370 



METHODISTS. 



The report of the Varick Christian Endeavor 

 Society gave the number of organized societies as 

 more than 600, and that of members as exceeding 

 20,000. 



The General Conference met in Washington, 

 D. C., May 2. The quadrennial address of the 

 bishops reviewed the condition of the Church and 

 presented a number of recommendations of matters 

 to be considered by the Conference. The report of 

 Livingstone College represented that the institu- 

 tion, besides paying its current expenses, had re- 

 duced its debt by the amount of $3,900. The 

 collecting agents for the institution reported upon 

 the collection of funds approaching $50,000 in 

 amount. The property of the institution was val- 

 ued at $117,950, with liabilities of $19,055. The 

 agent of the Greenville College reported having 

 obtained $2,705. The report of the educational 

 secretary represented that the school property had 

 been so improved as to be worth $143,500; that 

 $75,000 had been raised and 1,073 students had 

 attended the schools. The Rev. John Wesley Al- 

 stork, D. D., was chosen bishop in place of Bishop 

 Jehu Holiday, deceased, but no additional bishops 

 were elected. Among the measures of policy 

 adopted was a rule requiring the appointment of 

 presiding elders directly by the bishop instead of 

 by the annual conference on nomination by the 

 bishop, and the abolition of the office of Confer- 

 ence steward, in consequence of which pastors 

 will hereafter make their financial reports monthly 

 to the general steward. A special service was held 

 in commemoration of the one hundredth anniver- 

 sary of the birth of John Brown. 



V. Methodist Protestant Church. The Sta- 

 tistical Committee of this Church reported to the 

 General Conference in May that there were con- 

 nected with the 59 conferences 1,645 ministers, 

 1,135 local ministers and preachers, 177,066 mem- 

 bers, 4,250 probationers, 2,001 churches, 531 par- 

 sonages, and 2,042 Sunday schools, with 16,680 

 officers and teachers and 126,031 scholars. The 

 total value of church property was $4,756,721. 



The receipts of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 

 Society for the year were $7,804. After meeting 

 current expenses, a balance of $3,397 remained. 



The eighteenth quadrennial General Conference 

 met at Atlantic City, N. J., May 18. The presi- 

 dent, Dr. Joshua W. Bering, in his address at the 

 opening of the Conference represented that the 

 recommendation he had made at the previous 

 General Conference for a closer contact through 

 correspondence between the annual conferences 

 and the president of the General Conference had 

 been, he was convinced, the means of accomplish- 

 ing much good. The correspondence had had a 

 wide range, embracing requests for the construc- 

 tion of law and for advice in the management 

 of what were regarded as difficult cases. The 

 Rev. D. H. Stephens was elected president to suc- 

 ceed Mr. Hering. The Committee on Publishing 

 Interests reported that the assets of the two pub- 

 lishing houses were about $63,000. The circulation 

 of Sunday-school literature had increased to about 

 140,000 copies. The report of the Board of Min- 

 isterial Education remarked upon a substantial in- 

 crease in the collections, and showed an increase 

 of the permanent fund from $5,184 to $16,529, 

 with additional pledges amounting to about 

 $10,000. The board had in training for the min- 

 istry 39 students beneficiaries and about 75 not 

 beneficiaries. Its receipts for the four years since 

 the preceding General Conference had been $25,- 

 495 and its disbursements $25,609. The Theolog- 

 ical Seminary had 14 students on its roll, while 

 50 of its alumni were preaching in the Church. 

 Six free scholarships had been established dur- 



ing the year. The receipts of the Board of 

 Home Missions for the quadrennium had been 

 $25,607. The Board of Foreign Missions had re- 

 ceived during the past four years $52,688. It 

 returned for the mission in Japan 12 foreign mis- 

 sionaries, 15 native preachers, and 19 stations, 

 having properties, including schools and colleges^ 

 valued at $40,000. The Woman's Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society returned an income of about $7,000 

 a year and property in Japan having an estimated 

 value of $15,000. The society does educational 

 and evangelistic work, and has 6 missionaries, 76 

 pupils in the school, a kindergarten, and a num- 

 ber of native workers. A mission had been started 

 in Shanghai, China, with 2 missionaries. The 

 Woman's Home Missionary Society, which was 

 formed to organize missions among the Indians, 

 reported some evangelistic work done and no debt. 

 The Conference decided that the term for which 

 foreign missionaries shall be engaged be fifteen 

 years, with the privilege of returning home every 

 five years. Provision was made for the election 

 by the Conference of a Board for the Woman's 

 Foreign Missionary Society. A proposal to con- 

 solidate the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions 

 was referred to a committee, which brought in 

 two reports, one favoring the continuance of the 

 home board under its own management and the 

 other presenting a plan of consolidation. The 

 plan to consolidate the boards was rejected, and 

 the whole matter was then laid on the table. It 

 was decided that a layman has not the right ol 

 appeal from the quarterly conference to the an 

 nual conference. The question being raised whether 

 a local preacher can act as a lay delegate in the 

 annual conference next preceding the General 

 Conference, the Conference found that the con- 

 stitution of the Church required that all such 

 delegates should be laymen. The word " catholic,'' 

 which had been stricken out from the Apostles' 

 Creed by the previous General Conference, was 

 restored. An overture providing for the exclusion 

 from representation in the General Conference of 

 a conference which fails to raise 25 per cent, of 

 its assessments for the general interests of the 

 Church, and an overture looking to the abolition 

 of the electoral college and the election of dele- 

 gates to the General Conference by a direct vote 

 of the annual conferences, were sent down to the 

 annual conferences. Provision was made for the 

 preparation of a new hymnal. A higher standard 

 of literary qualification in candidates for the min- 

 istry was insisted upon. 



VI. American Wesleyan Church. A sum- 

 mary of the statistics of the spring and fall con- 

 ferences of this Church (omitting three confer- 

 ences which failed to make reports), published i i 

 the Wesleyan Methodist for Jan. 23, 1901, gives 

 the following numbers: Of elders, 393; of super- 

 annuated ministers, 33; of quarterly conference 

 licentiates, 304; of members, 15,653; of Sunday 

 schools, 471, with 465 superintendents, 1,948 

 teachers, and 17,290 pupils; total amount of con- 

 tributions, $119,244, of which $61,093 were for 

 preaching, $10,369 for missionary enterprises, 

 $1,695 for educational purposes, $5,629 for the 

 support of Sunday schools, $861 for superannuated 

 ministers, and the remainder for other benevo- 

 lences and church building and expenses. At the 

 annual meeting of the Connectional Boards of this 

 Church the reports showed the aggregate assess 

 of the Connectional societies to be $153,294. The 

 Publishing Association had received $20,080 for 

 the year and added $2.650 to its capital, while 

 its total assets were $67,213. The receipts for 

 foreign missions had been $7,804, those for home 

 missions $2,995, and those for the Education So- 



