THIS Convention met in Dixon, May 11. It had been expected that there would be a division, as several churches were anxious to follow in the wake of the Stockton church, which had refused to entertain the Convention because Kalloch was fellowshipped. A discussion over the powers of the Convention sprang up, when Dr. Abbott of Oakland, editor of the Herald of Truth, asked if the Convention could not refuse admittance to a church, unsound in faith and whose practice was contrary to that of the Baptists; to which Dr. Kalloch replied that it had no authority to do so, and it would not be consistent (as Baptist) if it did. A division followed, and those who were opposed to Dr. Kalloch withdrew to the Presbyterian house, and organized as a Convention. A secular paper of this State, speaking of this action, said :— “Outside all this is the broader question which this schism in the Baptist church suggests. ‘What influence will it have upon the world?’ Is it calculated to create respect for church assemblies in the minds of sensible people, or is it not rather calculated to bring them into contempt? We suspect the latter will be the main result. There is not overmuch reverence for sacred things among our population at the best of times, and this event will weaken what little there may be left.” But we think not so. When soundness of faith and practice cease to be requisites to fellowship in a professed Christian body, then the sooner a “schism” follows the better; especially where the phrase, “faith and practice,” includes all that it does in this case. We have the confidence in the good sense of those who are called “worldlings” to believe that respect for “church assemblies” will be increased by such action. If we may judge from the tone of the papers, both secular and religious, both east and west, the Baptists of California have been in great danger of losing the respect of almost everybody. We cannot imagine why any church or church delegates should object to the closest application of the principles of faith and practice as held by their own churches, unless they feared the test of the application to themselves. And we believe that this will be the judgment of the people at large, whether in or out of church relations.