PRIMITIVE METHODIST ENTERPRISE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 259, 25 July 1908, Page 12

PRIMITIVE METHODIST ENTERPRISE.

A VIGOROUS CHURCH. Primitive Methodists in these days (says ail English paper) aro feeling that it is good to bo olive. The Church throbs with vitality and enorgy. Tho short space of ten years has been filled with developments that havo exceeded all expectations. During this decado close upon 25,000 havo been added to tho memlwrship roll, and 150 additional ministers called into service, while tho Connexional property has been increased by considerably moro than a milling sterling. Tho emorgenco of tho Labour movement revoals to a significent- extent tho influonco this Church lias brought to bear upon the ideals and practical aims of tho working classes. Most of tho Primitive Methodist Members of Parliament are Labour men, and they represent in most eases trado organisations tlioy themselves took a largo sharo in founding. Enterprise on the foreign field eclipses pro- ; gross at homo. ■ Tile now passion for African 'evangelism in oven imperilling the resources i

for tho home work. The coming of the Cott> foreuce to London draws attention to the strength tho denomination has gathered in tho Metropolis during recent years. It is not going too far to say that a proposal to purcnaso an elaborate block of municipal buildings in Holborn for a Church House ten fears slgo would have been deemed absolutely impracticable.

If tho proposal to raise a Centenary Thanksgiving Fund of a quarter of a million of monoy seemed to some an impossibla achievement thrco years ago, when first mooted, no such feoling is now entertained. When tho • Oonferonco fixed, tho sum to ba raised at £250,000 the districts promptly followed with self-assessments, and in some cases with loss definite pledges, which amounted in tho aggregate to £10,000 beyond tho quarter of a million fixed upon. The real measure of response, however, will ' best appear from the pledges of tho circuits, which are now in procosa of tabulation. The assessments of two-thirds of ' the stations carry tho total amount pledged considerably beyond £200,000. Tho first year's personal and family promises exceed half of - this amount, and tho rush to get in promises before the Conference will probably enable the secretary (Rev. 6. Armstrong) to report a much larger sum. Manchester district assessed • itself for £23,000, and _ tho promises exceed £30,000. Already circuits aro reporting promises covering 'their assessment's. Three-fifths of the sum raised may be applied to local objccts, and from this portion Centenary churches and schools aro in course of orection, while in other oases substantial debts on church buildings have been entirely swept away. The first debt cleared by centenary gifts was signalised by Dr. Poake burning the promissory note for the amount in the presence of a.large audience. Since then his wish that many other debts might likewise " vanish into thin air " has been repeatedly fulfilled. The ministers of the Church have made themselves responsible for £7749. Tho Rev. J. Cocker (Newtown) is one of tho Now Zealand delegates to the annual Conference, formally constituted in Wesley's Chapol, City Hoad, last month. L