An advanced Christian Culture Course has been inaugurated, and two volumes, The Monuments and the Old Testament, by Prof. Ira M. Price, Ph. D., and Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey, by Lemuel Call Barnes, D. D., have been published.
(3) Its Field. The field which the organiza tion attempts to cover is a large one—the United States and Canada. A network of state and provincial organizations, including a host of local societies, covers this broad territory. The Bap tist Young People's Union of the South, while maintaining a separate set of officers, is in closest affiliation with the International body, and indeed forms an integral part of it. The history of the organization has abundantly justified its being, and vindicated the wisdom and foresight of its founders. Its existence and work are perfectly compatible with catholicity of spirit. It does not interfere with the larger fellowship, while it em phasizes the primary obligation of loyalty to one's own. In July of each year, the Union holds its own International Conventions, which are the most largely attended gatherings of the Baptist denomination in the world.
(4) Its Organ. At the beginning of the move ment, it was necessary to publish a paper which should be accepted as the official organ of the movement This was needed, ( 1) to set forth the principles and methods of the organization, and thus secure co-operation; (2) to chronicle the growth and development of the movement, and to furnish a medium for the interchange of ideas and working plans ; and (3) to publish the educational material included in the Christian Culture Courses. Prior to the genesis of the Baptist Young People's Union of America, there had been published a few issues of the paper en titled The Loyalist, which advocated the estab lishment of a separate denominational society, and prepared for the formation of the Union. The first issue of The Loyalist bears date October 16, 1890. On December 13, 189o, the title was changed to Young People at Won:, and was pub lished under the auspices of the American Bap tist Publication Society. This name was retained until September 12, 1891, when it was changed to The Young People's Union.
There was a growing conviction on the part of the officers of the Union that in order to carry on their work with efficiency they should have immediate control of the paper, and that it should he published from headquarters. It was
therefore purchased from the American Baptist Publication Society at a cost of $13,800, and since November 21, 1891, has been published weekly by the B. Y. P. U. A. On January 6, 1894, the name was changed to the title which it bears at present, The Baptist Union. Through all the history of the movement, the paper has been at once the impelling and guiding force and the means of financial support. It is indispensable to all who would fully avail themselves of the educational work of the Union ; and is equally necessary to all who would keep informed as to the aims and methods and progress of the work. It seeks to keep our young people in close and sympathetic relation with all the interests and work of our denomination. It promotes fellow ship. It quickens the sense of common life. It gives the "elbow-touch of comradeship." Apart from the Courses, it offers large returns in the form of stories, aids to Christian living, descrip tive sketches, editorials, thoughts for the quiet hour, and methods of work. It is a case of good measure pressed down, and shaken together and running over.
As the organ of the Baptist Young People's Union of America, it is charged with a heavy burden. It is expected not only to pay its way, but also to provide for all the varied and exten sive work of the Union. This work is expensive as well as extensive. The paper is not a private enterprise ; it is the property of the Baptist Young People's Union of America. No personal profit would accrue to any individual connected with the paper, or with the management of the gen eral work, from any increase of revenue, and all profits would go into the general work for its extension and betterment. It is proving itself to be a powerful agent in all denominational enter prises. E. E. C.
BAR (bar), (Heb. bar), a Hebrew word meaning son, hut used only poetically in that lan guage (Ps. ii:12; Prov. xxxi:2). In Syriac, how ever, Bar answered to the more common Hebrew word for son, i. e., ben; and hence in later times, in the New Testament, it takes the same place in the formation of proper names which Ben had for merly occupied in the Old Testament, as Bar Jona, Bar-Jesus, etc. (See BEN.)