372 



METHODISTS. 



bers, the figures showing an increase of 114 guilds 

 and 4,859 members. The report on education 

 represented that the school departments had in- 

 creased during the year from 743 to 750, while the 

 number of scholars was 16,787, showing an in- 

 crease of 1,071. The reports on church member- 

 ship showed a net increase of 6,225 members. 



The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary 

 Society was held in London, April 30. Mr. Ed- 

 ward Aston, of Manchester, presided. The total 

 ordinary and special income, home and foreign, 

 had been 133,757, of which 1,834 had been 

 contributed for special missions and 8,787 had 

 been received from the mission districts. In addi- 

 tion to this sum, 1,874 had been contributed for 

 the relief of West Indian distress, 1,358 for the 

 Indian famine fund, and 300 for special extension 

 funds. The total expenditure had been 133,738, 

 and the separate expenditure of the Woman's Aux- 

 iliary for Female Education in Foreign Countries 

 amounted to 13,467 additional. The report from 

 the mission fields accounted for 315 central sta- 

 tions or circuits and 2,450 chapels and preaching 

 places, 366 missionaries, 3,090 catechists, day-school 

 teachers, and other paid agents, 6,133 unpaid 

 agents (local preachers, Sunday-school teachers, 

 etc.), 47,372 church members, 13,265 probationers, 

 and 92,488 pupils. Thirty-six missionaries had 

 been sent out during the year to stations in India, 

 Burmah, China, West Africa, Ceylon, the West 

 Indies, Portugal, South Africa, the Bahamas, Hon- 

 duras, and Cairo, and 9 missionaries and 2 wives 

 of missionaries had died. 



The Conference met at Burslem, July 24. The 

 Rev. Thomas Allen, D. D., was chosen president. 

 A resolution was adopted in the pastoral session 

 in reference to the appointment of assistant secre- 

 taries and Conference letter writers, which had 

 heretofore been made by acclamation, that hence- 

 forth a small committee should be designated to 

 select a list of names, from which or from other 

 persons who may be nominated the Conference 

 shall make its selections. The pastoral session 

 recommended that a roll of membership, compiled 

 from the class books, be kept by every society, 

 the names of members standing in their several 

 classes, the lists to be corrected, if possible, once 

 a quarter, or at least once a year, and the super- 

 intendent being responsible for seeing that the roll 

 is duly kept. 



The committee on the proposed change in the 

 order of the sessions r ported that all the synods 

 had accepted the resolution passed by the previous 

 Conference, although some had suggested minor 

 alterations in the details, and the measure was 

 finally adopted. Under it the representative con- 

 ference will hereafter consist of 300 ministers and 

 300 laymen, and the representative session, in- 

 stead of being preceded and followed by a pastoral 

 session, will meet first, to followed by the pas- 

 toral session. The report on the Twentieth Cen- 

 tury fund showed that 733.313 guineas had been 

 promised, while the total amount actually in hand 

 was 317,443. There were now required 266,687 

 additional promises to complete the fund (of 

 1,000,000 guineas). Out of 814 circuits, only 22 

 had reported inability to complete their promises, 

 and these only represented subscriptions of less 

 than 2,000 guineas. The Executive Committee 

 had decided to give a year's grace for any addi- 

 tional promises now made. Additional subscrip- 

 tions of more than 40,000 guineas were taken in 

 the Conference, making the whole amount pledged 

 771.500 guineas, or 810,075. A proposal to form 

 a fund for meeting the expenses of the Connection 

 to be called the Connectional fund, the income 

 for which shall come from an annual collection in 



each chapel and from special donations having 

 been approved by the synods, was finally adopted. 

 A proposal by the Home Mission Committee for 

 the institution, instead of small, separate district 

 committees for home missions and chapel affairs, 

 of one larger united committee for both purposes, 

 was provisionally approved and sent down to the 

 synods for consideration. It is contemplated that 

 this committee shall consist of 10 ministers and 

 10 laymen; that it shall give special consideration 

 to all grants to dependent circuits and home mis- 

 sion stations, to all requests for additional or 

 fewer ministers, and to all proposals for the di- 

 vision or amalgamation of circuits; and that it 

 shall advise respecting the purchase of sites and 

 the promotion of schemes for the extension of 

 Methodism in towns and villages. The report on 

 the proposed CEcumenical Conference of Methodism 

 to be held in 1901 provides that the conference' 

 shall be constituted of 500 members, 300 being 

 assigned to the western section and 200 to the 

 eastern. The eastern section will comprehend 

 British Methodism and affiliated conferences and 

 mission fields, and the western section the United 

 States and Canadian conferences and their foreign 

 work. The conference will be held in Wesley's 

 Chapel, London, and will be opened on Wednes- 

 day, Sept. 4, 1901. Of the eastern section, there 

 were allocated to the Wesleyan Methodist Church 

 86, Primitive Methodists 34, United Methodist 

 Free Church 18, New Connection 10, Irish 10, and 

 Bible Christian 8. Others were allocated to the 

 South African, Australian, and French Churches. 

 The Conference decided to send out a secretary 

 to the west coast of Africa. A minister was desig- 

 nated to serve as secretary of the Wesley Guild, 

 to give his time entirely to the interests of that 

 organization. A special committee was appointed 

 to consider during the year the best means of pro- 

 viding for the training and equipment of class 

 leaders and of obtaining a large increase of new 

 leaders, especially from the ranks of the young 

 people. Thanks were voted to Mr. Samuel Smith, 

 M. P., for directing the attention of Parliament 

 to the evils of indecent plays in the theaters and 

 of gross license in the streets of London. In view 

 of proposed legislation in reference to secondary 

 education, the Conference by resolution declared 

 itself opposed to grants of public money being 

 made to denominational secondary schools without 

 the provision of a conscience clause, and also 

 recorded its strong opinion that in cases where 

 public school educational authorities establish 

 secondary schools " no formularies distinctive of 

 any denomination should be permitted to be 

 taught therein, and no dogmatic or ecclesiastical 

 tests should be introduced." The committee ap- 

 pointed to consider the relation of baptized chil 

 dren to the Church recommended in the pastoral 

 session that a larger measure of recognition bo 

 given to those children, and that more definite 

 attention should be paid to the instruction of tlieni 

 in their duties and privileges as disciples of Christ : 

 that such instruction should be extended to those 

 not baptized, in order to bring them into member 

 ship with the Church; that for these person- 

 special classes should be provided to meet for si ; 

 or eight weeks in the spring of the year: and 

 that more regular instruction should be given in 

 the duties of the parents of the baptized children. 

 These recommendations were adopted, to be sent 

 down to the synods, and the committee was n- 

 appointed. The committee having in charge ths 

 revision and completion of the regulations ap- 

 pended to the rules of the society reported that 

 it had collated the various regulations con- 

 tained in the resolutions of past conferences, ani 



