458 



METHODISTS. 



started in the previous year in east China, to 

 which 4 missionaries, with their wives, were 

 appointed. The Chinese work in British Co- 

 lumbia returned 190 members. The missions to 

 the Indians in British Columbia, Manitoba, and 

 the Northwest, and in the central conferences, 

 were supplied by 46 missionaries, and had 

 4,330 members. The French mission work in- 

 cluded 7 missions, with 7 missionaries and 278 

 members. The home or domestic mission work 

 returned 393 missionaries, with 35,083 members. 

 An important feature of the French mission 

 work was the Institute, which was attended by 

 the French Catholic and Protestant children. 



X. Wesleyan Methodist Church. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church in the British and affiliated conferences 

 as they were returned to the British Conference 

 in July : 



Missionary and other Benevolent Societies. 

 The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Mission- 

 ary Society was held in London, May 2. Mr. John 

 R. Hill, of York, presided. The financial state- 

 ment showed that the receipts for the year had 

 been 125,129, and the disbursements 129,197. 

 Moneys accruing to the society would probably 

 cancel the adverse balance, but the deficit of 

 19,000 at the opening of the year 1891 had been 

 reduced by only 2,014. The reports from the 

 mission fields showed that while the number of 

 missionaries abroad had slightly decreased, there 

 had been an increase upon the previous year of 70 

 paid agents evangelists, teachers, etc. 325 un- 

 paid agents, 1,500 full and accredited members, 

 1,000 persons on trial for membership, and 2,400 

 pupils in Sunday and day schools. While the 

 work of the society lay principally in Africa, In- 

 dia, and China, work had also been done by the 

 European missions in Italy, Germany, and France. 

 A special instance of rapid advance was pointed 

 to in a mission in the Transvaal. It was declared 

 _to be the constant endeavor of the missionaries 

 to raise up a native Christian agency. 



The Chapel Fund Committee had spent 378,- 

 139 during the year on new erections and the re- 

 duction of debt, 232.950 of which sum had been 

 raised by voluntary contributions. 



Wesleyan Conference. The one hundred and 

 ninth annual Conference .met in Bradford, July 

 19 The Rev. Dr. J. H. Rigg was chosen presi- 

 dent. A discussion of the subject of the exten- 

 sion of the term during which a minister may 

 serve continuously as pastor in the same station, 

 was concluded by appointing a committee 



to consider during the year the whole question of 

 the term of ministerial appointments in relation to 

 the needs both of special cases and of our circuits 

 generally, with a view to inquiry especially whether 

 any of the suggestions for extending the time, with 



the necessity of application to Parliament, are prac- 

 ticable or desirable, and to report to the next Confer- 

 ence. 



A proposed form of service for the recognition 

 of new members reported for insertion in the 

 ritual of the connection, was remitted for revi- 

 sion, with the expectation of presenting it to the 

 district meetings in May, 1893, for their consid- 

 eration. A proposition intended to encourage 

 religious study especially among young pupils, 

 for the appointment of an examining board to 

 confer certificates of proficiency in religious 

 knowledge, was approved, and referred to a com- 

 mittee appointed to consider the details of the 

 measure and report to the next Conference. In 

 contemplation of the holding of a third (Ecumen- 

 ical Methodist Conference in England in 1901, 

 ten members, representing the quota of the con- 

 nection, were appointed to serve on the eastern 

 section of the executive committee for that meet- 

 ing. Questions having been proposed, " merely 

 to draw attention to the matter,'' whether the 

 Theological Institutions Committee takes the 

 necessary precautions to ascertain the precise 

 teaching given in the colleges, and whether such 

 teaching is in accordance with the doctrinal 

 standards of Methodism ; and, if not, what se- 

 curity Methodist people can have that their stu- 

 dents are trained in the fundamental doctrines 

 of Methodism, and not in views that contravene 

 its doctrinal standards, the answer was given, 

 without any resolution, that the appointment of 

 the staff of the colleges is in the hands of the 

 conference, and the members of the staff are 

 subject t<> the same kind of test by the district 

 committees as all the other ministers are. A 

 proposition for enlarging the district meetings by 

 the special election to them of one or two laymen 

 from each circuit, was approved. A question con- 

 cerning the enforcement of the rule of baptism 

 as a condition of communicant membership was 

 brought up in the case of the Rev. Mr. Scott, of 

 Luton, who had refused tickets of membership 

 to two members who had not been baptized and 

 did not intend to be baptized. Upon this, the 

 Conference decided : 



1. That, in insisting on the divine authority and 

 abiding obligation of Christian baptism as the sacra- 

 ment of initiation into the visible Church, Mr. Scott 

 was right, and is to be commended, as well as for the 

 high sense of duty under which he acted. 2. That 

 Mr. Scott, however, erred in the following respects: 

 (a) In depriving of full membership those who had 

 already been recognized as members of the Church, 

 even though he did not anticipate from them any 

 final objection to being baptized, (b) In doing this, 

 in cases in which there was no necessity for immedi- 

 ate decision, without any conversation with the par- 

 ents of the young people, although the parents were 

 members of the Church, and without taking counsel 

 with his superintendent, and subsequently in not de- 

 ferring to his superintendent when he urged him to 

 give the tickets. 3. That though Mr. Scott was not 

 constitutionally bound to refer the matter to the lead- 

 ers' meeting before withholding the tickets of mem- 

 bership, yet Mr. Scott was bound, when a protest had 

 afterward arisen, to instruct the parties that the first 

 court of appeal is the leaders' meeting. 



The Conference, while it urged the young men 

 to submit themselves to the " divinely ordained 

 ordinance " of baptism, ordered them to be re- 

 stored at once to full membership. 



