606 



METHODISTS. 



Whole number of members and probation- 

 ers, 1,700,302 ; number of baptisms during the 

 year, 56,565 of children, 63,218 of adults; 

 number of churches, 19,955, of the probable 

 value of $62,520,417; number of parsonages, 

 5,689, of the probable value of $8,445,092; 

 number of Sunday-schools, 20,359, with 217,- 

 967 officers and teachers, and 1,549,315 schol- 

 ars. Amount of benevolent contributions : for 

 Conference claimants, $127,002 ; for the Mis- 

 sionary Society, $481,199; for the Woman's 

 Foreign Missionary Society, $62,243; for 

 church extension, $62,094; for the Tract So- 

 ciety, $12,070 ; for the Sunday-School Union, 



$12,575; for the Freedmen's Aid Society, 

 $34,546; for education, $27,074; for the 

 American Bible Society, $25,950. A compari- 

 son of the statistics of the Church by decades 

 since 1777 shows that a large increase of mem- 

 bers has taken place in every decade, except 

 in the one from 1837 to 1847, when the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church, South, with 462,428 

 members, was separated, causing an apparent 

 decrease of 22,103 members. The increase of 

 members from 1867 to 1877 was 525,527. The 

 list of educational institutions of the Church 

 includes 34 universities and colleges, 11 theo- 

 logical institutions, and 90 seminaries, acade- 

 mies, and colleges for young women, which 

 return altogether about 21,000 students, and 

 property {including buildings, grounds, furni- 

 ture, apparatus, libraries, and endowment 

 funds) valued at about $11,500,000. 



The twelfth anniversary of the Freedmen's 

 Aid Society was held at Jersey City, N. J., 

 November llth. The receipts of the Society 

 for the year ending July 1, 1879, had been 

 $75,260, and the Society closed the year with a 

 debt of $9,326. The whole amount which had 

 been collected and disbursed for the purposes of 

 the Society in twelve years was given at $788,- 

 892. Sixty thousand pupils had been taught 

 during the last twelve years, and pupils trained 

 in the schools of the Society had taught at least 

 three hundred thousand of the colored race 

 scattered over the South. A quarter of a mil- 

 lion dollars had been invested in permanent 

 school property. Of the special work of the 

 year, the report stated that seventy teachers 

 had been sustained, and a missionary move- 

 ment had been started in behalf of women in 

 New Orleans. Additions and improvements 

 had been made to the property of Wiley Uni- 

 versity, Claflin University, Cookman Institute 

 at Jacksonville, Fla., and Meharry Medical 

 College. The last institution had graduated 

 three classes of young men, several of whom 

 had distinguished themselves in work among 

 yellow -fever patients. 



The annual meeting of the General Mission- 

 ary Committee of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church was held in the city of New York in 

 November. The report of the treasurer showed 

 that the receipts of the Missionary Society for 

 the year ending October 31st had been $551,- 

 859, or $494 more than those for the preceding 

 year. Appropriations were made for the en- 

 suing year to the amount of $678,869. 



The tenth annual meeting of the Executive 

 Committee of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 

 Society was held in Chicago, 111., May 23d. 

 The receipts of the Society for the year had 

 been $67,028. The whole number of auxiliary 

 local societies was 2,172, and the number of 

 contributing members 55,560. " The Heathen 

 Woman's Friend," the periodical organ of the 

 Society, had a subscription list of 13,461 names. 

 Eleven missionaries had been sent out during 

 the year. 



The committee which had been appointed 



