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ten thousand and forty-five young persons meeting in Junior Societyclasses, now tabulated for the first time. Of course, the Conference never intended that children should be withdrawn from full membership and drafted into Junior Classes, but, beyond all doubt, financial considerations and the convenience of the young meeting with the young have caused considerable numbers of children to leave the adult and join the juvenile Class. Besides-though this seems to have been completely overlooked in the conversations-in previous years hundreds of converted children have united themselves to our Societies; this year the new converts from the young have sought fellowship with those of their own age. In view of this and of the fact that upwards of sixty thousand persons have been admitted during the year, we may well accept gratefully Dr. Osborn's counsel: 'Let us beware of discouragement.' And the Doctor's plea for yet more efficient care of our children ought to bring forth visible fruit, though possibly not till 'after many days.' There is another side to the question of the decrease; and the ex-President touched upon it gently but firmly. Our gains are not duly proportionate to our agencies. Very solemnly should we ask ourselves: Are conversions as numerous with us as they were with our fathers? And it is sadly too true that there is wanting that constant, steady, assiduous, successful working of our ancient discipline which,...before all else, would tend to our prosperity.' Mr. James Wood ascribed the decrease to 'leakage,' and to the small encouragement given to evangelistic work in some places.' He suggested meetings for prayer both before and after the public Sunday evening service, and the vigorous working of Mission-rooms 'surrounding our large chapels.' These hints should not be lost sight

of. Mr. George Lidgett's outspoken address produced a deep impression, at any rate upon ourselves. He said what many have long felt, but have hardly dared to whisper. Here are a few of his sentences:

"There is no institution so essential to the existence of Methodism as the Classmeeting, and every man amongst us who by his conduct discredits that institution reduces to that extent the number of our Church-members. If a Local Preacher

stands up in our pulpits and endeavours to induce those who are before him to join the hosts of the Lord, whilst at the same time it is known that he is a man who never meets in Class, that man discredits the institution. The same thing may be said of Society-stewards, of Circuitstewards and of other officers. We have such men amongst us-some of them holding the highest official positions-who pay in their Class-money on the day of the Quarterly Meeting, and who in that and in other ways discredit the institution. If you talk about leakage-there is more leakage caused in this way than in any other. I know it will be said by those who have assumed the responsibility of appointing men to these offices who do not meet in Class, that there are other advantages to which you must not shut your eyes. These are men who by their liber

ality and ability to help us are of very great importance to us. Well, I would listen to any one who spoke after this manner, and I would admit to the full all that he had to say. But then I would look at the other side, and I would venture to say that the disadvantages that flow from such appointments far outweigh any advantages that you can possibly derive from them. For instance, here is a Circuitsteward; he occupies the highest position that a layman can hold in the Circuit, and yet it is known that he does not meet in Class. The knowledge of that fact does more to discredit the Class-meeting than all that you can say in favour of it will do to uplift it. Further, see the effect upon that man's children. He does not meet in Class; his children therefore do not meet in Class; and the consequence is that you lose fruit that ought to be most easily gathered.'

Mr. Lidgett urges sharpdiscipline in all such cases; perhaps, however, with an insufficient apprehension of the difficulties that attach to it. Nevertheless, 'he is a bad soldier who will not bear

discipline, a bad soldier who will not keep rule.' If our office-bearers, to whom Mr. Lidgett's remarks apply, would ponder the serious ill-effects of their persistent neglect of the Classmeeting, the Prayer-meeting and the week-night preaching, they would probably see the wisdom of not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, as, alas! 'the manner of some is.'

The

Dr. Pope turned the thought of the Conference to the duty of cultivating personal piety, of 'perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' thirst for holiness that pervades our Israel is the brightest possible harbinger of more prosperous days. Nothing could much better illustrate the overwhelming importance which Methodism attaches to experience of the deep things of God than to hear an erudite and exact theologian like Dr. Pope declare with heartfelt sincerity that he could not pause to discuss critically theological errors while the fact remained that 'everywhere our people are pressing into that which they desire above all things a closer communion with God, a more entire severance from self, a more absolute conformity to the will of Christ and reflection of His blessed example.' And, again : 'I have wondered whether it is right to speak of a "second blessing." But there is a text in which our Saviour takes a blind man and partially restores him his sight, and then, holding the man up before us for a little while, that we may study his condition-which is a great advance upon what it was that we may watch him in this state of struggle,...He touches him again, and he sees every man clearly. In the face of that text, and in the face of the experience of multitudes of our fathers, in the face of the testimonies of multitudes now living, and in the face of the deep instinct, the hope and desire of my own unworthy heart, I will not con

fidently condemn the phraseology referred to.'

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Other topics of the conversations were- -the remarkable revival at Kingswood School; the wondrous success of some of our District Missionaries; the number of Cambridge undergraduates meeting in Class; (the desirability of making all our anniversaries great soul-saving times; ' the necessity of personal service and self-examination, and the advisability of setting forth the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and also its terrible and eternal consequences. Mr. Harrison testified that Methodism has not lost its hold upon the masses. Mr. Bowden spoke warningly of the frivolities to use the mildest possible term-that are found in too many Christian homes. Mr. Arthur pointed out that culture and University training need not damage spirituality or lessen love for Methodism-had not in certain specified cases; and the President, with emphatic brevity, exhorted to the regular observance of family worship. Perhaps during the two conversations on the State of the Work of God less intense spiritual emotion was felt than while the Conference of 1878 was similarly engaged; but never was more food furnished for serious, prayerful meditation, and never was displayed more real desire and determination to do, in the name of the Lord, practical aggressive work-a hopeful augury for the coming year.

Upon the crowded congregation at the Ordination Service, and especially upon the Probationers assembled to pledge themselves to Christ for lifeservice as His Ministers, and to receive the Church's confirmation of their vows, there rested the Holy Ghost. The ex-President's charge will in due course enrich our pages; it is therefore needless to review it. Every one might expect from Dr. Rigg scholarship, thoroughness, sterling thought and sound theology;

and when he described the relation of the Minister to the Church, and the significance of Ordination, in so masterly a manner, and when he proceeded to enforce the duty and advantage of a conscientious and minute discharge of the pastoral functions, it was felt that the deliverance was worthy of the man.

Throughout the session of the Representative Conference, retrenchment was the order of the day. Even congratulations upon the success of the Thanksgiving Fund were mingled with demands for a decrease of expenditure.

It was

Not even the Foreign Missions, the very pride and darling of the Methodist heart, were spared. The most protracted debate took place with regard to the Theological Institution. Ultimately it was resolved that the payment of travelling expenses to its students should immediately cease, and that after the Conference of 1880 no allowance should be paid them, except in cases of proved need, when a sum of ten pounds might be granted. Stern necessity alone justifies this measure. strongly pressed that ministerial students in Dissenting Colleges receive no allowances; but it should be borne in mind that they are highly paid for their Sunday services, while our own students often receive barely their travelling expenses. We trust that retrenchment of the expenditure of the Theological Institution has now reached its limit; and that no reduction will be found necessary in the tutorial staff. While the poorest enjoy the benefits of primary education and other denominations are straining every nerve to obtain a cultured and trained Ministry, Methodism cannot afford to have illiterate Preachers and Pastors.

The reports of our Schools for Ministers' Children, both Boys' and Girls', were highly satisfactory. But here, again, the outgo exceeds the income. Henceforth a tax of six

pounds per boy is to be levied on parents having sons at Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove School, to pay for the clothing provided by the school authorities. Here, again, absolute necessity commanded the impost. But it will bear very heavily upon Ministers in country Circuits with small allowances. Ministers in large towns can avail themselves of Grammar Schools to secure their boys a good and cheap education. There are very few such schools in our country Circuits. And six pounds is only too frequently equivalent to one-twentieth of a Minister's stipend. In such cases he cannot, without hardship, send one of his sons to our school. If the matter were properly understood by our people, we cannot doubt that an increase of contributions to the Schools' Fund would solve the problem with a much less distressing answer.

The business of the Conference was transacted rapidly, but efficiently. Spite of the unusual business of the Thanksgiving Fund, and the many knotty and delicate points requiring to be settled, the Journal was signed about eight o'clock on the Friday evening.

By the time these pages are in our readers' hands, the Connexional new year will have begun. We have brought and are still bringing the tithes into God's storehouse, at least the tithes of gold, and, we trust, the firstfruits of prayer and faith and love and labour. Now we wait, as the President urged us, with patient and humble, yet eager and confident expectation; we are proving Him if He' will not open' us' the windows of heaven, and pour' us out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.' Financial embarrassments resulting from the multiplication of Ministers at a higher rate than the multiplication of members would speedily disappear before 'times of refreshing from the presence of the

Lord.'

B. J.

NOTES ON CURRENT SCIENCE:
BY THE REV. W. H. DALLINGER, F.R.M.S.

THE remarkable and constant advance
of the human race in its knowledge
of the facts of Nature, the surprising
character of the majority of those
facts, and the aptitude which the
scientific mind has shown for apply-
ing them to the furtherance of human
interests and culture, has induced a
credulity in relation to scientific
matters generally, which in the in-
terests of truth as a whole, and of
theological truth specially, it would
be well to see checked. We need
hardly refer to the recent attempt to
impose upon human intellect by
affirming that a means had been
found of suspending animation and
consciousness for an indefinite time,
and then restoring it at will: the utili-
tarian aspect of which was of course
that animals might be thus operated
upon for a voyage from the most
distant regions to the most lucrative
market, consuming no food, however
long the journey, and being restored
living and plump when they had
reached their destination. One would
have thought that so startling a
statement as this would have been
received with at least caution, how-
ever animated by hope. But so re-
ceptive have we become by the con-
stant announcement of victory over
matter by mind, that some journals
professedly scientific, many quasi-
scientific, and a host of others, on
the first blush of the thing accepted
it almost without the expression of a
suspicion. In such times as ours the
critical faculty should be in full
exercise. By the wonderful advances
of science, we may be led to the loss
of truth, by the very credulity which
these advances have superinduced.

We have lately had occasion more than once to point out the necessity that exists in geological matters for suspended judgment-not antagonism: we need not fight the false, it will

die of its own inanition—but waiting until the truth is discovered; and whatever that may be, there is no pure and enlightened mind that would for a moment reject it. Now it can hardly be said that, as we actually know them, the facts of geology irresistibly display evidence of a progressive development. But it is fallacious in the last degree to make too much of this. The geological record must be eminently imperfect, especially in its older pages. Never

theless, it has to be remembered that at the base of the Silurian rocks-so far as the evidence went for a long while, taking the position of the earliest strata giving evidence of organized existences-there are found biological remains of organized forms that are very highly differentiated or developed. But subsequently-in 1859-Logan discovered in the Laurentian formation in Canada, which lies under the Silurian, and is composed of extremely 'altered' or metamorphosed rocks, a curious imbedded structure, which after careful examination was declared to be of animal origin: a 'fossil,' indeed, hav ing a structure analagous to, but less highly organized than, the Foraminifera, so widely distributed in time and space. This was not received without question; but it was an extremely delicate point to determine. Confessedly the rocks in which it was found had undergone much change; it must therefore have undergone similar metamorphosis, and it would only be here and there that what would be esteemed a perfect specimen would be recovered. And even in such instances it would require much special knowledge to arrive at a definite conclusion.

This knowledge was undoubtedly possessed by Dr. W. Carpenter and Principal Dawson; and both deter

mined that the evidence afforded by microscopical examination of sections of the fossil, cut in all directions and carefully compared and studied, led to a necessary conclusion that it was a fossil animal of the lowliest type; and it was named EozoÖN CANADENSE, or, The Dawn Animal. Thus we commence the Biological series that have inhabited the earth with a very lowly form indeed-a mere mass of protoplasm possessed of the power to secrete from the ocean in which it dwelt a shell or test of carbonate of lime; and the form which the fossil presents is comparatively indefinite externally, but internally it is chambered in tiers, each chamber communicating with that above and below it by means of delicate channels. The part representing what was supposed to be the animal, is now filled up with serpentine,' the shell being in the form of limestone.

There are no other definite fossils found in this formation-none, indeed, until we come to the Silurian rocks, where we meet with fossil animals of, as we have before said, high development. But this formation has been so metamorphosed that it is quite conceivable that all the biological remains it might have contained were wholly destroyed; but that the eozoon was so profusely spread over the ocean, and so peculiar in structure, that to careful investigation evidences of its organic character had survived all changes. So that development being assumed as proved in more recent formations, it was argued that the absence of evidence of its action between the eozoön and the advanced organisms of the Silurian epoch was quite accounted for by metamorphosis' in the rocks; but nature's method was still made manifest, it was argued, since the earliest organism found at the base of the earliest rocks containing fossils was of the lowliest conceivable type. Further,

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inasmuch as it was an animal that appeared first, and the vegetables did not apparently present themselves until enormous periods of time had elapsed, it was inferred that the cosmogony of Genesis was profoundly at fault. We have recently had occasion to point out in these columns how fallacious this mode of reasoning is, being based wholly upon negative evidence; and to record the fact that a highly-organized vegetable-a calamite-has been in two or three different places found in the Laurentian and Silurian rocks; thus carrying a highly-developed vegetable down to a level with the most lowly-developed animal, namely, the eozoon.

But the real point of interest is this. Two extremely expert mineralogists, Messrs. King and Rowney, after an apparently close examination of the Eozoon Canadense, declared that it was not a 'fossil' at all. They affirmed that it was a simple mineral production. This, of course, led to controversy, which some six years since was both lively and long. On neither side did the disputants convince their opponents; but the result of the controversy was, on the whole, to leave the careful student of scientific evidence, not an expert, with the impression, that although it was by no means an established point, yet it was still highly probable that the eozoon was an animal fossil. Since that time Dr. Dawson has published a popular treatise on it, which has somewhat strengthened this view. But now a new critic has devoted himself to the question, and with somewhat remarkable results. Karl Moebius, an eminent geologist of Kiel, is a good microscopist and well acquainted with the Foraminifera as a group, and after what he affirms to be a most prolonged, patient and unbiased study of a large variety of sections of eozoön, he has come to the conclusion, almost unwillingly, that it is not a fossil, but simply a mineral.

Dr.

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