together with the Rev. James M. Thoburn, D. D., as missionary bishop in India. An invitation was offered to other evangelical denominations to co-operate in the formation of a National Sabbath Committee. In response to the resolutions of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal Church on the subject of the organic unity of the Church, the Conference expressed itself ready to fraternize and co-operate with that Church as with all other churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to extend to it and accept from it Christian courtesies; and appointed a commission of three persons-one bishop, one member of an annual conference, and one layman to confer with other bodies on the increase of Christian and Church fraternity.

II. Methodist Episcopal Church South.-The whole number of traveling preachers in this Church on May 1, 1888 was 4,530; whole number of preachers and members, 1,107,456, showing an increase of 41,079 from the previous year; number of churches, 11,364, having a total probable value of $15,204,883; of parsonages, 2,199, valued at $1,269,734. The year's receipts for home missions had been $92,426; for foreign missions, $219,649. Appropriations were made for missions for 1888-'89, of $208,820, with $25,610 additional as contingent. The receipts of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society for the year ending April 1 had been $69,729, and its expenditures $63,088. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church has, by the last published reports, 1,729 itinerant ministers, 4,024 local preachers, and 165,000 lay members.

III. African Methodist Episcopal Church.-The Church includes, according to its latest published statistical reports, 2,550 itinerant ministers, 9,760 local preachers, and 405,000 lay members.

The report of the Publishing House to the General Conference showed that the business of the quadrennial had amounted to $229,014, or $49,159 more than the business of the previous quadrennial. The indebtedness had been diminished by more than $5,000; and the house made a return of $23,033 of assets, against which were $3,946 of liabilities.

The quadrennial educational report represented that the educational institutions of the Church were increasing in number and power. Wilberforce University had been granted by the Legislature of Ohio an appropriation of $10,000 for an industrial department. Allen University, Columbia, S. C., returned 200 students, and a debt of $4,000. Paul Quinn College, Waco, Tex., had in four years enrolled 272 students. It had a fine industrial school. Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga., a young institution, had made a fine start, and now registered 200 students. Funds had been raised for it to the amount of $13,000.

The collections and contributions for the Missionary Society in four years since the last General Conference were nearly $40,000.

General Conference.-The General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church met at Indianapolis, Ind., May 7. The proclamation which had been made since the last General Conference of the accomplishment of a union between the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and the British Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada and the West Indies, was ratified and confirmed; and the present Conference was declared to be the legitimate successor of both the uniting bodies. Delegates from the conferences of the British Methodist Episcopal Church were present and were received as members of the General Conference. Questions relating to property and the state of individual churches were referred to the annual and quarterly conferences. Bishop Payne announced that the church history authorized by the General Conference of 1848, upon which he had been engaged for forty years was completed. Four new bishops were elected, viz., W. J. Gaines, B. W. Arnett, D. D., B. T. Tanner, D. D., and A. Grant.

IV. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.The latest published statistics of this Church give the number of itinerant ministers as 2,110; of local preachers, 7,710; and of lay members, 314,000.

The expenditures of the Book Concern during the past four years were reported to the General Conference to have been $8,363. The amount of its indebtedness was returned at $3,980.

A rapid growth was reported for Livingstone College, Salisbury, N. C. While six years previously it had had only three teachers and the same number of students, it had been attended during the term just closed by 210 students, in whose instruction 11 professors were employed. The institution occupies an estate of 50 acres, with several buildings, and returns a total valuation of property and funds of $100,000.

The African Mission returned-at Brewerville, Liberia, 1 elder, 3 deacons, 1 exhorter, 100 members, 67 pupils in the Sunday-school, and church property valued at $800; at Cape Palmas 50 persons, with 2 local preachers, who have called upon the missionary superintendent to be admitted into the connection. The missionary, the Rev. Andrew Cartwright, was empowered by the General Conference, to select six native African boys and girls to be educated at Livingstone College at the expense of the conferences. A plan was approved by the General Conference for sustaining one or more woman teachers in connection with the African missions by means of contributions to be taken in the Sunday-schools. The Ladies' Home and Foreign Missionary Society returned to the General Conference receipts amounting to $914.

General Conference.-The General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church met in Newbern, N. C., May 2. The

bishops in their quadrennial address, reviewing the condition and growth of the Church during the past four years, represented the progress of the conferences and churches in the United States and Ontario as having been very encouraging. Two new conferences-the Texas and South Georgia-had been added. A still more favorable report was made of the improvement in the spiritual and temporal interests of the churches. There had been a marked advance in the addition of energetic and working young men to the ministry; also in the increase and improvement of places of worship and a manifestly greater interest in the collection of the general fund. The ministers seemed to be seeking the fullest qualification for their offices. A special report was made by the bishops on the subject of the negotiations for union with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, lamenting that the scheme had received a serious check, and that the basis that had been agreed upon by the committees at Washington had gone no further than to receive their approval. But the Church could wait till its sister-church should be ready to consummate a union. The report was adopted. A board of commissioners having been appointed by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church on the organic union of the two churches, a like board was appointed to meet them and arrange terms. A provision was made, for the first time in the history of the churches, for sending fraternal delegates to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The bishops were authorized to appoint delegates to the Ecumenical Conference of Methodist Churches, which is to be held in the United States in 1891.

Resolutions were passed approving the action of various temperance societies and urging ministers to organize local societies and in every way to practice and teach temperance in the communities where they may be called upon to labor; and to preach several sermons on the subject during each year. A financial plan was adopted, which is based upon the assessment of fifty cents a year upon adult members, with encouragement to children under fifteen years of age to contribute according to their ability to the general fund. The "Handbook of the Discipline," which the General Conference had authorized Bishop Jones to prepare, being submitted, was approved, and an edition of it was ordered published. A course of study for candidates for the ministry, to occupy four years, was adopted. A committee was appointed to visit the BookRooms in New York and select the best and cheapest works on theology, church history, and other subjects pertaining to the work and qualifications of the ministry. To the question presented to it, whether a class-leader, conductor of a prayer-meeting, and a superintendent in the Sunday-school may, in the absence of the minister, pronounce the benediction, the Conference replied "Yes; if he is fit to

open the meeting, he is fit to close it." The bishops were made a committee on criticism to pass upon all literary work intended for publication by the Church, their decision to be final. Two additional bishops were elected— the Rev. Charles Calvin Pettey, who was General Secretary of the Connection, and the Rev. Prof. C. R. Harris, of Salisbury, N. C. A collection was called for of one cent from each member in the several pastoral charges, for the support of the General Conferences.

V. Methodist Protestant Church.-The statistics of this Church, as returned to the General Conference in May, show the whole number of members to be 145,500; value of church property, $3,342,500; net increase of members during four years, 12 per cent.; of property, 13 per cent.

The Book Directory at Pittsburg returned the net value of its assets as $31,492. The receipts for the last four years had been $133,703, and the disbursements $127,116. The periodical publications include the "Methodist Recorder" (weekly) and six papers for children and Sunday-schools. The "Methodist Protestant," Baltimore, is also under the control of the Board of Publication.

Adrian College reported to the General Conference that it had been attended during the last four years by an average of 200 students; that its endowment funds amounted to $97,500; that its property was valued at $118,000; its museum, at $15,000; and that its indebtedness was $21,765.

Missions-The receipts of the Board of Missions for the year ending April 30 had been $14,900, and the expenditures $12,158. The receipts for the four years had been $34,130, and the disbursements $29,388. Eight home missionaries had been employed; seven missionaries had been sent abroad; three churches were returned in Japan, having in all 159 members, with 565 pupils in day and Sunday schools. The property of the mission was valued at $12,000, while $30,000 had been spent upon it. A chapel was in course of erection at Yokohama.

General Conference.-The fifteenth quadrennial General Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church met in Adrian, Mich., May 18. The Rev. David Jones, of Pittsburg, Pa., was chosen president. The commission appointed at a previous General Conference to confer with a similar commission of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, reported that no difference of creed or polity stood in the way of the organic union of the two bodies. A report was also presented of a conference that had been held with the Congregational Methodists of Alabama, on the subject of union, which had been attended with no practical result. Both reports were referred to a special committee, which subsequently made an adverse report on the subject, in which, while recognizing the fraternal character of the communications as a favorable indication, it affirmed

that the Methodist Protestant Church claims, as a reason for distinct denominational existence, "certain distinct fundamental principles, from which a departure in the least degree would involve interests and questions of vital importance, not only within our denominational lines but also with our common Methodism throughout the world. To abandon, or even to show a want of confidence in these principles, at a time when there is a strong sentiment in the Methodist Episcopal Church now leading them to the adoption of the views of our fathers upon the subject of church polity, would be to commit a grievous blunder, that in effect would be equivalent to blotting out our history in the past, and a tacit acknowledgement that the early reformers were in part mistaken, if not entirely wrong, in the position they had announced and defended." The committee was further of the opinion that, so long as the question of organic union was under the consideration of the General Conference, the Church would be in continual confusion and unrest, and the church-work would be hindered; and that, in case any changes in the fundamental laws or doctrines of the Church should be required and attempted for the sake of union, causes would be opened for litigation in regard to Church property and the disposition of trust funds, which would be destructive of the very object for which organic union is proposed. It therefore recommended that further overtures on the subject should cease. The report was adopted by the Conference. A proposition to authorize women to preach was disposed of by declaring that the proposed action involved a change in the constitution of the Church which the General Conference had no power to make. Ministers were forbidden to celebrate the marriage of divorced persons who had violated their marriage vows. The marriage ritual was amended by inserting provisions for the use of rings, and for responses by the parties. It was ordered that transfers of ministers, though signed by the president, should not entitle the person transferred to membership in another annual conference without a vote of that body accepting the transfer. The phraseology of the Apostles' Creed was modified by striking out the words "Holy Catholic Church," and inserting in their place "Universal Christian Church." A Board of Home Missions was constituted, with a traveling secretary to be supported by the conferences, for the purpose of assisting in the support of weak churches and founding new ones. On the subject of temperance, the Conference resolved: "That we are unalterably opposed to any form of license, high or low, as being wrong in principle and pernicious in practice; that any minister or any member who makes, buys, sells, or signs a petition for license to sell, or gives to others as a beverage any spirituous or malt liquor, is guilty of immorality, and shall be dealt with accordingly. We believe that the time has fully come when

Christian men should rise above party prejudices and sectional jealousy, and give their suffrage to any party which has for its object the protection of our homes by the destruction of the unholy traffic.” The Conference refused to empower pastors of churches when unordained to administer the ordinances, and to allow supernumerary and superanuated ministers to be represented by laymen in the annual conferences. A committee was appointed to formulate from the articles of religion, as found in the "Discipline" of the Methodist Protestant Church for 1830, and from the recognized standards of doctrine known as Wesleyan Arminianism, articles of faith, its work to be completed by June 1, 1890, referred to the annual conferences at their next ensuing meetings for acceptance or rejection, with criticisms by the rejecting conferences; returned to the committee for revision and perfecting; and referred to the ensuing General Conference. A cheap edition of the "Discipline" was ordered printed, copies of it to be given to members when they join the Church. Arrangements were ordered for the representation of the Methodist Protestant Church in the "Ecumenical Conference of Methodists," to be held in the United States in 1891. The Conference resolved to be represented in the National Convention on Sabbath Observance which was proposed by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. An overture was approved, to be sent to the annual conferences, contemplating such a change in the constitution as would grant the power to the annual conferences to license women to preach.

VI. Primitive Methodists in the United States.The Primitive Methodists are represented in the United States by two conferences-the Eastern and the Western Conferences-which maintain fraternal relations with each other, and with other Primitive Methodist bodies, but are substantially independent. The Eastern Conference met in its sixteenth session at Tamaqua, Pa., May 1, the Rev. J. A. McGreaham presiding. Its statistical report gave the following numbers: Ministers, 35; local preachers, 110; full members, 2,626; probationers, 477; class-leaders, 69; Sunday-schools, 53, with 940 officers and teachers, and 6,607 pupils; valuation of church property, $195,215; debt on church property, $54,573; valuation of Sunday-school property, $4,006; amounts raised toward improvements, etc., $13,913. The business of the Book-Room was balanced at $4,247. The Western Conference met at Dodgeville, Wis., May 23, the Rev. John Ralph presiding. The following is a summary of the statistics: Number of ministers, 20, with 1 superannuate; of local preachers, 64; of classleaders, 73; of approved members, 1,707, with 140 on trial; of churches, 40, with 25 other preaching-places; of Sunday-schools, 40, with 389 teachers and 2,820 pupils; value of church property, $62,620; indebtedness on the same, $3,112; contributions for mission fund, $752.

VII. Methodist Church of Canada.--This Church comprises a General Conference, which meets every three years, and eleven annual conferences. The statistics for 1887 gave it 1,558 traveling preachers, 1,162 local preachers, 194,761 members, and 16,847 probationers. The statistics of 1888, not completed in time for this publication, indicated, so far as they had been made up, an increase of more than 15,000 members, and a total of 2,871 Sundayschools, with 27,209 officers and teachers, and 197,538 pupils.

VIII. Wesleyan Connection. The summaries published with the minutes of the Conference for 1888 give the following totals of members (including those on trial) and ministers (including probationers and supernumeraries) in the British and affiliated Conferences:

CONFERENCES.

Great Britain.....

Ireland..

France.

South Africa...

208; of full members, 1,037; of members on trial, 577; and of pupils, 1,508. Favorable accounts were given in the report of the European missions-in France, Germany, Bavaria, Bohemia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Malta. A Moslem mission had been established in Cairo, Egypt. Reviews of the missionary work in Ceylon, India, China, the Transvaal, the west coast of Africa, and the West Indies, were also given in the report.

The following general summary was given of the missions under the immediate direction of the Wesleyan Missionary Committee and British Conference, in Europe, India, China, West Africa, the Transvaal, British Honduras, and the Bahamas:

Central or principal stations, called circuits.....
Chapels and other preaching-places..

1,338

Missionaries and assistant missionaries, including supernumeraries.....

Other paid agents (catechists, interpreters, day-school

teachers, etc.)

2,000

284

Full and accredited church-members On trial for church membership.

82.825

853

West Indies..

Foreign mission stations

Total..

87,176 594,241

2,852

The numbers of ministers and members in the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Methodist Church of Canada are given in the minutes of their respective conferences. The whole number of declared Wesleyans in the regular army, militia, and Royal Navy, at home and abroad, is given at 16,660. The whole number of day scholars in 843 school departments was 178,918, with an average attendance of 138,813; total income of day schools (from school-pence, Government grants, subscriptions, etc.), £240,760; total expenditure, £246,377. There were also 223 students in the two training colleges, the Westminster for young men (114) and the Shortlands for young women (109). The number of Sunday-schools in Great Britain was 6,851, with 128,752 officers and teachers and 908,719 pupils. The whole number of children received at the Children's Home and Orphanage up to the end of March, 1888 was 2,300, of whom 1,472 had been provided for and 64 had died. The Temperance Committee returned 3,344 Bands of Hope, with 339,065 enrolled members, and 520 adult temperance societies, with 32,389 members.

A tendency was, however, noticed to ignore the principle on which the Wesleyan Methodist Temperance Society is founded-the cooperation of abstainers and non-abstainers.

Missionary Society. The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was held in London, April 30. Mr. Isaac Hoyle, M. P., presided. The total income of the society for the year had been £131,867, and the total expenditure, £137,967. The reports from the mission fields showed that the increase in the number of chapels had been 114; of missionaries, 9; of paid agents, 175; of unpaid agents,

4,674

Pupils attending either the Sunday or day schools... 59,888

Conference.-The Wesleyan Conference met in its one hundred and fifteenth session at Camborne, July 24. The Rev. Joseph Bush was chosen president. A committee to which the subject had been referred by the previous Conference made a report in which it recognized that various causes, some of them pertaining to social life, militated against enforcing the rule making attendance upon class-meetings a test of membership, and suggested certain modifications in the system. A committee was appointed to continue the inquiry during the year. A proposition was discussed for changing the order of the sessions of the Conference, so that the "representative session," in which lay members participate, and which has charge of the general business, shall precede the "pastoral session," which is composed wholly of ministers, and conducts the ecclesiastical and disciplinary proceedings. The subject was referred to a committee representing the two orders, and to the district meetings of ministers and laymen. The reports from the district meetings held in May showed that the greater number of the thirty-five districts had united in protest against the "compensation clauses" of the local government bill. The committee of the Conference had united with the "Central Committee for the Prevention of the Demoralization of the Native Races by the Liquor Traffic" in inviting the attention of Parliament to the "persistent efforts made by civilized countries to introduce the sale of vile and pernicious spirits and intoxicating liquors, under Government sanction, into our colonies and dependencies." The Conference referred back to the Committee of Privileges the question of the introduction into Parliament of a bill to relieve non-conformists from the presence of the registrar at marriages celebrated in their places, with instructions to consider the

The

whole question and act accordingly. committee was further authorized to secure the introduction of a bill to enable non-conformists to acquire sites for places for worship where such sites can not be obtained otherwise than by the exercise of compulsory powers. The principle was approved of that all needful facilities should be given for the compulsory enfranchisement of chapels erected on leasehold sites. The committee was further directed to take the necessary steps to secure an alteration of the burial laws amendment act, 1880, by which the length of the necessary notice of intention to bury may be reduced, if possible, to twelve hours. It was also authorized to seek such an amendment in the law, or in its administration, as shall secure, within reasonable limits, the uninterrupted right of preaching in public thoroughfares and open spaces. Provision was made for considering, during the year, the electoral disadvantages to which Wesleyan ministers are subject in consequence of the itinerancy, and for taking such action as may be advisable for having them removed. A committee was appointed to consider general legislative measures affecting Wesleyan day-school education, and to take such action as may be deemed desirable. Favorable reports were received from several "middleclass" schools, and efforts were decided upon to increase the number of such schools.

IX. Primitive Methodist Church.-The statistical reports of this Church in 1888 give it 1,041 itinerant ministers, 16,219 local preachers, and 192,874 members.

The whole amount of gifts for the year to the Connectional funds, was returned to the conferences as £9,000. The Book-Room returned a year's business of nearly £41,500, with clear profits of more than £9,000. The Connectional Insurance Society had invested £12,794.

The Primitive Methodist Conference met in Liverpool, June 6. The Rev. Thomas Whittaker was chosen president. The subject of Methodist union was favorably considered, and the Conference decided to inquire whether organic union could not be secured with one or the other Methodist bodies. The General Connectional Committee was instructed to appoint representatives to assist in arranging for the "Ecumenical Methodist Conference" which it is proposed to hold in the United States in 1891. The Committee of Privileges reported upon the steps which it had taken to arrange with other Methodist bodies to secure co-operative action on public questions in which their common rights and privileges should be involved. The care of the Connectional missionary enterprises was taken from the General Connectional Committee and given to a distinct committee of fifty members, which will hold meetings fortnightly in London and quarterly in such large towns as may be appointed from time to time, with local district committees. Steps were taken for the prepa

VOL. XXVIII.-35 A

ration of a systematic method for training native missionaries in Africa, and for the definition of their relation to the Conference.

X. United Methodist Free Churches.-The following is a summary of the statistics of this Church as they were reported to the Annual Assembly in June, 1888; number of ministers, 374; of local preachers, 3,346; of class-leaders, 4,014; of members, 76,786; of persons on trial for membership, 8,476; of chapels, 1,371; of Sunday-schools, 1,358. The income of the Chapel Relief fund had been £841, and its expenditure £470. During the past twelve months 18 chapels had been completed, 75 enlarged, and 15 school-rooms has been built; while debts had been reduced by £23,606. The receipts from the Commemorative fund for the year had been £3,723, making the total raised by this fund for Connectional and local objects of £26,422. The sales from the Book-Room had amounted to £6,062, and its profits to £340.

The Annual Assembly met at Manchester, July 10. The Rev. Thomas Wakefield was chosen president. A resolution was adopted expressing a desire that the question of union might still engage the attention of the various Methodist bodies, and that friendly feeling might be cultivated in every way. The Connectional Committee was authorized to take such steps as might seem expedient to give effect to the resolution. A scheme was adopted for the organization of a Connectional fireinsurance society. A resolution bearing upon the report of the Royal Commission on Education deprecated sectarianism in the schools supported from national funds, and expressed the opinion that all public elementary schools should be under the control of the parents and rate-payers.

The annual meeting in behalf of the United Methodist Free Churches' Home and Foreign Mission was held in London, April 23. The income of the missions for the year had been £21,876, and the expenditures, £21,498. Report was made of the condition of the missionary work in East and West Africa, Jamaica, China, and the colonies.

The Rev. T. Wakefield was present, after having served for twenty-five years in the East African missions, and reviewed their progress during the seven years since he had last visited England. Three new mission-stations had been opened in East Africa, and the number of adherents had been more than doubled. A printing-office had been established, and a book containing three hundred hymns had been translated into one of the African dialects. The gospel of St. Matthew had been translated into the Kanika language. Most important of all, the original purpose of the society had been carried out in the founding of a mission to the Gallas.

XI. Methodist New Connection.-The statistical reports of this body, as presented to the Conference in June, show that, without the Australian churches, it has 512 chapels, 189 minis