FIRST DISTRICT.

REV. ELISHA ADAMS, Concord, N. H.

New England, Providence, Maine, East Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Conferences.

SECOND DISTRICT.

REV. JOHN MILEY, Newburgh, N. Y.

New York, New York East, Troy, Black River, Oneida, California, and Oregon Conferences.

THIRD DISTRICT.

Philadelphia, Newark, New Jersey, Wyoming, Baltimore, and East Baltimore Conferences.

FOURTH DISTRICT.

REV. C. A. HOLMES, Pittsburgh, Pa.

East Genesee, Genesee, Erie, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia Conferences.

FIFTH DISTRICT.

REV. L. B. GURLEY, Delaware, Ohio.

Ohio, Cincinnati, North Ohio, Central Ohio, Kentucky, and Central German Conferences.

SIXTH DISTRICT.

REV. J. S. SMART, Ypsilanti, Mich.

Detroit, Michigan, Northwest Indiana, Indiana, Southeastern Indiana, and North Indiana Conferences.

SEVENTH DISTRICT.

REV. J. LEATON, Jacksonville, Ill.

Rock River, Central Illinois, Illinois, Southern Illinois, and Southwestern German Conferences.

EIGHTH DISTRICT.

REV. CHAUNCY HOBART, Red Wing, Minn.

Wisconsin, West Wisconsin, Northwest Wisconsin, Minnesota, Upper Iowa, and Northwestern German Conferences.

NINTH DISTRICT.

REV. D. P. MITCHELL, Leavenworth, Kan.

Iowa, Des Moines, Missouri and Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado Conferences.

FORTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY.

THE Forty-eighth Anniversary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held in the city of New York, January 13 and 14, 1867. It was the first anniversary held in the city since 1850. The Committee of Arrangements felt the missionary cause had been held in abeyance to some extent, during the year past, by the sudden but temporary pressure upon the people by the Centenary, Church Extension Fund, and Freedmen's Aid Society movements. Happily the missionary treasury, under the wise foresight and management of the Board, was in a condition to bear a partial and temporary suspension of that ardent and practical zeal for the missionary cause which had been manifested by both pastors and people. It was felt that the time had come when the Missionary Society should again be brought prominently before every Church and congregation, if our vastly expanded missionary work, especially in the United States, should be maintained. To restore the missionary cause to its all-commanding position in the Church, it was deemed advisable to have the renewed movement begin in New York.

When the Committee of Arrangements explained their views to the Preachers' Meeting, the pastors, as if by an inspiration, spontaneously declared themselves ready to be responsible for a missionary service in their churches severally on Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon, January 13. This volunteer resolution of the pastors was vigorously carried out, and all the Churches of the city were summoned by their pastors to a renewal of their missionary zeal and contributions.

The general anniversary exercises were held in the new and

capacious Steinway Hall. The first service was held at half past ten o'clock A. M. It was felt, by the Committee of Arrangements, to be an experiment, to have a missionary meeting in mid-day in this whirlpool of hot pursuit of business. But it was believed and hoped that there was zeal enough in the Churches to justify the experiment; and the committee was not mistaken. It is not practicable to give the addresses of each speaker, nor the full speech of any one. Long before this is read in print, an account of the exercises in detail will have been read in the Church papers. We will barely put on record the order of exercises, the topics discussed, with an opinion and a thought or two.

Lieutenant-Governor CLAFLIN, of Massachusetts, took the chair at half past ten o'clock, and the meeting was opened by singing,

"From all that dwell below the skies," etc.

Rev. D. D. LORE read the Scriptures, and Rev. J. A. ROCHE offered prayer, followed by a solo by PHILIP PHILLIPS. The chair then introduced

REV. BISHOP THOMSON.-His theme was China, suggested, doubtless, by his episcopal visit to our Missions in the Fokien Province in that country in 1864. It was not his purpose so much to describe our prosperous missions in the city and vicinity of Foochow, as to describe the country and the people. We are not given to flattery, hardly ever to praise, when we remember that what we are we are by grace; but we think it just and due to say, it was one of the clearest, most comprehensive and keen-edged addresses we have ever heard. It is printed in full in the Christian Advocate and Journal of Jan. 24, 1867, and in the Northwestern Christian Advocate of Jan. 23.

We have been accustomed to hear and read a good deal about the beauty of the country, the vastness of the population, and the extent and peculiarity of their civilization and erudition; but we never had so well-defined and transparent a