478 



METHODISTS. 



sent down proposed that the General Conference 

 meet every six years instead of every four years, as 

 now. A committee appointed several years before 

 on revision of the Articles of Faith reported that 

 very little interest had been manifested in the sub- 

 ject, and recommended that it be indefinitely post- 

 poned. The Conference agreed to this. The word 

 "catholic"' was stricken out of the Apostles' Creed 

 as it is published in the Discipline of the Church, 

 for the reason that it is often confounded with 

 " Roman Catholic." Reports were made from 

 Western Maryland College (for which 3 new build- 

 ings had been erected), Westminster Theological 

 Seminary, and Adrian College. Steps were ad- 

 vised for" improving the school of theology of the 

 last institution, and it was directed that the Board 

 of Trustees be composed of members of the Meth- 

 odist Protestant Church. A permanent Committee 

 on Revision was instituted, and was instructed to 

 make a complete revision of the Discipline and Rit- 

 ual, and report to the next General Conference. 

 An application was received from the Providence, 

 R. I., Conference of Primitive Methodists to be ad- 

 mitted to the Methodist Protestant Church, and a 

 committee was appointed to take the subject in 

 charge and report to the next General Conference. 

 The administration of baptism by immersion, if the 

 candidate desires it, was sanctioned. 



The resolutions on Sunday observance included a 

 condemnation of "the demoralizing Sunday excur- 

 sion, whether on train, steamer, or bicycle," and 

 recommended the enforcement of all Sunday laws 

 and the enactment of further laws on the subject. 



During the meetings of the General Conference, 

 May 23, the cornerstone of the new Kansas City 

 University, an institution affiliated with this Church, 

 was laid at Kansas City. 



The African Union Methodist Protestant Church 

 returns for 1896 80 ministers, 70 churches, and 7,000 

 members. 



VII. Methodist Church in Canada. The sta- 

 tistical reports of this Church for 1896 give it 1.257 

 ministers engaged in active circuit and mission work, 

 300 superannuated and supernumerary ministers. 3 

 evangelists, and 20 ministers without appointment, 

 with 227 probationers. The whole number of min- 

 isters and probationers is 2,051. 



The annual meeting of the General Board of 

 Missions was held in Toronto, beginning Oct. 1. 

 The treasurer reported that the year's receipts from 

 ordinary sources had been $2,529 less than in the 

 previous year, but that the income from legacies 

 was sufficiently in advance to make the total amount 

 received $252.740, an increase in the gross amount 

 of $5,243. Of the total receipts, $183,479 were on 

 account of ordinary income, $25.146 from legacies, 

 $22.568 for the Indian department, and the rest 

 miscellaneous. The accounts presented of the con- 

 dition of the mission fields comprised reports from 

 missions in Japan, China, Chinese work on the Pa- 

 cific coast, work among the Japanese in British 

 Columbia, the Indian missions in Canada, and mis- 

 sions among the French in Canada. A special re- 

 port was presented from official visitors to missions 

 in British Columbia, embodying accounts of conver- 

 sations with Indians, representatives of the British 

 Columbia Conference, and the Indian department 

 of the Government, and suggestions of methods by 

 which the missions might be made stronger. A 

 memorandum dealing with the domestic missions 

 represented that some of them had enough members 

 to warrant the expectation that they would be self- 

 supporting. It dealt with the causes under the influ- 

 ence of which missions remain on the Mission fund 

 longer than is defensible, and suggested that all 

 domestic missions with 150 members should be 

 placed upon a diminishing scale of grants. The 



memorandum was referred to a committee. A plan 

 of co-operation was arranged with the Students' 

 Campaign movement, an enterprise among the 

 Methodist students in all the universities and col- 

 leges in behalf of missions. It was organized in 

 March, 1895, and was intended to set the students 

 at work distributing literature and delivering ad- 

 dresses during the vacation seasons. Two hundred, 

 and seven young men and women had been engaged 

 in it. It contemplates further the formation of 

 mission bands among the Epworth Leagues. 



VIII. Wesleyan Methodist Church (British). 

 The statistics of this Church, including the British 

 and affiliated conferences, as returned to the Confer- 

 ence in July, give the following numbers: In Great 

 Britain, 2,127 ministers, 17,224 lay preachers, and 

 466,711 members and probationers; in Ireland, 231 

 ministers, 561 lay preachers. 27,576 members and 

 probationers; in the foreign missions, 400 ministers, 

 1,918 lay preachers, 52,058 members and probation- 

 ers ; in the French conference, 38 ministers, 1,492 

 members and probationers ; in the South African 

 Conference, 193 ministers, 2,872 lay preachers, 62,812 

 members and probationers ; in the West Indian con- 

 ferences, 108 ministers, 840 lay preachers, 50,365 

 members and probationers. These conferences also 

 return in all 9.317 Sunday schools, with 142,554 

 officers and teachers and 1,109,293 pupils. 



The Conference met at Liverpool, July 21. The 

 Rev. Marshall Randies, D. D., was chosen president. 

 Returns of membership were reported, giving the 

 following numbers: Of full and accredited mem- 

 bers, 435,420, showing a net decrease for the year 

 of 2,302 ; of persons on trial for church member- 

 ship, 31,291 ; of members of junior classes, 71,880 ; 

 of new members received, 41,337; of persons ceased 

 to be members, 25,105 ; with 5,G68 deaths so far as 

 reported, and 593 emigrations; of accredited local 

 preachers, 17,224; of lay class leaders, 24,646. An 

 address, the first of the kind ever presented from the 

 denomination, was received from the Unitarian So- 

 ciety of Liverpool, offering cordial fraternal greet- 

 ings, recalling the services to the nation of John 

 Wesley, and referring especially to the work in 

 Liverpool of the Rev. Charles Garrett, in whom, the 

 address said, "we recognize the very type of brave 

 and generous Christian manhood, and we are grate- 

 ful to a Church which places in our midst so well 

 beloved a fellow-citizen." The committee on the 

 extension of the term of ministerial appointment to 

 a circuit presented a voluminous report to the effect 

 that they had not been able to discover any methods 

 more convenient than such as were already in opera- 

 tion for extending the term unless by an appeal to 

 Parliament ; and that if the Conference decided to 

 make such an appeal it should proceed by the intro- 

 duction of a private bill. The Conference resolved 

 that it was desirable to appeal to Parliament for a 

 private bill to repeal such clauses in the deed poll 

 as prohibit the appointment of ministers for more 

 than three years successively to the use and enjoy- 

 ment of any chapel and premises ; that a committee 

 be appointed to prepare a statement of the reasons 

 for recommending the Methodist people to sanction 

 the proposed appeal, which should also explain the 

 limitations, conditions, and safeguards under which 

 such emancipation from state control might be 

 safely conceded to. the Conference; and that the 

 statement be submitted to the synods in May for 

 criticisms and suggestions, to be returned to the 

 committee, revised and reported by them to the 

 next Conference, with a view to its formal submis- 

 sion to the various local representative bodies of 

 the Church in 1898. The Executive Committee were 

 authorized to collect information respecting the 

 number of children of Wesleyan Methodists attend- 

 ing Church of England or national, elementary, and 



