allowance of the preachers." This was then called and is now known as the "Fifth Collection." A portion of it came to the relief of the superannuated and widows, but the greater part of it was required to meet the "deficiency" of effective men. As the financial condition of the societies improved, and more liberal and punctual habits obtained for the payment of their ministers, their claims for deficiency greatly decreased, and in later years the avails of the fifth collection have been mostly appropriated for the benefit of the worn-out and widows. In 1863 it amounted to nearly fifty thousand dollars.

Notwithstanding the means before devised for their comfort, many of the superannuated were still in "distressed" condition, and the General Conference of 1812 resolved, "That each Annual Conference, if they think proper, should raise a fund, subject to their own direction, for the aid of such." This doubtful expedient of conferring conference sovereignty in the matter, resulted in a variety of measures to meet the end proposed. In some of the conferences it led to taking a special collection for "necessitous cases;" in a few, to the organization of "Mite Societies" in the Churches. In others it took the form of a "ten-cent collection" from each member of the classes. Three or four others organized a "Preachers' Aid Society," taking collections in the congregations, and intrusting the avails to a board of clerical and lay managers for distribution. And others, perhaps in addition to one of the plans already named, formed "A Mutual Assistance Society " of the members of the conference, depending for funds on the annual dues of its members, and contributions and legacies that might fall to it from others, and making dividends only to the needy of the society. These various conference schemes were each, for a while, instrumental in raising respectable sums for the objects of their creation. A few of them continue to the present, but the most of them have expired.

The General Conference of 1832 made it "the duty of each Annual Conference to raise moneys in every circuit and station within its bounds for the necessitous superannuated ministers, widows, and orphans." This order was a quickening and making general the taking of the "fifth collection." Until this time it had been taken in only a few of the charges. The

order brightened, henceforth, the pathway of the needy ones. It gave efficiency to a plan, simple in its machinery, abundant in its resources, and natural in its application.

The memorial services of the centenary of Methodism, in 1839, were made the proper occasion for the hundreds of thousands who had been benefited by this branch of the general Church to show their gratitude by some substantial offerings. Large contributions were made, and the several conferences in which they were made directed the different objects to which they should be appropriated. In most of them the wants of the superannuated received a generous share. The money was usually committed to trustees and funded, and the dividends from it annually distributed. The amount of these dividends varies in different conferences, from less than fifty to over four hundred dollars.

From this narrative account of the means that the Methodist Church has employed to raise the funds needed for worn-out ministers, let us turn and inquire respecting their efficiency and their relative merits. To do this properly, it is necessary to determine which produces the greatest revenue; which is most practicable in use; which is most consistent with the end proposed; and, what is of great importance, which has the best moral influence on the parties concerned.

Of the "Preachers' Fund," the first attempt and similar in its organization to others now existing in a few of the conferences, but little need be said. It had nothing of the nature of a beneficiary institution. It asked nothing from any who might not receive its benefits.. It was simply a mutual assurance, and by its conditions was very limited in its practical results. It was the same as most life or health insurance companies, with the peculiarity that it was confined to Methodist ministers, and in this had no more merit than if organized by cordwainers or physicians. It was a company of ministers annually depositing a bonus with their brethren for the guarantee, that in case of failing health, or death, they or their widows should receive it back again and perhaps more.

The "Chartered Fund" took a step forward. From mutually helping each other the ministry turned to look for help from the Church. They sought aid from those whom they had served. So far it adopted the right policy. But it also adopted the

plan of a funded charity. This was the source of its weakness. and ultimate inefficiency. This mode of dispensing the dividends of gifts for ecclesiastical purposes was much more popular, in the time of the institution of this fund, than it is at the present. Sanctioned by the example of the Established Church in the mother country, it had been quite extensively adopted in this, and many local Churches were thought to be permanent and prosperous by their funded endowments. The day had not fully come for disbursing the gifts of the people as fast as received, or as fast as they were needed. For institutions that depend on the munificence of a few individuals, as colleges or hospitals, the funding of gifts for their support is still, and perhaps may be the only way to enable them to meet the end of their creation. But it is a system, now in disfavor, where appeals for help are made directly to the people, and where their duty and their sympathy may be constantly invoked. It is repudiated by the great benevolent enterprises of the day. One of the evils of this policy, of the past, is the over-estimate that is generally made of the amount of its avails. This has been true in respect to the Chartered Fund. The Church, by some indefinite belief, supposed it was doing much more than it ever has done. But few, indeed, thought it was only paying about two per cent. to every claimant. Akin to this evil, and partly growing out of it, the funding principle causes a lack of personal responsibility, and a consequent inactivity, in the people, in behalf of the objects to be benefited, because they suppose the work is already done by others. It is a notorious fact, that in Churches or associations relying on their invested funds for support there is usually but little enterprise or enthusiasm, and those connected with them come to possess narrow views of duty and a chronic illiberality. The divine order is that each generation shall do the work properly belonging to it, and educate the next for even greater activity and liberality. No man can have a like interest in an enterprise to which he contributes nothing, as he will have for one to which his mind, and heart, and purse have been tributary. Funded charities, so far as they remove from the people the duty of giving for their objects, destroy the near and healthy relations that should exist between them. The limited resources of the Chartered Fund has doubtless saved the Church

from any of the calamities that we have named. Dr. Bangs says of it: "It may be questioned whether, by inducing a false dependence in the public mind, this fund has not defeated the objects of its institution and disappointed the expectations of its benevolent founders and patrons." The same objections that apply to it may be urged with equal force to the centenary and other invested funds for the relief of worn-out ministers.

It was just like John Wesley to make the press turn preacher; in his own words, " to enter every open door" to preach Christ. It was just like his followers in America to do the same thing. Not because they were simple imitators, but they saw it was an effectual way to do their work to spread scriptural holiness over the land. Almost immediately after the organization of the Church they initiated a plan for printing and circulating books. The connectional economy of the Church gave it great facilities for making this plan successful. By it a literature has been given the country that has essentially aided in educating the people in the doctrines of Methodism, and making the Church homogeneous in creed and government. That it was proposed, at so early a day as history shows, to appropriate the profits of the "Book Concern" to assist the worn-out preachers, is more an evidence of the necessity for helping them, than it is of the wisdom in using these profits for such a purpose. The aid it gave was needed, but it is doubtful whether it were wise to make the appropriation. It was a doubtful expediency that made the ministers, who were the conductors of the book publishing establishment, liable to the suspicion that their zeal in the circulation of books was in any degree attributable to the "profits" they were to receive from it. It is true, in fact, that these profits were only incidental, and their chief motive was the dissemination of the truth; nevertheless, the specified use that should be made of them gave to their work, in the eyes of the world, a selfish aspect, and so far it detracted from and lowered the evangelical mission of the Book Concern. The real, as well as professed, design of the establishment is to circulate the words of truth in their most attractive and useful form, and to the greatest possible extent. Nothing should be allowed in any way to interfere with this design. The best talent the world

can furnish, the most thorough art that enterprise can develop, the widest distribution that energy and facility can give, and the most favorable terms that the purchaser can receive, should all be made tributary to render efficient and further the great design of the "Concern." Its work is not even incidentally to make profits, but attractive and valuable literature; and its issues should be the demand of every household in the land. It is not to support the ministry, but to enlighten and save the people. Every cent that may be spared from its permanent and needed capital should be employed in improving the quality, and giving wider diffusion to its issues. Every cent diverted from such employment impinges the usefulness and efficiency of the institution. Let it have one object and only one, and to that give its undivided, liberal, and energetic efforts; let the Church directly provide for the support of all its ministers. There are other objections to taking the profits of the Book Concern for the relief of superannuated men, the same as there are to depending on the dividends of the Chartered Fund. The sums thus furnished will be inconsiderable to the amount required, and relying on them for this object will diminish the liberality of the people.

The "fifth collection" is the chief support of the disabled ministers of the Methodist Church. More than three fourths of all the moneys now received for them is through this collection. Because it is so generally taken in the Churches, and may be ultimately their only supply, it is proper to consider some of the reasons that commend it to our confidence.

Not the least of these reasons is, that it is a good way for the Church to meet its obligations to care for these men. With many, perhaps with the most who contribute, the impulse to give arises from sympathy for their needy state, increased by respect for their integrity, and a remembrance of their labors. and life of self-denial. In some cases this sympathy may be intensified from personal good received from their past ministrations. To such the work is chiefly one of charity. But the recipients have generally held relations to the givers that make the giving a duty. There has, indeed, been no literal promise to pay, to constitute an acknowledged debt, but there have been services rendered under circumstances that make the duty to pay an obligation in equity. In other Churches there