532 



METHODISTS. 



ordinary receipts, while the rest came in the 

 form of special funds. Furthermore, 126,000 

 had been raised on the mission stations toward 

 their own support. The expenditures were 

 169,361. The society had paid off a heavy 

 debt which rested upon it, and was now free. 

 The following is the "General Summary" of 

 the missions under the immediate direction of 

 the Wesleyan Missionary Committee and Brit- 

 ish Conference in Europe, India, China, South 

 and West Africa, and the West Indies : 



Central or principal stations, called circuits 462 



Chapels and other preaching-places, in connection 

 with the above-mentioned central or principal sta- 

 tions, as far as ascertai ned 2,517 



Missionaries and assistant missionaries, including su- 

 pernumeraries . , 526 



Other paid agents, as catechists, interpreters, day- 

 school teachers, etc 2,059 



Unpaid agents, as local preachers, Sabbath - school 



teachers, etc 8,566 



Full and accredited church-members 91,276 



On trial for church-membership 14,489 



Scholars, deducting those who attend both the day 



and Sabbath schools 103,801 



Printing establishments 3 



A very rapid and remarkable advance of 

 Christianity was represented to be taking place 

 in India and Ceylon. The missions in South 

 Africa had been constituted into the South 

 African Conference, to be under the partial 

 support of the society, while its own mission- 

 ary efforts proper in that country would be 

 applied to the extension of missions into the 

 Transvaal and Swaziland, with the design of 

 making these efforts the first steps of an ad- 

 vance into Central Africa. 



Wesleyan Conference. The Wesleyan Con- 

 ference met in its one hundred and fortieth 

 session in Hull, July 24th. The Rev. Thomas 

 McCullough was chosen president. The nu- 

 merical returns were presented and showed that 

 in the circuits under the immediate jurisdiction 

 of the Conference the number of members 

 was 407.085 a larger number than was ever 

 before reported in the history of the connec- 

 tion against 393,754 in 1882. The number 

 of new members received was 60,606. The 

 number of persons on trial for church-mem- 

 bership was given at 34,399, or 6,254 less than 

 were returned in 1882. The committee on the 

 thanksgiving fund, while it had not yet closed 

 its accounts, and could only present an ad in- 

 terim balance-sheet, reported that the total 

 amount that had been paid to the General 

 Treasurers up to July, 1883, was 291,721. 

 The Book Committee returned an amount of 

 sales not quite equal to those of the previous 

 year, but " very much above the average," and 

 sufficient to allow all of the customary grants 

 to be made fro.m the profits. Fifty-four new 

 books, sixty-two new editions, and seventy- 

 eight new tracts had been published during the 

 year; and the total issues of the Book-Room 

 had been 1,707,000 copies of publications, and 

 6,156,263 tracts. The expenditure for home 

 missions had been 34,946, while the income 

 of the fund had been 500 less. Seven lay 

 missionaries were maintained, who had held 



more than a thousand services, and returned 

 additions of 400 members to the church. The 

 income of the chapel fund had been 9,369; 

 grants had been made of 3,507, and 633 

 had been advanced in loans to twenty-five chap- 

 els. The sum of 367,238 had been expended 

 during the year on new erections, and in the 

 reduction of debts. Among the new erections 

 were 118 chapels. The report of the Metro- 

 politan Chapel Building fund showed that since 

 its institution, about twenty-one years before, 

 sixty-four chapels, each affording sitting ac- 

 commodation for at least 1,000 persons, and 

 one hundred smaller chapels, had been erected 

 in the Metropolitan district. The year's in- 

 come of the fund had been 11,429, while the 

 grants and loans paid out on its account amount- 

 ed to 6,500. The fund for the extension of 

 Methodism in Scotland returned a capital sum 

 of 9,885. The Committee on Foreign Mis- 

 sions reported that the expenditure of the year 

 had been practically brought within the in- 

 come, but that the society was in great need 

 of more ample resources. 



The Temperance Committee reported that 

 the strength of the temperance societies was 

 increasing very rapidly. The whole number 

 of temperance societies within the connection 

 was now 321, with 28,414 enrolled members, 

 showing an increase during the year of 144 so- 

 cieties and 17,502 members. Besides, there 

 were returned 2,644 Bands of Hope, with 46,- 

 549 members. A petition in favor of the Sun- 

 day-closing of all the places where intoxicat- 

 ing liquors are sold in England had been pre- 

 pared under the direction of the committee 

 and presented to Parliament, to which 596,877 

 signatures were attached. The Committee on 

 Sunday-schools reported the whole number of 

 Sunday-schools in the connection in Great 

 Britain to be 6,584, with 124,390 officers and 

 teachers, and 841,591 scholars; and that the 

 Sunday-schools were maintained at an annual 

 cost of 71,864. The number of schools con- 

 nected with the Sunday-School Union was 

 2,901 ; and the receipts of that association had 

 been 19,259. 



A novel feature in the history of the Con- 

 ference was^a visitation which it received from 

 a deputation of the clergy of the Established 

 Church in Hull. The deputation presented an 

 address, saying that they regarded with grati- 

 tude the noble spiritual work which the We^- 

 leyans had been able to accomplish at home 

 and abroad, and that " we readily extend to 

 you and all who uphold the fundamental doc- 

 trines of the kingdom of God the right hand of 

 fellowship." A report was made of the or- 

 ganization of the South African Conference, 

 with an account of its first session and its ad- 

 dress to the Wesleyan Conference. The new 

 Conference extends over a territory reaching 

 from the Cape of Good Hope to the Vaal river, 

 and includes within the sphere of its operations 

 missions among the Hottentot, Tembu, Bara- 

 long, Pondo, and Zulu tribes The churches 



