THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE.
[To THE EDITOR Cr THE " SPECTATOR.")
Ssn,—On Wednesday next the Wesleyan Conference will meet in the Central Hall, Westminster. But for the war, Burslem would have been the meeting-Place. This year, as last, when Hull was disappointed, London is the inevitable centre. The new President will be the Rev. Simpson Johnson, Who for several years past has been the Conference Secretary. He is a man of versatile gifts—in business matters keen, impartial, prompt; in the pulpit, and not tees on the platform, forceful and persuasive. Latterly his chief interest has been London Methodism, but he loves to help a village chapel. The Rev. John E. Wakerley, of Norwich, will succeed Mr. Simpson Johnson at the secretarial desk. Mr. Wakerley was the first minister at the Central Hall, Westminster. The present minister is the Rev. Dinsdale T. Young. The Rev. John G. Tasker, D.D., retires from the chair of the Conference after a year of ceaseless and affectionate activity. The whOle Church owes him a debt for his straightforwardness, sagacity, and charming friendliness.
The Conference will reaffirm in every act its loyalty to the King in this lime of war. Through the past year, as earlier, no call to serve the Empire has been disregarded. The ranks of the ministry are being depleted almost every week in order that chap- lains may be provided for the Army and Navy at home and abroad. Several young ministers, quite recently, laying aside their claim to exemption from military service, have joined the colours. The problem of the Conference will be how to supply the eight ur nine thousand pulpits in Great Britain for which it is responsible. There are neither students asking to be trained for the ministry nor colleges in which to train them. Many of the tutors are doing chaplaincy work in hospitals. The lay preachers, proud, by the way, that a member of the War Cabinet, Mr. Arthur Henderson, is one of them, rejoice to take their share in the sacri- fices of the war. A scheme is afoot for the training of disabled sailors and soldiers with preaching gifts.
The ordinary removal cf ministers from one circuit to another is likely to be suspended. In order to save expense, and to assist the Government by reducing passenger and luggage traffic to the lowest possible point, only necessary changes will be permitted. The Conference will receive interim reports on various matters which cannot be dealt with finally so long as the war lasts. A healthy anxiety exists as to the spiritual outlook. There is ad- mittedly much to excite concern in the moral life of the nation. Bat there is no morbidness. So far as the relationship of Wesleyan Methodism to other Churches is concerned little can be said, excepting that, diligently fulfilling her own tasks, or, at any rate, trying to do so, she is still "the friend of all, the enemy of
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