y debt was paid, and the buildings for
soldiers and sailors at Malta and Aldershot were cleared of debt.

Such work could not be done if the circuits acted independently; but
united as they are, and forming one vast connexion, much which would
otherwise be impossible can be achieved by means of the great
Connexional funds. Of these funds not a few have been established
since 1837; but the most important among them, the Foreign Mission
fund, can boast an earlier origin.

Wesleyanism, indeed, is essentially missionary in spirit, her
original aim being to spread scriptural holiness throughout the
world. "The world is my parish," said Wesley though he himself could
never visit the whole of that parish, his followers have at least
explored the greater part of it, causing the darkness to flee before
the radiance of the lamp of truth.

British Methodism has now missions in almost every quarter of the
globe--in Asia, in Africa, on the Continent of Europe, in the Western
Hemisphere. Her mission agencies include medical missions, hospitals,
schools for the blind, homes for lepers, orphanages, training and
industrial schools, etc.

In Europe we have set on foot missions in countries that are
nominally Christian, where the people are too often the victims of
ignorance, wickedness, vice, scepticism, and superstition; France,
Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have all been objects of
our missionary enterprise during the present reign, and in some
instances conspicuous success has been attained. Witness the good
work still going on in Italy, and the independent position attained
by the _Conference, Methodiste de France_.

In India, Ceylon, China, and Burma, our agents are working amongst
races in which they have to combat heathenism strong in its
antiquity. The progress is necessarily slow, but a point has been
reached where great success may be prophesied, as the result largely
of the work of the pioneers. The schools are turning out many who, if
they do not all become decided Christians, are intellectually
convinced that Christianity is right, and will put fewer difficulties
in the way of their children than they themselves had to contend
with. This educational work prepares the way for the gospel;
observers declare that nearly all converts in Ceylon have been
trained in our schools.

The important missions in Southern and Western Africa must not be
forgotten, nor those in Honduras and the Bahamas.

The present