I • Please preserve this Tract, and read It under favorable circumstances. Let others read it also. Do not allow it to be destroyed. PICTURE OF THE MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: TRACT SOCIETY, 200 Mulberry-street, New York. NO. 547 . BEQUESTS. > 4 «»< "We respectfully suggest to all to whom God hath given a competency, to remember the Missionary So¬ ciety in their wills, as God hath prospered each one. So did the late Dr. Olin say: I give $ to the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church, as an evidence of the high estimation in which I hold its great work for the glory of God. And a rugged old farmer in the West, in a missionary meeting, said, while the tears streamed from his eyes: Brethren , I have adopted the Missionary Society as one of my children / 1 mean to support it while I live , and make it one of my heirs when I die. Let each son and daughter of the Church remem¬ ber the Missionary Society in their wills, if it be hut to the amount of a few dollars, if God hath given but little; but liberally if God hath given bounti¬ fully. And let the bequests be without condition of permanent investment, so that they may be applied for current use in carrying on our missions. It is best that each generation in the Church should do its own work in its own day. UglT 3 See form of bequest on third page of cover. s No. 547. V OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. At the request of several Annual Conferences, this brief statement of the providential rise, present condition, and future prospects of our missions is drawn up by the Corresponding Secretary , Rev. Dr. Durbust. Indian Missions. These are the oldest missions of our Church. Their origin indicates clearly the hand of a Divine Providence. They arose on this wise. Some forty years ago there dwelt in Marietta, on the banks of the Ohio, a colored man named John Stewart. He was deeply pious, and seemed to have close and constant communion with God. He was powerfully impressed that it was his duty to go through the then thinly settled country to the northwest, on some divine mission which he did not comprehend. He set out from home and traveled to the vicinity of Upper Sandusky, in Ohio, where he found the Wyandot tribe of Indians. The same strange impression which called him to his feet now constrained him to halt. The Indians gathered round him, but could not talk with him. At length they remembered that there was a man of his color residing among them, and they brought Jonathan Painter to him. As soon as they met they knew they were of the same race, and spoke to each other in En¬ glish. Stewart learned that Jonathan ran away from Kentucky some ten years before; that he had been a Methodist, but had lost his religion and become a savage Indian, and spoke their language fluently. “ God,” said Stewart to Jonathan, “has sent you here to assist me in what I feel is my mission; I must preach the Gospel to these Indians to-morrow, and you must be my 2 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. interpreter .” The tears gushed out of Jonathan’s eyes, and he exclaimed, “ How can I interpret the Gospel to the Indians, when I have no religion myself?” “Then,” said Stewart, “ you must get religion to-night, for to¬ morrow I must preach to these people, and you must in¬ terpret.” All that night Jonathan wrestled with God in prayer, and Stewart helped him; and the next day they opened the kingdom of God to the Indians. From this providential beginning our missions among the Indians spread until they have extended from West¬ ern New York to Wisconsin, and are under the care of eight Annual Conferences. But upon the division of our Church in 1845 the much largest portion of the Indian missions fell to the Church, South. At present we em¬ ploy 21 missionaries among the Indians, have 1,066 mem¬ bers and 105 probationers, and 19 local preachers. The Church, South , have an Indian Mission Conference of two districts, divided into 25 circuits, and employing 29 missionaries. All this, both North and South, is the fruit of our first Indian missions, so providentially com¬ menced. To this we are to add the thousands of these children of the forest who have been gathered to their rest in heaven. Many of them gave beautiful examples in their lives and deaths of the power of religion. Let the Church be made to understand but this small part of our missionary work, and she will give all that is neces¬ sary to prosecute our missions. African Missions. Our missions in Africa arose some thirty years ago, thus: Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and some leading citi- . zens who agreed with him, saw, or thought they saw, two races of people in this land so dissimilar that they could not intermarry and be cordially accepted on each side. They concluded that these two races never could dwell together on terms of equality, and they therefore inferred that either they must be peacefully separated, or come into dire conflict in process of years. This was their view of the difficult problem which they saw of¬ fering itself for solution. They advised peaceable sepa¬ ration, and, to accomplish it, originated the American Colonization Society. Their main object was to show OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 3 the world that the African race was capable of self-gov¬ ernment under favorable circumstances, and thus induce the people of this land to favor their removal to Africa, and leave North America to the white race. So much is said, to show T the providential rise of our African missions. Among the first colonists which were sent to Liberia, Af¬ rica, were some members of the Methodist Church. When they were landed on that distant and unknown coast, and the ship had weighed anchor and turned her prow home¬ ward, they stood on the beach and watched her fading from their view in the distance, and when she was gone, one said, Let us pray y and they knelt down on the sand and prayed. It was Saturday afternoon. On Sunday they had a meeting, and at the close one said, “ What shall we do for preachers ?” The conclusion was, to send home to the Church and ask her to send them preachers. Could the Church refuse? Bishop Hedding appointed Itev. M. B. Cox, with others, to go to our brethren in Africa. Those who saw Brother Cox preparing for his departure in 1832 will need no exhortation or argument to convince them that he was called of God to this great work. A little incident will characterize the whole. Brother A. Cummings, of the New York World, met Brother Cox in Philadelphia, and said to him, u Brother Cox, why will you go to Africa ? Do you not know that you will die there quickly V > The divine fire flashed from the eyes of the missionary; his lips quivered, and he said: “ I know I cannot live long in Af rica , but I hope to live long enough to get there; and if God please that my bones shall lie in an African grave , I shall have estab¬ lished such a bond between Africa and the Church at home as shall not be broken until Africa is redeemed .” He went to Africa and died there quickly, and is there buried; and in dying he said : “ Let a thousand fall, but let not Africa be given up A In the missionary cemetery in Monrovia there lie by Brother Cox eleven of the thous¬ and, and yet the children of the Church are ready to go, serve, and die there. The African mission now T covers the whole of the Be- public of Liberia, and extends from Cape Mount on the north to Cape Palmas on the south, say six hundred miles; and from the sea on the w r est into the interior 4 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. from ten to more than fifty miles at one point. Within its limits are 140,000 native Africans, accessible to the mission. It exists as one of our regular Annual Confer¬ ences, with its own missionary bishop, (Bishop Burns ;) is divided into four presiding elders’ districts, and each of these into circuits and stations. The best buildings in the republic are academies built by our Missionary So¬ ciety. The following is a tabular view of the mission, in which, please remember, there is not a single white person: SUMMARY. Bishop Burns. 1 Members of Conference and on trial. 18 Local Preachers employed . 8 Members in the Churches, Americo-Liberians. 1,892 Probationers. 89 Native members. 72 Week-day schools. 19 Scholars. 600 Sunday-schools. (Number not given.) Scholars. 980 Native youth in families, on Bishop Scott’s plan, for in¬ struction in letters and in home and industrial affairs.. 32 Select youths educated for service in the Missions. 9 Will the Church allow our missionary work in Africa to be crippled for want of funds ? She will not if she is made to see it clearly. China Mission. At least one third of the human race is within the Chi¬ nese Empire. Until lately they Avere inaccessible to Christian missions. But at the opening of five ports for trade some years ago, the Church universal felt a poAV- erful impulse to send the Gospel to these 400,000,000 of idolaters. Our OAvn Church felt the impulse, and in 1847 sent her infant China mission to Fuhchau, on the Rruer Min. The city and towns immediately in sight contain 2,000,000 of people. Amid this vast population our mis¬ sion planted the standard of the cross. For ten years they soAved in faith and hope, and prepared parsonages, and churches, and schools, believing that the harvest would come. They have not been disappointed. The seed is springing up, and scarcely a monthly communion passes Avithout the baptism of adults and children, and OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 5 their enrollment in the native Chinese Church. The mission now extends into the country, and the converts are formed into Churches and classes, and observe all the forms and usages of our Churches and classes at home. God has already raised up six native helpers who faith¬ fully exhort and preach the Gospel. One of them has charge of a native society in the country. The arrangements for prosecuting the missions are most appropriate and efficient. There are already six good parsonages, two good churches, besides two or three native structures for worship, a superior girls’ boarding-school building, boys’ boarding-school, girls’ day-school, a female orphan asylum, supported by com¬ mercial residents at the port; and a complete printing establishment, to print the Holy Scriptures in the collo¬ quial language of the province; and also books of instruc¬ tion for the mission, and tracts, and religious books. This is a brief view of the materiel of the mission. The following tabular views, added to the above, will give a fair statement of the condition and prospect of our China mission. After having carefully read this, we ask, Can the Church allow our China mission to be crippled for want of support ? MEMBERSHIP. Entire number of baptisms.... 88 Adults. 62 Children. 26 Died in the faith, males. 8 Dropped, for various causes... 5 Present adult membership.... 54 Licensed exhorters. 3 Increase in adult membership this year. 10 SUMMARY. Missionaries. 7 Assistants. 8 Native helpers. 6 Churches. 2 Chapels. 2 Country appointments. 2 City appointments. 1 Sunday-school. 1 Scholars. 80 Teachers. 6 English class. 1 Members. 8 Boys’ boarding-school. 1 Pupils... 17 Girls’boarding-school. 1 Pupils. 8 Gins’ day school. 1 Scholars. 8 Foundling asylum for females. 1 Foundlings saved from death. 18 Our China mission is our Christian column, penetrating the interior with the missionary columns of other Churches ; and everything in China indicates that the day 6 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. is not far distant when the Chinese will cease to be idol¬ aters, and the government will accept the Christian relig¬ ion as the religion of the empire. Will we, as a Church, nobly do our part ? Time will tell. Missions in India. About one hundred and fifty years ago the foundations of the British Empire were laid in India. It now con¬ tains more than 150,000,000 of subjects who are idol¬ aters. They are all accessible to Christian missions un¬ der the protection of the British authority. The leading Churches of Europe and America had already sent their missions into this dark empire of Satan. In 1856 our young and vigorous Church was moved by her sense of duty, heightened by a strong manifestation of the d,esire and expectation of the Christian world, to send a mission into the Northwest Province, particularly comprehend¬ ing the kingdom of Oude and the adjoining Province of Bareilly, containing say 10,000,000 of people, being the most thickly inhabited part of the world. The banner of the cross had not been unfurled among them, except by one feeble missionary agency, which voluntarily gave way upon the appearance of our mission with the promise of vigorous action. Just as the place was selected where first to set up our banner, the mutiny broke out, and our missionaries had to flee to the mountains. At the close of the mutiny in 1857-8, they returned and began again their glorious work. The European population, consist¬ ing of civil, military, and commercial residents and citizens, seeing the vigor with which the mission was recom¬ menced, and hearing, as they expressed it, of the great Methodist Church in America as the author and sup¬ porter of the mission, cordially proffered their aid, on condition that its plan and execution should be worthy the field of operation and the power of the Church at home. The plan was clearly drawn up by the mission and sent home, and was by the Board and General Com¬ mittee approved, though not formally engaged to be ex¬ ecuted as a whole plan. And yet a declaration of pur¬ pose to carry it out was made to the mission, should Providence continue to favor us. This declaration was satisfactory to the mission in India, and to our European OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 7 friends there, and they have gone forward in the execu¬ tion of the plan. The European residents promised to give, in cash , one half of the expense of a good mission¬ ary residence for every missionary sent , the Board sup¬ plying the other half. They further promised to aid in building school-houses and churches, and to assist in supporting teachers, all on condition that the mission should be vigorously prosecuted according to expecta¬ tion. They have nobly done their part, and the Board, up to this present year of trouble, has nobly clone its part. We have requested our mission in India to assure our European friends there that we will do our best if they will stand by our missions in this our year of peril and trial. Not one of these principal European contributors is a Methodist, and yet some of them have given as much as $1,000 a year; others $700, $500, $300, and so on down to $5 each. In alluding to these donations in India, Dr. Butler, superintendent, says: u There have been raised in India in two and a half years (ending in 1860) over $15,000 to enable the Board to send us the men needed for this vast field.” Since 1860 the Europeans have continued to aid us as heretofore. Our mission property in India, created since 1857, and wholly free from debt, so that we pay neither rent nor interest in the mission, is worth, say $30,000. The following ex¬ hibit will show what it is : Nineteen missionary residences, valued at.$25,402 Five chapels, cost. 4,920 Native teachers and preachers’ houses, Sadidgunge.... 300 Two school-houses of a regular character. .. 1,025 Miscellaneous property, building materials, etc. 2,250 Making a grand total of.$33,897 Add to the European contributions contained in the above sum what they have given since, and it will exceed $20,000, or nearly one fifth of the expenses of our mis¬ sion from the first, one third of which the mission has now in unincumbered property. The spiritual aspects of the mission are no less en¬ couraging, as will be seen by the following tabular view prepared in September, 1861. 8 OUE MISSIONAEY PICTUEE. G-eneral Table of Statistics. Nineteen new parsonages. Missionaries. 17 Their wives. 16 Native preachers. 6 “ exhorters. 6 Places of worship. 10 Church members, native. 93 Baptisms. 57 English Church members. 68 School-houses. 7 Schools. 18 D&y scholars. 457 Teachers. 12 Sabbath scholars. 223 Orphans in Asylum... 100 Each city occupied by the missionaries is a station, and is the center of a circuit, and the missionary force in each at the proper season of the year itinerates amid the surrounding villages and cities, and preaches the Gospel in the streets, bazars, and in their own traveling tents, so that Dr. Butler says not less than two hundred and fifty villages and cities have been thus visited this year. This is a brief sketch of our infant mission in India. It holds out great promise, if the Church will sustain it in this our time of peril. Who in the Church would not gladly give from ten to fifty cents a year, nay, even fifty dollars, rather than this mission should be crippled ? Bulgarian Mission. Four millions of Sclavonians live in Bulgaria, in Euro¬ pean Turkey, a country bounded by the Danube, the Balkan Mountains, and the Black Sea. They observe the rites of the Greek Church, but have been for years dissatisfied with its government, and hence have urged the American Board to extend their mission to them from Constantinople. This it could not do for the want of men and means, and therefore it informally applied to the Methodist Board to send a mission to Bulgaria* OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 9 Upon careful inquiry we found the people resolutely determined to emancipate themselves from the imperious authority of the Greek Church. They were beginning to feel the impulse of investigation and freer thought, which point to a higher civilization and greater freedom. It was ascertained that these longings for religious liberty sympathized strongly with the powerful Protestant ele¬ ment in Hungary, which lies near at hand, and through Hungary with the scattered fragments of Protestantism in Southern Russia. A Protestant mission was needed to give encouragement, instruction, and advice to these disjointed and distracted elements of Protestantism. Un¬ der these circumstances our General Missionary Com¬ mittee authorized the mission; and in 1857 Brothers Prettyman and Long were sent, and are preaching to the people is. their own language, and instructing and guid¬ ing them informally in their efforts to attain to religious freedom and a pure religious experience. In the mean time well-defined rumors reached us that there was a remarkable people in the city of Tulcha, near the Black Sea, who were Protestants, as to the doctrines and worship of the Greek Church. This re¬ minded us of the Rev. W. F. Flocken, one of our German missionaries in America, who was born in the south of Russia, and spoke the language of these strange people. We sent him quickly to Tulcha with instructions to ex¬ amine and report to us. Molakans is the popular name of these people, because they live chiefly on milk. Brother Flocken’s account is in substance as follows: They reject the ritual of the Greek Church, and all pictures in churches; are simple and earnest in their worship, which is always in private houses, and very much secluded, as the government of Russia is hostile to them. It is on this account a small portion of them have removed to Turkey. Brother Flocken has endeavored to ascertain the religious origin of this remarkable people, and the account they give of themselves is, that about ninety years ago two respectable persons, a gentleman and lady, were attached to the Russian embassy in London. While residing there they became acquainted with a people who worshiped God in private houses, did not use the ritual, prayed extempo¬ raneously, sung with great freedom and spirit, and re- 10 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. jected all pomp and ceremony in their service; were of grave and honest deportment, and given to industry, frugality, and benevolence; that their intercourse with these people so impressed them that when they returned to Russia they spread their own religious views and expe¬ rience among the people, until now they say more than jive millions of people in the south of Russia and in the adjoining provinces of Turkey belong to their associa¬ tion. There is a regular organization among them. Their chief resides in Russia, and subordinate chiefs in other subordinate cities. Some of them, Brother Flocken says, are truly converted. Now the question is, Who were these people whom these two Russians found in London say ninety years ago? There can be but one answer, and that is, The Methodists. Here, then, we have a people in Bulgaria and the south of Europe raised up and prepared by the early Methodists in England to receive the Gospel at the hands of our mission. And we have a missionary born in the south of Russia, and speaking the Russian language, as also the German and French, and sent by Providence to America to be converted and prepared to return to this remarkable people, and offer to them the pure evan¬ gelical religion. Is not the hand of God in this ? Brother Flocken is in daily communication with these interesting people, has a large school among them, attends their meetings, and answers their inquiries, and explains the Scriptures to them. They, having received religious in¬ formation, transmit it to their chief communities in South Russia, and thus our Bulgarian mission is operating effectually in Russia as well as in Bulgaria. Returning from a recent visit to Odessa, in Russia, Brother Flocken advises us of a wide-spread and deep desire of the Ger¬ man colonies in that vicinity to haA T e our mission extend to them, and that they are ready to support it. Thus acting directly upon Russia, and co-operating with the Protestant element in Hungary, our mission is an essen¬ tial agency for the restoration and extension of Protestant¬ ism in southeastern Europe. Will our pastors and people comprehend the true significance of this young mission in European Turkey, and by their generous con¬ tributions to the treasury justify the bishop in sending forward a master-spirit to take the superintendence of OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 11 this difficult and delicate mission, as authorized by the General Missionary Committee ? Let the Church think of the reviving empire of Protestantism in southeastern Europe, at which this mission aims. Foreign German Missions. Upon the pacification of Europe, in 1815, the people expected civil and religious liberty, for which they had fought and conquered at the battles of Leipsic and Waterloo, and which had been promised them upon the fall of Napoleon. But the governments of Europe deceived them, and then they •turned their eyes toward the United States, which began to manifest to the world great material prosperity, and complete civil and religious liberty, and to offer for sale millions of acres of rich lands at a mere nominal price. This condition of things in Europe and in America gave rise to that vast emigration from the former to the latter, which is the most striking charac¬ teristic of the last forty years. These people came solely with a view of improving their worldly condition , having no thought of religious benefits. But when they saw our simple, unostentatious forms of evangelical religion, and felt its direct and earnest power in public worship, their hearts were touched, and they readily yielded. This was more strikingly the case among the Germans, under the ministry and worship of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The religious experience of these strangers was clear and powerful, and they naturally declared it to their countrymen in America, and by many and ardent letters to their countrymen in Germany. This corre¬ spondence created a strong desire in Germany to hear and experience this evangelical Gospel there, and the Methodist Church was uro-ed to send a mission to Ger- many, with a view to influence the people, and to act upon the State Churches to which they belonged, as early Methodism had done in England. In 1849 we sent five true and tried brethren, and said to them, If this mission is of God, he will raise up men in Germany to help you, as he raised up men in England to help the Wesleys and Whitefield. They went, trusting in God and in the promised support of the Church. They 12 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. set up their banners in the free city of Bremen as their center, and commenced working outwardly, preaching the Gospel round about from Bremen. Sometimes they were unhindered, and sometimes in prison ; but God has wrought with them and blessed them, until their missions now extend from Hamburgh and Berlin in the north to Frankfort-on-the-Main in the south ; and from the sea at Bremerhaven on the west, through Germany and into Switzerland to Lake Leman in the east. Their work is in the form of an Annual Mission Con¬ ference, divided into four presiding elder districts, and these into circuits and stations, with their Sunday-schools. They have three periodical papers, one Missionary Insti¬ tute for training their young men, a Book Concern with a good capital, a Tract Society with a moderate capital, that prints and distributes tracts (aided by the Parent Society in America) in Turkey, Russia, Hungary, and France, as well as in Germany, and a printing establish¬ ment for printing Bibles, (aided by the American Bible Society,) tracts, religious books, and periodicals, all of which have a very encouraging circulation. The follow¬ ing summary, which shows the actual condition of the mission at the close of 1860, does not fairly indicate its success, as the largest proportion of their members emi¬ grate to America and join our German Churches here. And one great element of success is the reviving influ¬ ence which the mission exerts on the old formal State Churches, as early Methodism did on the Church of England. Summary. Missionaries. 15 Helpers (students in Missionary Institute,) not yet admitted to the Conference. 17 Members in communion. 1,051 Probationers. 586 Local preachers. 29 Church property. $63,100 Contributions to Missionary Society (1860). $802 The Sunday-School, Tract Society, and American Bible Society statistics are referred to those institutions sev¬ erally. Will the Church allow this great work in Germany to be curtailed and crippled ? OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 18 Scandinavian Missions. These are in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and are yet in their infancy, having been commenced in 1854. They arose in the same manner as our foreign German, only the first converts in America were intelligent young men who came to New York as sailors , and were con¬ verted at the Swedish Bethel Ship in the North River. When they returned home they began to preach and exhort with wonderful power, and a great awakening followed. Being inexperienced in Church affairs, they urged us to send them men to take charge of and or¬ ganize the work. We sent them Brother Willerup. The force in the mission at the close of I860 was six missionaries and three colporteurs. The condition of the mission is as follows: STATIONS. Churclien. Members. Local Preachers. Exhorters. Sunday- Schools. Children. Porsgrund. 1 90 1 50 Rarpsborg. 1 250 2 2 1 37 Edsberg and Holand. 1 32 1 12 Frederikshald. 1 184 3 6 2 35 Copenhagen . 68 # 1 22 Enningdalen. 13 * # , Frederickstadt. • 26 • • • • . Total. 4 663 5 8 6 156 This mission cannot fulfill its great work until it has a respectable church in the city of Copenhagen. The General Missionary Committee, at its session, Novem¬ ber, 1, 1861, made preliminary grants to accomplish this great end, if the Church will sustain it by her contribu¬ tions. South American Mission. This is our lone mission in South America, and is in the city of Buenos Ayres. It is under the charge of Rev. W. Goodfellow, and addresses itself to the English- speaking population. It is ably conducted, and pays its own current expenses. It has long asked for means to extend itself, but we have them not. 14 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. Domestic Missions. These are under the care of the several annual con¬ ferences, and, taken as a whole, form a very large and very important part of our missionary work. They are among the emigrant populations, as the Germans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Welsh, and French; and among the English-speaking population in destitute parts of our older work, and particularly in the new settlements in our vast western and northwestern regions, extending nearly to the Red River of the North, and over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. Our domestic missionary work has received , as it has hitherto deserved , much the largest portion of our missionary money. Under the fostering care of the Missionary Society a goodly number of these domestic missions every year become self-supporting Churches , and begin to repay the money they received in their infancy. The following tables will show what God hath wrought in these missions: German Domestic Missions, commenced in 1836. CONFERENCES. Mission¬ aries. Members. Probation¬ ers. Local Preachers. 1 Churches. Value. Parsonages. Value. Missionary Collections. New York. 27 1,824 498 17 24 $92,700 6 $6,900 $540 76 Itock River. 42 2,551 736 25 50 61,750 25 5,450 446 87 Upper Iowa. 33 1,318 368 14 24 24,010 11 3,860 344 86 Cincinnati.. 30 2,092 360 25 41 73,275 11 6,550 1,271 80 North Ohio. 31 2,249 304 21 m 52,850 15 8,300 922 25 S. E. Indiana... 27 2,865 351 30 48 54,850 17 8,580 1,427 22 Illinois. 49 2,153 424 36 45 63,200 15 7,800 669 31 South. Illinois.. 28 1,910 283 34 36 52,825 14 6,650 293 61 California. 5 80 23 1 5 31,000 3 1,325 143 0< Total. 272 17,642 3,348 203 31H $507,460 117 $55,355 $6,059 0 Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian Missions, commenced in 1856. CONFERENCES. Mission¬ aries. Members. Probation¬ ers. Local Preachers. Churches. Value. Parsonages. Value. Missionary Collections. New York. 2 64 ii 2 1 $11,000 $100 00 Erie. 1 86 20 1 1,500 19 50 Central Illinois. 13 824 214 10 12 17,500 3 $900 290 00 Wisconsin. 3 144 34 1 3 10,000 1 500 60 36 Minnesota. 11 221 164 7 3 2,400 2 450 157 78 West Wisconsin 4 134 31 2 1 1,000 . . .... 11 60 Total. 34 1.473 474 22 21 $43,000 6 $1,850 $689 24 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. 15 French Missions. Two missionaries, fifty members, thirty-six proba¬ tioners, two churches, worth two thousand dollars. Welsh Missions. CONFERENCES. Mission¬ aries. Members. Probation¬ ers. Local Preachers. Churches. Value. Parsonages. Value. i Missionary Collections. East Baltimore. i 28 12 1 1 $450 New York East. i 28 1 2 , , , , Troy. i • • • , , # i 3,000 • . • * Black River.... i 80 29 2 .... • • • . Oneida. 2 79 2 1 2 2,000 $12 00 Wyoming. 1 45 7 2 1 1,000 21 32 Ohio. 1 36 3 1 1 1,500 i $100 30 00 Wisconsin. 3 132 24 1 3 1,300 34 41 Pittsburgh. 1 115 12 • 1 4,000 .... . . . . Total. 12 543 90 10 10 12,250 l $100 $97 73 American Domestic Missions. These are found in every annual conference, and are instituted and administered by the conferences severally. The knowledge of them in detail does not come to the office of the Corresponding Secretary; but we know there are hundreds of them, and the great majority growing into self-supporting Churches. The preceding is a very rapid and condensed picture of our missions at home and abroad. In them are em¬ ployed over six hundred men preaching the Gospel, sup¬ ported in whole or in part by the Missionary Society. Experience has brought our missionary system to a high degree of order and efficiency, and it challenges the con¬ fidence and the admiration of the Christian world. Will the Church show herself equal to the maintenance of it ? or must it be stopped, or even deranged for want of support ? Let the pastors and people answer. How are the missions carried on f We answer: 1. The collections and subscriptions are made regu¬ larly in every church and congregation, and in every Sunday-school, according to a plan laid down in the Dis- 16 OUR MISSIONARY PICTURE. cipline, by authority of General Conference. See Disci¬ pline, p. 207. 2. The appropriations are made in each year by the General Missionary Committee, which comes from dis¬ tant parts of the Church, and by the Board and bishops, jointly. 3. The annual conferences administer the funds given to them severally for the support of their own missions. 4. The Board administers the funds appropriated to Foreign Missions. 5. All appropriations for domestic missions are drawn for by the bishops presiding at the conferences severally. 6. The appropriations to foreign missions are drawn for by the superintendent of each, upon letters of credit furnished semi-annually. 7. The bishops appoint all missionaries at home and abroad, except such as are raised up in the foreign mis¬ sions, and by them received and appointed. 8. Assuming the annual contributions to amount to $300,000, the actual expense of collecting and disbursing this sum will scarcely be three per cent. The reason of this is, the pastors with their missionary committees attend to the collections in every church and congrega¬ tion without any charge therefor , and success in this re¬ spect is considered an honor to the pastor. In conclusion, we ask the pastors and people, with such missionary work and such a system, to support it. Shall the great and holy cause falter in its action ? Let every one answer by a contribution, It shall not be. New York, November, 1861. FOEM OF BEQUEST OF MONEY. “ I give and bequeath to ‘ The Missionary So¬ ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church,’ incor¬ porated by the Legislature of the State of New York, the sum of dollars, and the receipt of the Treasurer thereof shall be a suf¬ ficient discharge to my executors for the same.” FOEM OF DEVISE OF LAND. “I give and devise to the ‘Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church,’ incorpo¬ rated by the Legislature of the State of New York, the following lands and premises; that is to say, (describe them,) , to have and to hold the same, with the appurtenances, to the said Society, its successors, and assigns forever.” Note.— We advise that the will be drawn by a legal gentleman who is a friend of our Church, and executed under his direction. Thou¬ sands of dollars have been lost by defects in wills. VALUABLE HINTS. -- 1. Let each Sunday-school "be organized into a Juvenile Missionary Society, in pursuance of provi¬ sion in the Discipline. We must now rely more on the smaller contributions of the million than on the princely contributions of the few. We must rely on the children of the Church . 2. Let the monthly missionary prayer-meeting be cherished by all. 3. Do not let the public annual missionary collec¬ tion be put off too late in the conference year. This is all important to success. 4. The honor and prominence of our Church are both deeply involved in our maintaining, triumph¬ antly, our missionary work at home and abroad. 5. Let us give more from a sense of duty to God and the world, and less from impulse. Let us train ourselves and our children up in this glorious work.