398 



METHODISTS. 



tions were practicable, whereby the additional 

 amount it was necessary to raise was brought 

 down to $182,697. A day was appointed for 

 bringing the matter before every congregation in 

 the Church, and a committee was appointed to 

 take charge of it. The principle of increased 

 and more authoritative supervision in home mis- 

 sion work was approved; the appointment of 4 

 superintendents of missions was provided for 

 one for New Ontario, two for Manitoba and the 

 Northwest Territories, and one for British Co- 

 lumbia; the Board of Home Missions was au- 

 thorized to increase the number of local superin- 

 tendents as the urgent needs of the work may 

 require; the appointment of a corresponding sec- 

 retary for Manitoba and the Northwest Terri- 

 tories to whom the superintendents shall report 

 was authorized; and the institution of a special 

 fund for the payment of the mission superin- 

 tendents was advised. The office of a permanent 

 secretary to be appointed by the General Confer- 

 ence, and to act as a field agent in the interests 

 of temperance, prohibition, and moral reform, 

 was constituted. The pastoral term (in which a 

 minister may serve consecutively at the same sta- 

 tion) was fixed at four years; but exception was 

 made in the case of the Fred Victor Mission. 

 The time required to elapse between two pastor- 

 ates on the same field by the same man was 

 shortened from six years to four years. Numer- 

 ous memorials had been received concerning Rule 

 35 in the Discipline prohibiting dancing, card- 

 playing, theater-going, etc., some asking that the 

 rule be made admonitory instead of prohibitory, 

 and others that it be not changed. The Confer- 

 ence decided upon no change. The General Board 

 of Missions was empowered to work with the 

 Presbyterian Board of Missions, with a view to 

 lessening the expenses of administration; also to 

 superannuate medical missionaries and pay their 

 claims out of the mission funds. Provision was 

 made for the trial of charges against foreign mis- 

 sionaries who still retain their home member- 

 ship by a mixed court of foreign and native 

 missionaries, with a right of appeal to the home 

 conference, whose decision shall be final, except 

 on points of law. The proposed union of the 

 Methodist Churches in Japan was approved, and 

 a committee was appointed to confer with com- 

 mittees from the other Methodist Churches and 

 take action in the matter. An invitation from 

 the British Wesleyan Church to engage in mis- 

 sion work in India was declined, on account of 

 the great responsibilities confronting the Church 

 in the West. All the ministers were advised to 

 hold up before their people a high standard of 

 Sabbath observance ; and ministers working under 

 the Lord's Day Alliance were permitted to do so 

 without losing their claims upon the Superan- 

 nuation fund for years of service. The injunc- 

 tion against ministers speaking too long or too 

 loud was stricken out of the Discipline. The 

 Conference declared itself in favor of a measure 

 of organic unity wide enough to embrace all the 

 evangelical denominations in Canada; declared, 

 " in no spirit of exclusiveness toward others not 

 named," that it would regard with great grati- 

 fication a movement having in view the ultimate 

 organic union of the Presbyterian, Congrega- 

 tional, and Methodist Churches in Canada, such 

 as had been proposed; commended the movement 

 to the prayerful interest and sympathy of the 

 Church; and directed the appointment of a com- 

 mittee of seven ministers and seven laymen to re- 

 ceive communications and confer on the subject. 

 A special fund of $250,000 was provided for, to 

 be raised during the next year in connection with 



the bicentenary of John Wesley, to be used for 

 purposes of the Missionary Society. The estab- 

 lishment and furnishing of parlors and reading- 

 rooms in the central churches of towns and cities, 

 especially for those whose resources for social 

 enjoyments are scanty, were approved. The re- 

 port on temperance, as adopted, included a para- 

 graph on political corruption. The official name 

 of the Church is " The Methodist Church." A 

 proposition to change it to " The Methodist 

 Church of Canada " was defeated. Provision was 

 made for the preparation of a course of study for 

 local preachers, with a view to making more ex- 

 tensive use of them. The conviction was de- 

 clared that " the development and maintenance 

 of Christian citizenship requires at least some 

 measure of religious as well as ethical instruction 

 in our schools, provided it be not sectarian." 

 The minimum salary of a married minister was 

 made $750, instead of $600, as heretofore. The 

 Committee on Church and Parsonage Aid report- 

 ed that with the limited fund of $25,000 valuable 

 services had been rendered toward securing places 

 of worship and other church property, especially 

 in the Northwest Territories. Economical and 

 industrial questions and conditions were reviewed 

 in the report of the Sociological Committee. The 

 report of the Committee on Civil Rights recom- 

 mended that the existing table of ecclesiastical 

 precedence at state functions be abolished; or, 

 in case this course is impracticable, that the order 

 of precedence at Dominion functions be based on 

 the numerical strength of the religious denomina- 

 tions as ascertained by the most recent census; 

 a similar basis to be used in the several provinces. 



The Board of Missions met in Brandon, Sept. 

 22. The report of the General Secretary showed 

 that the total income for the year had been $306,- 

 429, showing an increase of $36,114 over the in- 

 come of the preceding year, the figures represent- 

 ing the largest income and the largest increase 

 of any year since the union of the churches. 

 Four superintendencies in the domestic missions 

 were formed, and the superintendents were ap- 

 pointed, together with a corresponding secretary 

 for Manitoba and the Northw r est and the British 

 Columbia Conference, as directed by the General 

 Conference. The Young People's Forward Move- 

 ment, under which $24,000 were contributed to 

 the support of the missionaries, was commended. 

 The interests of the missions to the French, to 

 the Japanese and Chinese in British Columbia, 

 and to the Indians, and of the missions in Japan 

 and China were considered. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to confer and cooperate with a similar 

 committee appointed by the Home Mission Com- 

 mittee of the Presbyterian Church on question's of 

 comity. 



VII. Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great 

 Britain). The statistical reports of this Church 

 for 1902 gave the following members: 



Number of churches, 11,523; of Sunday-schools, 

 9,084, with 137,596 officers and teachers and 1,060,- 

 164 pupils. The South African Affiliated Con- 

 ference had 202 ministers, 3,915 lay preachers, 

 93,660 members and probationers, 589 Sunday- 



