498 



METHODISTS. 



30 buildings. Eighteen ministers are engaged in 

 the work, and are assisted by 25 lay agents and 

 70 "sisters of the people." More than (5.000 

 members have joined. A home of rest at Balnam 

 for the deserving poor has proved a valuable 

 auxiliary. An extension of premises has been 

 made in central London at a cost of 10,000. 

 The I^ysian Mission, which is connected with the 

 Leys School. Cambridge, also reports progress. 



Education. At the meeting of the Education 

 Committee held in February the income was re- 

 ported to have twen 5,877. an increase for the 

 vear. The new budget involved an estimated 

 expenditure of 0.050. Of the 35,000 aid grant 

 received by the newly formed school association 

 from the Government, three fourths had gone to 

 the teaching statf. This, however, would not be 

 the case in the future. 



Chapel Building. The report of the Metro- 

 politan Chapel-building fund shows that 6 new 

 chapels had been opened during the year, and 1 

 chapel had been enlarged. Six new schemes had 

 IMM-II sanctioned. Three new buildings were in 

 progress. Temporary iron chapels or school 

 chapels had been erected on a number of sites in 

 and around London. The claims of 27 other 

 localities had been submitted to the committee. 

 The total expenditure contemplated was 140,- 

 0<M). The total receipts for the year had been 

 10,442. The grants paid amounted to 10,484. 



Sunday Schools. The report to the Confer- 

 ence on Sunday schools showed that there were 

 7.255 schools, with 972,426 pupils. While the 

 number of registered pupils was greater by 2,942 

 than in the previous year, a gradual decline in 

 the schools of catechetical instruction was re- 

 marked upon as an unhealthy sign. The adult 

 Bible classes not connected with Sunday schools 

 returned 48,821 members, and the " pleasant Sun- 

 day afternoon " classes 9,177 members. 



Wesleyan Missionary Society. The annual 

 meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was 

 held in London, April 28. The regular income 

 of the society, amounting from all sources to 

 130.533. showed an increase over the previous 

 year of about 1.100, and of 4,807 as compared 

 with that of 189(5. The society was thus free 

 from debt and paying its way. The total num- 

 l>er of members in the foreign stations under 

 the direction of the committee was 46,202, with 

 11. (5 19 on trial. Taking the mission field as a 

 whole, an increase was reported under almost 

 every head, the Transvaal and Swaziland district 

 taking the lead with an increase of 849, besides 

 3.500 on trial, the Canton (China) district com- 

 ing next, with the largest increase (359) yet re- 

 ported there. Emphasis was given in the re- 

 port to the fact that increased church member- 

 ship and other signs of progress were manifest 

 throughout the entire Asiatic field, where the 

 most ancient and highly organized forms of hea- 

 thenism were encountered. Attention was in- 

 vited to places where specially favorable openings 

 were presenting themselves, as in the province of 

 Hunan. China: Hyderabad, India; Cairo, Egypt; 

 the region north of the Zambesi ; and Lisbon, 

 Portugal. 



Conference. The Wesleyan Methodist Con- 

 ference of Great Britain and Ireland met in City 

 Road Chapel John Wesley's Chapel London, 

 July 17. The Rev. Frederick W. MacDonald was 

 chosen president. A committee appointed by the 

 previous Conference to revise the order of ses- 

 sions presented a report suggesting changes in 

 the method of filling up the legal conference and 

 of electing the president and secretary of the 

 Conference, which was adopted. (The legal con- 



ference, or legal hundred, consists of 100 min- 

 isters, appointed, partly by seniority and partly 

 by the Conference, in accordance with the statute 

 law, to constitute the body possessing the legal 

 functions of the Conference.) The plan provides 

 that vacancies in the legal conference caused by 

 death or lapse shall be declared at the first meet- 

 ing of the representative session, and filled up 

 by the legal conference by election on the ground 

 of seniority, while the declaration of vacancies 

 on the ground of superannuation shall be deferred 

 until the meeting of Conference in pastoral ses- 

 sion, when they shall be filled by election by the 

 legal conference on the ground of nomination; 

 that the nomination of the president and of the 

 secretary of the Conference shall be made by 

 ballot vote at the pastoral session of the preced- 

 ing Conference; the election to be made by the 

 legal conference, which is requested to elect the 

 persons who were nominated. In case of the 

 death of the person nominated to be president 

 or secretary before the meeting of the Confer- 

 ence at which the election is to take place, a new 

 nomination shall be made by the ministers in 

 representative session, which the legal confer- 

 ence is requested to ratify. Other recommenda- 

 tions of the committee approved by the Confer- 

 ence provided that all ministers in full connec- 

 tion permitted to attend the Conference in its- 

 pastoral session shall have the right to vote in 

 the nomination of president and secretary of the 

 ensuing Conference, and suggest for the consid- 

 eration of the representative session an increase 

 of the number of its members so that it may 

 consist of 300 ministers and 300 laymen, with a 

 corresponding increase in the number of mem- 

 bers of the representative session elected by the 

 Conference from 18 to 48. A report concerning the 

 Twentieth Century fund represented that the 

 whole amount subscribed to date was 669,214 

 guineas, or 702,674, and the amount paid in 

 86,572. All the arrangements for the fund and 

 its allocation had been well received by the Meth- 

 odist people, and the principle 1 person, 1 guinea 

 had been cordially accepted. A resolution being 

 offered expressing the opinion of the Conference 

 that no Christian man should manufacture or 

 sell intoxicating liquors, an amendment was pro- 

 posed declaring that " the Conference rejoices in 

 the rapid spread of temperance convictions and 

 practices in the Methodist Church, and urges our 

 people everywhere to consider all well-promoted 

 temperance reforms, and confidently hopes for 

 their success, but it declines to pronounce an 

 abstract and indiscriminate opinion upon the 

 action of individual Christians." The Confer- 

 ence further reaffirmed its resolutions of the pre- 

 vious year on this subject, rejoicing in the prog- 

 ress of temperance sentiment and practice in the 

 Wesleyan Church, but declining to interfere with 

 the constitutional method of appointing its of- 

 ficers; advising the people to keep themselves 

 free from complicity with the liquor traffic; de- 

 claring its reliance upon the grow r th of mortal 

 conviction in the community for its- removal ; 

 expressing itself unable to impose disabilities 

 upon those who sell drink which would not apply 

 to those who buy and use it; and recording its 

 belief that the great ends of the temperance move- 

 ment can be secured without resort to methods 

 of coercion. A protest was voted against the 

 opening of the Crystal Palace on Sundays for 

 concerts and public dinners. A resolution was 

 adopted with reference to the enforcement of the 

 " conscience clause " in the elementary schools. 



Primitive Methodist Church (British). The 

 Primitive Methodist Yearbook in August, 1899, 



