SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. 517 is uncertain when they first appeared in the Protestant Church, but they existed, as a sect, as early as 1633. There are two congregations of Sabbatarians in London, the first dating as far back as 1678. One is among the General, and the other among the Particular Baptists. Various historians have given them a very great antiquity, and in proof have cited people who paid special religious regard to the seventh day of the week, in the earliest days of noted Eastern countries. But, without entering the domain of conjectural argument, we shall accept the first date here given, as the most remote one needed for our present purpose, because from it there are indisputable evidences of the progress and persecutions of the class of believers best known as Seventhday Baptists. John James, a Seventh-day Baptist minister of London, was hung at Tyburn, and afterwards quartered, in 1661. Seven years later Edward Stennett, another minister, wrote to some friends in America that the churches in England had their liberty, "but we hear that strong bonds are making for us." In 1665 Stephen Mumford, a Seventh day Baptist, came from England to Newport, R. I., and soon Samuel Hubbard, a Baptist, embraced his views. The first Seventh-day Baptist church in America was founded in 1681, with William Hiscox as pastor. Churches were established in New Jersey in 1705; at Hopkinton, R. I., in 1708; in Virginia in 1745; in Salem, N. J., in 1811; in Clark County, Ohio, in 1824. From these points as centres they spread rapidly, particularly in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. As a denomination they practice what is termed close communion. They consider that the Pedobaptist brethren have perverted the ordinance of baptism, by abandoning the original institution, which was dipping or immersion, and using that of sprinkling or pouring. In their views of the Sabbath they differ from all other denominations. And this is the only essential point of difference between them and the regular Baptists. They reported at their last annual convocation the number of churches, 95; membership: Eastern Association, 2,192; Central Association, 1,533; Western Association, 1,936; Northwestern Association, 2,230; total, 7,891; Sunday-schools, 77; whole membership of the schools, 535 teachers and 6,000 pupils. LIBERAL BAPTISTS OF AMERICA. An important convention was held in Minneapolis, Minn., October 2, 1883, having for its object the union of all "open communion" Baptists. A paper on "The Liberal Baptists of America" gave the following significant facts: In 1823 a movement, under Elder Stimson, began in Indiana. The people took the name of "General Baptists," and now have in the Western States not less than 13,000 members. About 1828 a few churches separated from the United Baptists and took the name of "Separate Baptists." Churches have been planted by them, and we now know of ten associations, with a membership of not less than 7,000 communicants. We have also Free Christian Baptists in Nova Scotia and the Free Baptists of New Brunswick. The people known as the "Church of God," crganized in Pennsylvania in the year 1830, now embrace upward of 30,000 members, and sustain several newspapers and institutions of learning. If we give a summary the showing is: Free Baptists of New England, 78,000; Church of God, 30,000; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 14,000; General Baptists, 13,000; Free Baptists in NorthCarolina, 10,000; Separate Baptists, 7,000; Free Baptists in Western States, 5,000-total, 157,000. A report was adopted declaring that the several associations of churches of Jesus Christ in America, who held the evangelical faith, practicing believers' baptism, and excluding no recognized Christian from the Lord's table, are one by the strongest ties, that of a common faith and spirit, unity of purpose, mutual respect, and paternal love, and hence should be one in formal fellowship and methods of co-operation. Measures were projected for hastening the union of all these believers. GERMAN BAPTISTS, OR BRETHREN. The German Baptists, or Brethren, are a denomination of Christians who emigrated to the United States from Germany between the years 1718 and 1730. They are commonly called SOUTHERN BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS. 519 Dunkers, but they have assumed for themselves the name of Brethren, on account of what Christ said to his disciples: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren" (Matt. xxiii. 8). The first appearance of these people in the United States was in the fall of 1719, when twenty families landed at Philadelphia. They have now dispersed themselves almost through every State in the Union; but they are most numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. They use great plainness of dress and language, like the Quakers, and like them also, they will neither take an oath nor bear arms. They commonly wear their beards, and keep the first day. They celebrate the Lord's Supper, with its ancient attendants of love-feasts, washing feet, kiss of charity, and right hand of fellowship. They anoint the sick with oil for recovery; and use the trine immersion, with laying on of hands and prayer, the person kneeling down to be baptized, and continuing in that position until both prayer and imposition of hands are performed. Their church government is the same as that of the English Baptists. When they find one of their number becoming eminent for knowledge, and possessing aptness to teach, they choose him to be their minister, and ordain him with laying on of hands. None of their ministers receive any pecuniary compensation for any services they perform pertaining to the ministry. They are a quiet, peaceable, industrious, pious people. They are remarkably simple in their habits and spiritual in their worship. They are generally wealthy, kind to the poor of their own number, and have ever been decided in their testimony against slavery. It is impossible to give any statistical account of these people, as they make it no part of their duty to keep an account of the number of communicants, or a record of such events as usually comprise the history of other denominations. SOUTHERN BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONS. The Associations of Southern Baptists employed 144 missionaries during the year 1884, and these served 338 churches and stations. They had 141 Sunday-schools, with 5,387 teachers and pupils. A church building department was organized in 1883 for the purpose of assisting district churches, by loans, in building and repairing their edifices. In 164 associations in the Southern States there were 612 church organizations which had no houses of worship. The department reported that 2,000 church buildings were needed at once. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. Martin Luther, His Times and Work-The Augsburg Confession-Forms of Worship and Church Order-American Lutheranism-Condition of the Church. MARTIN LUTHER-HIS TIMES AND WORK. UTHERANS is a term applied to the followers of Martin Luther, born at Eisleben, in Thuringia, Nov. 10, 1483, and is used denominationally to describe a vast number of German Protestants. At an early age Luther became acquainted with the views disseminated by Wycliffe and John Huss, and is said by his biographers to have received those impressions which induced him to separate from his church on a visit to Rome in 1510. At Wittenberg, where he filled the theological chair, Tetzel, the legate of Pope Leo X., arrived to raise money by the sale of indulgences; whereupon Luther drew up his famous Ninetyfive Theses, condemning the abuse of indulgences, and he transmitted a copy of them to the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Oct. 31, 1517. Summoned to appear before Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, after several conferences Luther appealed "from the Pope ill informed to the Pope better informed," Nov. 28, 1518. After a conference with Militz, in January, 1519, he wrote an explanatory and submissive letter to the Pope, March 3, 1519. In a disputation at Leipsic he denied the Pope's supremacy, June 27, 1519, and published an address to the Emperor and the Christian nobility of Germany in June, 1520. A bull against Luther |