METHODISTS. 



549 



adopted in favor of an energetic prosecution 

 of home-mission enterprises, and pledging the 

 Board to establish a mission in Japan as soon 

 as a sufficient amount of money is furnished by 

 the Church, and a properly qualified man can 

 be found to serve as a missionary. The Board 

 has already undertaken the education of some 

 native girls in the Home of the Woman's Union 

 Missionary Society at Yokohama, Japan. 



IV. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN CAN- 

 ADA. The General Conference of the Method- 

 ist Episcopal Church in Canada met at Belle- 

 ville, Ontario, August 27th. The most impor- 

 tant business transacted was the adoption by a 

 unanimous vote of a measure for the represen- 

 tation of the laymen in the General Conference, 

 provided a vote of the majority of the mem- 

 bers of the Church shall be given in favor of 

 such representation. The measure provides 

 that the General Conference shall consist of 

 an equal number of lay and clerical delegates, 

 to be chosen in the ratio of one of each order 

 for every four members of the Annual Confer- 

 ence. The lay delegates are to be elected by 

 an electoral college chosen by the quarterly 

 meetings. They must be twenty-five years 

 of age, and have been members of the Church 

 for at least three consecutive years preceding 

 their election. A great increase was reported 

 in the material resources and membership of 

 the Church within the previous four years, but 

 the receipts for church extension had been 

 meager. A report was adopted expressing ap- 

 proval of the institution of camp meetings, of 

 the establishment of permanent grounds, and 

 of the organization of Sunday-school parlia- 

 ments and children's meetings in connection 

 with them. It was decided to hold a Sunday- 

 school parliament under the supervision of the 

 whole Church on the St. Lawrence Camp 

 Ground in tlie next year. A committee, con- 

 sisting of the presiding elders in the several 

 Conferences, was appointed to take charge of 

 the subject of a semi-centennial celebration of 

 the organization of the Methodist Church in 

 Canada, and of the measures to be adopted and 

 funds collected in connection with the same. 



V. METHODIST CHURCH OF CANADA. The 

 following is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church, as they were given by the retiring Pres- 

 ident, Dr. Ryerson, in his address to the Gen- 

 eral Conference of 1878 : 



The statistics show an increase of 134 preach- 

 ers and 20,499 members to have taken place 

 since 1874. The total number of Sunday schools 



was 1,732, with 15,811 officers and teachers, 

 and 122,157 scholars. 



The General Conference of the Methodist 

 Church of Canada met at Montreal September 

 4th. The Rev. George Douglas, D. D., LL. D., 

 was chosen President. The Central Board of 

 Missions was defined to consist of the President 

 of the General Conference, the officers of the 

 Missionary Society, one minister to be chosen 

 annually by each of the Conferences, one lay- 

 man to be chosen annually by the layman of 

 the local Missionary Committee, and six other 

 persons, one half of whom shall be laymen, to 

 be appointed by the General Conference, and 

 who shall continue in office for four years. A 

 committee which had been appointed by the 

 previous General Conference, to obtain legisla- 

 tion from the several provincial Legislatures for 

 the purpose of vesting in the Methodist Church 

 of Canada the property formerly held by 

 the several churches now forming the united 

 Church, reported that such legislation had been 

 secured in all the provinces except Manitoba 

 and the Bermudas, 



VI. WESLEYAN CONNECTION. The returns 

 of members in the Wesleyan Connection for 

 1877-'78 give: In Great Britain ministers, 

 1,412 ; on trial, 208 ; supernumeraries, 249 ; 

 members, 380,876; on trial, 24,000. In Ire- 

 land and the Irish missions ministers, minis- 

 ters on trial, and supernumeraries, 265 ; mem- 

 bers, 26,600; on trial, 506. In the French 

 Conference ministers and supernumeraries, 

 26; members, 1,888. In the foreign missions 

 ministers, 288; members, 83,9(59. Total- 

 ministers, 2,448 ; members and persons on trial 

 for membership, 517,333. 



The Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist 

 Connection met for its one hundred and thirty- 

 fifth annual session at Bradford, July 23d. 

 The Rev. John H. Rigg, D. D., was chosen 

 President, having received the largest number 

 of votes ever cast by the Conference for a sin- 

 gle candidate for that office. The first two 

 weeks of the session were occupied in the pas- 

 toral sessions, when the ministers sat alone, 

 under the plan which had been adopted in the 

 previous year for the admission of the laity to 

 the Conference, for the transaction of the busi- 

 ness which had been committed to them exclu- 

 sively. During the pastoral sessions Bishop 

 Thomas Bowman, D. D., and the Rev. E. O. 

 Haven, D. D., Chancellor of Syracuse Univer- 

 sity, were received as fraternal delegates from 

 the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church in the United States; and a 

 fraternal deputation was, for the first time, 

 received from the Primitive Methodist Con- 

 ference, in return for which the Conference 

 resolved to send a deputation to the next Primi- 

 tive Methodist Conference. The Missionary 

 Committee announced that they had fitted up 

 a room in the Centenary Hall to be used as a 

 Museum of Methodist Antiquities and Literary 

 Records, for which contributions were invited. 

 The statistics of numerical returns showed that 



