366 



METHODISTS. 



subsequent general conferences. The Methodist 

 Episcopal Deaconess Society was organized in 

 1895, and has been incorporated. It was intended 

 to form a bond of union between deaconess 

 workers in various fields of labor, and is compe- 

 tent to hold property for the care of disabled dea- 

 conesses, and to hold property temporarily till 

 it can be placed under the care of a local board. 

 Deaconess institutions have multiplied rapidly, 

 and are numerous in the United States, at Meth- 

 odist centers in Europe, and at foreign mission 

 stations. 



Fifteen children's and orphans' homes and 

 schools are sustained by various benevolent soci- 

 eties and special organizations within the Church. 

 Among numerous other institutions under the 

 control of boards or members of this Church are 

 is homes for the aged and 19 hospitals. 



Chapters of the Epworth League are established 

 in all countries where the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church exists. The enrollment for 1900 repre- 

 sents 20,420 regular chapters and 7,300 junior 

 chapters, with a total of 1,900,000 members. The 

 league is under the direction of a board of control 

 composed of ministers and laymen, one half of 

 whom are appointed by the bishops and one half 

 elected by the General Conference districts. 



The total receipts of the Sunday School Union 

 for the year ending Nov. 30, 1899, were $23,381, 

 and the disbursements were $19,300. It made re- 

 turn, besides the schools in the United States, 

 of 4,204 schools in foreign lands, with 10,357 offi- 

 cers and teachers and 189,369 scholars, showing 

 an increase for the year of 364 schools (foreign), 

 700 officers and teachers, and 15,559 scholars. 



The receipts of the Tract Society for the year 

 ending Nov. 30, 1899, were $18,747, and its dis- 

 bursements $24,723. During 1899 grants of books 

 and tracts were made to China, India, Africa, 

 Japan, Korea, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Ger- 

 many, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria, Mexico, Chili, 

 and the Argentine Republic. Iracts were also dis- 

 tributed in every part of the United States to pas- 

 tors in their regular work, to immigrants, to in- 

 mates of hospitals, prisons, and asylums, and to 

 sailors and soldiers, the aggregate of distribution 

 in the United States being 9,377,000 pages. Be- 

 sides these, 1,848,000 copies being a weekly aver- 

 age of 35,338 copies of the perioidcal Good Tidings 

 were circulated in the South in connection with the 

 work of the Sunday School Union. 



The annual meeting of the Board of Education 

 was held in New York city, Dec. 5. The treas- 

 urer reported that the income from Children's 

 Day collections, interest on invested funds, re- 

 turned loans, gifts, and legacies had been $129,370. 

 Kighteen hundred and thirty students, represent- 

 ing 20 different nationalities, had been aided with 

 $81,794. Several large gifts and legacies had been 

 received. The board ordered that hereafter persons 

 contributing to its work $1,000 or more should 

 have a fund created to bear either the name of 

 the donor or some name suggested by him. 



Church Extension. The General Committee 

 on Church Extension met in Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 Nov. 8. The receipts for the year from all sources 

 had been $386,410, or $48,441 more than in 1899. 

 The sum of $229,118 had been available for use 

 in donations, etc., on account of the general fund, 

 and $314,576 on account of the Loan fund. 

 Loans to the amount of $129,290 had been re- 

 turned. Additional care had been taken in the 

 collection of loans. Mention was made in the re- 

 port of the losses suffered in many parts of the 

 country from storms and floods, as likely to result 

 in calls for aid in rebuilding or restoring church 

 property. The receipts from the beginning of the 



society, in 1865, to Oct. 31, 1900, had been $6,945,- 

 969, and during the same period 11,677 churches 

 had been aided. A call had been issued in 1899 

 for $1,000,000 in thank offerings for church ex- 

 tension, for the erection of 1,000 churches each 

 on the Frontier and Mountain fund plans, for 

 securing additions to the Loan fund, and for the 

 payment of debts on churches that had been aided 

 by" the board; toward this sum $298,161 had been 

 received. Appropriations of $335,547 were made 

 for the ensuing year. 



Freedmen's Aid. and Southern Education. 

 The annual meeting of the Freedmen's Aid and 

 Southern Education Society was held in Newark, 

 N. J., Nov. 12 and 13. The reports represented 

 that interest on the part of the Church in the 

 cause for which the society is concerned had con- 

 siderably increased. The receipts for the year had 

 been $355,805 (of which $11,425 were entered 

 "Treasury overdrawn 5 '), and showed a net in- 

 crease of $4,124 over those of the previous year. 

 The expenditures had been $355,805, of which 

 $171,773 were for schools among colored people 

 and $47,815 for schools among whites. The 

 amount of indebtedness was $154,891, showing a 

 reduction of $23,183 during the year. It was de- 

 cided at the meeting to ask the conferences to 

 give $100,000 additional of contributions to be ap- 

 plied to the payment of this debt, and the total 

 amount asked from the conferences for the ensuing 

 year was $251,950. Secretaries and pastors were 

 advised, when presenting the work of the society 

 to the people, to lay special stress on its industrial 

 aspects, and to appeal for special gifts for the 

 larger development and better support of the in- 

 dustrial plants. An appropriation of $12,500 for 

 industrial education was recommended, to be dis- 

 tributed among different schools. The following 

 resolution was adopted: " 1. That we deprecate the 

 action taken by some of the States of the Union, 

 which, by constitutional provision, is designed to 

 disfranchise a class of voters whose right to all 

 the privileges of citizenship is secured by the 

 amendments to the Constitution of the United 

 States, and that we protest, in the name of justice 

 and of that equality before the law which has 

 been the boast of the American people, against 

 such tests and provisions for voters as can not 

 operate equally with all classes without regard to 

 color, race, or previous conditions. 2. That while 

 we favor the use of an educational test which 

 shall not discriminate against any class on other 

 grounds, we earnestly protest against what is 

 known as the ' grandfather clause ' as partial, un- 

 just, un-American, undemocratic, and oppressive. 

 3. That the time is here when representation in 

 Congress should be based upon the number of 

 voters in the States, and not on the population 

 as a whole, or some other constitutional provision 

 is made that will give to each State an equivalent 

 representation in the House of Representatives." 



Women's Societies. The Woman's Home Mis- 

 sionary Society met in its annual convention at 

 Chicago, 111., Oct. 17. The treasurer reported an 

 advance of more than $50,000 in receipts. Of the 

 $200,000 pledged for the Twentieth Century Thank- 

 offering fund, $100.000 had been secured. A be- 

 quest of $25,000 and gifts of $.3,000 and $10,000 

 were mentioned. Several of the society's homes 

 had been enlarged during the year; the Bohemian 

 industrial building, at Baltimore, Md., had been 

 completed ; land had been purchased in Washing- 

 ton. D. C., and paid for, for Rust Hall : and net- 

 work had been opened in the Hawaiian Islands 

 and Porto Rico. 



The reports made to the General Executive 

 Committee of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 



