any other way. At
present it is engaged in trying to get through Parliament several
measures in the interests of Nonconformity generally.

The subject of education drew the anxious attention of Wesley; his
followers were less alive to its importance, until just before the
Queen came to the throne. The training of the ministry was neglected,
and the young ministers had to educate themselves. Though Wesley
approved the idea of a seminary for his preachers, it was only three
years before the Queen's accession that the first Theological
Institution was opened at Hoxton. The Centenary Fund provided for one
such institution at Richmond, and another at Didsbury. The Headingley
branch was opened in 1868, and the Birmingham branch, built with part
of the Thanksgiving Fund, in 1881. Our ministers are now far better
trained than were the old Methodist preachers, and, taking them as a
whole, they do not come short of their predecessors in any necessary
qualification for their work.

[Illustration: Kingswood School, Bath.]

Their culture must not be judged by the scantiness of their literary
production. The empress Catherine once said to a French _savant_, "My
dear philosopher, it is not so easy to write on human flesh as on
paper." Much more difficult is the task of our ministers, whose
religious, social, and financial work leaves them little of that
learned leisure enjoyed by Anglican divines, who by their masterly
works have made the entire Christian Church their debtor. But in the
period we are reviewing, despite the demands made on the time of the
ministers, many have written that which will not easily be forgotten.
The Church that nurtured Dr. Moulton, whose edition of Winer's "Greek
Grammar" is a standard work, used by all the greatest Greek New
Testament scholars, need not be ashamed of her learning. Dr. Moulton
and Dr. Geden were on the revision committee which undertook the
fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments. Other Wesleyan
ministers have made their mark as commentators, apologists, scholars,
and scientists in the last few decades. The _Fernley Lectures_ have
proved the ability of many Methodist preachers; we lack space to
refer to the many able writers who have ceased from their labours.

The _London Quarterly Review_ has kept up the literary reputation of
Methodism: nor are we behind any Nonconformist Church in journalistic
matters. Two newspapers represent the varying shades of opinion in
Methodism, a