tion of the preacher in charge. A Board of Finance was instituted, to be composed of the secretaries of the administrative boards and the book editor, to meet every four years and calculate the basis of assessments. Assuming that the declared educational policy in the Church aims at a wellorganized system in which there shall be no waste of means, the General Conference resolved that the purpose of the Church should be not so much to seek to establish new secondary schools as to care properly for such as have proved themselves worthy; that the policy of having the secondary institutions of each annual conference correlate themselves with the college of that conference should be insisted upon and enforced; and that the conferences, in making their collections for education should, so far as practicable, concentrate those collections on the colleges and secondary schools of the Church. The movement for the improvement of rural schools was commended. A Board of Insurance was appointed to make arrangements for the more general and adequate insurance of the Church property. The proportion of laymen in the Board of Missions was increased. A correspondence school was authorized, to be directed by the Board of Education and the theological faculty of Vanderbilt University. The Rev. E. E. Hors, D. D., and the Rev. A. Coke Smith were chosen additional bishops.

More than $2,000,000 had been subscribed to the Twentieth Century fund, and the sum of $1,411,512 had been paid.

Union of Publishing Interests in China.A joint committee representing the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Book Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, met at Baltimore, Md., Aug. 5, agreed upon a basis for the union of the publishing interests of the two Churches in China, and adopted a plan for a joint publishing house to be established at Shanghai. The plan was adopted dependent upon the approval of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society in New York, and of the Book Committee at Nashville, Tenn., and was approved by the former body Aug. 12, and by the latter Aug. 20. The minute recording this transaction affirms that "it is desirable to unite in Shanghai, China, the publishing interests of the two Methodisms throughout the Chinese Empire," and provides that "this joint publishing house shall be known as the Methodist Publishing House in China; that the capital shall not exceed $100,000 United States gold, $50,000 of which shall be paid in full in equal sums of $25,000 each by the respective parties to the contract." If a larger sum is needed to secure the efficiency of the concern, it can be called for by the Board of Directors which is provided for, upon the approval of the managers of the Missionary Society and the Book Committee. The ownership and interest in the publishing house are guaranteed in equal proportion to the two parties. The management of the concern is committed to a board of six directors, three of whom shall be chosen by each of the parties to the transaction. Two business managers, one representing each Church, of equal and coordinate authority, will carry on the business under the Board of Directors, serving for terms of four years, to be chosen in alternation, one every two years. A supplementary minute recites that in the foregoing arrangement it is understood to be the purpose of this joint committee to secure entire equality in the management and proceeds of the projected publishing house in Shanghai between the two parties represented and herein united, and to provide for the

perpetuity of the harmonious relations hereby established between the two Churches in the mission field. It is our hope and prayer that, beyond all considerations of gain or advantage to either Church, the greater interests of the Church of God may be served and advanced. To these ends we pledge the men and means devoted to this work, as well as our own joint and individual efforts and influence."

III. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.-This Church has 3,475 ministers, 2,955 churches, and 537,337 members.

The third annual session of the Connectional Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was held in Louisville, Ky., in the later days of August. The report of the general secretary indicated progress along all connectional lines. The general steward reported that $34,495 had been raised for the General fund, $778 on account of the ministerial brotherhood, and $427 for the Contingent fund, and that $2,700 had been paid to the Chicago church. The contributions to Livingstone College had been liberal, and receipts of $27,456 were reported. The number of students was 340. The Lancaster High School, Atkinson College, and Greeneville College were also favorably reported upon, and the educational secretary spoke of his work as having been fruitful. Special importance was attached to the new Church Extension fund, and measures were resolved upon which it was thought if vigorously executed would bring it to the attention of all the people and promote good collections. The General Committee of Church Extension was authorized to incorporate under the laws of Pennsylvania. The Widows' and Orphans' fund amounted to $276. The societies of the Varick Christian Endeavor Union were not organizing as fast as they had been. Reports were presented by the missionary and Sunday-school departments. Protests were uttered in the discussions

of the board against the indiscriminate conferring and acceptance of honorary degrees.

IV. Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.— The 19 conferences of this Church return 2,061 ministers, 1,433 churches, and 204,972 members.

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The ninth General Conference met in Nashville, Tenn., May 7. The bishops presented a quadrennial address reviewing the more important features of the history and growth of the Church during the past four years and offering many recommendations. The life of the Church had been quiet and harmonious. The ministry had grown in intelligence, devotion, and loyalty, "with broader views of spiritual relations and connectional conditions." In its organized and connectional capacity the Church had broadly impressed itself on the public heart, and had widened its sphere of influence more largely since the last quadrennial session of its legislative body than in any former years. Its representatives and public servants and its general literature had more generally and strongly fallen in line with the trend of thought and the march of spirituality, and it was adapting its forces and movements to meet new conditions, the natural results of human progress. The Epworth League, instituted by the authority of the previous General Conference, had flourished and presented hopeful promise for the future. "Its influence and results had been wholesome, far-reaching, and signal." While deprecating the disposition to found or begin more Church schools than can be sustained, the bishops avoided putting themselves in such an attitude on the question as to hinder outside help and such assistance as may come from persons of wealth who may make

propositions to the Church on certain conditions. The publishing department was regarded as in a healthy and prosperous condition, encouraging the hope that it was approximating a permanent and self-sustaining basis. The Sunday-school department likewise was doing well. Action was taken favorable to organic union with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and a commission was appointed to confer with a similar commission of that Church on the subject. The Rev. Dr. C. H. Phillips, editor of the Christion Index, the official newspaper of the Church, was elected an additional bishop.

Joint Commission on Union.-The Commissions on Union of the Colored Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches, which had been appointed by the last General Conferences of these bodies, met as a joint commission to consider the subject of union of the two Churches in Washington, D. C., Oct. 7. Previous to the joint meeting the two commissions met separately to consider the terms of union which they should offer, and drafted propositions which were identical in all essential points. The sense of the joint commission was expressed that union between the two Churches was desirable; and articles of agreement to serve as a modus vivendi while the negotiations for union are pending were adopted by a unanimous vote of the 30 members constituting the body in substance as follow: "1. We agree not to attempt to organize churches or schools in any community or territory where the other Church is organized unless in the judgment of the bishops presiding the population and needs are such as to warrant another Methodist church or school. 2. We will cooperate in all our missionary work, the manner of this cooperation to be decided upon by the bishops and mission boards of the two Churches. 3. When members of either Church move to a community where the Church of their denomination is not organized letters should be given them to the other Church. 4. That there be a compilation, publication, and use of a common hymn and tune book, and a common form of public worship. 5. Frequent interchange of visiting and fraternal delegates in district, annual, and General Conferences; and the exchange of pulpit courtesy, to promote acquaintance and fellowship. 6. That we suggest as a name, The Colored Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.' 7. Pending the union, preachers will not be received, unless in good and proper standing in their own Church and conference; that a meeting of this joint commission be called, and that all the bishops and general officers of both Churches be requested to be present; that the agents of each of the publication houses of the connections represented be requested to keep for sale all the publications of their respective departments." Another meeting of the joint commission was appointed to meet at Charlotte, N. C., July 14, 1903, to form further basis for the union. The final action of the commission will have to be submitted to the General Conferences of the two bodies-of the Zion Conference in 1904 and of the Colored Conference in 1906, and then to the annual and quarterly conferences.

V. Free Methodist Church. The annual minutes of this Church for 1902 give the number of members and probationers as 29.507, showing an increase of 313; of Sunday-schools, 1,103, with 6.711 officers and teachers, and 36,382 pupils; of churches, 1,067, valued at $1,196,975; of parson ages, 522, valued at $372,125. The number of ministers in 1901 was 1,003. The missionary re

ceipts of the year covered by the annual minutes were $15,315 for missions, $2,191 for the India Orphan fund, and $166 for the Africa Orphan fund. The native contributions for all purposes were $566. The missions in India and Africa returned 264 native members and probationers, 12 Sunday-schools, with 26 officers and teachers and 650 pupils, and property in land and buildings valued at $60,085.

VI. Methodist Church in Canada. The following statistics of this Church for 1902 were published by the General Conference statistician in July: Eleven conferences (including Japan) and the West China Mission; number of members, 291,895, showing an increase for the year of 2,733; of Sunday-schools, 3,425, with 33,396 officers and teachers and 272,566 pupils, showing an increase of 6 schools, 754 officers and teachers, and 6,143 pupils; of Young People's Societies, 1,809, with 69,402 members, showing a decrease of 16 societies and 1,586 members; of members received on trial during the year, 19,002; of baptisms, 17,371; amount of contributions of Sunday-schools for missions, $22,113; amount contributed for missions in connection with the Forward Movement, $24,568. The statistics of membership show a total increase of 11,358 for the quadrennium or four years' term since the last General Conference and a net increase of 122,092 since the union in 1883, by which the Church was constituted. The total missionary contributions for the quadrennium were $83,103.

The sixth General Conference met at Winnipeg, Sept. 4. The General Conference is constituted of equal numbers of ministers and laymen. The address of the general superintendent showed that the membership of the Church had increased during the quadrennium, or four years since the preceding General Conference, 11,358. This was the smallest quadrennial increase since the union of the churches in 1883. A diminution in the number of Epworth Leagues and Young People's Societies was also remarked. According to the tables in the census of the dominion for 1901, the Methodists had advanced during the past ten years at all points in the country except for a small decrease in Prince Edward Island, and the advance had been specially large in Manitoba, British Columbia, and the territories. The recommendations of the preceding General Conference that an effort be put forth to make class-meetings more attractive and spiritually helpful had been in a measure carried out. Classleaders' associations had been organized and institutes or conferences held in a number of cities and larger towns, and similar conferences had been held in connection with district meetings. A report was presented by a Memorial Committee recommending that the words "layman" and laymen" wherever they occur in the Discipline be interpreted to mean women as well as men. It was shown that this question of the status of women in the Church had been decided in the previous General Conference to be a constitutional one, requiring a two-thirds majority for any valid action upon it; and the Conference voted that it deemed it inexpedient to reverse its previous decision. The clause coming up again for final action, a tie vote resulted and it was declared lost; but presidents of auxiliaries of the Woman's Missionary Society, if members of the Church, were constituted er officio members of the quarterly official boards. A report on the indebtedness of St. James's Church, Montreal, showed that the debt had been reduced from $622.224 in 1898 to $512.822; but that large subscriptions had been promised and other reduc

schools, 2,613 officers and teachers, 38,118 pupils, and 826 churches; the West Indian Affiliated Conference, 93 ministers, 907 lay preachers, 45,726 members and probationers, 301 Sunday-schools, 2,758 officers and teachers, 28,750 pupils, and 143 churches. The Australasian Methodist Church had 932 ministers, 8,432 lay preachers, 131,774 members and probationers, 4,103 Sunday-schools, with 21,476 officers and teachers and 211,082 pupuils, and 5,539 churches.

The Church had 7,374 chapels settled upon the terms of the Model Deed, with sitting accommodations for 2,075,802 persons, showing an increase in ten years of 506 chapels connectionally settled, and 173,142 sittings. In addition there were 913 rented chapels or other preaching places, seating 111,703 persons. The whole number of sittings in Great Britain was 2,187,505.

Sixty Wesley deaconesses and 8 second-year probationers had been employed during the year in 42 circuits and 7 missions, besides 2 in the Transvaal, 1 in New Zealand, and 2 in Ceylon. The report of the General Chapel Committee showed that 411 cases of new chapels, schoolrooms, ministers' houses, alterations, enlargements, etc., had been sanctioned during the year, with an estimated outlay of £365,286, on which such provision for payment had been made as would leave an indebtedness aside from the connectional loans of not more than £89,640. A total additional accommodation would be furnished on the completion of these improvements of 14,787 sittings. Of the new chapels, 39, to seat 7,253 hearers, were to be erected in places where there were previously no Wesleyan places of worship. Two hundred and twenty-five cases of erections, enlargements, etc., had been reported through the district synods as completed, at a cost of £178,718, with an entire indebtedness of £41,588. The net amount of debt cleared off during the year was about £12,000.

In the eighty-third annual report of the General Committee for the maintenance and education of ministers'. children the amounts raised for the general purposes of the fund were given as £30,755 for maintenance and £4,977 for education. The sum of £10,608 had been appropriated to allowances for 884 ministers' children educated at home; and other appropriations had been made to schools.

The total income of the Home Mission fund' had been £35,831, showing an increase of £1,304; and the expenditure had amounted to £33,396. This left a surplus of £2,434, available for the reduction of the adverse balance carried over for several years to £1,122. Grants of £4,791 had been made toward the support of home missionary ministers in circuits; £3,123 had been spent on lay agency; £1,691 on district missionaries; £1,872 on village evangelists; £8,798 on dependent circuits; £290 on university circuits; and £1,000 on special extension work. Toward the cost of army and navy ministers-£4,387the Government gave £2.454 in capitation grants. More than 100 home missionary ministers and 8 connectional evangelists were supported by the fund. Twenty Gospel cars were in service, 5 of which had been added during the year, and were manned by 40 evangelists.

A novel legal question has arisen at Gloucester. The votes of 2 Wesleyan ministers were objected to by the Conservative agent at an election on the ground that the ministers had not resided in the district during the time required to qualify them as electors. The Liberal agent, supporting the votes, contended that the ministers in being transferred from one circuit to another were

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successors to a benefice or office," and as such were entitled to vote. The case came before a King's Bench divisional court, Nov. 7, on an appeal from the refusal of the revising barrister at Gloucester to allow the claim of the ministers. The Lord Chief Justice said that the question raised was one of importance to a great number of ministers who at present lost the right to vote for one year by reason of changes in circuits. The point was whether the revising barrister was right in this instance, on the evidence before him, in holding that the applicant had not proved that the post of Wesleyan minister was an "office" which came within the meaning of the statute, and gave him a right to vote by reason of succession to that office. The Chief Justice held, with the concurrence of the other justices, that the revising barrister was right. The applicant was backed, in making his appeal, by the Committee of Privileges of the Wesleyan Conference. Wesleyan Missionary Society. The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was held in London, May 5, Mr. Peter F. Wood, of Chiselhurst, presiding. The total ordinary net receipts for the year had been £100,478, while the addition of special contributions, miscellaneous. income from investments, legacies, and lapsed annuities would bring the amount up to £136,528. The expenditure had been £143,617, leaving a deficiency of £7,088. Forty-four missionaries had been sent to India, Ceylon, Burma, West Africa, China, the Transvaal and Rhodesia, the West Indies, the Bahamas, South Africa, Honduras, Paris, Naples, Gibraltar, and Malta; 17 woman missionaries had gone to various parts of the field; and one lay agent had been sent to India. The general summary of the mission fields gave the following numbers: Of principal stations, 325; of chapels and other preaching places, 2,466; of missionaries and native ministers, including supernumeraries, 395; of other salaried agents, 3,337; of unpaid agents, 6,260; of full and accredited church-members, 50,132; of members on trial, 14,482; of pupils in mission schools, 100,738. These numbers show an increase of 26 stations and preaching places, 31 missionaries, 96 other salaried agents, 158 unpaid agents, 1,384 members, 860 on trial, and 4,355 pupils. Among the striking features of the work of the year were successful labors among the Italian navvies in the Simplon Tunnel; progress toward a self-supporting and self-governing church in Ceylon; revivals in South India; reconstruction and readjustment in China; improved conditions in South and West Africa; and beneficial legislation in the West Indies.

Wesleyan Conference. The Conference met at Manchester, July 22. The Rev. John Shaw Banks, Professor in the Theological Institution, was chosen president. The following resolution was adopted concerning the education bill: "The Conference once more declares that the 'primary object of Methodist policy in the matter of elementary education is the establishment of school boards everywhere, acting in districts of sufficient area, and the placing of a Christian unsectarian school within reasonable distance of every family. The Conference therefore deeply regrets that the present education bill is intended to destroy the school board system, and to make no adequate provision for the just claims. of those parents who do not desire their children to be drawn into denominational schools. The Conference has no wish to abolish denominational schools, or to prevent them from being used with equitable restriction, for the purpose of giving denominational education to those children

whose parents desire it. But the Conference expresses once more its deep conviction that no increased grant from public funds should be made to denominational schools, unless that increased grant is accompanied by adequate and representative public management. If, however, denominational schools are to be almost wholly maintained from Imperial taxes and local rates, the 'irreducible minimum' of the rights of conscience and public justice demands that at least a majority of the local educational authority and of the governing committee of every school shall consist of publicly elected persons."

The Committee on the Twentieth Century fund reported that in payments more that £900,000 had been reached. About £880,000 were drawing interest (3 per cent.), and from this source nearly £35,000 had accrued. For the Methodist House in London, which formed part of the fund's program, the committee had entered into negotiations for the purchase of the Royal Aquarium premises at Westminster. A deposit had been paid, and, subject to the approval of shareholders (which was given before the close of the Conference), the Aquarium site, containing 100,000 square feet, would become connectional property before the ensuing February. The building to be erected thereon would include one large hall seating 3,000 persons, a smaller hall seating 1,000 persons, a large library, and many suites of rooms for connectional organizations. The attention of the Conference was occupied in a very large degree with the case of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Agar Beet, a professor in the college at Richmond of the Theological Institution, in which a question of heresy was involved. Dr. Beet had published a book entitled The last Things, in which he asserted that the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul was not taught in the Scriptures; and while denying the doctrines of annihilation at death and of immortality in Christ alone, he held that the soul has a conscious existence after death and the souls of the impenitent exist in conscious suffering, but it is not taught that this continued existence is endless. The case had been before the Conference four years before, and was dropped on Dr. Beet's promising to withdraw the book. Since then he had published another book, The Immortality of the Soul: a Protest, in which similar views to those formerly objected to were advanced. He was charged before the Conference with having violated his pledge given at the Conference of 1898 to withdraw the book The Last Things by republishing the substance of it in another book, and with having published in the latter book doctrines contrary to the standards of the Church. The case was referred to a special committee, upon the report of which the Conference found, with regard to the first charge, that Dr. Beet had not kept the pledge given to the Conference in the sense in which it was generally understood. But the Conference recognized the great difficulty and perplexity in which he was placed at the time the promise was made, and while deeply regretting his action, regarded it as arising from a serious error of judgment rather than from want of good faith. In regard to the second charge, it was found that Dr. Beet "has published in the aforesaid book doctrines contrary to the standards of our Church (a) in exalting the moral sense to an authority in religious belief above Holy Scripture, (b) in regard to the immortality of the soul and the endless sufferings of the lost. In regard to (a) the Conference finds that though his language was unguarded and liable to misconception, and some passages of the book seem to place the moral

sense above Scripture as an authority in matters of religious belief, Dr. Beet has no intention of doing this, and he emphatically denies that there is any real conflict between the two. In regard to (b) Dr. Beet stated before the committee that in some small details his teaching contravened the teachings of our standards, but that it is in harmony with the general system of doctrine that underlies them. The Conference finds that Dr. Beet rejects as without foundation the doctrines popularly known as those of annihilation, conditional immortality, universal restoration, and probation after death, and maintains that though the Holy Scriptures teach that all our souls will survive death for a period to which no limit can be affixed, and that utter hopeless and final punishment will overtake the impenitent, they do not assert or assume the essential permanence of the soul, though neither do they deny this. And that, while the Holy Scriptures give no ground for hope that the agony of the lost will ever cease, they do not plainly and categorically assert its endless continuance. The above is the statement of Dr. Beet's views made at the Conference of 1898, and accepted by Dr. Beet before the committee as a statement of his present position. The Conference decides that this teaching falls short of and contravenes the doctrine held and taught in our Church. In regard to the whole case, in view of the dread solemnity and admitted mystery of the subject and the necessity of allowing some freedom of opinion upon it, and out of respect to the fidelity of Dr. Beet to our general system of doctrine, the Conference resolves that on dition that Dr. Beet does not teach in our pulpits the doctrine of this book, and that he publish no further upon the subject except with the consent of the Conference, the Conference will take no further action." The reelection of Dr. Beet as a professor in the Theological Institution was opposed on account of his position respecting these doctrines; but he was chosen, receiving 377 votes out of 577 cast. The home mission department reported a rising income; but the foreign mission report embodied a complaint that the contributions were stagnant, and the Church was in danger of being outstripped on the mission fields. A series of missionary conventions on a large scale was directed to be held during the coming year in London and 11 other of the more important cities.

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VIII. Primitive Methodist Church.-The following is a summary of the statistics of this Church reported to the Conference in June: Number of traveling preachers, 1.048; of local preachers, 16,016; of class-leaders, 10,569; of members of society, 195,651; of Sunday-schools, 4,107, with 58,881 teachers and 450,396 pupils; of hearers, 589,784: of connectional chapels (home), 4,321; of other chapels (home), 632; value of church property (home), £4,019,239; debt on the same, £1,016,678. In Africa and New Zealand were 60 connectional chapels and 101 other chapels and rooms, and the value of the church property was £45,843, less debt of £9,564.

The General Chapel fund had granted dur ing the year £783 toward reducing debts and £211 toward new erections, and had promised £2,200 additional. The Chapel Loan fund amounted to £12.313. The Legal Defense fund amounted to £271. The London Chapel Extension fund had received £191, and had granted £250 for the purchase of sites. The Church Extension fund had an income of £4,400, and had promised assistance to projects involving a cost of more than £150,000. The connectional fund returned an income of £11,563. The Superan