METHODISTS. 



479 



paring for the ministry of the Church ; (3) to 

 aid our theological institutions ; (4) to aid our 

 universities, seminaries, and academies," and 

 to receive and separately invest and " augment 

 the Sunday-school Children's Fund commenced 

 during the centenary year (now amounting to 

 $56,674.40), appropriating the interest only to 

 assist meritorious Sunday-school scholars in 

 obtaining a more advanced education." 



At the close of 1868, the statistics of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church were : 



The appropriations made by the Missionary 

 Society for 1869 amounted to $850,000, namely: 

 foreign missions, $275,866.78 ; domestic mis- 

 sions, $52,150; Indian missions, $5,800; 

 American domestic missions, $297,250.00; 

 missions in the Territories of the United States, 

 to be administered as foreign missions, $14,000. 

 The statistics of the missions were as follows : 



There are 135 school-teachers connected 

 with foreign missions. 



The fifteenth Quadrennial General Confer- 

 ence of the Church began its session at Chicago 

 on the 1st of May. One of the first questions 

 which engaged attention was that regarding 

 the position to be accorded to the new confer- 

 ences which had been formed in the Southern 

 States since the last session. These were the 

 "Washington and Delaware Conferences, in the 

 border States, composed entirely of colored 

 ministers, and the Alabama, Georgia, Holston, 

 Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, 

 Virginia, and North Carolina Conferences, 

 composed of white and colored preachers, all 

 of which had been organized under provisions 

 made by the previous General Conference, 

 which did not seem, however, to contemplate 

 their recognition as regular conferences and 

 admission to representation in the General 

 Conference without further action. The differ- 

 ences of opinion on the subject were mostly 

 upon technical construction. The bodies were 

 declared Annual Conferences, vested with all 

 the rights, privileges, and immunities usual to 

 annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. The mission conferences of Liberia, 

 Germany, and India, were placed on a similar 

 footing, the administration of their missionary 

 interests remaining unchanged, and the bishops 

 were requested to provide each with at least 

 one episcopal visitation during the next four 

 years. 



In anticipation of a large growth of the 

 Church in the South and West, the bishops 

 were authorized to form new conferences in 

 the South, and in territories not now included 

 in annual conferences, and to divide confer- 

 ences, with the consent of the bodies affected. 



Provision was made for the organization of 

 a third conference of colored ministers, if 

 deemed necessary by the bishops. 



The present number of annual conferences 



