HOME MISSIONS. 
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lowed in ISSO, and Alleghany in 1840. The General 
Conference, held in 1841, appointed a missionary 
Board, but it would seem made no definite ar- 
rangements fot the line of policy, if indeed it had 
any plan or outline of a policy, for the Board to 
pursue. The consequence was, the Board did hut 
little. The general conferences of 1845 and 1849, fol- 
lowed very closely in the steps of their predecessor. 
Four years more in inactivity did not sufiice to 
open the eyes either of the Board or the General 
Conference. The General Conference assembled 
again in 1849; and so easy is it for an assembly of 
men, as well as an individual, to move on in a 
'well-marked groove, that they again * elected a 
Board of Missions without giving it a constitution 
or pointing out particularly what it was expected 
to do, or by what method it might accomplish the 
work. By 1853 the pent-up zeal of the annual 
conferences could no lon 2 ;er be restrained. The 
Miltonville General Conference gave to the mis- 
sionary society a constitution, elected ofiicers 
charged with specific^ duties, and placed behind 
them a board of directors. Now the work began 
to move on in earnest. 
But previous to this the annual conferences 
were not idle. Sandusky Conference, as early 
as 1840, had formed a few class.es in the State 
of Michigan. The good work increased as the 
