disciples. In this department of literature we should not fail to notice the "Methodist Quarterly Review," especially under the keen and searching scalpel of the editor-to whom we presonally owe as much as to any other man-as keeping up with the times.*

Of the six hundred volumes in the general catalogue, two hundred and sixty odd are from the pens of American Methodist authors, besides the twenty-two volumes published elsewhere but kept on sale and approved by the authorities of the Church. In addition to these, and to meet the demands of a completely organized and vigorously working Church, the Agents, who are the representatives and servants of the entire itinerant ministry, or of the General Conference, publish Pronouncing Bibles, Hymn Books, Music Books, Church Requisites, Preachers' and Sunday-school Requisites in great variety, for the completeness of organization, for the accuracy of records, and for doing a systematic business in every department of local Churches.

The PERIODICAL LITERATURE, under the same general supervision, the proceeds of which, as well as of the book department, go to sustain the various interests of the Church, is in itself a marvel. The "Quarterly Review," having the largest circulation, and thought by competent judges to be the most ably conducted of any similar work in this country, has reached its fifty-fourth volume. The "Ladies' Repository "-the "Queen of Monthlies"-solid, rich, and instructive, has a circulation. of not less than thirty thousand copies. The "Christian Advocate " family, nine in number, together with "Zion's Herald," "Christian Apologist," and the "Sandebudet," reach a large proportion of our families. The "SundaySchool Journal," for teachers and older scholars, the "Golden

*In addition to the classified list given in the text, we call particular attention to the following late and valuable volumes as showing the enterprise of the Concern under the management of the General Editor and the Agent having charge of the literary department, namely: Apostolic Era, Mystery of Suffering, and Religion and Reign of Terror by Dr. Pressensé; Arts of Intoxication, by Dr. Crane; Bible Geography, by Professor Whitney; Bible Hand-Book, by Dr. Holliday; Life of Chalmers, by James Dodds; Washington Irving, by Dr. Adams; Dr. M'Clintock; Misread Passages of Scripture, by J. B. Brown; by Bishop Thomson; Round the World, by Bishop Kingsley; Mattison; Sermons, by Dr. Hamilton.

Living Words, by Oriental Missions, Romanism, by Dr.

Hours," for boys and girls, the "Sunday-School Advocate,' which has an average circulation of three hundred thousand copies, the seventy-two thousand copies of the "Good News," published in the interest of the tract cause, and the "Missionary Advocate," for gratuitous distribution to every family in the Church, make a grand total the equal of which is not found in any other Church on the globe. For the sake of the Churches among other nationalities, many of the publications— we mean of books, periodicals, and tracts—are in the German, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, and French languages.

After this survey we turn to the SUNDAY-SCHOOL department, consisting of Registries, Catechisms, Question Books, Manuals, Helps for Teachers, Notes, and books of general instruction, Hymns and Music, Maps, Cards, Certificates, and Rewards, in varieties sufficient to satisfy the most fastidious or critical. The libraries are not less extensive nor varied in style, matter, and topics than seems necessary to meet the demands and tastes of all parties. Under the commendable energy, managing ability, and good taste of Drs. Kidder, Wise, and Vincent, the resources of this department have reached the aggregate of twelve hundred and fifty volumes, which number is enriched by selections from the general catalogue for the Adult, Young People's, and Home Libraries. For the convenience of adaptation and selection. these books are arranged into Children's Libraries, Series A and B, and Youth's Library. We suggest a further classification, made according to the general character and topics, into books of Travel, Biography, History, Geography, Science, Stories, and so on. This would facilitate the work of selecting according to the demands of taste and needed variety in the several schools.

The last item in this general survey is the department of TRACT LITERATURE, which embraces one thousand single tracts on as many different topics, reaching to more than seven thousand pages. According to the Seventeenth Annual Report there were printed under the auspices of this society for the year 1869, the grand total of 37,765,234 pages of tract matter. For the convenience of selecting any style or character of tract they are not only numbered, but put up in packages according to topics and general characteristics.

From all of these items, which we gather from authentic

reports of the several departments, our readers will see what a mammoth and complicated enterprise the Book Agents, assisted by the heads, officers, clerks, and book-keepers, have in charge. Prominent among those who by their superb business talents have aided largely in building up the Concern to its present position are Drs. Bangs, Emory, Waugh, Lane, and Carlton, (the last named will have been next May twenty years in his position,) and the editors of the general books, particularly Drs. Peck, M'Clintock, and Whedon. That mistakes

have been made is no marvel, for "to err is human." That losses have occurred is no more than arises from the liabilities of all business. That frauds have been perpetrated remains unproved. That the business has been the most successfully conducted possible, is not claimed. That the most rigid economy compatible with the best interests of the establishment, with its reputation among other and competing houses, and with the tastes of all its patrons, has always been practiced we cannot affirm. Indeed it has long seemed to us that the smaller and more ephemeral sheets, those which are laid aside after the first reading, are too costly both in the quality of the paper used and in the elegance of the cuts. Were they very generally bound for preservation, this were well. But it is seldom in these days of profuse literature that the sheets referred to are long preserved. And yet in this matter we are not disposed to criticise. We do not know all the facts which control the publishers and editors. That immense profits have accrued is shown by the accumulation of capital, the enlargement of business, and by the disbursements made to the legal corporators and beneficiaries of the Concern, as shown by the reports made to the General and Annual Conferences. These profits are turned in, by direction of the General Conference, to enlarge the business, to strengthen weak enterprises in the literary departments, to otherwise foster the Church, and to pay the salaries of the bishops. Whether the prices of our books and periodicals should be put down to the lowest point possible, in competition with other and unchurchly houses, and for the sake of circulating a very cheap literature, does not come within the design or scope of this paper. It would require an examination into the comparative quality of paper and illustrations used, the style of binding, and particularly into the demand for,

and saleability of, religious and theological books. It would call for a consideration of the mooted point whether a religious publishing house, under the direction and in the interest of a great connectional Church, should be conducted on the principle of making the largest dividends to its beneficiaries named in the sixth Restrictive Rule, or whether it is not better that, under the direction of the highest authorities and chief guardians, it shall be made to subserve the literary and reading interests of the whole Church by aiding weak enterprises, where periodicals and book depositories should be established and maintained, as, for instance, at local centers far away from the metropolis. It involves further the question, whether the proceeds of the Concern should, to any extent, be applied to the payment of the salaries of our bishops, and to the meeting of any deficiency in the expenses of the General Conference. To the writer it is clear that the present arrangement is better than an attempt to raise an Episcopal endowment, or than to add the support of the bishops to the many public collections now brought before our congregations. * Because of the push and enterprise of our entire spirit and system, no Church

*The experiment made in this direction by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, does not encourage a similar attempt with us. The official report made in May, 1871, as given in the "Christian Advocate," June 15, 1871, is as follows: "The collections for the support of the bishops lack $4,471 of meeting the aggregate claim allowed. Five Conferences have passed their assessment in full, six have paid above the sum assessed, while twenty-three have failed to collect the amount apportioned to them." Though we think well of the suggestion to divide the Conferences into episcopal or "residential" districts, within which the bishops shall reside, and doubt not that the cities selected would build and furnish the residences, yet we think the present plan of using the profits of the Concern for cheapening the publications, for enlarging the business, for supplying necessary deficiencies in other departments, and for meeting the salaries of the bishops, to be the better one. It is, at least, the result of long and mature experience, and seems more becoming the character, dignity, and position of the episcopate than to make further experiment, until the laity shall have the opportunity of speaking in the General Conference.

To make the bishops dependent, as is further suggested, in part on Church collections, in part on voluntary gifts of the wealthy, and then, for any deficiency, on the Book Concern, is to make our chief pastors subject to greater contingencies and greater complications than are other officers or ministers. But should their support, like that of presiding elders and pastors, be thrown upon the people, and then be apportioned, on some equitable plan, to the Conferences, to the districts, and to the congregations, we think it would be adequately met. Their residences, at well-selected centers within episcopal districts, would constitute a large part of the salaries.

has so many of these collections as we have. Methodist episcopacy not being diocesan, but a general superintendency, it cannot easily or adequately be endowed. We are too progressive, and at the same time enlarging, a connection for this.

Now the denominational genius which inspires to this great and varied work, and the enterprise which pushes it on to such grand and enlarging proportions, are in part inherited from the founders and early promoters of Methodism, many of whom were scholars and far-seeing men. We need but to read the portraitures of the early English Methodists, as drawn by Dr. A. Stevens in his elegantly written History, and then again to study the struggles of the leading minds of the American Church, from Coke and Asbury down through Bangs, Ruter, Fisk, Olin, and others to the present-we have but to read and study these men and their deeds, in order to see that the old fires of sanctified intelligence, learning, scholarship, and literature continue to burn in the Church, and, judging from the past, will continue to glow until her missions shall end-nay, not end, for the achievements of sanctified intelligence will never end.

The Book Concern was begun by Rev. John Dickins in Philadelphia, 1789, where he was stationed by Bishop Asbury in 1785. Mr. Dickins was, for the times, a notable man. Born in London, he studied at Eton College, emigrated to America before the Revolution, joined the Methodists in 1774, traveled extensively in Virginia and North Carolina, was engaged in the first project for a literary institution among us-which resulted in Cokesbury College-was stationed at John-street, New York, in 1783, and has the honor of founding the Concern of which we write. He is said to have been an able preacher and a good scholar. To have originated and successfully carried forward for a time, on a capital of six hundred dollars, the nucleus of this establishment, he must have possessed good business talents. Not on his own motion did he engage in this work, but was designated to it as "Book Steward" in connection with his regular ministerial work.* The first "Book Committee " was appointed in 1799. In 1804 the Concern was removed to New York. In 1836 it was consumed by fire, but *Stevens's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. ii, pp. 41, 499.