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JOHN WESLEY.

BY ALEXANDER W. CRAWFORD.

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John Wesley

Or thy stern goodness oft have I been told,
The glories clinging to thy sacred name,
The Spirit's fire, that, like an inward flame,
E'er kept thy spirit from becoming cold;
And when religion was bedewed with mould,

And every man held naught but worldly aim,
Thou didst with boldness put to endless shame,
Those sordid worshippers of games and gold.
Thou didst reflect the Nazarene's pure life,
And lift humanity to nobler things
Than they could reach unaided and alone,

By leading upwards through all earthly strife, To heaven's refreshing and life-giving springs, And God,-who loves and sanctifies His own. GALT, Ont.

Religious and Missionary Intelligenee.

BY THE REV. E. BARRASS, D.D.

He

WESLEYAN METHODIST. Some time ago Fiji was visited by a German scientist and statesman, Baron de Hubner, who had travelled three times round the world. remarked to the Rev. A. J. Webb: "I must say, that the change that has come over these islands is wonderful; no candid man can deny it. What I want to get at is, how did it come about? I want you to tell me how you account for it." Mr. Webb replied: "I cannot account for the change that has taken place, except in one way. If it has struck you so forcibly, Baron, how has it struck me? You have seen only as a visitor, I have been here for years and have seen it going on. I can only account for it in one way. I believe in God, and I account for it by the influence of the Holy Ghost ;" and he, a Roman Catholic and a foreigner, bowed his head reverently and said, 'So do I."

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The Methodist service in Vienna, Austria, has been resumed. It is expected that there will be no further interruption.

Mr. Lethaby, who has been labouring in Moab as a missionary at his own expense, purposes to make a missionary journey across Arabia by a new and roundabout journey, and among peoples little known to Englishmen. Mr. Lethaby will be accompanied by Sergeant Cameron, who has purchased his discharge. He has filled various offices of trust in his regiment, and he enjoys the esteem of his comrades. Sergeant Riley, who was recently converted at Cairo, will also go.

The Methodist Times is of opinion that the Indian Missionary Conference committed a grave error in refusing to condemn the three great moral evils which are sanctioned by the British Government in that

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The "Joyful News Mission" has been a wonderful success under its founder, the Rev. Thos. Champness. In eight years $145,000 have been contributed to its funds. A demand is now being made for means to send forth 200 evangelists, chiefly to the foreign field. Mr. Champness will give $3,000. Mrs. Argent, mother of the evangelist who was killed at Wusuch, has received $4,625 from the Chinese Government, as compensation, but has handed the entire amount to Mr. Champness for the evangelistic work.

Rev. W. Burgess writes from Secunderbad: We have 409 members, with 1,068 on trial. There have been 598 baptisms during the year, the largest number for any one year. We have also planted the Gospel in sixteen new villages during the year.

A valedictory service was held in Wesley's chapel, London, to bid farewell to six young ladies who were going abroad to enter upon missionary work. A similar service was also held at Blyth, to bid farewell to Mr. Barnard, who goes to China.

A Creche has been formed at Lincoln House, West London Mission. It is a Day Nursery, where poor children from one year to five years old are kept all day, from eight o'clock in the morning until the same hour

at night. They are fed, washed, nursed and amused for the sum of five cents each per day. Mothers are thus relieved, and can attend to their work, and the children are well cared for. The Creche is under the care of Sister Hope, who has also formed a society of older children called the Daisy Guild, in which they are trained for usefulness. A similar Creche exists in Toronto.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The Church of the Pentecost would be a fitting name for the Twenty-seventh Street Church in New York. The Rev. B. F. Kidder

is pastor. The membership comprises the following nationalities and races: English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Roumanian, Chinese, African and Hebrew. The pastor believes that there may be other nationalities which he has not identified.

Zion's Herald recently devoted two columns to the testimonies of a large number of superannuates, in the form of a love-feast. It was truly interesting reading.

Forsyth Street Church, the oldest in New York, recently celebrated its anniversary. The closing sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Buckley, when the mortgage deed for $35,000 was burned in the presence of the congregation, which rejoices in the extinction of its debt.

Washington Square Church, in New York, celebrated its Missionary Day, March 5, when the receipts amounted to $6,000. "The large amount was the result of small gifts from many, and not the result of large gifts from a few.'

The sixth annual session of the Deaconess Conference met in Cincinnati, February 24. On the Sabbath, many of the city pulpits were occupied by delegates. Of the thirty homes now established in the United States, fifteen were represented by forty-seven delegates. There are thirty-eight trained, active and consecrated women in the Home at Cincinnati. They give their time

to the poor; they go into the homes of poverty and distress everywhere. Rome, Italy. Four grandsons of Garibaldi, the Italian patriot, have been placed by their father in the Methodist Institute. He said, "I do not want my boys taught by Romanists. The school is the beginning of a great Methodist educational plant to be erected in Rome. Besides the school there will be a college, a theological seminary and a book concern.

The Book Committee will distribute $125,000 among the Conferences during 1893. In four years $430,000 have thus been distributed.

A man earnestly seeking Christ, travelled 100 miles to hear Bishop Joyce preach at the late session of the Bulgarian Conference. He was happily converted, and in his grati tude proposed, when the Bishop reached his city, to draw him through the streets with six large buffaloes.

At the Baltimore Conference, Bishop Newman contributed $5,000 for the building of Asbury Hall in the American University, and the Conference added $5,160.

Seven new Methodist church edifices are under way, or to be built this season in Cleveland, Ohio.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

SOUTH.

The Baltimore Conference has increased from 13,000 to 42,000 since 1866; that is, over 300 per cent.

About $23,000 have been raised on the missionary debt.

Three lay missionaries from Geor gia have been appointed to the mission in Japan.

Bishop Keener says, "Our Methodism, on the Sabbath, consists of 1,000,000 of grown people going to ward church, and 500,000 children going away from it." Being asked why so few young people are found Beat preaching, he answered, cause for ten years we have been teaching them to stay away. It only requires ten years in this country to shape public sentiment."

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During the past decade, according

to the census, the growth of the Southern Methodist Church was forty-seven per cent., the largest of any church in the United States of equal number. That of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) was thirty per cent.

The Quarterly Review published at Nashville, entails an annual loss on the Church of $1,500.

METHODIST NEW CONNEXION.

The special committee of the Book Room has decided to recommend the Conference to sanction the publication of a large magazine at five cents per month, and the Gleaner to be more racy and attractive than Two such publications usually are. editors, instead of one, are to be appointed.

A superb church, with all modern improvements of kitchen, heating apparatus, class-rooms, etc., has been erected at Old Basford, costing $6,250.

At Dudley, chiefly through the skill of one minister, $8,350 has been paid on mortgages, and the spiritual life of the church has greatly improved.

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BIBLE CHRISTIAN.

An evangelistic mission at Bodmin, has resulted in the conversion of fifty persons. Miss Costin was the evangelist. A similar service was successful at Tresparrett, Cornwall; also at Redcliffe Crescent, Bristol. Some fifty Sunday-school children joined the church under the labours of Miss North.

A strong and general desire for Methodist Union prevails in the denomination in Australia, and it is hoped that the said union may be consummated, at latest, in 1894.

THE METHODIST CHURCH.

The French Institute in Montreal does good work. One of its objects is to train French-Canadians, especially converts from Romanism, and to give general education in French. It has accommodation for 100 students. Last year there were seventytwo, of whom fifteen were from Roman Catholic families.

A Chinaman was lately executed in British Columbia for a capital crime. He was visited by the Rev. J. Gardiner, the Chinese missionary, who believed that he obtained pardon before death. He requested two missionaries to be with him at the last.

A farewell meeting was held in Berkeley Street Church, Toronto, March 15, to bid adieu to Mrs. Redner and Miss Wickett. The former goes to Port Simpson, to take charge of the Girls' Home, and the latter will be associated with Mrs. Morrow in the Chinese Home, Victoria. The meeting was deeply interesting.

The Committee of Consultation and Finance met in the Mission Rooms, March 23. News from China is very encouraging. Three acres of land have been purchased in Central Park, City of Chen-tu, as a site for a hospital, missionary houses, etc., at a cost of $1,650. Two houses will be built forthwith. Large special donations have been received. Wesley College Missionary Society, Winnipeg, pledges the support of a missionary for seven years, and the

Wesleyan College Missionary Society, Montreal, offers to support a missionary in the same field. It was decided to send two more men to China, one as a medical missionary, and another as an evangelical worker.

RECENT DEATHS.

The Rev. Charles Silvester passed away at his home in Toronto on April 11, 1893, full of years and surrounded by the love and esteem of troops of friends. Brother Silvester had retired from the work of the ministry for some years, but even after that retirement he laboured as his strength would permit in ministration to the sick and the suffering. He began his labours as a Methodist minister in 1846, and had a long and successful career as a faithful minister of the Word. His memory is fragrant to-day in the many circuits where he laboured, Wardsville, Goderich, Elora, Bradford, Prince Albert, Baltimore, Grimsby, and Niagara. For many years he was financial secretary of his district. Since 1877 he has lived in Toronto as a superannuated minister. He was a true son of consolation. His kindly face, his dignified bearing, his unfailing Christian courtesy and sympathy won him a warm welcome to the bedside of sickness and suffering as well as in other circles where ministerial duty called him.

Rev. J. F. Bent, Nova Scotia Conference, has finished his course. He went to his first circuit in 1828, and became a supernumerary in 1858. He was mighty in prayer; his testimonies at Conference, Love-feasts, were always powerful and fervent. He was a fine type of an old Methodist minister.

Rev. Dr. W. S. Studley will be remembered by those who attended the General Conference in Hamilton, 1882, when he was fraternal delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a man of fine presence, and an able minister. His death occurred at Evanston, near Chicago, February 26, 1893, where he was pastor of the First Methodist Church.

The Rev. E. E. Wiley, D.D., of the M. E. Church South, died at Emory College, Virginia. For more than forty years he was connected with that institution of learning. He was a very scholarly man, and trained thousands of young men in their collegiate course.

King George, of Tonga, Friendly Islands, has passed away. It was believed that he was 100 years old. Though a warrior who had engaged in many battles, he was brought to a knowledge of the truth in early manhood. For many years he laboured earnestly as a local preacher.

DIVINE GUIDANCE.

LORD, go before and point the road,
I know not whither it may lead,
Nor what the work Thou hast decreed-
Enough that Thou wilt bear the load!

Oh, help me, through the toil and heat,
To follow closely at Thy side,

Ere yet the gracious dew has dried
From off the treadings of Thy feet!

Let Thy sweet presence light my way,
And hallow every cross I bear;
Transmuting duty, conflict, care,
In love's service, day by day.

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