, and of such as at this day follow the same." Many Anabaptist communities existed in England toward the end of the 16th century, particularly in East Anglia, Kent and London . Their most notable representative was Robert Cooke, but they were more notorious for heretical views as to the Virgin Mary (see ANABAPTISTS) than for their anti-paedobaptist position . It was for these views that Joan Boucher of Kent was burnt in 1550 . There is no doubt that these prepared the way for the coming of the modern Baptists, but " the truth is that, while the Anabaptists in England raised the question of baptism, they were almost entirely a foreign importation, an alien element; and the rise of the Baptist churches was wholly independent of them." II . THE MODERN BAPTISTS r . Great Britain and Ireland: If the Anabaptists of England were not the progenitors of the modern Baptist church, we must look abroad for the beginnings of that movement . Although there were doubtless many who held Baptist views scattered among the Independent communities, it was not until the time of John Smith or Smyth (d . 1612) that the modern Baptist movement in England broke away from Brownism . Smyth was appointed preacher of the city of Lincoln in ',Soo as an ordained clergyman, but became a separatist in 16o5 or 1606, and, soon after, emigrated under stress of persecution with the Gains-borough Independents to Amsterdam . With Thomas Helwys (ca . 156o-ca .

1616) and

Morton he joined the " Ancient " church there, but, coming under Mennonite teaching in 16o9, he separated from the Independents, baptized himself (hence he is called the " Se-baptist "), Helwys and others probably according to the Anabaptist or Mennonite fashion of pouring . These then formed the first English Baptist Church which in 1611 published " a declaration of faith of English people remaining at Amsterdam in Holland." The article relating to baptism is as follows:—" That every church is to receive in all their members by baptism upon the confession of their faith and sins, wrought by the preaching of the gospel according to the primitive institution and practice . And therefore churches constituted after any other manner, or of any other persons, are not according to Christ's testament . That baptism or washing with water is the outward manifestation of dying unto sin and walking in newness of life; and therefore in no wise appertaineth to infants." They held " that no church ought to challenge any prerogative over any other"; and that "the magistrate is not to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience nor compel men to this or that form of religion." This is the first known expression of absolute liberty of conscience in any confession of faith . Smyth died in Holland, but in 1612 Helwys returned to England with his church and formed the first Baptist church worshipping on English soil . The church met in Newgate Street, London, and was the origin of the " General " Baptist denomination . Helwys and his followers were Arminians, repudiating with heat the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination . They thus differed from other Independents . 'They also differed on the power of the magistrate in matters of belief and conscience . It was, in short, from their little dingy meeting house . . . that there flashed out, first in England, the absolute doctrine of Religious Liberty" (Prof . Masson) .

Leonard Busher, the author of "Religious

Peace: or a Plea for Liberty of Conscience," was a member of this church . The next great event in the history of the Baptists (though it should be mentioned that the last execution for heresy in England by burning was that of a Baptist, Edward Wightman, at Lichfield 1612) is the rise of the first Calvinistic or Particular Baptist Church . This was the Jacob church in Southwark, which numbered among its members JohnLothropp or Lathrop (d . 1653), Praise-God Barbon (ca . 1596-1679), Henry Jessey (1601-1663), Hanserd Knollys (ca . 1599-1691) and William Kiffin (1616-r7o1) . It was originally Independent but then became Baptist . From this six other churches sprang, five of which were Baptist . Before the Jacob church, however, had itself become Baptist, it dismissed from its membership a group of its members (the church having grown beyond what was regarded as proper limits) who, in 1633, became the first Particular Baptist Church . Thus there were now in existence in England two sets of Baptists whose origins were quite distinct and who never had any real intercourse as churches . They differed in many respects . The General Baptists were Arminian, owing to the influence of the Mennonite Anabaptists .

The Particular Baptists were Calvinist, springing as they did from the Independents . But on the question of Baptism both groups, while they utterly rejected the baptism of infants, were as yet unpledged to immersion and rarely practised it . The development of their doctrine as to baptism was marked along three lines of dispute:—(1) who is the proper

administrator of baptism ? (2) who are the proper subjects? and (3) what is the proper mode ? Eventually agreement was reached, and in 1644 a Confession of Faith was published in the names of the Particular Baptist churches of London, now grown to seven, "commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptist." The article on baptism is as follows:—" That baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament given by Christ to be .dispensed only upon persons professing faith, or that are disciples, or taught, who, upon a profession of faith, ought to be baptized." " The way and manner of dispensing this ordinance the Scripture holds out to be dipping or plunging the whole body under water." They further declare (particularly in order that they may avoid the charge of being Anabaptists) that " a civil magistracy is an ordinance of God," which they are bound to obey . They speak of the " breathing time " which they have had of late, and their hope that God would, as they say, " incline the magistrates' hearts so for to tender our consciences as that we might be protected by them from wrong, injury, oppression and molestation "; and then they proceed: " But if God withhold the magistrates' allowance and furtherance herein, yet we must, notwithstanding, proceed together in Christian communion, not daring to give place to suspend our practice, but to walk in obedience to Christ in the profession and holding forth this faith before mentioned, even in the midst of all trials and afflictions, not accounting our goods, lands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, brethren, sisters, yea, and our own lives, dear unto us, so that we may finish our course with joy; remembering always that we ought to obey God rather than men." They end their confession thus: If any take this that we have said to be heresy, then do we with the apostle freely confess, that after the way which they call heresy worship we the God of our fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets and Apostles, desiring from our souls to disclaim all heresies and opinions which are not after Christ, and to be stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, as knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." The " breathing time " was not of long continuance . Soon after the Restoration (166o) the meetings of nonconformists were continually disturbed and preachers were fined or imprisoned . One instance of these persecutions will, perhaps, be more impressive than any general statements . In the records of the Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol, we find this remark: " On the 29th of November 1685 our pastor, Brother Fownes, died in Gloucester jail, having been kept there for two years and about nine months a prisoner, unjustly and maliciously, for the testimony of Jesus and preaching the gospel . He was a man -of great learning, of a sound judgment, an able preacher, having-great knowledge in divinity, law, physic, &c.; a bold and patient sufferer for the Lord Jesus and the gospel he preached." With the Revolution of 1688, and the passing of the Act of Toleration in 1689, the history of the persecution of Baptists, as well as of other Protestant dissenters, ends . The removal of the remaining disabilities, such as those imposed by the Test and Corporation Acts repealed in 1828, has no special bearing on Baptists more than on other nonconformists . The ministers of the " three denominations of dissenters,"—Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists,—resident in London and the neighbourhood, had the privilege accorded to them of presenting on proper occasions an address to the sovereign in state, a privilege which they still enjoy under the name of " the General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of the three Denominations." The " General Body " was not organized until 1727 .

The Baptists, having had a

double origin, continued for many years in two sections—those who in accordance with Arminian views held the doctrine of " General Redemption," and those who, agreeing with the Calvinistic theory, held the doctrine of " Particular Redemption "; and hence they were known respectively as General Baptists and Particular Baptists . In the 18th century many of the General Baptists gradually adopted the Arian, or, perhaps, the Socinian theory; whilst, on the other hand, the Calvinism of the Particular Baptists in many of the churches became more rigid, and approached or actually became Antinomianism . In 1770 the orthodox portion of the General Baptists, mainly under the influence of Dan Taylor (b . 1738), formed themselves into a separate association, under the name of the General Baptist New Connection, since which time the " Old Connection " has gradually merged into the Unitarian denomination . By the beginning of the 19th century the New Connection numbered 40 churches and 3400 members . The old General Baptists " still keep up a shadowy legal existence." Towards the end of the 18th century many of the Particular Baptist churches became more moderate in their Calvinism, a result largely attributable to the writings of Andrew Fuller . Up to this time a great majority of the Baptists admitted none either to membership or communion who were not baptized, the principal exception being the churches in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, founded or influenced by Bunyan, who maintained that difference of opinion in respect to water baptism was no bar to communion . At the beginning of the 19th century this question was the occasion of great and long-continued discussion, in which the celebrated Robert Hall (1764–1831) took a principal part . The practice of mixed communion gradually spread in the denomination . Still more recently many Baptist churches have considered it right to admit to full membership persons professing faith in Christ, who do not agree with them respecting the ordinance of baptism . Such churches justify their practice on the ground that they ought to grant to all their fellow-Christians the same right of private judgment as they claim for themselves . It may not be out of place here to correct the mistake, which is by no means uncommon, that the terms Particular and General as applied to Baptist congregations were intended to express this difference in their practice, whereas these terms related, as has been already said, to the difference in their doctrinal views .

The difference now under

consideration is expressed by the terms " strict " and " open," according as communion (or membership) is or is not confined to persons who, according to their view, are baptized . In 1891, largely under the influence of Dr John Clifford, a leading General Baptist, the two denominations, General and Particular, were united, there being now but one body called " The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland." This Union, however, is purely voluntary, and some Baptist churches, a few of them prosperous and powerful, hold aloof from their sister churches so far as organization is concerned . There are other Baptist bodies outside the Baptist Union beside certain isolated churches . Throughout England there are many " Strict " Baptist churches which really form a separate denomination . For the most part they are linked together according to geographical distribution in associations, such as the " Metropolitan Association of Strict Baptist Churches," and the " Suffolk and Norfolk Association of Particular Baptist Churches." In the latter rase the name " Particular " is preferred, but the association holds aloof from other Baptist churches because its principles are " strict." There is, however, no national Union . Indeed, the Strict Baptists are themselves divided into the " Standard " and " Vessel " parties —names derived from the " Gospel Standard " and " Earthen Vessel," the organs of the rival groups . The general characteristic of the Strict Baptists is their rigorous adherence to a type of Calvinistic theology now generally obsolete, and their insistence upon baptism as the condition of Christian communion . Their loose organization makes it impossible to obtain accurate statistics, but the number of their adherents is small . There is a strict Baptist Missionary Society (founded 186o, re-founded 1897) which conducts mission work in South India . The income of this society was £1146 in 1905 . It comprises 730 church members and 72 pastors and workers . The Baptists early felt the necessity of providing an educated ministry for their congregations .

Some of their leading pastors had been educated in one or other of the English

universities . Others had by their own efforts obtained a large amount of learning, amongst whom Dr John Gill was eminent for his knowledge of Hebrew, as shown in his Exposition of the Holy Scriptures, a work in 9 vols. folio, 1746-1766 . Edward Terrill, who died in 1685, left a considerable part of his estate for the instruction of young men desiring to be trained for the ministry, under the superintendence of the pastor of the Broadmead Church, Bristol, of which he was a member . Other bequests for the same purpose were made, and from the year 1720 the Baptist Academy, as it was then called, received young men as students for the ministry among the Baptists . In 1770 the Bristol Education Society was formed to enlarge this academy; and about the year 1811 the present Bristol Baptist College was erected . In the north of England a similar education society was formed in 1804 at Bradford, Yorkshire, which has since been removed to Rawdon, near Leeds . In London another college was formed in 1810 at Stepney; it was removed to Regent's Park in 1856 . The Pastors' College in connexion with the Metropolitan Tabernacle was instituted in 1856, and in 1866 the present Baptist College at Manchester was instituted at Bury in the interests of the " Strict " Baptist views . Besides these, which were voluntary colleges not under denominational control, the General Baptists maintained a college since 1797, which, since the amalgamation of the two Baptist bodies, has become also a voluntary institution, though previously sup-ported by the General Baptist Association . It is called the " Mid-land Baptist College," and is situated in Nottingham . There is also a Baptist theological college in Glasgow, and there are two colleges in Wales and one in Ireland . The total number of students in these institutions is about 210 .

The Baptists were the first denomination of

British Christians to undertake in a systematic way that work of missions to the heathen, which became so prominent a feature in the religious activity of the 19th century . As early as the year 1784 the Northamptonshire Association of Baptist churches resolved to recommend that the first Monday of every month should be set apart for prayer for the spread of the gospel . Shortly after, in 1792, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed at Kettering in Northampton-shire, after a sermon on Isaiah 2, 3, preached by William Carey (1761–1834), the prime mover in the work, in which he urged two points: " Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." In the course of the following year Carey sailed for India, where he was joined a few years later by Marshman and Ward, and the mission was established at Serampore . The great work of Dr Carey's life was the translation of the Bible into the various languages and dialects of India . The society's operations are now carried on, not only in the East, but in the West Indies, China, Africa (chiefly on the Congo river), and Europe . In regard to church government, the Baptists agree with the Congregationalists that each separate church is complete in itself, and has, therefore, power to choose its own ministers and to make such regulations as it deems to be most in accordance with the purpose of its existence, that is, the advancement of the kingdom of Christ . A comparatively small section of the denomination maintain that a " plurality of elders " or pastors is required for the complete organization of every separate church . This is the distinctive peculiarity of those churches in Scotland and the north of England which are known as Scotch Baptists . The largest church of this section, consisting of approximately 500 members, originated in Edinburgh in 1765, be= fore which date only one Baptist church—that of Keiss in Caithness, formed about 1750—appears to have existed in Scotland . The greater number of the churches are united in association voluntarily formed, all of them determined by geographical limits . The associations, as well as the churches not in connexion with them, are united together in the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, formed in 1813 by the Particular Baptists . This union, however, exerts no authoritative action over the separate churches .

One import-

ant part of the work of the union is the collection of information in which all the churches are interested . In 1909 there were in the United Kingdom: Baptist churches, 3046; chapels, 4124; sittings, 1,450,352; members, 424,008; Sunday school teachers, 58,687; Sunday scholars, 578,J44; local preachers, 5615; and . pastors in charge, 2078 . At the beginning of the loth century the Baptist Union collected a " Twentieth Century Fund " of £250,000, which has largely assisted the formation of new churches, and gives an indication of the unity and virility of the denomination . A still stronger evidence to the same effect was given by the Religious Census taken in 1904 . While this only applied to London, its results are valuable as showing the comparative strength of the Baptist Church . These results are to the effect that in all respects the Baptists come second to the Anglicans in the following three particulars:—(I) Percentage of attendances at public worship contributed by Baptists, Io•8r (London County), 10.70 (Greater London) ; (2) aggregate of attendances, 54'597; (3) number of places of worship, 443 . 2, The Continent of Europe.—During the 19th century what we have called the modern Baptist movement made its appearance in nearly every European country . In Roman Catholic countries Baptist churches were formed by missionaries coming from either England or America: work in France began in 1832, in Italy missions were started in 1866 (Spezia Mission) and in 1884 (Baptist Missionary Society, which also has a mission in Brittany), and in Spain in 1888 . In Protestant countries and in Russia the Baptist movement began without missionary intervention from England or America . J . G . Oncken (1800-2884) formed the first church in Hamburg in 1834, and thereafter Baptist churches were formed.in other countries as follows:—Denmark (1839), Holland and Sweden (1848), Switzerland (1849), Norway (186o), Austria and Rumania (1869), Hungary (1871), and Bulgaria (1884) .

Baptist churches also began to be formed in Russia and

Finland in the 'fifties and 'sixties . 3 . British Colonies.—In every colony the Baptists have a considerable place . There are unions of Baptist churches in the following colonies:—New South Wales, Victoria, S . Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, New Zealand, Tasmania, Canada (four Unions) and S . Africa . The work in S . Africa is assisted by the Baptist South African Missionary and Colonial Aid Society, having its seat in London . The Baptist World Alliance was formed in 1905, when the first Baptist World Congress was held in London . The preamble of the constitution of this Alliance sufficiently indicates its nature: " f Whereas, in the providence of God, the time has come when it seems fitting more fully to manifest the essential oneness in the Lord Jesus Christ, as their God and Saviour, of the churches of the Baptist order and faith throughout the world, and to promote the spirit of fellowship, service and co-operation among them, while recognizing the independence of each particular church and not assuming the functions of any existing organization, it is agreed to form a Baptist alliance, extending over every part of the world." This alliance does in fact include Baptists in every quarter of the globe, as will be seen from the following statistics: Churches . Members . United States 16,996 2,110,269 National Baptist Convention Southern Baptist Convention 20,431 1,832,638 " Disciples of Christ " I1,157 1,235,798 Thirty-five Northern States 8,894 986,821 Fourteen other Bodies 7,921 414,775 Australasia .

270 23,253 Canada 985 103,062 S . Africa 52 4,865 United Kingdom 2,934 426,563 Austria Hungary 37 9,783

Denmark 29 3,954 Finland 43 2,301 France 28 2,278 Germany 18o 32,462 . Italy 53 1,375 Mexco and Central America 58 1 Netherlands . 22 1,413 Norway . 39 2,849 Rumania and Bulgaria 5 374 1 Russia and Poland 131 24,136 S . America 63 3,641 Spain . 7 245 Sweden 567 43,305 Switzerland 8 796 West Indies 318 42,310 Ceylon 25 1,044 China . 137 12,16o 1 The figures for Russia include only the German-speaking Baptists . Iit is impossible to ascertain the numbers of properly Russian Baptists .