METHODISTS. 



537 





enco ordered: that in future no candidate 

 should be fully admitted as a local preacher 

 until IK- hail tv.-id the standard sermons of Mr. 

 Wesley, and his " Notes on the New Testa- 

 ment/ 1 and until ho had passed a satisfactory 

 examination in the definitions and Scripture 

 proofs of the leading doctrines of Christianity 

 as thrri'iii explained, and that before any can- 

 didate is fully admitted as a local preacher he 

 should be twelve months on probation. A 

 oniiimittee was ordered appointed to prepare a 

 course of study for the guidance of local 

 preachers on probation. 



A letter of fraternal greeting was ordered 

 sent to the General Conference of the Method- 

 ist (Protestant) Church in the United States. 



VIII. PRIMITIVE METHODIST CONNECTION. 

 The following is a summary of the report of the 

 statistics of this body, as they were made to 

 the conference of 1876 : Number of members 

 in the Society, 176,836; of ministers, 1,080; 

 of local preachers, 15,305 ; of class-leaders, 

 10,884 ; of connectional chapels, 4,038 ; of 

 other preaching-places, 2,435 ; of Sunday- 

 schools, 8,760; of teachers in the same, 53,- 

 949; of Sunday-school scholars, 334,991; of 

 day-schools, 28; of teachers in the same, 57; 

 of scholars in the same, 2,666. An increase in 

 the number of members was shown larger than 

 any increase which had been reported since 

 1860. The day-schools of the connection de- 

 crease in numbers from year to year, as they 

 are absorbed in the schools of the several 

 school boards. 



The following statistics of chapels were re- 

 ported to the conference : Number of chapels, 

 8,915; cost of the same, 1,750,274; debt 

 upon them, 696,346; value of the chapels, 

 1,831,416 ; total year's income of trust estates, 

 216,291; total outgo, 201,885; total num- 

 ber of sittings, 763,927; total number of hear- 

 ers at the principal services, 476,909. One 

 hundred and thirty-eight of the churches in- 

 cluded in the table had been built during the 

 year, at a cost of 113,183. The total in- 

 come of the general chapel-fund had been 

 1.114. 



The fifty-seventh Annual Conference of the 

 Primitive Methodist Connection met at New- 

 castle-on-Tyne, June 7th. The Rev. J. Dick- 

 enson was elected president. A six years' 

 course of study was recommended for young 

 ministers, four years of which should be obli- 

 gatory and during the period of probation, and 

 two years optional. A new basis of represen- 

 tation in the conference was adopted. It pro- 

 vides that representation shall be according to 

 numbers, in the ratio, for the home and colo- 

 nial stations, of three delegates to the confer- 

 ence for every three thousand members, frac- 

 tional parts of three thousand not to be counted. 

 It was provided for the home-mission stations 

 that they should send nine delegates to the 

 conference. The Committee on Ministerial 

 Training, appointed by the previous confer- 

 ence, reported, recommending the establish- 



ment of a Theological Institution at Manches- 

 ter. A site had been selected, to be leased 

 perpetually, and subscriptions of 2,047 had 

 been given and promised for the building for 

 the institution. The plans contemplated a 

 building to cost 5,000. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to proceed with the undertaking, as 

 the state of the funds might warrant. A peti- 

 tion was unanimously voted to the House of 

 Commons in favor of the universal establish- 

 ment of school boards, and against certain 

 features of Lord Sandon's elementary educa- 

 tional bill, which were characterized as favor- 

 ing denominational schools, as tending to pau- 

 perize the lower section of the working-classes, 

 and to lower the standard of education in 

 teachers. 



IX. METHODIST NEW CoNNEcnoir. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistical report 

 of this body for 1876, presented to the Annual 

 Conference in June : Number of chapels, 447 ; 

 of societies, 425 ; of circuit preachers, 169 ; of 

 local preachers, 1,134; of members, 24,163; 

 of probationers, 2,927 ; of Sunday-schools, 420 ; 

 of teachers in the same, 10,490; of scholars in 

 the same, 73,268. 



The eightieth Annual Conference of the 

 Methodist New Connection met at Dewsbury, 

 June 12th. The Rev. Charles D. Ward, of 

 Halifax, was chosen president. A plan was 

 agreed to for reuniting the Home and the For- 

 eign and Colonial Missions funds. A petition 

 was adopted for presentation to the House of 

 Commons, asking that body to give its sanction 

 to the Permissive Prohibitory Liquor bill, or in 

 some other way to intrust the inhabitants of 

 those districts in which a large majority desire 

 to be freed from the evils occasioned by in- 

 temperance with the power of restricting or 

 preventing the issue of licenses for the sale of 

 intoxicating liquors. A petition to the House 

 of Commons was also adopted against the Edu- 

 cation bill, which was then before Parliament. 

 The petition objected to the bill because 1. 

 It made no provision for the establishment of 

 an unsectarian elementary school in every 

 locality, and, in case compulsion were exer- 

 cised, children of all denominations would be 

 forced to attend sectarian schools ; 2. It made 

 it possible, by a certain one of its provisions, 

 for the managers of sectarian schools to have 

 the entire control of the education of many 

 districts placed in their hands; 8. By the 

 general operation of the bill, should it become 

 law, schools which are kept in existence for 

 sectarian purposes will be strengthened and 

 supported out of the public funds, and the es- 

 tablishment of board schools, directly under 

 the control of the rate-payers, will be materially 

 obstructed, and in many parts of the country 

 entirely prevented. The conference, there- 

 fore, prayed the House not to pass this meas- 

 ure in its present form, nor, indeed, any meas- 

 ure which will favor sectarianism at the ex- 

 pense of national and undenominational educa- 

 tion, or which will hand over additional funds, 



