We have reason to be thankful to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the acceptance of these truths by multiplied thousands to whom it has been our privilege to proclaim them. Through the power of this Gospel, preached with simplicity and with the demonstration of the Spirit, multitudes have been brought from darkness to light, and have been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Quickened by the power of a new life, they have been enabled to bear the cross, to follow after Christ, and to testify of his grace.

We have reason to be thankful for the rich legacy left us in the lives and example of our Methodist fathers. Their heroic self-devotion, their labors, and their sufferings, are priceless treasures to us, and will be to our children. The names and memories of Embury, Webb, Strawbridge, Asbury, Coke, Lee, and others, their fellow-laborers, should ever be cherished in the Church with devout gratitude to God, that we can call them fathers in the Gospel of Christ.

We have reason to be grateful for the devoted love of our people to the institutions of Methodism. As the fruit of this love they have cheerfully borne the burdens of the Church. They have never wavered in their attachment to our ministry. They have been inspired with a steady zeal for the conversion of souls abroad, and for the propagation of the Gospel in heathen lands. To the fidelity of its local preachers, exhorters, leaders, stewards, Sunday school superintendents, and teachers, Methodism has been largely indebted under God for its rapid spread throughout the length and breadth of the land.

We have reason to be thankful for the noble army of witnesses for Jesus who have fought the good fight, and have kept the faith, and have laid down their lives in hope of eternal blessedness. It has been the high privilege of American Methodism to train up uncounted thousands of precious souls for immortality; and though they be not with us any more in the flesh, yet we and they, through the power of Christ, are indissolubly ONE.

We have abundant reason for gratitude when we consider the blessing which has rested upon our schools of learning. The labors of the Fisks, the Emorys, and the Olins of American Methodism have not been in vain. Our colleges and higher schools have passed beyond the perils of infancy, and give promise of reaching the vigor of matured life. It is for you, beloved brethren, to make the Centenary commemoration the occasion for placing these institutions upon solid foundations. To do our work fitly and well will require the resources of an ample learning, fully imbued with the spirit of Christ, and consecrated to the interests of his kingdom.

As we approach the boundary line which separates the first century of American Methodism from the ages yet to come, it becomes us to praise God for his wonderful works unto us. In every family let special thanksgiving be offered in the hour of household worship. In every hamlet, town, and city, let there be "a holy convocation to the Lord." Let us all, young men and maidens, old men and children, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. God forbid that we should glory in man! to him be all the glory for the wonderful things which he

hath done, by his word and by his Spirit, for our Church and by our Church among the people of this land.

In the marvelous providence of God the completion of the first century of American Methodism is coincident with the restoration of peace to our nation. The alarms of war have ceased, and blood no longer flows. Our brothers and sons, many of whom were in the ranks of the army, have returned to their homes and to their peaceful pursuits. A monstrous iniquity which threatened the life of the nation, and called upon it the wrath of God, has been put away from among us. Four millions of human beings, many of them our brothers and sisters in the Lord, have been delivered from bondage. The nation begins a career of progress which we fondly hope will be uninterrupted for a century to come. Christ to-day calls us to lofty duties, to a work whose greatness may be as much hidden from our eyes, and yet be as extraordinary as that work of our fathers, which, begun in 1766 in faith and hope, has grown to what we now behold. May the baptism of the Spirit, which was so plenteously poured upon them, descend also upon us! In the name of the God of our fathers let us arise and go forward!

May we not at this auspicious period look for a closer union of all who hold our common Methodist faith? We have already at our meeting at Erie on the 15th of July last expressed the conviction that "with the removal of slavery, the cause which separated us from one another has passed away," and we still trust that the day is not far distant when there shall be but one organization which shall embrace the whole Methodist family in the United States. We would rejoice if in our approaching Centenary there could be a general union of all Methodists who agree in doctrine, and who are loyal to the Government and opposed to slavery. It behooves us to cultivate peace and charity toward all men; as followers of Jesus we should do all in our power to soothe the asperities of feeling excited by the war. Let us, as we are exhorted in Scripture," be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us." It is not always given to human wisdom to accomplish its design; yet, on the other hand, it sometimes pleases God to transcend human wisdom by the greatness of his plans, and while working with the human colaborer, to crown his efforts with such signal blessings that the glory is altogether God's. Such has been the history of Methodism in the century past, and such it may be in the century now before us. In this faith let us be co workers together with God. That you may begin in the right spirit, we commend to you, brethren, the directions of the General Conference for the conduct of the services of the Centenary year. They contemplate the spiritual improvement of the Church. We ask you, therefore, to gather together on the first Sabbath of the new year, in order to offer special thanks to God for the spiritual blessings which we so richly enjoy. But throughout the year let prayer continually ascend for the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Church, that the year may be one of an unusual ingathering of souls, and that unusual grace may rest upon the people. And we beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present

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your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." The dedication of ourselves to Christ must precede all other gifts. As the expression of your gratitude, the General Conference invites you to make offerings of your substance as God has given you ability for the perpetuation and extension of Methodism in this country. The Conference has presented to your consideration both connectional and local objects. The latter have claims upon you which you will cheerfully meet; yet we trust that you will not forget those connectional and foreign charities which represent the spirit of our Methodism. They have been selected with care by a large committee, of which we ourselves were members, and they have our entire approval. Let us by establishing these strengthen the bond which makes us one. Wherever it is practicable we advise that your gifts be equally divided between the connectional and local objects presented to you.

On one point, dear brethren, it may not be out of place for us to say that we earnestly hope you will not allow your Centenary gifts to interfere with your ordinary contributions to the support of the Church and its missionary and other benevolent movements. To do this would be to vitiate one of the best characteristics of the Centenary donations; namely, that they be an extraordinary expression of gratitude to God. Let us take care that his work does not suffer.

Let us all show by our Centenary gifts our gratitude to God for the benefits which he has granted to us through the Church, and our zeal to extend these ben

efits to the ends of the earth, and to perpetuate them to the end of time. In his name let us lay broad and deep foundations for the Church of the future. But in all our gifts and plans let boasting and vainglory be excluded. The work is the Lord's; we are but his feeble instruments. Let us present our Centenary offerings in the spirit of King David, when he said, as the people brought their gifts of gold and silver for the temple, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thy hand is power and might; and in thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee a house for thy holy name cometh of thy hand, and is all thine own."

ONE MILLION OF DOLLARS-We see it quietly announced from our Mission Rooms that "the appropriations for the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the year 1866 are one million of dollars!" We immediately exclaimed, Te Deum laudamus! We honor this sublime faith in the piety, the benevolence, and the ability of our Church. We feel that the General Missionary Committee and Board have become thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the age, and perhaps have only felt a little in advance of the great Centenary year some of the inspiration of that grand movement. But will it be collected? Of course it will. When has the Church ever failed to meet the announcement of her representatives in the great missionary work of the amount needed for carrying forward these enterprises of the Church? A single glance at the judicious distribution of the total of a million indicates that the committee could not possibly have done less, and that, if possible, they should have done more.

As we look over the appropriations with a scrutinizing eye, we can not see a single point where we think less might have been appropriated. We can see several where we could heartily wish it had been in the power of the Church to appropriate more. The simple fact is, we live in marvelous times, when God by

his providence is rapidly opening up vast districts to the evangelizing efforts of his Church, when events of vast historical significance are occurring with a rapidity that can scarcely be equaled by the recording pen of the historian. God is equally preparing his people by their enlarged conceptions of the significance and purposes of his glorious kingdom, and by an astonishing development of the benevolent spirit of Christianity. Nor is his providence less striking in the manifold sources of wealth which he has opened up for his people by which the means are furnished for the exercise of this enlarged benevolence. Thus God, working in history, is opening the world for evangelization; God working by his Spirit is inspiring the benevolence of his people; and God working in science is discovering the facilities and aggrandizing the means for the accomplishment of the great work.

But let us more minutely turn our attention to the work that is to be done and how to do it:

1. A little less than one-third of the whole amount, namely, $287,657.83, is appropriated to our Foreign Missionary work. We rather like to see that item close up with the eighty-three cents. It is indicative that these appropriations are not merely guesses at the amount that will be needed for this foreign work. They are the result of the most careful examination,

made first by the missionaries actually in the field, each requirement being accompanied by a statement of the object for which it is needed. This estimate, coming from the missionary, is reviewed by the Missionary Committee, both with regard to the objects for which the expenditure is to be made, and the amounts that are asked for. If the objects for which the missionary asks appropriations do not commend themselves to the judgment of the Committee, that body can set them aside. Thus, when the appropriation is finally made, it is the joint judgment of our missionaries abroad and our representatives in the Missionary Com mittee at home. These parties have said, for our foreign missionary work we need for 1866 nearly $300,000. This work embraces eight foreign missions, with nearly a hundred different points of operation, about one hundred and seventy missionaries, and nearly eight thousand members. Four of these missions are in purely heathen countries-India, Bulgaria, China, and Africa; the remaining four are the German and Switzerland, Scandinavian, and South American missions, and the French Conference. As we look over these vast and promising fields we are confident that not a dollar too much has been assigned to the foreign work. Comparing this appropriation with last year, we observe that it is less by $27,570.22, so that the great expansion is not found in the foreign depart

ment.

2. The next is an aggregate appropriation of $15,550 to "foreign populations residing in our own country." The action of the last General Conference, organizing the German work into Annual Conferences, considerably modified the form of this appropriation, leaving in this class only the Welsh and Scandinavian missions, to which the committee has wisely added the Chinese in California. In the amount appropriated under this bead there is but little variation from last year. The same may be said of the appropriation of $4,550 to our Indian missions.

3. The next item, a liberal one of $321,150, provides for one of the most important and effective branches of our mission work; namely, "American Domestic Missions," embracing the local and home missionary work, such as giving aid to weak charges and making appropriations for pioneer movements in fifty-eight Annual Conferences, including four German and two colored Conferences. We have no separate Home Missionary Society in our connection, but this ample provision for our local home-work indicates that we have a department in our missionary organization that most carefully and comprehensively studies the homewants of the Church; and when we come to study the workings of that department, through the presiding elders of the various Conferences, and the General Missionary Committee gathered from all parts of the Church, it strikes us as the most efficient, impartial, and thorough home missionary society in the world. It is, in fact, one of the grand secrets of the marvelous success of Methodism in this country. No lover of the Church will regret, we are sure, to find an increase of about $100,000 in the appropriation to this department.

4. We now come to a grand appropriation born of the times in which we live. The South, hitherto shut up to the advances of a free evangelism, is now open

to the Church. Four millions of bondsmen, hitherto prohibited from reading the Word of God, and whose religion was as much a matter of dictation from their masters as was their daily toil, are free. The Churches of the vast territory of rebellion are demoralized; their organization is broken, and their influence has been wasted and destroyed by directing it to the unholy purpose of revolution. The eyes of tens of thousands have been suddenly opened to the falsehoods and fallacies that have been imposed upon them by their ambitious religious leaders. Thousands more are bitterly suffering the miseries needlessly and madly brought upon them by these false shepherds. Everywhere are manifest the evidences of disintegration and decay. A merciful God has saved our nation-has given us a moral, political, and physical victory, so signal, so complete, so suggestive, that all are compelled to see in it the movings of His powerful hand. But our glorious victory is only the signal for the initiation of a great moral regenerotion of the nation. God and our powerful Government have triumphed over rebellion and slavery; it remains for God and the Church to eradicate from the nation the seeds of moral and social evil which engendered both. All at once, then, a new and wonderful missionary field is thrown upon the Church. The scattered sheep of a thousand folds must be sought and gathered by truer and gentler shepherds. Especially must the millions of God's children, so recently made free, and initiated so suddenly into new moral and social relations, be gathered and folded by the Church. The work is gi gantic, but it is also imperative, and demands haste. Never did "the king's business" before require more prompt and efficient action. We thank God for enabling the directors of our missionary enterprises to comprehend so well the situation. It is in this department we find the great increase. For this work is appropriated a little over $300,000. It could not be less; perhaps the ability of the Church, and other great enterprises which are before us, would not allow it to be more. We rejoice in the appropriation. It is for a great national as well as Christian work, and every loyal man will be ready to contribute to it, as well from patriotic as from Christian motives.

As we thus pass over the items of this appropriation of a million dollars we find no room for retrenchment; nothing is in excess. No advance has been made in our foreign work, and but little in our ordinary home work. It is simply an emergency thrust upon us by the providence of God, and that same providence has made us amply able to meet it.

How is it to be done? We think there would not be the slightest difficulty in doing it, if we had not also other great enterprises before us for 1866. The increase upon last year's appropriations are not nearly equal to the demands that were then made on the benevolence of our people for wants growing out of the war, and which have now ceased. The turning of only a fractional part of the vast contributions of our people to the Christian and Sanitary Commissions, to volunteer and draft funds, etc., would meet this increased demand for our missionary work. But the year 1866 is to be memorable in the history of American Methodism. We are to send down through the future the evidence of our grateful appreciation of a

hundred years of history. We are to consecrate by generous offerings a new and important Church organization-the Church Extension Society. We are to show our gratitude for established peace, and meet the responsibilities thrust upon us by a regenerated nationality. We are at the same time to maintain our regular contributions to established societies. We may as well look at the work before us. The General Conference asks for at least $2,000,000 as the Centenary offering. The Missionary Society has appropriated $1,000,000. To the Sunday School, Tract, and Bible Societies we annually give about $150,000 more. And for local enterprises $100,000 more. Three millions and a half is the demand for Christian benevolence on the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1866. The Centenary offering is special, and of course should not be allowed to draw on the regular contributions of the Church. We hope it will even surpass the amount named, but we equally hope that not a dollar will be drawn from the regular claims of the Church. It would be but a poor expression of our gratitude for the past hundred years merely to withdraw for this purpose contributions that we have been in the habit of making to our ordinary Church enterprises. Let

the Centenary contribution be extraordinary and alone, every man, woman, and child in the Church making to it a contribution great or small, in remembrance of the wonderful history of the past. Let our regular collections go on as before.

A million of dollars, then, for missions! Remember this is almost four hundred thousand more than last year, and there must be, therefore, a large increase-an advance of sixty-six per cent.-in the collections. But what is a million of dollars after all to a Church of almost a million members, and almost a million of scholars in her Sabbath schools? Two cents a week appropriated to this work by each member would cover the whole amount. A penny a week dropped by the children of the Sabbath school into the missionary box would cover the half of it. It is evident, then, that it only needs that the Church should be worked, that her resources should be actually reached, that every member should do something, and the work would be done. It can be done. Our faith will be greatly disappointed if it is not done. Let the Spring Conferences in the East give us the key-note of inspiration, and the great West will also rise in her strength, and the result will cheer the friends of missions throughout the world.

Tailor's

WATCHING THE RETURNS.-Some weeks ago our publishers sent out their lists to the agents in whose hands was the fate of the subscription list of the Repository for another year. A few days ago these lists began to return. We have been watching them to see how many of our old friends were dropping off, and how many new ones were taking their places. So far we have reason to be encouraged; for while we see with regret the fatal pen or pencil drawn through some of our old names, we find a number of new ones that more than fill up the blanks. At this date, January 1st, when our returns are reaching us rapidly, the indications are good for an increase over last year. This is as it ought to be, and we are thankful to our friends for their industry and faithfulness in this matter. In some localities we notice a large increase in the list, and we feel almost tempted to give public acknowledgments to some of our brethren whom we know to have made this

large increase by their personal efforts. The time for effort is not passed yet, brethren; try once more when this reaches you, and let us have a large advance in the list this year. We are prepared to send back numbers to subscribers that come in a little late.

THE ENGRAVINGS.-In the "table of contents" we insert for this month the "View Near North Conway." Our readers will remember that we substituted this beautiful picture for our Centenary plate in the January number. It belongs properly to this number, and in binding up the volume it should be so placed. We consider it a gem of a picture. The engraving is as near faultless as it can be in the present state of the art, and like the charming Indian scene from Bierstadt, this picture is also increased in value by being a trans

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lation of a painting by Kensett, one of our best American artists. Mr. Jarvis, in his "Art Idea," thus compares these two great artists: Kensett is more refined in sentiment, and has an exquisite delicacy of pencil. He is the Bryant of our painters-a little sad and monotonous, but sweet, artistic, and unaffected. In his later pictures there is a phantom-like lightness and coldness of touch and tint, which give them a somewhat unreal aspect. But they take all the more hold on the fancy for their lyrical qualities." Many of our readers we know will welcome the fine portrait of Mrs. Palmer.

ARTICLES ACCEPTED.-The following articles are

placed on file: My Story; Night; Grandiloquence; Edith Dorne: Hector; Via Revelation; Young America; The Via Dolorosa; Calvary and the Sepulcher. Poetry.The Mother's Reproof; Farewell to the Old Church; As thou Wilt; A Call to Action; Without and Within; Home at Last; Immortality; Two Pictures; Prayer for Help; I Heard his Voice; and Memories.

ARTICLES DECLINED.-The following we will not be able to use. It is impossible to give all the reasons that lead us to decline certain articles. But there are good reasons for every one, and such as, we think, would be satisfactory even to the writers, could we tell them. Mr. Dixon Learning Self-Reliance; The Spas of the Empire State; Evils of Novel Reading-a good subject, but one that should have more extended and careful treatment; Our Hired Hand; Our Canadian Village; Knowledge is Power; The Christian Family. Poetry.— Its Use; Too Late; My Mission; The Two Gatherings; New-Year's Thanksgiving-comes too late; Speed the Gospel; The Hill of Science; One Talent; She hath Done what she could; Centennial; and The Father's Voice.