78 
HOME MISSIONS. 
pose of ^‘^aicling the anmial conferences in extend- 
ing their missionary labors throughout the coun- 
try and into foreign and heathen lands.’’ 
The design of this supplement is to show as 
nearly as possible what these annual conferences 
have been enabled in the last third of a century 
to do inside their own territorial limits, and in 
building up the Church in other sections of the 
country under the management of the missionary 
society. It will be observed that the parent Board 
is merely the aggregate of which each annual 
conference is a part, having a branch secretary 
and a branch treasurer of the missionary society. 
When the missionary society was organized 
there were only fourteen annual, conferences; 
namely, Pennsylvania, East Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, Alleghany, Scioto, Miami, Muskingum, San- 
dusky, Illinois, Wabash, Indiana, White Piver, 
St. Joseph, and Iowa. 
Eor several years the conferences were think- 
ing and praying for the more rapid spread of the 
truth, and striving, each in his own way and time, 
to build up the Master’s kingdom. A number of 
them organized themselves into home missionary 
societies for the purpose of systematizing and more 
rapidly advancing the work of evangelization. 
Scioto and Muskingum conferences led off in this 
good work, in 1838. Virginia Conference fol- 
