The number of members in full connection 1. Foreign Missions: was 28,895 greater, and the number of "probationers" was 7,382 less, than in 1882. The agents of the Eastern Book Concern (New York city) reported to the Book Committee that the establishment, at the end of 1883, possessed a capital, clear of all obligations, of $1,202,593, and that the profits for the year had been $77,169. The agents of the Western Book Concern (at Cincinnati) returned a net capital of $412,233, the gain during the year having been $45,775. Africa (Liberia).. Germany and Switzerland. South America (Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, etc.) 22,781 $4,000 81,990 24,000 Denmark. 10,000 Norway 14,345 22,082 66,820 15,482 89,750 84,000 85,648 $870,899 Sweden.. India. Bulgaria and Turkey Total foreign missions.. 2. Missions in the United States and Territories The General Committee of Church Extension met in the city of New York, November 15th. The treasurer of the board reported that the sum of $333,879 had been available 8. for use during the year, and the disbursements had been $229,284. The receipts for the year showed an increase of $13,217 on the general account, and of $25,504 on account of the loan fund. The board had aided, by loan or gift, or both, 442 churches, and had applications on file, which were granted on conditions, from 240 churches, and other applications from 29 churches. If all these applications were granted, there would still be a balance in the treasury of $914. On the special appeal for means to aid in the erection of 400 churches on the frontiers, 185 churches had been provided for. The committee decided to ask the churches for contributions during 1884 of $159,550. The receipts of the Freedmen's Aid Society for the year 1883 were $118,153, or $18,761 more than the receipts of the previous year. The pupils taught in the schools of the society are enumerated and classified as follow: Biblical students, 304; medical, 51; collegiate, 145; academic, 410; normal, 1,387; intermediate, 767; primary, 473-total, 3,537. The schools include seven chartered colleges, three of which have theological departments, one biblical institute, one medical college, and fourteen seminaries, academies, and normal schools not chartered. In accordance with the action of the General Conference of 1880, the society is aiding in the establishment of schools for white pupils in the South. A college has been founded in Little Rock, Ark., another is to be opened at Chattanooga, Tenn., and several academies have been aided. During sixteen years, 80,000 pupils have been instructed in the schools of the society, 950,000 children have been taught by its teachers and its pupils who have become teachers, and $450,000 have been expended by it in school property. The General Missionary Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church met in New York city, November 7th. The treasurer of the Missionary Society reported that its receipts for the year had been $751,469, and its expenditures $794,506. The indebtedness of the society had been reduced from $102,579, in 1882, to $88,198. Appropriations were made for missions during the ensuing year as follow: VOL. XXIII.-34 A Welsh and Scandinavian. American Indian Total appropriations for foreign and Ameri- $68,490 $25,500 48,100 12,500 6,700 172,000 .$700,188 II. American Wesleyan Connection. The General Conference of the American Wesleyan Connection met at Syracuse, N. Y., October 18th. The book agent represented the aggregate amount of the assets of the Publishing House, including the building in Syracuse, as $45,975. The circulation of the literature of the Connection had increased with great regularity during the preceding four years. The educational institutions had quadrupled. The work of domestic missions had been prosecuted with so much success that two additional conferences had been formed as results of it. Resolutions were adopted declaring the Connection to be historically and traditionally, by its standard authors and doctrinal precepts, committed to the work and experience of holiness "including in holiness both justification and regeneration, and, subsequent to their reception, entire sanctification"; rejoicing over the progress that had been made in the doctrine, and enjoining upon the ministers faithfully to present it before their people. A rule was adopted forbidding the division of any annual conference, on the ground of color or nationality, in any case where all the parties speak the same language. An effort was made for the enactment of a rule forbidding the use of instrumental music in worship, but it failed, and the Conference decided to retain the present disciplinary provisions on the subject. The previous General Conference had refused to receive a delegate who had been appointed in behalf of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as its fraternal representative, on the ground that he was a member of a secret order, a fact that constitutes disqualification for membership in the Wesleyan Connection. A similar question was presented on the present occasion, when the General Conference refused to recognize a delegate from the local annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church who declared himself a member of two secret societies. A statement was adopted by the Conference, setting forth that in view of the denominational position on the subject of secret societies, it was not consistent to receive fraternal greetings from an adhering member of an organization of that character. III. The Methodist Church (Canada).-The following are summaries of the statistics and condition of the several Methodist bodies in Canada which, in September, 1883, consummated a union under the designation of "The Methodist Church": 1. The Methodist Church of Canada.-This Church was constituted in its present form in 1874, by a union between the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Eastern British America, and the Methodist New Connection Church in Canada. Its statistics are as follow: Number of ministers and probationers for the ministry, 1,192; of members, 125,420; of adherents, including members, 625,000; of churches, 2,046; of parsonages, 607; value of church property, $6,022,227; number of Sunday-schools, 1,947, with 16,980 teachers and 130,629 scholars. It has missions among the Indian tribes of Ontario and the French of Quebec, and in British Columbia and Japan, the statistics of which are as follow: Number of domestic or home missions, 332, with 344 missionaries and 30,149 members; of Indian missions, 43, with 27 missionaries, 12 native assistants, 30 teachers, 11 interpreters, and 3,377 members; of French missions, 9, with 9 missionaries, 2 teachers, and 360 members; of foreign missions or stations, 6, with 14 missionaries (seven of whom are native Japanese) and 721 members. Total, 390 missions, with 394 missionaries, 56 other paid agents, and 34,607 members. The income of the society for 1881-'82 was $159,243. The educational institutions of the Church are Victoria College, Cobourg, Ont.; Mount Allison College, Sackville, N. B., and a seminary for young men and young women at Sackville, N. B.; besides four institutions under the patronage of annual conferences, and one hundred common schools in Newfoundland. The Publishing House at Toronto has assets valued at $207,531; eight periodicals are published at this house, and one other at Halifax, N. S. 2. Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada. Organized in 1834. It had, previous to the union just consummated, one bishop and three annual conferences. Number of ministers, 275; of local preachers, 270; of churches, 536; of members, 28.070; of Sunday-school scholars, 25,119; value of church property, $1,372,510; amount of income for home missions, $12,350. The educational institutions are Albert College, Belleville, Ont., and seminaries for young women at Belleville and St. Thomas. A weekly paper is published at Hamilton. 3. Primitive Methodist Church in Canada.Founded in 1829. Number of ministers, 99; of members, 8,223; of lay preachers, 246; of class leaders, 330; of churches, 237; of parsonages, 48; of Sunday-schools, 169, with 1,253 teachers and 9,343 scholars; value of church property. $383,853. A weekly paper is issued from the Book-Room in Toronto. 4. Bible Christian Church in Canada.Founded in 1831. The Conference includes ten districts, two of which are in the United States. Number of itinerant ministers, 81; of members, 7,531; of churches, 188; of Sundayschool scholars, 9,378. A weekly paper and a semi-weekly Sunday-school paper are published under the auspices of the denomination. Union of the Methodist Churches in Canada. -An account was given in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1882 of the negotiations between the several Methodist churches in Canada—viz., the Methodist Church of Canada, the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, the Primitive Methodist Church in Canada, and the Bible Christian Church in Canada-and the proceedings of their Conferences and General Conferences, with reference to the union of the whole number into a single body, the record being brought down to the close of the year. The provisional basis of union agreed upon by the Conferences demanded the submission of the plan to the Annual Conferences and quarterly meetings for approval. The basis was readily ratified by the Bible Christians and the Primitive Methodists, but met with some opposition in the Methodist Church of Canada, where, however, it was finally approved in the quarterly meetings and in all the Annual Conferences except one, and was formally ratified at an adjourned meeting of the General Conference held at Belleville, August 29th. The chief objections raised in this body to the plan of union related to the question of the general superintendency and to the anticipation that legal difficulties might arise concerning rights in church property. This was most liable to take place in the case of the property of the Bible Christian Church, the parent church of that body in England having refused to give its consent to the Canadian branch going into the Union. The Canada Conference of the Bible Christians decided, however, to enter the Union notwithstanding this refusal. The first General Conference of the united body met at Belleville, Ont., September 5th. It was composed of 161 representatives of the Methodist Church, 30 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 8 of the Primitive Methodist Church, and 9 of the Bible Christian Churches. The Rev. J. A. Williams, D.D., was chosen president of the provisional organization. The president of the Bible Christian Conference explained the position of that church with reference to the movement for union by saying that the Conference bad at first taken favorable action on the subject, with the belief that the parent body in England would approve the step. A delegation was accordingly sent to England to obtain the desired permission. The refusal of the Conference to give it was an occasion of surprise, and placed the Canada Conference in an embarrassing position. It, however, would not imperil the union by delaying another year, as the English body had requested; and it was not probable that the English Conference would make any legal demands against the church property. This property was valued at nearly $400,000. The subject was referred by the General Conference to a committee, which reported, on the legal aspects of the union, that no doubt existed respecting the status of any body except the Bible Christian Church, and that even in the case of this body, if the English church refused to sanction the action of the Canada Conference, all difficulties might be adjusted by means of an act of Parliament. At a later stage of the proceedings, an address was adopted to be presented to the Bible Christian Conference in England, setting forth the imperative necessities which existed for the union of the Methodist churches in Canada, and asking its sanction to the movement. The Conference then proceeded to the adjustment of the details of the organization of the church and of discipline. The General Conference was constituted to consist of ministerial and lay delegates in equal numbers, upon a ratio of representation of one ministerial delegate to every ten ministers in the Annual Conferences. It shall meet on the first Wednesday in September, 1886, and every four years thereafter. It is prohibited from changing the articles of religion, and from introducing new standards of doctrine contrary to those already existing; from destroying the plan of the itinerant system; from making changes in the general rules of the society except by a "constitutional vote"; and from making any change in the basis of union affecting constitutional questions or the rights and privileges of the ministry and laity, except by a three-fourth majority of the General Conference. Ten Annual Conferences were constituted, viz.: the Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward island, Newfoundland, London, Guelph, Bay of Quinte, Niagara, Toronto, and Montreal Conferences. They shall be composed of ministers and laymen in equal numbers, the lay delegates having the right to be present at all ordinary sessions of the Conference, and to speak and vote on all questions except in the cases of the examination of ministerial character and qualification, the reception and ordination of ministers in full connection, and the granting of the supernumerary relation, on which ministers only will vote. Two general superintendents were constituted, to hold office for the term of eight years, one being elected every four years. It is their function to preside over all the sessions of the General Conference and all standing committees of the same; to preside over the Annual Conferences in alternation with the presidents of the same; and to conduct the ordination services in association with the president of the Annual Conference. The general superintendent was made responsible to the General Conference for all his offi cial acts, and was given a general oversight of the church and all its institutions, but was prohibited from interfering with the functions of ministers and other officers of the church in their prescribed duties. The elections for general superintendent resulted in the choice of the Rev. Samuel D. Rice, D. D., for the term of eight years, and the Rev. Albert Carman, D.D., bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, for the term of four years. It was decided that the church should be known by the name of "The Methodist Church." The office of district superintendent was constituted for the supervision of the districts into which the Annual Conferences are divided for convenience of administration. The district superintendent is to be chosen by ballot in the Annual Conferences; his duties are to preside in district meetings and in all district committees, to oversee the temporal and spiritual interests of the Church, and, with the ministers and preachers, to administer and enforce the discipline on his district, being responsible therefor to his Annual Conference." General Conference decided "that in view of the division and multiplication of Annual Conferences, and the consequent restricted territory within the bounds of each Annual Conference, we deem it important that provision be made for frequent interchange of ministers between the various conferences as a means of promoting connectional feeling throughout the entire church, and maintaining the itinerancy in its integrity." Provisions were accordingly made for the regulation of transfers. The adjustment of the financial interests of the connection and questions concerning church property received much attention. Provisions were made for participation in the celebration of the centenary of organized Methodism in America, appointed for 1884. The IV. Wesleyan Methodist Church (British).—The following is a "general view" of the statistics of the British and affiliated Conferences of this Church, as tabulated in the "Minutes of Conference" for 1883: ordinary receipts, while the rest came in the form of special funds. Furthermore, £126,000 had been raised on the mission stations toward their own support. The expenditures were £169,361. The society had paid off a heavy debt which rested upon it, and was now free. The following is the "General Summary" of the missions under the immediate direction of the Wesleyan Missionary Committee and British Conference in Europe, India, China, South and West Africa, and the West Indies : Central or principal stations, called circuits.. Missionaries and assistant missionaries, including su- Other paid agents, as catechists, interpreters, dayschool teachers, etc. Unpaid agents, as local preachers, Sabbath - school Full and accredited church-members Scholars, deducting those who attend both the day 462 more than a thousand services, and returned additions of 400 members to the church. The income of the chapel fund had been £9,369; grants had been made of £3,507, and £633 had been advanced in loans to twenty-five chapels. The sum of £367,238 had been expended during the year on new erections, and in the reduction of debts. Among the new erections were 118 chapels. The report of the Metropolitan Chapel Building fund showed that since its institution, about twenty-one years before, sixty-four chapels, each affording sitting accommodation for at least 1,000 persons, and one hundred smaller chapels, had been erected in the Metropolitan district. The year's income of the fund had been £11,429, while the grants and loans paid out on its account amounted to £6,500. The fund for the extension of 8,566 Methodism in Scotland returned a capital sum of £9,885. The Committee on Foreign Missions reported that the expenditure of the year had been practically brought within the income, but that the society was in great need of more ample resources. 2,517 526 2,059 91.276 14,489 108,801 8 A very rapid and remarkable advance of Christianity was represented to be taking place in India and Ceylon. The missions in South Africa had been constituted into the South African Conference, to be under the partial support of the society, while its own missionary efforts proper in that country would be applied to the extension of missions into the Transvaal and Swaziland, with the design of making these efforts the first steps of an advance into Central Africa. Wesleyan Conference.-The Wesleyan Conference met in its one hundred and fortieth session in Hull, July 24th. The Rev. Thomas McCullough was chosen president. The numerical returns were presented and showed that in the circuits under the immediate jurisdiction of the Conference the number of members was 407,085-a larger number than was ever before reported in the history of the connection-against 393,754 in 1882. The number of new members received was 60,606. The number of persons on trial for church-membership was given at 34,399, or 6,254 less than were returned in 1882. The committee on the thanksgiving fund, while it had not yet closed its accounts, and could only present an ad interim balance-sheet, reported that the total amount that had been paid to the General Treasurers up to July, 1883, was £291,721. The Book Committee returned an amount of sales not quite equal to those of the previous year, but very much above the average," and sufficient to allow all of the customary grants to be made from the profits. Fifty-four new books, sixty-two new editions, and seventyeight new tracts had been published during the year; and the total issues of the Book-Room had been 1,707,000 copies of publications, and 6,156,263 tracts. The expenditure for home missions had been £34,946, while the income of the fund had been £500 less. Seven lay missionaries were maintained, who had held The Temperance Committee reported that the strength of the temperance societies was increasing very rapidly. The whole number of temperance societies within the connection was now 321, with 28,414 enrolled members, showing an increase during the year of 144 societies and 17,502 members. Besides, there were returned 2,644 Bands of Hope, with 46,549 members. A petition in favor of the Sunday-closing of all the places where intoxicating liquors are sold in England had been prepared under the direction of the committee and presented to Parliament, to which 596,877 signatures were attached. The Committee on Sunday-schools reported the whole number of Sunday-schools in the connection in Great Britain to be 6,584, with 124,390 officers and teachers, and 841,591 scholars; and that the Sunday-schools were maintained at an annual cost of £71,864. The number of schools connected with the Sunday-School Union was 2,901; and the receipts of that association had been £19,259. A novel feature in the history of the Conference was a visitation which it received from a deputation of the clergy of the Established Church in Hull. The deputation presented an address, saying that they regarded with gratitude the noble spiritual work which the Wesleyans had been able to accomplish at home and abroad, and that "we readily extend to you and all who uphold the fundamental doctrines of the kingdom of God the right hand of fellowship." A report was made of the organization of the South African Conference, with an account of its first session and its address to the Wesleyan Conference. The new Conference extends over a territory reaching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Vaal river, and includes within the sphere of its operations missions among the Hottentot, Tembu, Baralong, Pondo, and Zulu tribes. The churches under its jurisdiction were already contributing £45,000 of the £60,000 which it cost to maintain their work during each year. A scheme was adopted for the organization of the connection in the West Indies into two conferences, to be associated in a General Conference which shall meet every three years. In other points the organization of these conferences will be similar to that of the South African Conference. The plan has yet to receive the assent of the West Indian churches. Steps were resolved upon for securing amendments to the marriage laws of England, of such a character as shall put Wesleyan and other ministers on an equality of privilege in solemnizing marriages with the clergy of the Church of England. The plan of amendment approved by the Conference embraces principles similar to those of the Scotch law for registration. It proposes that the present requirement of notice at the registrar's office, and of license, shall be retained; but that the marriage may then be celebrated, on production of the license, by any minister duly authorized for that purpose, in any duly registered place of worship, without the presence of the registrar, which is now required in the case of marriage by dissenters, after which a certificate shall be filed in the registrar's office; and it further stipulates that the total fees for such marriages charged at the registrar's office shall not be greater than the fees charged for an ordinary marriage according to the rites of the Church of England. A report was approved in favor of holding a second Ecumenical Conference of Methodists in 1887. V. Primitive Methodist Connection. The following is a summary of the statistics of this Church as they were reported to the Conference in June: Number of members, 196,480; of traveling preachers, 1,147; of local preachers, 15,982; of leaders, 10,994; of connectional chapels, 4,437; of other preaching-places, 1,812; value of trust property, £2,812,263; indebtedness on trust property, £1,087,015; number of Sunday-schools, 4,184, with 61,215 teachers and 400,597 scholars. Income of the Sundayschools, £60,000. The income of the superannuated preachers', widows', and orphans' fund had been £6,639. The committee of the fund returned 267 annuitants upon its lists. The income of the chapel fund had been £385. Twenty four chapels had been assisted by grants. Including what the chapels themselves had raised, £5,340 had been spent under the auspices of the fund in the relief of their estates. The Connectional Insurance Company returned a reserve fund of £9,860, carefully invested, with 4,711 outstanding policies. A statement was made in the Conference that the total amount of contributions within the Connection had been during the year: For chapel debts and current chapel expenses, £269,508; for educational purposes, £56,574; for the support of the ministry, £115,200; for various connectional funds, £9,378; for literature sold by the Book-Room, £26,644; for missionary purposes, £15,763; making in all nearly half a million pounds sterling, or an average of £2 11s. 7d. per member. The anniversary of the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society was held May 1st. The income of the society for the year was returned at £36,865, derived as follows: From contributions of home stations, £17,222; contributed by foreign stations, £2,883; raised in the missions for schools, churches, and the maintenance of missionaries, £16,760. The whole amount showed an increase of £1,640 over the receipts of the previous year. The work of the society was extended to 238 stations; of which 56 were classed as "home," 178 as "colonial," and 4 as "foreign" stations, and was conducted by 79 "home," 217 "foreign," and 6"colonial" missionaries and ministers, or 302 missionaries in all. The sixty-fourth Primitive Methodist Conference met at South Shields, June 13th. The Rev. W. Cutts was chosen president. The business of the Conference had reference chiefly to the condition and interest of the various institutions and benevolent enterprises of the Connection. A Temperance Society was established, with a Band of Hope Union, the pledge including abstinence from tobacco and snuff. VI. United Methodist Free Churches.-The summaries of the statistical returns of this body as reported to the Conference in August are as follow: Number of itinerant preachers, 391; of supernumeraries, .40; of local preachers, 3,417; of leaders, 4,128; of members, 75,577; of persons on trial for membership, 8,575; of chapels, 1,357; of preaching-rooms, 203; of Sunday-schools, 1,352, with 26,851 teachers and 195,681 scholars. The net increase of members was 1,435, of which 204 had accrued from the foreign stations. The trustees of the chapel loan fund returned its capital at £10,032. The capital of the superannuation and beneficent fund was returned at £28,590. The annual assembly of the United Methodist Free Churches met at Rochdale, August 1st. Mr. H. T. Mawson presided. The present meeting of the assembly was made the occasion of the commemorative celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversay of the union, in 1857, of the Wesleyan Methodist Association and the Wesleyan Reformers to constitute the connection in its present form. The celebration took effective shape in the collection of subscriptions to a commemoration fund, which were reported, at the close of the Conference, to amount to £14,031. The Conference decided that the fund should be appropriated as follows: To the mission fund, four sixteenths; to chapel funds, three sixteenths; to the London chapel extension fund, two sixteenths; to the Theological Institute, one sixteenth; to Asheville College, one sixteenth; unappropriated for the present, one sixteenth. The assembly recommended that one or two suitable men in the ministry be set apart for evangelistic labors, to hold services from circuit to circuit, in co |