oversight of your spiritual concerns, and by whom it has pleased him to convey to you the richest of all gifts, the gift of his heavenly grace; and you have often received from us the assurance, which we now in all sincerity repeat, that the affection is reciprocal. It gives us the highest pleasure to believe that never, during the whole period of their existence as a religious community, were the Wesleyan Ministers and societies more thoroughly united in Christian love and respect than they are at the present time. The means that have been employed to disunite them have signally failed. Contentious agitations have ceased; and the fruits of that peace which God has vouchsafed to the Connexion are already and very hopefully apparent. It is now seen and felt how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity; for then the Lord commands his blessing. The official reports which we have received of the general peace and harmony of the Connexion have afforded us the highest satisfaction. We believe that it never was in a healthier state; and we believe, too, that never was there a deeper impression on the minds of the Preachers, either of the nature and importance of the great objects to which their ministry should be directed, or of the obligations under which they are placed to labour unceasingly, and with all their might, to secure them. We desire at the present Conference to give ourselves afresh to God and his work. We have been led, in the religious services connected with our various sittings, repeatedly to beseech the Great Head of the church, that he would renew our commission as his Ministers, and that he would vouchsafe to us those spiritual baptisms, in virtue of which we may go forth to our respective spheres of labour, with renewed determination to spend and be spent for his glory, and for your benefit. Separated by our solemn ordination-vows from the pursuits and studies of the world and the flesh, with us, we acknowledge, life ought to have but one object. Called into God's vineyard, we have nothing to do but to labour in those departments of service which may be providentially allotted to us, till it shall please the Great Master and Lord either to lay us aside by infirmities which render labour impracticable, or to bid us

"Our body with our charge lay down,

And cease at once to work and live."

It is in this spirit that we humbly desire to depart from the present Conference, casting ourselves upon the mercy of God, and earnestly requesting the prayers of his people. It is not as a matter of mere custom that we now renew the apostolic request, "Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified." We deeply feel the value of the prayers of the church in reference to the success of the ministry,

and therefore do we earnestly solicit them. Pray for us, brethren, that we may covet earnestly the best gifts for an efficacious ministry; that we may industriously seek for them, and that we may abundantly obtain them. Pray that opportunities for more extended usefulness may be vouchsafed unto us, and that all our ministrations may be attended with the unction of the Holy One and with a soul-saving power. Call upon God to make us all that you desire we should be. Prayer cannot be addressed to him in vain. Outpourings of the Spirit shall attest that his truth endureth from generation to generation. If the year of labour on which we are about to enter begin with prayer and supplication, it shall close with thanksgiving and praise.

And while you thus pray for your Ministers, seek likewise to be with them "fellow-helpers to the truth," according to the means and opportunities of promoting it which, in the order of divine Providence, you may possess. Not long ago, it was the painful duty of the Connexion to employ all its vigilance and strength in guarding against the infraction of its fundamental principles. That period of trial, however, has, by the blessing of God, passed away, and our connexional discipline is now more firmly established than ever. It is no longer necessary to employ in defensive operations those energies which were entrusted to us, we are persuaded, for much higher purposes; and the evident call of Providence now is, that the entire strength and influence of the Connexion should be put forth and exerted to secure those great objects for the sake of which Mr. Wesley believed that it was established.

One of those objects, to which we wish to direct your particular attention, we express in his own words,-"To reform the nation, by spreading scriptural holiness over the land." We gladly allow that, in some most important respects, the circumstances of the country are very different from those which our fathers contemplated, and in the midst of which their arduous undertaking was commenced: we not only acknowledge the alteration, but rejoice in it, being firmly persuaded that our fathers were themselves the honoured instruments of producing it. But multiplied as is the number both of Christian Preachers and Christian converts, the quantity of ignorance and sin yet abounding in every quarter of the land is fearfully large, and calls for no ordinary efforts to effect its removal. Allow us to remind you of the emotions with which holy men of old regarded the abounding iniquity of their own times; emotions which so far from attempting to restrain, they carefully sought to strengthen. "Horror," said they, "hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law." "Rivers of water run down my eyes, because men keep not thy law." They cried out, in their spiritual exercises, "O that my head

were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." Prevailing ungodliness was with them an occasion of great fear and trouble, as well as of earnest and especial prayer. "Help, Lord," was their imploring language; "help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men." When you remember that these expressions of feeling are inscribed in the inspired record, you can scarcely fail to perceive that they were placed there to teach us that strong hatred of sin, deep compassion for sinners, earnest longings for the divine interposition when the interests of religion appear to languish, and the cause of sin to be triumphant, all belong to the order of devotional feelings; and that if we find them not in ourselves, we may suspect the genuineness of our own piety. Suffer us, beloved brethren, to press the inquiry upon you, Does the transgression of the wicked wound and oppress your spirit? Do you grieve and mourn before God for the sins of others? While While you hate the sin, do you intensely long for the conversion of the sinner? Brethren, we beseech you to cultivate, as essentially belonging to the Christian character, zeal for the honour of God, compassion for perishing sinners, and that holy public spirit which makes the interests of the church of Christ your own. If these things be in you, and abound, their fruits will be decidedly and most beneficially apparent. Desiring the salvation of others, you will seek to promote it. And to this we earnestly exhort you. Carry out to a yet greater extent the principles of Benevolent and Tract Societies. Co-operate with your Ministers in such plans of usefulness as are within the compass of your ability. Under their superintendence and direction, let prayer-meetings be opened in neighbourhoods whose spiritual circumstances require such methods of calling to the worship of God those who habitually neglect it. Endeavour to find out new openings for the ministry of the word, and seek to enlarge existing congregations by affectionately inviting the attendance of your careless and negligent neighbours. Be not satisfied unless the interests of religion in your respective localities are found in a prosperous condition. The early Methodists were noted for a prayerful and zealous temper; they could not see their ungodly neighbours continuing in the broad way without warning them of their danger, and labouring to reclaim them; to this, by the blessing of God, a large portion of their primitive success is to be ascribed; and we affectionately recommend to you the imitation of their pious example.

There is one branch of this subject to which we request your most serious attention. We are of opinion that there might be, very beneficially, an extension of the Wesleyan ministry in many parts of the country where it is greatly needed, and in some in

stances strongly desired. You are aware that what are called the Yearly and July Collections constitute a Fund, partly for the contingent expenses unavoidably occasioned by our peculiar itinerancy, and circumstances arising out of it, and likewise, and indeed principally, for aiding the poorer Circuits in such parts of the country as most need a ministry like that of the Wesleyan Preachers. Without having the name, it possesses the character, of a Home Missionary Fund; and were it more efficiently supported, it would be in the power of the Conference to employ a larger number of labourers in the vineyard. During our present sittings, we have been reluctantly compelled to refuse some most pressing applications for additional Preachers, because the state of the Fund would not allow the additional expense. We do respectfully, but very earnestly, request your liberal contributions, at the usual times, to these important collections. Were the Contigent Fund increased, we should find no difficulty whatever in very usefully employing the whole.

And we have every thing to encourage us. Not only is the Connexion in great peace, but on many parts the Spirit has been poured out from on high, and "much people has been added to the Lord." By an arrangement made at the last Conference, which provided that in future the number of members in society should be stated to the annual District-Meetings held in May, and by them reported to the Conference, the official reports of the members in society in the different Circuits, only include the three quarters intervening between the Conference and the DistrictMeeting yet in these three quarters we are thankful to find there has been a net increase of four thousand one hundred and eight; besides very considerably above ten thousand on trial. In Ireland, notwithstanding the number of emigrations, and the very painful and unfavourable circumstances under which our beloved brethren labour, there has been an increase of two hundred and twenty-one. These sums, together with an increase of eight hundred and one on the foreign stations, give, as the general increase this year, five thousand one hundred and thirty. We desire to be unfeignedly thankful for these indications of prosperity, and to regard them as affording both the call and the encouragement to be steadfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

It affords us much satisfaction to be enabled to state that our Missionary operations continue to be crowned with encouraging tokens of the divine approbation; for although we cannot report such a large accession of members on our foreign stations during the past year, as we were enabled to do for the preceding year, much has been done, by the divine blessing upon the Missionaries and other agents employed by us in the dark places of the earth,

to diffuse the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. We avail ourselves of this opportunity of reminding you, that we have now arrived at a period in the history of our Missions, when if we would form a correct estimate of the amount of success graciously vouchsafed to us by the Great Head of the church from year to year, and of the progress of the work in which we are engaged in common with other sections of the church of Christ, we should not look only at the numerical increase of our societies in heathen lands, nor even at the proofs of scriptural conversion to the faith of Christ which may occur on our foreign stations; we should remember that we are now extending our operations in those parts of the world where a great preparatory work must be accomplished before we can reasonably expect a large, and especially a large visible, amount of spiritual success; and that while it is our duty to abound in the work of the Lord, it is also our duty to wait in prayerful and patient expectation till the Lord of the harvest shall have conducted the various processes that are in powerful though it may be not always apparent operation, to those results which shall be not only visible but glorious. This preparatory work is now in progress. Barbarous languages have been reduced to a written form. Translations of portions of the word of God, and of various important religious publications, have been prepared in different tongues and dialects, and from our Mission presses many thousands of copies have been issued. Persons of both sexes, and of all ranks and ages, have been taught to read them in our Mission schools: and it is cause of devout thanksgiving to Almighty God, now that we are approaching the centenary year of our formal existence as a religious society, that we are by our agents proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation in so many of the languages of man. To your affectionate care we still commend the foreign work. Attempts have been made, indeed, in one of our largest West India Districts, to produce division on the same principles that were advocated by the unhappy faction which laboured to disturb the peace and destroy the union of our societies at home; and we have learned with regret, though not with surprise, that for these divisive attempts support has been solicited, and in some instances obtained, by representing them as Christian Missionary efforts. At home the character of these schemes is now well known; and we doubt not that they will soon be equally well understood abroad. We only refer to the occurrence lest any attempts should be made to impose upon your Christian philanthropy. The injury they will be able to inflict on our West India stations is but small and temporary. character of our Missionary system there has been too long established to be materially affected by the efforts of disaffected and contentious men.

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