o rule out of discussion any points
which had a suggestion of past controversies. The American Conference
accepted this.

[Illustration: The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, S.E.]

The smaller Methodist bodies being invited to join, the four hundred
delegates were sent up by the various branches of the Methodist
Church as nearly as possible in proportion to their numerical
strength; seven sections of British Methodism and thirteen from the
United States and the Mission fields, numbering probably twenty
millions, were represented. It was fitting that the first Oecumenical
Conference should meet in City Road, the cathedral of Methodism.
Bishop Simpson preached the opening sermon; the delegates then
partook of the sacrament together, and Dr. Osborn, President of the
Conference, gave the opening address. The Oecumenical Conference did
not aim at determining any debated condition of Church membership, or
at defining any controverted doctrine, or settling any question of
ritual; it met for consultative, not legislative purposes. As such,
the gathering brought about the thing which is written: "Thy watchmen
shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they
sing... Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall
fear, and be enlarged."

By a happy coincidence, that largehearted son of Methodism, the late
Sir William M'Arthur, was then Lord Mayor of London, and he gave a
congratulatory welcome to the delegates at a magnificent reception in
the Mansion House.

The next important event in Methodist history during the Queen's
reign is the rise and progress of the great Wesleyan Missions in the
towns--a vast beneficent movement, in which some at least of the
aspirations cherished by the promoters of the first Oecumenical
Conference appeared to have been realised.

The tendency of our day is towards a steady flow of population from
the villages to the towns, especially to London. In 1837, there was
only one London district, covering a very wide area, and including
six circuits, whose total membership was only 11,460, after a hundred
years of Methodism. The various branches of the recently established
London Mission report more than a third of this number after less
than ten years' labour.

[Illustration: Theological Institution, Richmond.]

The success of London Methodism in late years is largely due to the
establishment of the Metropolitan Chapel Building fund in 1862. The
late Sir Francis