and qualifications. Having passed these ordeals, it yet remains that they be approved by the ensuing conference; and, even after all this, the General Committee, if a majority see cause, have the right to suspend the appointment. The plan for stationing the missionaries is drawn up by the secretaries; by whom it is laid before the General Committee in London, and, if approved by them, recommended to the conference.

The "Standing Instructions" to all who are sent out as missionaries, relative to their conduct in foreign lands, enjoin, among other things, cheerful obedience to all lawful authority; entire neutrality with reference to secular disputes and local politics; and a course of conduct that shall always evince that their only object is the spiritual welfare of their fellow-men. Positively, in all cases, are they forbidden to "follow trade;" and it is the expressed desire of the body by whom they are sent forth that they be "at the remotest distance from all temptation to a secular or mercenary temper." All their time and energies are to be sacredly devoted to the duties of their mission; "because," say the Instructions, "the committee feel themselves fully pledged to pay an affectionate attention to all your wants, and to afford them every reasonable and necessary supply." Every missionary is peremptorily required to keep a journal, and frequently to send home extracts from it, giving full and minute accounts of his labors, trials, discouragements, and success, together with any information and religious details deemed interesting. "Only," say the committee, "we recommend you not to allow yourselves, under the influence of religious joy, to give any high coloring of facts; but always to write such accounts as you would not object to see returned in print to the place where the facts reported have occurred."

The income of the Society, and its expenditures, have gone on increasing, from the year ending June, 1818, when the receipts were £20,600, to the year ending December 31, 1845, when they amounted to the "cheering sum" of £112,823; being an average annual increase, for the twenty-seven years, of about, in our currency, fifteen thousand dollars. The disbursements, as per the first Annual Report, were about £18,500; which had increased, as stated in the Report for the year ending April, 1846, to one hundred and twelve thousand pounds sterling; or more than half a million of dollars.

The receipts for the year ending December, 1846, were, as we learn from a paragraph in one of the periodicals of the day, £115,762; being an advance of £2838.

These amounts have been raised mainly by annual subscriptions and collections, from the various circuits, which are formed into "branch" societies, in connection with the district associations, which are called, "Auxiliary Societies." The treasurers of the circuit societies are required to pay over all funds in their hands, once a quarter, to the treasurers of the district societies; by whom, every three months, or oftener, remittances, deducting only necessary incidental expenses, are required to be made to the General Committee, in London. In addition to the amounts collected at home, it is very gratifying to notice the fact that latterly considerable sums have been received from the foreign stations, showing that the converts from heathenism and idolatry have been taught to know Him who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive;" and thus, by their works, they give the best possible evidence of their faith. In addition to the large sums which, of necessity, the foreign stations severally raised for their own local religious purposes, the Society received from this source alone, during the year ending April, 1846, more than fifty thousand dollars. Report, p. 2. Honorable mention is made, too, in the Reports, and deservedly, of the efforts of the children of Great Britain. The juvenile Christmas offerings indicate that there is no fear that the missionary spirit will die out when the fathers have gone to their reward. The whole juvenile effort for the year 1846 "is believed," says the Report, "to have raised nearly £5500. For this noble, seasonable, and most acceptable enlargement of their annual resources for usefulness, the Society will, with the committee, be deeply grateful to the interesting parties concerned."

66

On this subject the secretaries say, and we quote, as a hint that might be followed out with happy results in our own country :-"That effort," the juvenile, was suggested to the children and young people of the Wesleyan societies and congregations, in order to prevent, in 1841, the recurrence of so great an evil as the creation of a new debt, by the possible failure of the accustomed income to meet the probable expenditure. The suggestion, though made under the disadvantage of haste and inadequate preparation for such a movement, was very generally and zealously sanctioned by the ministers of the connection, by our juvenile friends, and by their honored parents. Only one shilling, to be given or collected at Christmas, was respectfully solicited from each child of Wesleyan families; and the produce was estimated at only £3000." It amounted, the first year, to £4890; and, in 1846, to the sum named above. Scarcely less gratifying," they continue, "if not more so, than the pecuniary result, have been the numerous manifestations of good feeling and good principle which the occasion called forth;-very earnest wishes having been expressed by juvenile collectors, that they may be permitted to enjoy a repetition of the like privilege and pleasure in future years. And why

In looking over the long list of "former donations of ten pounds and upward, to December 31, 1844," a list occupying twenty-one columns, of the smallest type, we were not more struck by the liberality therein evinced, than by the ingenuity by which very many of the donors choose to be known; or, rather, to remain unknown. Thus, the large amount of £1943 is credited to A. B.; A. B. C. contributes £25; A. D. £200; A. M. £200; A. P. £50, and thus on, through the alphabet, down to X. Y., who gives £700, and two benefactors who each chose the letter Z. More than two hundred different contributors hide themselves under the simple designation, "Friend;" among them we notice "A Friend in America," £40 9s. 6d.; and a "Friend in New-York," £25 10s. 8d. A number of these "Friends" are donors of one hundred pounds each; several of two, three, five, six, eight, and one of twelve hundred pounds. Under the guise of a partnership concern, with the signature "Two Friends," comes a donation of £2100. Then we have "A Debtor still," £50; "Anonymous," £2000, and a dozen others, with various amounts, have selected the same signature. “A Poor Tetotaller," £40. "Debtor to the Jews and to the Greeks,” £66. "Debtor to Greeks and Barbarians," £250. "Debtor to Methodism," £500. "It is the Lord's," £30. "Methodist who adopted Jacob's vow," two, each £100. "To whom my more than all is due," £100. There are also pleasing recognitions of divine goodness under the designations, "Thank offering," "Talent to be Improved," "Christmas Offering," "Profit of Commercial Speculation," "Profits in Business," "Profits of first Edition of Memoir of W. Carvosso," £50; "Part profit of Dr. A. Clarke's Wesley Family," £26; "Net produce of Richard Watson's Sermon on the Religious Instruction of Slaves in the West Indies," £44; and a great variety of others of similar character.

In the list of "Donations upon Annuity, from the year 1819 to 1845, inclusive," are sums of one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, and one of ten thousand pounds; which amounts, subject to an annual interest during the life-time of the donors, revert, at their death, to the Society. The legacies, the receipt of which is

not, if a missionary exigency shall require it? The Lord hath need of them,' as well as other laborers; and they may probably experience through life the beneficial influences of such an early and active engagement in his service. They may, by God's grace,

'To love's habitual sense, by acts, aspire,

And, while they kindle, catch the gospel fire.""

Report, 1842.

acknowledged in the Reports, from the year 1815 to 1843, inclusive, are in number more than 350; on an average, more than twelve per annum, or one for each month, during that period. In amount they vary. We notice thirty-seven of £100, and less than £200; as many between £200 and £500; eight of £500 and upward; six of one thousand pounds each; one of £1450; one £5274; and one, that of Miss Houston, of Ireland, amounting, within a trifle, deducted, we suppose, by government, to ten thousand pounds. sterling. Parliamentary and colonial grants, for educational purposes, and in aid of the schools in foreign lands, under the care of the Society, are also acknowledged as sources of revenue, though, from their fluctuating nature, and, as in the case of legacies, their uncertainty, little dependence is placed upon them. In alluding to this class of miscellaneous income, and to a decrease in its amount for the year 1841, arising mainly from the diminished number of legacies, the committee, while they sincerely rejoice in the continued health and life of the Society's attached friends and supporters, and pray that, "long, if it please God, may they live, to get good, and to do good, while it is in the power of their hands to do it," add, very seasonably, the respectful request that, "living or dying," they will remember the paramount claims of the great cause of missions on their "present charity," as well as "on their mortuary arrangements and distributions."

Urged on by manifest and repeated tokens of divine favor, stimulated by incessant calls for help, and met in all directions, and from every quarter, with exhortations and encouragements to go forward, the committee appeared before their constituents, at the annual meeting in 1840, with the astounding, but glorious, news, "that the Society was in debt more than twenty thousand pounds," which indebtedness had so increased during the succeeding year that the balance due the treasurers, on the 21st of April, 1841, amounted to thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and sixteen pounds, six shillings, and eleven pence-a sum not far from two hundred thousand dollars. Truly a large amount; and well calculated to alarm the timid, as it did; better calculated, as it also did, to call forth redoubled energies and increasing liberality. With the consciousness of having simply done their duty; and, at the same time,

The government seems to vary in its claims upon legacies; thus, from two bequests, of one hundred pounds each, acknowledged in the Report for 1843, a deduction of ten per cent. is made; and the amount received by the Society is, in either case, only ninety pounds. Next year, from a legacy of four hundred pounds, there is deducted "less duty, £52 12s. ;" or, more than thirteen per cent.

feeling keenly their embarassments, the committee speak of this large indebtedness as necessarily resulting from the increasing prosperity of the cause of God, in answer to the prayers of his people; and, say they,-"Unless those prayers went out from 'feigned lips,' we must prepare for the consequences. We must cease to pray, or learn to give on a scale of corresponding generosity." A simple truism; and yet how full of potency! It is the entire argument in a nutshell, a two-horned dilemma, presenting an alternative, upon which no true disciple of the Saviour will dare to hesitate. The managers continue:—

"In the mean time, our object should be to prevent any further accumulation of the debt, by resolute exertions to make the current year's income adequate to its anticipated and unavoidable expenditure. To this point, just now, and during the remainder of 1840, let our energies be directed with much more than former or ordinary zeal. Let no Branch Society, or individual members, confine their efforts to such an increase . of contributions as they might deem sufficient, on the merely arithmetical principle of giving their own insulated and average share of the sum to be raised by the whole body of our friends. Such a principle would be, to a great extent, as fallacious and inefficient in future, as it has been proved to be, whenever adopted, in time past. Let all and each, in every city, town, and village, do, not what others do, or ought to do, but their very utmost and their best, even as God hath prospered and enabled them; measuring their liberality, not by the doings or supposed duties of others, but by their own several obligations and means, and by the urgent, the paramount necessities of the case, which is really and truly that of souls perishing for lack of knowledge."

Then, with regard to the debt already existing, they speak in language of strong confidence; in the midst of all their anxieties, assuring the Society and the world, that of its speedy liquidation "they will not, they cannot, entertain a doubt or a fear." In this emergency, we meet with no intimation of such a thought as recalling one missionary, or of abandoning any field already occupied. They speak, indeed, of the dire necessity, "most calamitous and awful," of refraining, for the present, from commencing any new missions, and from sending out more men to those already established; but give no place to the monstrous idea of furling, for this reason, the standard of the cross where it had once been planted. Alluding to the Society's omission to send adequate reinforcements to existing missions, the Report for 1842 says:

"In this way, money has been saved; but who dare say that souls, immortal souls, have not been lost, which, if duly sought, might have been found, and recovered to holiness and to God? The evil is to be removed, not by any unwarrantable and habitual expenditure exceeding