METHODISTS. 



607 



by tho General Conference in 1876 to further 

 tho design of calling an (Ecumenical Confer- 

 ence of Methodism, reported on November 6th 

 that it hud laid the matter of the proposed 

 Conference before the representative bodies of 

 the Methodist Protestant Church, the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Chnrch, South, the American 

 Wesleyan Church, and tho Evangelical Asso- 

 ciation, in the United States; also before the 

 representative bodies of the Methodist Church 

 and the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cana- 

 da, and the Wesleyau Methodist Connection in 

 Great Britain. Every one of these representa- 

 tive bodies had taken action in favor of tho 

 Conference, and had appointed a committee, 

 or provided for its appointment, to act in tho 

 business and for the furtherance of tho objects 

 of the Conference. The committee now judged 

 it to be necessary that a joint meeting of the 

 committees of these bodies, or of their chair- 

 men, or of some persons authorized to act in 

 their stead, should be held to prepare the call 

 for an (Ecumenical Conference, determine tho 

 time and place of its meeting, suggest a basis 

 of representation, and provide for essential 

 preliminary details, and proposed that it bo 

 held in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 6, 1880. It also 

 expressed the desire that the meeting might bo 

 attended, not only by the representatives of 

 the several Methodist bodies which had taken 

 action in favor of the (Ecumenical Conference, 

 but also, so far as practicable, by authorized 

 representatives of all other Methodist organi- 

 zations in every part of the world. 



II. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 

 Tho following is a summary of the statistics of 

 tho Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as 

 they were published in May, 1879 : Number 

 of traveling preachers, 3,457 ; of superannuated 

 preachers, 306 ; of local preachers, 5,762 ; of 

 white members, 783,211 ; of colored members, 

 1,428 ; of Indian members, 4,698 ; whole num- 

 ber of ministers and members, 798,862, show- 

 ing an increase in one year of 24,120. Num- 

 ber of Sunday-schools, 7,262, with 54,667 

 teachers and 391,293 scholars. Amount of 

 collections for Conference claimants, $60,425 ; 

 for foreign and domestic missions, $110,551. 



The present Book Committee of this Church 

 after their entrance into office in 1878 found 

 that the indebtedness of the Publishing House 

 amounted to $300,000, of which $100,000 were 

 in ten per cent, bonds, and tho rest consisted 

 of the vender's lien on the real estate and the 

 floating debt. The committee undertook to 

 pay the interest on the bonds as it accrued, 

 and obtained from tho other creditors an indul- 

 gence until July 1, 1879. On May 1, 1879, 

 the House under this arrangement had paid 

 $10,500 of interest on its first-mortgage bonds, 

 and had a few thousand dollars in hand, an 

 increased stock in trade, and a constantly 

 growing business ; and tho committee was con- 

 vinced of the ability of the House to pay four 

 per cent, on its entire indebtedness, meet all 

 current expenses, and provide an annual fund 



for the gradual reduction of the debt. The 

 committee had obtained subscriptions of $221,- 

 000 on its four per cent, bonds, conditioned 

 on the whole amount of $800,000 being sub- 

 scribed. 



The Missionary Board of tho Church, at its 

 annual meeting in May, made appropriations 

 of $79,946 to the support of the foreign and 

 domestic missions, of which $15,606 were al- 

 lotted to China, $27,715 to Mexico and the 

 Mexican Border mission, $5,800 to Brazil, and 

 $9,000 to tho Indian Mission Conference. 



Tho first annual convention of the Woman's 

 Missionary Society was held in Louisville, Ky., 

 in May. The sum of $3,719 had been collected 

 for the use of tho Society. 



III. AMEEIOAN WHSLEYAIT CONNECTION. 

 The numerical strength of this denomination 

 was estimated at the General Conference of 

 1879 to be about 18,000 members. A pub- 

 lishing house has recently been completed in 

 Syracuse, N. Y., at a cost of $40,000, free of 

 debt. The Connection has a seminary at Wasi- 

 ogy, Minn., with about $20,000 of real estate, 

 $10,000 in scholarships, and $4,000 in endow- 

 ments. The ''American Wesleyan," a general 

 weekly religious newspaper, the' "Children's 

 Banner," semi-monthly, and the " Bible Stand- 

 ard," a monthly periodical, are published by 

 the denomination at Syracuse. The agent of 

 the Publishing House reported to the General 

 Conference that the establishment had prop- 

 erty to the amount of $37,392, and $3,000 to 

 the credit of the missionary fund. 



The tenth quadrennial General Conference 

 of the Connection met at Pittsford, Mich., Oc- 

 tober 15th. The Kev. N. Warduer was chosen 

 President. The Conference was occupied dur- 

 ing the principal part of its session with the 

 revision of the Discipline, and made a large 

 number of changes, one effect of which will be 

 to reduce considerably the size of the book. 

 The denomination being strongly opposed to 

 secret societies on grounds of principle, a reso- 

 lution was passed that no minister should be in- 

 troduced to the Conference who was an adher- 

 ing member of such a society, particularly of 

 the Masonic order. The Rev. T. H. Lynch pre- 

 sented his credentials as a fraternal delegate 

 from the General Conference of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church ; but, as it was understood 

 that he was a member of the Masonic order, 

 his introduction was deferred. A report was 

 made of the vote which had been taken on an 

 amendment to tho rule in the Discipline in ref- 

 erence to secret societies, showing that it had 

 been carried ; and the amendment was made a 

 law excluding the members of all secret socie- 

 ties from membership in the churches. An 

 invitation was presented from the General Con- 

 ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to 

 the Wesleynn denomination to take part in the 

 proposed (Ecumenical Council of Methodism. 

 The vote on accepting the invitation resulted in 

 a tie, and the question was decided in the af- 

 firmative by tho casting vote of the President. 



