METHODISTS. 



36T 



Society at its annual meeting in Worcester, Mass., 

 ( )ct. 24, showed an increase of more than $54,000 

 in receipts, the total amount raised during the 

 year having been $414,531. About $70,000 had 

 been contributed to the Thank-offering fund, 

 which now amounted to $118,000. Thirty mission- 

 aries had been sent out during the year, and 13 

 new missionaries were accepted. Appropriations 

 of $373,909 were made for the ensuing year. 



Missionary Society. The annual meeting of 

 the General Missionary Committee was held in 

 New York city, Nov. 14 to 20. The treasurer's 

 report showed that the total receipts of the Mis- 

 sionary Society from Nov. 1, 1899, to Oct. 31, 1900, 

 had been $1,223,904, and the disbursements $1,262,- 

 (iS2 ; and that the present indebtedness was 

 $49,813. In addition to the regular income, special 

 gifts of $76,803 had been received. Appropria- 

 tions of $625,324 were made for the foreign mis- 

 sions in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Denmark, Finland and St. Petersburg, Bulgaria, 

 Italy, Eastern and Western South America, Mex- 

 ico, Africa, China, Japan, Korea, India, and Ma- 

 laysia; $472,791 for domestic missions, $179,616 of 

 which were to be applied to non-English-speaking 

 populations in the United States; $120,160 for the 

 Contingent fund and miscellaneous objects, and 

 $23,904 for the debt ; making a total amount of 

 appropriations of $1,242,179. In addition to this 

 amount, $98,500 for special purposes were author- 

 ized to be appropriated conditionally. Recom- 

 mendations were made by the committee in refer- 

 ence to the collection for the Twentieth Century 

 Thank Offering to be taken in connection with the 

 regular collections for missions, to the effect that 

 whatever is raised in addition to the amount of 

 the collections of the previous year shall be the 

 Twentieth Century Thank Offering for missions, 

 iml a sum equal to the collections of the previous 

 year plus 5 per cent, of that sum shall be added 

 to legacies and lapsed annuities and appropriated 

 in 1901, and the remainder of the collections not 

 otherwise designated shall be appropriated to the 

 missions in foreign countries." 



Episcopal Address. The address of the bish- 

 ops to the General Conference began with a com- 

 parative review of the condition of the Church at 

 the time of the meeting of the first delegated Gen- 

 eral Conference in 1800 and now, showing, among 

 other things, that during the century the various 

 ~Iethodist churches in the United States, all hav- 

 ing been derived from the one church of 1800, have 

 increased from 61,000 communicants to nearly 

 3,000,000. It then described the proceedings had 

 in behalf of the Twentieth Century fund and the 

 present condition of the enterprise; reported the 

 transactions of the bishops and of the Episcopal 

 Board and the work in the mission fields, and re- 

 viewed the present state of the Church at consid- 

 erable length, under the several heads of numer- 

 ical growth, benevolence, doctrinal fidelity, and 

 spiritual life; attempting to account for some 

 phenomena of a less encouraging character which 

 had been recently developed. Of matters of church 

 polity, the results of the vote of the Church on 

 the proposition for the equal representation of the 

 clergy and laity in the General Conference was 

 mentioned as exhibiting a remarkable approach 

 to unanimity. The working for twelve years of 

 the change of the limit of pastoral service from 

 three to five years was spoken of as not answering 

 the expectations that had been entertained from it, 

 and the bishops expressed the opinion that " if 

 the General Conference shall not approve a return 

 to the three years' limit of annual appointments, 

 with well-defined and carefully guarded provisions 

 for necessary exceptions to this limit, then an 



entire removal of the time limit of annual ap- 

 pointments would be of advantage to the work." 

 On the subject of the Church and public morals, 

 the address maintained that the Church could not 

 permit the least abatement of its hostility against 

 the liquor traffic or relax its attitude toward 

 divorce. With regard to amusements, the restric- 

 tions prescribed in an earnest age like the ages 

 of Wesley and the Puritans could not be enforced 

 in their full measure under modern conditions of 

 society. " The attempt to enforce absolute ab- 

 stention from recreative amusements reacts toward 

 unrestrained indulgence. A discrimination be- 

 tween the admissible and the inadmissible is there- 

 fore imperative." Wesley's principle that the tak- 

 ing of such amusements as can not be taken in 

 the name of the Lord Jesus should be often reit- 

 erated and emphasized in this time of excessive 

 and questionable amusements. " Without sim- 

 plicity, moderation, and purity in his pleasure, the 

 Christian can not resist the forces that create an 

 age of triflers and sensualists. So great is this 

 danger that we suggest that it would be profitable 

 to place among the special advice in the Disci- 

 pline a brief but cogent statement of the perils 

 which attach to many amusements, of the evils 

 inseparable from others, and of the principles by 

 which the Christian should regulate his choice 

 among and his use of them." As regards Christian 

 unity, " the Methodist Church has always held 

 the simple and broad doctrine that all who ac- 

 knowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour con- 

 stitute the one body, of which he is the head," and 

 that their several churches, however diverse in 

 certain respects, " are the several parts of the 

 world-wide and indestructible society which is his 

 visible witness on earth." Yet the practical rela- 

 tions of the several churches lack much of full 

 correspondence to this ideal. In view of this fact, 

 while Methodists must hold the truth as God 

 gives them to see it and do their own work in 

 their own way, they must even more than here- 

 tofore give diligence " to keep the unity of the 

 spirit in the bond of peace," must grant to other 

 churches the ample tolerance they claim for them- 

 selves, must honor them " as branches of the True 

 Vine, as temples of the Holy Ghost," must seek 

 opportunities for the expression of Christian fra- 

 ternity and for co-operation, and must study, 

 " with earnest and unselfish desire to solve, the 

 difficult problem of many churches in scanty 

 fields." For political dangers and evils, " a strenu- 

 ous and militant political righteousness, inspired 

 and directed by Christian ideas, is the only rem- 

 edy." And the Church " must insist that a wise, 

 persistent, and heroic earthly citizenship has now- 

 become a supreme test of noble character." 



General Conference. The twenty-third dele- 

 gated General Conference met in Chicago, 111., 

 May 2. A question arose at the beginning con- 

 cerning the number of lay members to be ad- 

 mitted. The plan of lay delegation in force since 

 1872 provided for the admission of not more than 

 two from each annual conference. The General 

 Conference of 1896 had submitted to the confer- 

 ences for their action the draft of a rule making 

 the number of lay delegates from each annual 

 conference equal to the number of ministers it 

 was entitled to send, so that the General Confer- 

 ence should be composed equally of ministerial 

 and lay delegates. This measure had failed to 

 receive the three fourths vote in the annual con- 

 ferences required by the constitution of the Church, 

 and had therefore been lost. Thereupon the Rock 

 River Conference had made a proposition, which 

 was submitted to the annual conferences, for so 

 altering the article of the Discipline concerning lay 



