METHODISTS. 



435 



Additional subscriptions and pledges to the 

 loan fund of the Society have been secured to 

 the amount of $100,000, and additional cash to 

 the amount of $10,000. The methods and plans 

 of the Society (says the Treasurer), especially 

 in connection with the loan fund, are winning 

 the confidence and interest of friends of the 

 Church everywhere. The foundations of the 

 Society are secure, and the growth, though 

 less rapid than the demands upon the Board 

 require, is healthy. 



The contributions asked to meet the appro- 

 priations for 1870 are fixed at $112.900. The 

 Society resolved, at its last meeting, that no 

 resolution passed by the General Committee, 

 shall be so construed as to prevent twenty 

 per cent, of all the collections received being 

 reserved for a special relief fund, to be used 

 for the benefit of the most necessitous cases, 

 as they may occur in any part of the work. 



The Society is about issuing registered six 

 per cent, bonds, and claims that, with no busi- 

 ness indebtedness to speak of, it has an annual 

 income from collections of over $50,000, bonds 

 and mortgages amounting to over $40,000, 

 pledges on the loan-fund to over $100,000, all 

 of which will be constantly increasing. 



The Boston Theological Seminary at Bos- 

 ton, the Garrett Biblical Institute, at Evans- 

 ton, 111., and the Brew Theological Seminary, 

 at Madison, N. J., have together fourteen in- 

 structors, ten lecturers, and five special in- 

 structors (in the Boston Seminary). The num- 

 ber of students was, by the last catalogue, 206 ; 

 volumes in library, 17,000 ; property and en- 

 dowments, $1,109,684. The Baker Theolo- 

 gical Institute at Charleston, S. C., has three 

 professors and twenty-six students ; the Mar- 

 tin Mission Institute, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 

 Germany, has two professors, and buildings 

 worth $25,000. The Thomson Biblical Insti- 

 tute, at New Orleans, was opened in 1866. 



The latest statistics of the literary institu- 

 tions of the Methodist Episcopal Church make 

 the number of universities and colleges 23, 

 and of academies and seminaries 85 ; instruc- 

 tors in universities and colleges, 153; stu- 

 dents, 5,200 ; instructors in academies and 

 seminaries, 504 ; students, 14,100. Value of 

 university and college buildings, libraries, etc., 

 $1,824,774; endowments, $3,015,100 ; property 

 invested in academies and seminaries, over 

 $2,000,000 ; making the total capital invested 

 in education nearly $7,000,000. 



The Board of Education of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church was organized by the General 

 Conference of 1868. Its duty is to take charge 

 of property given for educational purposes, and 

 particularly of the Centenary Educational Fund, 

 to invest it, and appropriate the interest only 

 to ; first, aid young men preparing for the for- 

 eign missionary work of the Church ; second, 

 to aid young men preparing for the ministry of 

 the Church ; third, to aid the theological insti- 

 tutions; fourth, to aid the universities, semina- 

 ries, and academies. It also takes care of the 



Children's Jund, appropriating the interest to 

 assist meritorious Sunday-school scholars in 

 obtaining a more advanced education. Tho 

 Centenary Fund amounts to $24,325.44, and 

 the Children's Fund to $56,674.40. 



The Methodist Episcopal Tract Society held 

 its annual meeting on Wednesday, December 

 10th. The grants in tracts and money made 

 during the year amounted to $5,639. The cir- 

 culation of The Good News, a monthly Sunday- 

 school paper, had reached an average of 

 72,200 copies. The total receipts, including a 

 balance on hand, January 1, 1869, of $444.17, 

 were $13,975.71, and the expenditures, $11,- 

 369.46; balance on hand, $2,606.25. A dis- 

 crepancy of $2,000 appeared by comparing the 

 minutes of the last annual report with the 

 present report of the treasurer. The book- 

 keeper explained that the discrepancy was 

 owing to the inappropriate time of holding the 

 annual meeting, which compelled the leaving 

 out of the receipts and expenditures for De- 

 cember in each year ; but that the quarterly or 

 the printed annual report would show every 

 thing complete. 



The Anniversary of the Sunday-school Union 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held in 

 Columbus, Ohio, from October 30th to Novem- 

 ber 3d. The statistics are as follows : Sunday- 

 schools, 16,034; officers and teachers, 191,369 ; 

 scholars, 1,165,914 ; volumes in library, 2,749,- 

 547.; Bible classes, 24,232; infant scholars, 

 169,877; total expenses for schools, $424,696.- 

 59 ; raised for Sunday-school Union, $21,286.- 

 02 ; conversions, 41,708. 



Reports were current in September, ap- 

 parently founded upon examinations which 

 had been instituted by one of the agents into 

 the accounts of his predecessors, of irregulari- 

 ties in the management of special departments 

 of the Methodist Book Concern, through which 

 it had failed to realize as large profits to the 

 benevolent funds as the Church was entitled 

 to expect from it. The matter was brought 

 to the attention of the committee appointed 

 by the General Conference (called the Book 

 Committee), who, after an examination of two 

 weeks, availing themselves also of a previous 

 examination by a sub-committee, reported in 

 November : 



1. That it is our deliberate judgment that the last 

 exhibit of the agents is a true and reliable statement 

 of the financial responsibility and solvency of the 

 Book Concern at New York. 



2. That though the agents have "bought paper and 

 other materials for the printing department mainly 

 through paper-dealers or middle-men, vet it does not 

 appear by any facts "before the committee that the 

 Concern has buffered any serious loss by such mode 

 of making purchases. 



3. That the investigation of the affairs and busi- 

 ness of the bindery has satisfied the committee that 

 there has been great mismanagement in this depart- 

 ment, and that serious losses have occurred therein. 



4. That the general management of the business 

 of the Book Concern, in all matters involving its 

 credit or integrity, is such as to meet the approval 

 of the committee and command the confidence of the 

 public. 



