Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Churches, English Baptist.—According to Or- chard there were in England in 1771, 251 Baptist churches; in 1794, 379; in 1811

Jim Curran Admin – Top contributor  ·

· Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Churches, English Baptist.—According to Orchard there were in England in 1771, 251 Baptist churches; in 1794, 379; in 1811, 537; and in 1820 there were 620. Bogue and Bennet give a list of 708 Baptist churches in England and Wales in 1808. In 1880, there were 2620 churches, 3354 meeting houses, 269,836 members, and 372,242 Sunday-school scholars belonging to our denomination in the British Islands. How many persons there were in 1880, with Baptist principles, not a few of whom were actually immersed, in the membership of Pedobaptist churches in Great Britain, we have no means of finding out. Their number, however, may be regarded as very large. By the unscriptural teachings of ‘‘ open communion,” they have been foolishly led to suppose that baptism was of too little importance to disturb their ecclesiastical relations. ‘The principal effect of open communion is not to bring Pedobaptists to the Lord’s table in Baptist churches but to keep men holding Baptist principles in Pedobaptist communities.From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart