METHODISTS. 



for general circulation, the Lucknow Witness, 

 in English. The establishment publishes " Les- 

 son Leaves " for Sunday-school classes, in Eng- 

 lish, Hindi, and Urdu; and a Sunday-school 

 paper, the Children's Friend, in both the ver- 

 naculars. The number of pages of Christian 

 literature published from this establishment in 

 1875 was 3,969,000, and it was estimated that 

 at least 20,000,000 pages had been issued in 

 ten years. 



The Board of Church Extension reported to 

 the General Conference that their total net 

 receipts from their organization had been: on 

 general account, $709,541.33 ; on the loan- 

 fund (to be used only by loans), $250,432: 

 total, $959,973.33. The total expenses of ad- 

 ministration had been $113,255.91. 



The Sunday-School Union made report to 

 the General Conference: 19,106 schools, 206,- 

 613 officers and teachers, and 1,398,731 schol- 

 ars, showing a large increase in all departments. 

 The circulation of the periodicals was: Sun- 

 day-School Journal, 60,000 copies ; Picture- 

 Lesson Paper, 119,000 copies; Berean Lesson 

 Leaf, 1,200,000 copies ; Sunday-School Advo- 

 cate, 357,000 copies; Lesson Oompend, 8,000 

 copies. During four years there had been is- 

 sued under the auspices of the Sunday-school 

 department a total of 2,530,246 bound volumes. 



The report of the Book Concern in New 

 York, made to the General Conference, showed 

 that its capital stock had increased from $794,- 

 175.17 in June, 1872, to $1,013,687.29 in June, 

 1875, making the amount of the profits of three 

 years of business $219,512.12. The accounts 

 for 1876 were not yet made up. The sales of 

 the Concern for the four years ending Novem- 

 ber 30, 1875, amounted to $3,215,612.57. Dur- 

 ing the same period, the Concern had paid: 

 on the salaries of bishops, $134,500; on the 

 salaries of editors, $65,669.91 ; on the account 

 of the book-agents, $36,000; on the account 

 of assistant editors, $30,311 ; on General Con- 

 ference appropriations, $15,576.50. Seventy- 

 eight books had been published on the general 

 catalogue, 178 Sunday-school books, and 426 

 tracts. Connected with the Book Concern at 

 New York are depositories at Boston, Buffalo, 

 Pittsburg, and San Francisco. 



The agents of the Western Book Concern 

 (at Cincinnati) reported to the General Con- 

 ference that their total assets were $986,749.- 

 16, and their total liabilities $486,463.43, 

 showing the Concern to possess a net capital 

 on the 30th of November, 1875, of $500,285.- 

 73, against $422,599.68. The aggregate sales 

 of books and periodicals during the four years 

 had amounted to $2,830,096.67. A question 

 was raised in the General Conference as to the 

 financial soundness of the Concern. The case 

 was carefully examined by a committee ap- 

 pointed especially for the purpose, and the 

 Concern was found to have an ample margin 

 of available property after providing for all of 

 its obligations. 



The meeting of the General Executive Com- 



mittee of the Woman's Foreign Missionary So- 

 ciety was held in Washington, D. C., May 10th. 

 It was reported that the amount of collections 

 in the several branches during the year had 

 been $76,787.72. There were now 1,952 aux- 

 iliary societies, with 50,000 annual and 1,746 

 permanent members. 



The seventeenth Delegated General Confer- 

 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church met 

 in Baltimore, Md., May 1st. The sessions were 

 presided over by the twelve bishops sitting in 

 alternation. The bishops presented their qua- 

 drennial address, which reviewed the progress 

 of the Church during the four years since 

 the last preceding General Conference. Five 

 new annual conferences had been formed. One 

 of the bishops, Bishop Harris, had visited the 

 missions in Japan, China, India, Turkey, Italy, 

 Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and 

 Norway, making the tour of the globe in his 

 journey. The missions in Europe had been 

 visited by two other bishops in 1873 and 1875, 

 thus receiving direct episcopal supervision 

 during three of the four years. Two episcopal 

 visits had been made to Mexico, and one to 

 the missions in South America. Circum- 

 stances had prevented a visitation of the 

 churches in Liberia. New charters had been 

 procured for the Missionary, Sunday-School 

 and Tract, and Church Extension Societies. A 

 commission had been appointed to prepare a 

 code of ecclesiastical jurisprudence and pro- 

 cedure. A legal adviser for the Board of 

 Church Extension had been appointed in each 

 State and Territory. A large growth was re- 

 ported in the leading interests of the Church. 

 In pursuance of a resolution of the preceding 

 General Conference, the bishops also presented 

 a commemorative address, appropriate to the 

 celebration of the Centennial year of American 

 Independence. It urged the churches to carry 

 out the recommendations of the General Con- 

 ference relative to the observance of the year 

 by procuring contributions and gifts for the 

 advancement of education. The conference 

 repeated the recommendation. 



A movement was made toward calling an 

 (Ecumenical Council of Methodism. Resolu- 

 tions were adopted on this subject, providing 

 that the bishops " appoint a commission of 

 nine persons, consisting of two of their own 

 number, four other ministers, and three laymen, 

 who shall take this whole subject into consid 

 eration, correspond with the different Meth j 

 odist bodies in this country, and in every other 

 country, and endeavor to arrange for a Gen- 

 eral Council of Methodism, at such time and 

 place as may be judged most advisable, to 

 consider topics relating to the position, work, 

 and responsibility of Methodism for the world's 

 evangelization.'' This commission was em- 

 powered to represent and speak for the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church in the United States, 

 and was directed to make a full report of its 

 proceedings to the General Conference of 1880. 



Fraternal delegates were received from the 



