METHODISTS. 



393 



white people, 4, with property valued at $515,000 

 and 1,654 students, belonged to the society, ma- 

 king the total valuation of property held by it 

 $1,925,000. The attendance at the schools had 

 been the largest for many years, and aggregated 

 10,329 students under the care and instruction of 

 434 teachers, of whom 277 were preparing for the 

 ministry and 708 to be teachers. The effort of 

 the people to help themselves was especially men- 

 tioned. New buildings for three institutions had 

 been largely erected and completed at an aggre- 

 gate cost of nearly $60,000, all of which had been 

 collected through the local conferences or by 

 special gifts made for the purpose. Students had 

 paid $84,830 during the year for tuition, room 

 rent, and board, an increase of $17,560 over the 

 previous year. Increased appropriations had been 

 made for industrial work, and industrial trade- 

 schools which had been closed during times of 

 stringency were, now doing efficient work. In 

 all the schools 3,569 students were receiving some 

 form of industrial instruction. Appropriations of 

 $139,758 were made for the ensuing year. 



General Missionary Committee. The an- 

 nual meeting of the General Missionary Commit- 

 tee was held in Albany, N. Y., beginning Nov. 12. 

 The treasurer reported that the receipts for the 

 year ending Oct. 31 had been $1,345,298, and the 

 disbursements $1,219,597. The receipts showed an 

 increase from the previous year of $112,112. A 

 balance in the treasury of $29,143 was returned. 

 A motion to employ a field secretary among the 

 colored people in the South to inform them con- 

 cerning missionary work in the South and stim- 

 ulate their interest in it, was referred to the 

 favorable consideration of the Open Door Emer- 

 gency Commission. This commission reported 

 that the Open Door Emergency movement had 

 been very successful during the past year in 

 stimulating the Church to greater activity and 

 liberality in the cause of missions. The Board of 

 Managers was requested to i-enew the commission, 

 the missionary office was asked to cooperate in 

 its work, and the expenditure of as much money 

 as might be necessary for the vigorous prosecu- 

 tion of the same was authorized. Appropriations 

 were made for carrying on the work of the mis- 

 sions dm'ing the ensuing year as follow: 



I. Foreign missions : Germany, $35,700; Switzer- 

 land, $7,250; Norway, $11,600; Sweden, $15,000; 

 Denmark, $7,000; Finland and St. Petersburg, 

 $5,200; Bulgaria, $7,239; Italy, $45,000; South 

 America, $79,167; Mexico, $51,586; Africa, $40,- 

 000; Eastern Asia (China, Japan, and Korea), 

 $20?,630; Southern Asia (India, Malaysia, and the 

 Philippine Islands), $175,570; total for foreign 

 missions, $683,942. 



II. Missions in the United States: Conference 

 missions, $107,330; work in the mountain region, 

 $59,707; work on the Pacific coast, $35,280; 

 white work in the South (Maryland and Dela- 

 ware excepted), $46,350; colored work, mostly in 

 the South, $42,300; non-English-speaking mis- 

 sions, $204,330; total for domestic missions, $495,- 

 297 ; miscellaneous appropriations, $166,058 ; total 

 appropriations, $1,345,297. 



General Missionary Convention. The first 

 General Missionary Convention of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church met in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 21. 

 Delegations were present from churches in nearly 

 all parts of the United States, and all the foreign 

 mission fields were represented by missionaries or 

 by bishops who had recently visited them official- 

 ly or who now had episcopal supervision of them. 

 The object of the convention was to review what 

 had been accomplished by missionary work in the 

 past and to study the present condition of mis- 



sionary enterprises, their needs, the openings they 

 offered; to consider ways and means of continu- 

 ing and enlarging them, to stimulate interest in ' 

 them, and to promote a spirit of personal devo- 

 tion in sustaining them and in engaging in their 

 service. A program had been prepared for the 

 meeting, embracing 31 topics for addresses, treat- 

 ing upon every subject bearing upon missionary 

 work, each of which was presented by a speaker 

 selected with respect to his qualifications to dis- 

 cuss the theme assigned to him. These themes in- 

 cluded the emergency which confronted the 

 Church in its missionary work, created by its very 

 success and rapid growth, and the opportunity 

 lying before the Church in the work of world- 

 wide evangelization; Spiritual Preparation for 

 Missionary Service, the allies of the missionary 

 society (or cooperating agencies) in the work of 

 evangelization ; a review of Methodist missions 

 in the nineteenth century ; the problems presented 

 by the negro, foreign populations, and the cities; 

 Open Doors in the Pacific islands, Latin countries, 

 eastern Asia, Africa, and southern Asia; practi- 

 cal phases of the missionary problem as applying 

 to individuals, churches, and church workers; 

 The Place of Prayer in Missionary Work; The 

 Young People and Missions; the necessity of go- 

 ing forward in missionary work; and spiritual 

 and economical aspects of the subject. One of the 

 sessions was given to sectional conferences of 

 presiding elders and district missionary secre- 

 taries; of pastors; of editors; of the Epworth 

 League and Young People's Societies; of college 

 presidents; and of laymen. The appeals made 

 during the meetings for offerings of money 

 brought subscriptions amounting to $330,000. 

 The convention requested the General Missionary 

 Committee, at its coming annual session, to ask 

 the Church for an average of at least $1 per 

 member for missions for the year 1903. An ap- 

 peal was ordered to be made to the Church, set- 

 ting forth the need of cooperation on the part of 

 the entire body and asking that the convention 

 subscription be increased to $500,000. The appeal, 

 as issued, further asked for subscriptions of $3,- 

 000,000 for the next year, and added that 148 

 new foreign missionaries were needed in the near 

 future, in addition to the pressing requirements 

 of the home fields. 



The Woman's Home Missionary Society had 

 193 missionaries and teachers, besides a large 

 number of deaconesses employed in city work. 

 It had erected the Tillman Avenue Mission Build- 

 ing, in Detroit, for work among the Poles and 

 Bohemians, had completed the Boston Medical 

 Mission Building, and Rust Hall, in Washington, 

 for the training of missionaries and deaconesses; 

 had opened a new Deaconess Home at Portland, 

 Me.; and had purchased buildings for the training 

 of Christian workers and for Spanish work in San 

 Francisco. 



The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society sent 

 out 21 missionaries in 1902, and had at the end 

 of the year 246 missionaries in service. 



Under the auspices of the National City Evan- 

 gelization Union, local societies for city evangel- 

 ization were maintained in 52 cities. 



The new constitution of the Church, which was 

 submitted to the annual conferences by the Gen- 

 eral Conference of 1900 (see Annual Cyclopaedia 

 for 1900), and was voted on by them in 1901, 

 having received the requisite three-fourths of the 

 votes cast, its adoption as the fundamental law 

 of the Church was proclaimed by the bishops at 

 their semiannual meeting, May 6. 



Consolidation of Benevolent Societies. 

 Under instructions of the General Conference of 



