During this third period Baptists increased numerically much faster than the population, the latter increasing about three and one-third fold, while Baptists increased sixfold. The statistics for 1917 report 1,986 associations, 51,248 churches and 6,197,686 members, or one to every 16 of the population, exclusive of the Territories. Of these 2,593,249 are Southern whites and 2,150,929 are negroes. The separate organizations of the latter were formed after the close of the Civil War, their first State convention being in North Carolina, in 1866, and their national convention having been organized in 1880.
The formation of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1907 was the result of agitation for the unifying of the work of Northern Baptists. It is a strictly delegated body from the churches, which elects the officers of the three missionary societies, supervises their work and controls their expenditures. In view of the legal obstacles to actual consolidation. this seems to he the most practicable method of securing unity. An annual budget is voted by the Convention and apportioned to the State conventions, thence to the associations and finally to each church, which is expected to raise or surpass the sum suggested. The practical efficiency of this scheme has not yet been fully demonstrated. In 1910 the Free Baptists decided to merge their missionary work with that of the Northern Baptists, which is as near an official union of the two bodies as the Baptist polity admits. The theo logical and other differences between the two bodies long since virtually disappeared.
The advance of home and foreign missions has also been a marked feature of recent years. Until 1859 Baptist foreign missions were prac tically confined to India and China. Since that time missions have been established in every Asiatic country, notably in Japan, and the scope of previous labors has been greatly widened. Since the United States acquired the Philippines a mission has been begun there. An already established African mission was taken over in 1884 and has been vigorously prosecuted. Southern Baptists, besides main taining Asiatic missions, have evangelized some of the countries of South America. In Asia there are now 1,897 Baptist churches, with 213,647 members; in Africa, 131 churches and 18,924 members; and in South America 150 churches and 16,928 members. The contribu tions for missions have doubled thrice, and now amount for Northern Baptists to $1,300, 000, and for the Southern to nearly $700,000. In home missions, besides the usual evangeliz ing agencies, a very important educational work among the Southern negroes has been conducted since the Civil War; 13 higher schools and 10 secondary schools are now maintained, at a cost of $130,000 a year. The
work among foreign populations is also of much significance; 356 missionaries and four teachers are engaged in it. The annual in come for this work amounts to more than $1,000,000. A similar work is conducted by the Southern Baptists through a Home Mis sion Board, with an expenditure of $387,000. There has been similar expansion in the work of the American Baptist Publication Society, which publishes 58,982,000 copies of Sunday school periodicals annually, and does a gen eral publishing and book-selling business amounting to $321,000 additional. Besides this, it conducts Bible, colportage and mission ary work, with an expenditure of over $600, 000. The Sunday School Board of the South ern Baptists carries on similar work, with an nual income of $474,000.
In all comparisons of Baptists with other religious bodies, only communicant members should be reckoned. Every Baptist member is necessarily a communicant, since a cardinal principle of all Baptists is that none should be baptized and become members of the Church except on their personal, intelligent profession of faith. However Baptists may differ on other points, they are a unit on this. They are also one in maintaining that baptism, as commanded by Christ and practised by the apostles, was the immersion of such a pro fessed believer. A third point in which they are united is that the Christian Church is a democracy, in which ethere is neither male nor female,« and that each church is independent of any external authority in its own affairs. From this they draw a corollary, which may be reckoned a fourth common principle, that church and state should be absolutely sepa rate. With regard to other matters they have differed so widely, that there are still in the United States at least 13 different vaneties of Baptists that maintain separate organiza tions. All but one of these, often called by way of distinction the °regular') Baptists, are comparatively small in numbers, the whole not numbering more than 400,000 members.
The number of Baptists in the world, as reported for 1916, is: 61,335 churches, with 7,200,324 member& Bibliography.— Vedder, H. C., 'A Short History of the Baptists' (Philadelphia 1892; enlarged illustrited ed. 1907); Merriam, E. F., (History of American Baptist Missions' (ib. 1900); Newman, A. H., (History of the Bap tist Churches in the United States' (New York 1898); id.,