366 



METHODISTS. 



schools, 471, with 465 superintendents. 1,948 

 teachers, and 17,290 pupils. 



The five connectional boards met in their an- 

 nual session at Syracuse, N. Y., June 11. The 

 treasurer reported that the receipts of the so- 

 cieties for the year had been: Publishing Associa- 

 tion, $17,750; Missionary Society. $2,929 for home 

 missions and .$0.504 for foreign missions; Wes- 

 leyan Educational Society. $4.833; Wesleyan 

 Methodist Connection. .$12.401). The assets of the 

 same societies were: Publishing Association, $68,- 

 9S4; home missions. $7,088: foreign missions, $9,- 

 411; Educational Society, $30,618; Wesleyan 

 Methodist Connection. $41.411: total "corrected," 

 $152.513; gain for the year, $5,208. The Educa- 

 tional Society had closed the year out of debt and 

 with a small* surplus. Propositions were received 

 for missionary work in Cuba, and the Executive 

 Hoard were instructed to take the subject under 

 advisement. An extension of the missionary work 

 in Africa to the Limbah tribe was decided upon, 

 and steps were taken toward sending out new mis- 

 sionaries. 



VIII. Free Methodist Church. The statis- 

 tical tables published in connection with the com- 

 bined annual minutes of all the conferences of this 

 Church for 1901 give the following footings: Num- 

 ber of ministers, 891; of members, 25,678; of pro- 

 bationers, 3,180; of Sunday-schools, 1,095, with 

 30,476 pupils; of churches, 1,034, valued at $1,115,- 

 340; of parsonages, 497, valued at $332,435. 

 Amount raised for foreign missions, $11,032, of 

 which $8,459 were contributed by the Woman's 

 Societies. The foreign mission fields returned 173 

 members and probationers. Amount raised for 

 education, $488; for ministerial support, $255,327. 

 Most of these numbers show an increase from the 

 previous year. At the meeting of the Executive 

 Committee of the Church, held in October, a com- 

 mittee appointed to confer with officers of labor 

 organizations to make some arrangement where- 

 by laboring men members of the Free Method- 

 ist Church might work unmolested in union shops 

 without taking any oath or obligation in conflict 

 with the discipline of the Church, reported that 

 they had done as directed without success, and 

 advised that this was no time to compromise 

 or capitulate; and that both preachers and lay- 

 men, at whatever cost, should stand by the de- 

 nominational principles as never before. 



IX. Methodist Church in Canada. The 

 Methodist Church in Canada, with 11 conferences, 

 including that of Japan and the China mission, 

 returned for 1901, 1,787 ordained ministers, 229 

 probationers, 2,264 local preachers, 289,162 mem- 

 l>ers, 3,419 Sunday-schools, with 32,642 officers 

 and teachers and 266,423 pupils, 1,825 Epworth 

 Leagues, with 70,988 members, 4,334 churches and 

 places of worship, 1,133 parsonages, 19 colleges 

 and educational institutions, and $15,397,634 of 

 church property. Book and publishing houses are 

 established at Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal. 

 The periodicals, are 2 weekly journals, one maga- 

 /ine, Sunday-school publications, and the organ 

 of the Epworth League. The income of the Mis- 

 sionary Society for the year 1900-1901 was $270,- 

 312. It has 530 home and foreign mission sta- 



. tions, 496 missionaries, 95 assistants, 49 teachers, 

 and 17 interpreters, with 47,236 members. 



X. Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great 

 Britain). The statistical reports of this Church 

 for 1901 give it, in Great Britain and Ireland, 2,492 

 ministers, 20,646 lay preachers, 520,354 church- 

 members and probationers, 7,668 Sunday-schools, 

 with 133,207 officers and teachers and 990,523 

 pupils, and 8,976 churches. The foreign missions 

 returned 364 ministers, 1,999 lay preachers, 62,370 



members, 1,231 Sunday-schools, with 4,103 officers 

 and teachers and 66,974 pupils, and 2,404 churches. 

 Of the affiliated conferences, the French had 37 

 ministers, 93 lay preachers, 1,702 church-members, 

 2,667 pupils in Sunday-schools, and 143 churches; 

 South African Conference, 214 ministers, 3,676 lay 

 preachers, 90,124 members, 38,118 Sunday schol- 

 ars, and 826 churches; and the W T est Indian Con- 

 ference, 92 ministers, 916 local preachers, 45,936 

 members, 28,750 Sunday scholars, and 431 

 churches. The report of the Metropolitan Chapel 

 fund, presented at the annual meeting, May 2, 

 showed that during the year 8 chapels had been 

 opened to which grants had been made. Grants 

 had also been sanctioned for improvements and 

 extensions at Deptford and to the Leysian Mis- 

 sion, which proposed to expend 105,000. 



The sixty-first annual report of the Wesleyan 

 Methodist Committee on Education, issued in 

 March, 1901, gives the whole number of scholars 

 on the books as 160,787, with an average attend- 

 ance of 129,905. The actual income of the schools, 

 including Government grants, was 284,991, 

 showing an increase of 12,833. The total ex- 

 penditure had been 295,781, showing an increase 

 of 12,491. 



The Rev. Dr. Waller, secretary of the Education 

 Committee, presenting his statement at the an- 

 nual meeting, March 27, gave a historical survey 

 of the contributions Methodism had made, by its 

 training-colleges and elementary schools, to the 

 advance made in national education during the 

 reign of Queen Victoria. He claimed that as Wes- 

 leyans they had put 1,225,000 into their schools, 

 the annual income from which now exceeded 

 250,000. They were expecting to receive 200,- 

 000 from the Twentieth Century fund for educa- 

 tional w r ork, and a part of this would go toward 

 providing an additional training-college some- 

 where in the north of England. 



The Chapel Committee reported to the Confer- 

 ence that sanction had been given to the erec- 

 tion of 91 chapels, costing 196,276; of 29 min- 

 isters' houses, costing 25,764; of 20 school- 

 rooms, costing 11,574; and to 131 alterations 

 and enlargements, costing $73,714. The pro- 

 posed new chapels would provide additional ac- 

 commodation for 14,787 sittings, some of the 

 new buildings superseding former buildings; and 

 the new chapels already completed provided 11,453 

 new sittings. 



The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary 

 Society was held in London, April 29. Mr. James 

 E. Vanner presided. The income of the year from 

 all sources on current account had been 135,- 

 494, and the expenditure 136,466. A statement 

 of the work of the society in all parts of the world, 

 submitted by the general secretaries, represented 

 that since the transference of the German mis- 

 sions to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 

 United States, the operations of the society in 

 Europe had been among the Latin races, where a 

 spirit of independence in religious thought seemed 

 to be growing. Official visits paid by the "Rev. W. 

 H^ Findlay to the west coast of Africa and Dr. 

 .Waller to the Bahamas had been attended by 

 beneficial results. In the Transvaal, the society's 

 agents were returning as fast as the military au- 

 thorities permitted them. In China the agents of 

 the society had thus far been spared the fate 

 M-hich had befallen those of several of its sister 

 societies, with which the report expressed sym- 

 pathy. 



The Conference met in its one hundred and 'fifty- 

 eighth annual session at Newcastle-on-Tyne, July 

 23, the representative session for the first time 

 meeting, under the new rule, before the pastoral 



