e greatest obstacles to that "spread of scriptural holiness" which
is the aim of the true Wesleyan Methodist, whose chosen Church, with
its manifold organisation, has unequalled facilities for temperance
work. In 1896 the report showed 1,374 temperance societies, with
80,000 members--figures that do not include all the abstainers in
Methodism; some societies have no temperance association, and some
Methodists are connected with other than our own temperance work. The
4,393 Bands of Hope count 433,027 members.

[Illustration: Children's Home, Bolton.]

We have already spoken of the growth and development of social
philanthropic work in connexion with the great Methodist missions in
towns; there remains one most important movement in this direction to
notice--the establishment of the "Children's Home," which, begun in
1869 by Dr. Stephenson, received Conference recognition in 1871. It
has now branches in London, Lancashire, Gravesend, Birmingham, and
the Isle of Man, and an emigration depot in Canada. Over 900 girls
and boys are in residence, while more than 2,900 have been sent forth
well equipped for the battle of life; some of them becoming
ministers, local preachers, Sunday-school workers, and in many ways
most useful citizens. The committee of management has the sanction of
Conference. This "powerful arm of Christian work" not only rescues
helpless little ones from degradation and misery; it undertakes the
special training of the workers amongst the children in industrial
homes and orphanages; and hence has arisen the institution in 1895 of
the order of Methodist deaconesses, which is recommended by
Conference to Connexional sympathy and confidence, the deaconesses
rendering to our Church such services as the Sisters of Mercy give to
the Church of Rome. One example may suffice. A London superintendent
minister describes the work of one of the Sisters during the past
twelvemonth as "simply invaluable. She has visited the poor, nursed
the sick, held services in lodging-houses, met Society classes and
Bible-classes, gathered round her a godly band of mission-workers,
and in a hundred ways has promoted the interests of God's work."

Two events made 1891 memorable for Methodists, the centenary of
Wesley's death and its commemoration being the first.

The Conference decided that suitable memorial services should be
held, and an appeal made to Methodists everywhere for funds to
improve Wesley's Chapel and the graveyard