NORTH-WEST INDIA COM'KltEXCE. ¥ ! I 1 t METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.1 REPORT AND MINUTES. r v r'ff’Ti'ilv 1890. V e„ r . Je # CONTENTS. PBESiDrtKJ S ld m s’ R bport ... , ... « Minutes of Conference ... « J i^pomtnients ... ... 67 î Minutçs of Lay Electoral *Conjference : \ Reports of Conference 79 t « Conference Sessions 87 I Com se ot Studies .. Result of Examinations Statistics k - AND OF THE NORTH-WEST INDIA CONFERENCE OF THE ^ ¡ I e t h o d i s t E p i s c o p a l C h u i \ c h HELD AT N k e r i j t , J a h t l a r y 5}£— 27, 1896. o « o M E E R U T : I. O. G. T. MACHINE PRINTING WORKS. 1 8 9 6 , PRESIDING ELDERS’ REPORT. AGRA DISTRICT. R ev. J, E. SCOTT, Presiding Blder, MUTTRA. R e v . J, E . S c o t i, Missionmty. Miss P. Rowe, .. ... General Evangelist. Mrs. Matthews, f W. F.M .S Deaconess. ' Miss Brown, \Homeand Training Schtìól. Twenty-four Bible-readers and teachers, twelve preachers, and fifty-$ix exhorters and teachers. Agra District has just closed the best year of its history. Pea<;e and harmony have prevailed throughout its borders. There have been no complaints or appepls, none sick or sorry, none flurried or worried. But everywhere, in Agra, Muttra and Aligarh, and through­ out the C ircuits pertaining thereto, there has been steady, satisfactqej-y and solid growth among all classes. The Presiding Elder of the Agra District is not a stoic or a pessimist, not a sceptic nor a dispeptic, hence he believes that “ There is a divinity that shapes our end.” “ Pessimism,” says Martensen, “ fixes its glance on the disturbing and destroying powers, and beholds these as the conquering. In nattire, it discerns everywhere death in life ; in human affairs, the evil over­ powering the good ; in history, the incessant rolling of a Sisyphtis stone i and thence arrives at the conclusion that the life of man is without aim, the last object and intention of existence-nothing But amid all the seeming discouragements and hinderances the Christian optimist cries out :— “ Blessed be the Lord, who dally loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation ” Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ It might be well in beginning the review of the year’s work to take a glance at the field and see how the work is laid out. We are working in all of the Muttra Civil District, in most of the Agra and Aligarh Districts, and in the eastern part of the Native State of Bharatpore. We are trying to evangelize more than three millions of people. Last year, you may remember, we reported that the District was divided into eleven Circuits, This year we have fifteen. Five of these are in the Aligarh District, namely, Aligarh, Hathras, Somna, Tappal and Iglas J four, Muttra, Brindaban, Mahaban, and Kosi, in the Muttra District; two, Bharatpore and Digg, in the Bharatpore State; and four, Agra, Tajgunj, Itmadpore and Firozabad, in the Agra District. The great centres from which the work has radiated are Agra, Aligarh, Muttra, Hathras, Brindaban, Mahaban and Bharatpore. Thtse fifteen PRESIDING ELDERS’ REPORTS. o Circuits have given us more than seventeen hundred baptisms this past year. Of these, three hundred are from the Rajputana State of Bharat- pore, five hundred;'frqfra JKfigáfh District, threehundred and fifty from the Agra side, and six hundred from the four Circuits about Muttra. Mahaban Circuit, under Bro. MIS. Budden, has reported the largest number of converts, viz., »57, while Mutttfa, .under Bro. E. Massey, comes next with a list of 200. Brindaban, Iglas and Firozabad have also done well, but where all have proved worthy, it is difficult to make distinctions. The following table will give an idea of the state of Agra District as to numbers :— Full members 1846 an increase of 429 óvér 1894 Probationers 3 15 4 II »1 1* 984 91 1« W orkers 180 1) 9» „ 60 91 *1 baptism s 1766 1» II „ 10 • •1 ^Sunday Séhóols 165 M *1 <• 6 3 >1 99 Scholars 45 r4 U II » 1.090 19 II Day Schools 8 3 11 M 2? II . 19 Scholars 1628 1» 19 4 4 3 II 19 Native Christian Com­ m unity '6842 11 1* » 2179 91 II Benevolent Collections Rs. ¿779 1» n „ Rs. 2390 19 99 Se’If- support: , ■ . 1 - From Eurbpefcns Rá. 1329 11 11 „ Rs. 528 1? 99 N atives ,, 52 3 11 11 11 ?? 3 4 >9 9vl One of the most satisfactory .things in the whole work of the year, ^pid a matter concerning which jt gives me pleasure to speak, is the m anifest growth of the workers on the District^.. E sp ecially ;must I CÓmm.end the Preachers in charge for the care . they have taken of the,great work committed to their charge, for the zeal they have sho.wn in building up their work, for that independent and manly spirit which they , seetn to be acquiring, and for the desir,e they appear to have qot only for their own personal spiritual improvement, but also, for,the spiritual growth of their converts. This latter is the great need,, and anything which seems to turn in that direction is a matter for profound thankfulness and gratitude to God. ; The Conferences and Conventions and Meetings of the year have been unusually Interesting and profitable. Not to speak of the Quar­ terly. Conferences, of which fifty-two have been held, half of them in the hot weather and during the rains, in connection with which meetings were held in every centre, the year has been unusual for its number of larger Meetings-and Conferences The Annual Conference in January was ^ blessing to all our people, both European and Hindus- tyqi. The,Brindaban Meeting, at the time of the great Mela in, Marph, was,. fla$re than usual, a time of profit. More than a hundred workers, belongingto five different Missions, were together in great ¿ove and ^ Jurmony ¿or a week. r Meetings were held daily in a large tent, and , pr^achiqg carried on from a dpzencentresin the Mela. The Schpol of the Prophets for all Pastor Teachers and Exhorters and ttíeir wives, 5 A G M W W PT- 7 was held, _ ^s usual from the first of July to the middle of August. apd was k great" Help to all who attended. Tnis year ab^ut eighty. came, some twenty of whom were women. The average pay of these people is about six rupees per month. Some get.as high as ten, and,some ap. low as three. The most of the men were in the prime of life, m’fny of, them under thirty, and nearly all of them the fruit of the past five years.; They came from a wide extent of teritory. From Bharatporp and Kama; from Agra and Firozabad ; from Aligarh and Somna; from liathras and Kosi ; from Mahaban and Brindaban j and from, villages beyond an,d between. These people, coming thernselves to be taught, are; the teachers of eight thousand village Christians. In them is the promise and potency of the future. They are the men and women who will make or mar the woik committed to thejn to do. The District Convention held for two days at the close of the ¡School, concluding with the District League, brought nearly all the’ workers of, the District together. Such meetings are always helpful. It unifies, and systematizes, and solidifies and fills all with an esprit de corpf, which could not beTOtherwise obtained. The Hathras Camp ¡Meeting, held at the close of November, was never better. There was a gopd attendance, the people were hungry, and they were fed by those who, knew how to. satisfy their wants. The inspiration and blessing of that memorable week, rests upon our people, and helps them in their worfc, and daily life. These meetings and conventions are mentioned to show,- hoy, all through this past year, the work has gone on. wit^ lif? and vigor, and every corner of the moral heritage has been reache.d. There has np.t been a dull month, or day or hour during the whole year. A word abo.ut the various Schools on the District. And first concerning those of higher grade. I would mention as the njost im­ portant of all, and one in which we all are, or ought to bp,'deeply interested, the Training School for European Assistants and Bible, Readers, under the auspices of the Deaconess Home at Muttra, and which was fpjunded through the munificence of the late Mrs. Adaliqé M. Smith, of Qak Park, Qhjcago. This School meets,# great. want, is* an assured success, and under the Superintendency of Mrs. Matthews, and Miss Rowe, and the careful teaching of Miss Browne, ha$,been most useful in, the past, and, it gives me great satisfaction to sayj'.&at wUh the appointment of Miss Sullivan and Miss ,Wrjght,; it can not but have a future full of promise and great usefulness. This School, belongs to the wjiole of, our work, and I would. most ear£e$t)yv ask the patronage. and help, of, the members and friends 0/ this* Conference on its’behalf. ^pother institution in which we are all interested, is the ¡Hom e/pr' Feríale Medical Students^ under the Superintenidency of ^liss Se^mputi at Agfa. A medical education opens up before the daughters of our Hindustani brethren a useful, honorable and successful, Career* and there isn pdpubt,on account of the large hospital practice and jDther facilities, that.