METHODISTS. 



497 



also constituted for each annual conference, and 

 is invested with the appointment of the confer- 

 ence commissioner. 



Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. This 

 Church had at the end of the year 1899 2,039 

 ministers, 1,427 churches, and 204,317 members, 

 showing an increase during the year of 54 min- 

 isters, 50 churches, and 5,089 members. The 

 bishops, after advising with leading ministers and 

 members of the administrative boards, issued a 

 call upon the membership of the Church for a 

 twentieth century offering of $25,000. The call 

 contemplated an equal division of the money be- 

 tween the educational and the missionary work 

 of the Church, all the schools to share alike in 

 the half of the fund appropriated to educational 

 purposes. 



American Wesleyan Church. The annual 

 meeting of the Board of Managers of the pub- 

 lishing and benevolent interests of the connec- 

 tion was held in Syracuse, N. Y., in June. The 

 secretary of the Missionary Society reported the 

 receipt and expenditure during the year of $2,238. 

 The report referred to work in Canada, where dif- 

 ficulty was met in consequence of the Church not 

 having yet secured the official recognition re- 

 quired to qualify its ministers to perform the 

 services of marriage, baptism, and burial in a 

 legal manner; mentioned an opportunity for ex- 

 tension which appeared to be opening in East 

 Tennessee; and described the trouble which the 

 mission in Africa had had to suffer in consequence 

 of the prevalence of wars. The board adopted a 

 code of regulations for its missionary work in 

 Africa, the aim of which was defined to be " not 

 to evangelize great areas of people by the main- 

 tenance of a large force of foreign workers, but 

 rather to create and prepare through and by a 

 lesser number of workers a regenerated and intel- 

 ligent native instrumentality in the redemption 

 of their own land from the thraldom of sin and 

 death, and in planting the Gospel in its utter- 

 most regions " ; and the scope of the work was de- 

 scribed as being threefold " preaching, teaching, 

 and commercial and business." The agent of the 

 corporate societies of the connection reported the 

 receipts and expenditures of the Publishing As- 

 sociation as having been $21,254, and its gain 

 in assets $1,446, making the present total amount 

 $67,.213; the amount of the H. T. Besse fund as 

 $2,385, showing a gain of $1,551 in two years; 

 the amounts of the Jackson and the Gracia Elmer 

 funds as, respectively, $3,000 and $2,200. The 

 receipts and expenditures of the Missionary So- 

 ciety had been $2,658 for home missions and 

 $3,701 for foreign missions, while it had realties, 

 notes, and cash representing $7,338 on account 

 of home missions and $8,814 on that of foreign 

 missions. The Wesleyan Education Society had 

 received and expended $4,222 and possessed as- 

 sets valued at $23,177, while its liabilities were 

 $980. The Superannuated fund received $980. 



American Methodist Church. Articles of 

 incorporation have been filed in North Carolina 

 of the American Methodist Church. Instead of 

 a formal creed this Church accepts as the basis 

 of its doctrines the Ten Commandments, the Ser- 

 moii on the Mount, the Apostles' Creed, and the 

 Holy Scriptures. No distinctions of sex are recog- 

 nized in the powers and privileges of members. 

 Infant baptism is retained, but is left optional 

 with parents, who may also choose the mode of 

 administration; and adults are likewise permit- 

 ted to choose the mode in which they shall be 

 baptized. 



Methodist Church in Canada. The statis- 

 tical reports of the Methodist Church in Canada 

 VOL. xxxix. 32 A 



give the following numbers of members by con- 

 ferences: Toronto Conference, 44,258; London, 

 48,289; Hamilton, 40,307; Bay of Quinte, 40,309; 

 Montreal, 35,838; Nova Scotia, 10,079; New 

 Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 13,008; 

 Newfoundland, 11,279; Manitoba and Northwest 

 Territory, 18,741; British Columbia, 5,000; Japan, 

 2,339; China mission (1898), 31; total, 282,259; 

 net increase for the year, 1,722; number of mem- 

 bers received on trial during the year, 18,802; 

 number of baptisms, 17,286. 



The total missionary income for the year is 

 given in the Christian Guardian for Sept. 27 as 

 $266,075; net increase, $23,023. 



The invested capital of the Superannuation 

 fund was reported at the close of the fiscal year, 

 Aug. 28, as $233,698. The year's income and ex- 

 penditures were balanced at $113,537. 



Epworth League International Convention. 

 The fourth biennial international convention of 

 the Epworth League was held in Indianapolis, 

 Ind., July 20 to 23. The use of the Capitol build- 

 ing had been granted by the State Legislature 

 for the general purposes of the occasion, and the 

 special meetings were held in the two principal 

 halls of the city and a large tent. The societies 

 of the United States and Canada were represented 

 in the convention, and the delegates appeared in 

 behalf of three Church organizations those of 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist 

 Church of Canada. Among the subjects discussed 

 at the meetings "of the three sections, each by 

 many speakers, were The Intellectual Life, The 

 Spiritual Life, Revivals, the special work of the 

 league, Methodism and its Life, Social Righteous- 

 ness, Good Citizenship, Temperance, and Missions. 

 Besides the special meetings, public lectures were 

 delivered. Resolutions were adopted favoring a 

 continuance of the "joint prayer-meeting topics " 

 and a federation with other young people's socie- 

 ties, " both locally and nationally, through suit- 

 able executive committees, for the promotion of 

 Christian citizenship." 



Wesleyan Methodist Church. The following 

 is a summary of the official returns of the mem- 

 bers, probationers, and supernumerary ministers 

 of the British and affiliated conferences of this 

 Church as they are published in connection with 

 the minutes of the conference of 1899: In Great 

 Britain, 447,276 members, 1,663 ministers, 316 

 supernumeraries; in Ireland, 27,461 members, 172 

 ministers, 40 supernumeraries; in foreign mis- 

 sions, 46,262 members, 269 ministers, 14 super- 

 numeraries; French Conference, 1,757 members, 

 27 ministers, 8 supernumeraries; South African 

 Conference, 55,769 members, 164 ministers, 18 su- 

 pernumeraries; West Indian conferences, 43.287 

 members, 79 ministers, 3 supernumeraries. The 

 totals are: 621,812 members (74,305 on trial), 

 2,374 ministers, 372 probationers, 401 supernu- 

 meraries. The 77,780 young people meeting in 

 junior classes are not included in the home or 

 foreign returns. The accredited local preachers 

 at home number 18,017. 



The income of the home missions, as given 

 in the annual report of the committee for 1899, 

 had been 35,977 and the expenditure 36.296, 

 showing a deficiency of about 320. The debt 

 on the annual account of the fund now stood at 

 6,740. A scheme has been proposed by the 

 Conference, to be submitted to the district synods, 

 for the creation of a separate fund, to be called 

 the Connectional fund, from which connectional 

 expenses not chargeable to circuits are to be paid. 



The London Wesleyan Mission consists, ac- 

 cording to its latest report, of 7 branches, with 



