METHODISTS. 



000 



numerical returns show on increase of 1,531 

 church members, with 10,815 on trial, and 

 1,698 children in the schools above the num- 

 ber reported in 1878. A mission had been 

 begun within the year among the Telugus at 

 Madras, India. The mission on the Gambia 

 had suffered from the effects of the climate 

 upon the missionaries. The operations of a 

 mission at Lagos, Africa, had been suspended 

 in consequence of the death of the missionary. 

 The Wesleyan Conference met in its 136th 

 session at Birmingham, July 22d. The Rev. 

 Benjamin Gregory was chosen President. The 

 previous Conference had appointed a com- 

 mittee to consider financial interests, with the 

 view to providing means for paying the debts of 

 the several funds and preventing the accumu- 

 lation of debts in the future. This committee 

 had matured a scheme for raising a fund to bo 

 called the Wesleyan Methodist Thanksgiving 

 Fund, to be divided among the educational, 

 missionary, and benevolent enterprises, and 

 had organized a series of circuit and district 

 meetings to be hold in behalf of the same. The 

 committee reported to the Conference what 

 they had done, and that 175,000 had been 

 subscribed to the fund, of which 50,000 had 

 been paid in, enabling the treasurers to dis- 

 charge half the connectional debt and pay 12,- 

 000 into the hands of the treasurers of the new 

 theological institution. There still remained 

 twelve districts in which central, and 504 cir- 

 cuits in which circuit meetings had not been 

 held. The Conference approved the scheme 

 which the committee had prepared, and ad- 

 vised that the remaining circuit and district 

 meetings be held, and as many local meetings 

 besides as should be practicable. The income 

 of the Home Mission for the year had heen 

 27,011, of which amount the home mission 

 stations had contributed 2,090. The Con- 

 ference approved of regulations for the employ- 

 ment of district missionaries under the direc- 

 tion of the chairmen of the districts, and for a 

 more general and systematic employment of 

 lay agents. The Sustentation Fund was es- 

 tablished in 1874, for the purpose of securing a 

 clear income of 150 per annum to each mar- 

 ried minister, and of 80 to each unmarried 

 minister. During the five years of its existence 

 a total increase of 24,477, or an average of 4,- 

 895 a year, had taken place in the allowances 

 to ministers. The fund was now established 

 in thirty out of the thirty-three districts, and 

 the number of circuits paying less than the 

 minimum had been reduced from 872 to 217. 

 The Committee for the Extension of Methodism 

 in Great Britain had appropriated during the 

 year 9,588 to 133 chapels. The Committee 

 of the Theological Institute reported that the 

 expenditures of the institution bad exceeded its 

 income by upward of 3,000. Measures were 

 adopted to retrench expenses and secure more 

 frequent and larger contributions from the 

 churches for the support of the institution. 

 The new college to be established will be called 

 VOL. xix. 39 A 



"the Birmingham Branch of the Theological 

 Institution." The promises made to the Aux- 

 iliary Fund amounted to 100,000, of which 

 76,000 were paid in. The Schools Fund re- 

 ported a deficiency averaging 5,000 a year. 

 The foreign missions were prospering in every 

 aspect but the financial one, in which a course 

 of retrenchments had had to be decided upon. 

 The Conference decided to give notice to the 

 Australasian Conference of the termination of 

 the arrangement under which the Australasian 

 and South Sea missions are supplemented by 

 grants from the Wesleyan Missionary Society. 

 In the Pastoral Conference, a proposition made 

 by the General Conference of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church in the United States for 

 holding an Oecumenical Conference of Meth- 

 odist Churches was approved. The report on 

 this subject stated, however, that the scheme 

 is on such a large scale, that considerable time 

 must yet elapse before it can he fully carried 

 into effect. A legal question arose during the 

 discussion of the report on the revision of the 

 Liturgy and Book of Offices, on which the dis- 

 cussion was suspended until the next Confer- 

 ence, in order that the opinion of counsel might 

 he taken on the point in doubt. The numerical 

 report showed that the whole number of mem- 

 bers within the immediate jurisdiction of the 

 Conference was 377,612, showing a decrease of 

 3,264 from the previous year, notwithstand- 

 ing that 61,137 persons had been received on 

 trial. 



VII. OTHER METHODIST CHURCHES. The fol-| 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of the 

 Primitive Methodist Church of Great Britain, 

 as they were reported to the Conference in 

 June, 1879: Number of members, 182,877; of 

 ministers, 1,135 ; of local preachers, 15,634; of 

 class-leaders, 10,454; of connectional chapels, 

 4,257; of other places of worship, 2,053; of 

 Sunday-schools, 4,022, with 58,275 teachers, 

 365,004 scholars, and 4,579 catechumens ; pres- 

 ent value of chapels, 2,238,787 ; number of 

 chapels built in 1878, 118, at a cost of 129,- 

 389. 



The sixtieth annual Primitive Methodist Con- 

 ference met at Leeds, June llth. The Rev. 

 Thomas Newell was chosen President. Atten- 

 tion was given to the case of the mission in the 

 island of Fernando Po, Africa, which had been 

 hroken up through the expulsion of one mis- 

 sionary by the Spanish Government and' the 

 death of another. The Conference made a rep- 

 resentation of the matter to the British Gov- 

 ernment, and in answer to its petition a letter 

 was received from the Foreign Office stoting 

 that her Majesty's Minister at Madrid would 

 be instructed to ask permission for Mr. Hol- 

 land, the expelled missionary, to return to the 

 island. The Conference resolved to continue 

 the mission and give it additional force. 



The statistical reports of the United Method- 

 it Free Churches, presented to the Annual As- 

 sembly in July, 1879, showed that the whole 

 number of members was 72,309, of whom 65,- 



