548 



METHODISTS. 



a Book Committee of six ministers and seven 

 laymen, who should have the ultimate direc- 

 tion of the affairs of the Concern, to whom the 

 book agent should be responsible. It also 

 provided that the agent should be assisted by 

 a business manager and publisher, who should 

 be employed by himself with the consent of 

 the Book Committee, and should be a layman. 



The report of the Board of Education to the 

 General Conference gave the number of ascer- 

 tained literary institutions under the care of 

 the Church as 87, with 6,928 students attend- 

 ing them. The property of the institutions 

 was valued at $2,097,000, and their libraries 

 contained a total of 74,650 volumes. 



The eighth General Conference of the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church, South, met at Atlanta, 

 Ga., May 1st. The quadrennial address of the 

 bishops presented a review of the condition of 

 the Church during the four years that had 

 elapsed since the preceding General Confer- 

 ence. The Church had enjoyed entire peace 

 and harmony, and had received large accessions 

 of members from- extensive revivals. New 

 churches had been built in improved styles of 

 architecture, and many parsonages had been 

 provided. A more homogeneous eccelesiastical 

 community, it was claimed, did not exist on the 

 continent. Although Vanderbilt University 

 had gone into operation with complete depart- 

 ments, free from debt and with fair prospects 

 for success, the educational institutions as a 

 whole had not flourished u in proportion to 

 their merits or the hopes of the Church." The 

 foreign missions, in China and Mexico, and 

 among the Indians and Germans of the United 

 States, justified all the expenditures that had 

 been made upon them, and would demand 

 larger appropriations in the future. The mis- 

 sion to Brazil was still in its infancy, but it 

 was judiciously located and deserved the fos- 

 tering care of the Church. The District Con- 

 ference had proved its utility in promoting the 

 general interests of the Church and developing 

 its social elements. The success of the mea- 

 sures for establishing fraternity with the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church was reported by the 

 bishops " with unfeigned pleasure," and the 

 proposition of the General Conference of the 

 latter body for the holding of an oecumenical 

 conference of all the Methodist bodies in the 

 world was approved by them. The report of 

 the Commissioners on Fraternity (with the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church) appointed by the 

 preceding General Conference, embodying the 

 proceedings of the sessions of the Commis- 

 sioners in conjunction with the similar Com- 

 missioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 and the agreement establishing fraternal rela- 

 tions which resulted from them, was presented, 

 with the statement that by the appointment of 

 the Commission the action was final. The Con- 

 ference ordered the report spread upon the 

 journal and the documents accompanying it 

 deposited in its archives, and gave thanks to 

 the Commissioners for " the eminently satis- 



factory manner in which they discharged their 

 delicate and onerous task." The Conference 

 gave its hearty approval to the proposal for an 

 O3cumenical conference of Methodist churches, 

 and authorized and directed the bishops to ap- 

 point a committee with powers to arrange such 

 a conference and represent the Church in the 

 correspondence necessary thereto, and to ap- 

 point delegates to represent the Church in the 

 conference. The bishops were requested to 

 open a correspondence with the bishops and 

 presiding officers of all the other Methodist 

 General Conferences on the continent, with ref- 

 erence to the celebration of the centenary of 

 the organization of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church in America; and the bishops and pre- 

 siding officers aforesaid were requested to pre- 

 pare a programme for a suitable observance of 

 the occasion in the city of Baltimore, Md., on 

 the 25th of December, 1884. A communica- 

 tion was received from the bishops of the Col- 

 ored Methodist Episcopal Church, in which the 

 attention of the Conference was called to some 

 questions existing between members of the Col-, 

 ored Methodist Episcopal Church and members 

 of the Church South. The Conference replied 

 to the communication that it was satisfied that 

 all the cases in which the colored churches had 

 failed to confirm the titles to church property 

 they claimed were cases of the existence of legal 

 defects ; that no case was known where prop- 

 erty formerly belonging to colored people had 

 been sold and the money diverted to other pur- 

 poses ; and that no funds arising from such 

 sales were in the hands of the Conference or 

 under its control. All boards of trustees still 

 holding title to property erected for the use of 

 colored members were directed to transfer the 

 title of the same to trustees duly appointed by 

 the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 

 America, whenever it could be done without 

 violation of State laws or contravention of the 

 vested rights of congregations. The people of 

 the Church were advised to give substantial 

 aid to the efforts made by the brethren of the 

 Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to estab- 

 lish institutions for the improvement of their 

 people. A report on the general subject of 

 the education of the colored people urged the 

 importance of such education as an essential 

 measure to increase the capacity of this people 

 as political agents and to purify the sources of 

 political power, and as important for the reli- 

 gious interests and eternal destiny of this race. 

 Fraternal delegates or letters were received 

 from a larger number of Methodist bodies than 

 had ever before exchanged courtesies with the 

 General Conference. Among them was the 

 General Conference of the African Methodist 

 Episcopal Church. 



III. METHODIST PKOTESTANT CHURCH. The 

 Board of Missions of the Methodist Protestant 

 Church met at Springfield, Ohio, July 2d. The 

 total receipts for the year had been $2,199, 

 and the disbursements $1,911. The permanent 

 fund amounted to $1,610. ^Resolutions were 



