FOR a period of ten days previous to the opening of the thirty-fourth session of the General Conference, representatives from various fields and publishing houses have had under consideration and study various features of the publishing work. The following topics, among others, have been discussed: The Publishing Work as a Gospel Agency; Printing Houses as Training Schools; Principles Which Govern All Business Transactions and Dealings with Men; An Effective Literature, and How to Improve It; Various Classes of Literature, and Place of Each; The Foreign Fields; Foreign Literature; Translations; Illustrations; Agencies for Its Publication, etc. These discussions brought more vividly before the minds of all the importance of living, Christian literature and its extended circulation. It developed more fully before the minds of all what had been apprehended by some, namely, that all institutions connected with the work of God, including printing establishments, should be missionary institutions, “holding forth the word of life.” THE conference proper convened April 2, at 9 A.M., with the president, George A. Irwin, in the chair. After the organization, the president presented a brief address, from which we take the following items, which will be of interest to our readers: In the last biennial period eleven useful laborers have fallen at their post, namely, Pastors G. T. Willson, William Cottrell, D. A. Robinson, F. W. Brown, Jerome Fargo, W. C. Grainger, J. H. Cook, Harrison Grant, R. J. Lawrence, Dr. George W. Burleigh, and Mrs. S. M. I. Henry. Four of these will be recognized as old burden-bearers—those who had fought life’s battles, and laid off their armor as weary warriors. The others fell in the fulness and prime of manhood. We may not understand it all. “God buries His workmen but carries on His work.” He is dependent on no one individual, great as we prize his services, or howsoever grandly God may have used him. Yet we mourn, and wish they were still with us. They sleep in Him, and will wake in the morning. THE membership of the denomination, as shown by reports from churches and conferences, is 75,763. The increase during the last two years is 12,504, or about twenty per cent. Ordained ministers have increased by 63, and licentiates by 67. There were 253 new churches organized, and 4 new conferences,—Ontario, Canada, organized June 18, 1899, with fourteen churches and 412 members; Queensland, Australia, Oct. 20, 1899, with 6 churches and 226 members; South Australia, Nov. 25, 1899, with 3 churches and 205 members; Cumberland, East Kentucky, and Tennessee, Aug. 17, 1900, 6 churches and 440 members. These are all growing conferences. THE money received is also a source of encouragement. The tithe, a voluntary payment, for the support of the ministry, amounted in the last biennial period to $1,000,915.13, an increase over the previous similar period of $205,341.89. There has been paid in voluntary offerings to foreign missions, $151,008.45, an increase of $23,240.31 over the previous biennial period. This amounts to about fifteen and one-third dollars to a member, aged and7children included. Of course this number includes many non-producers. Still it ought to have been more. Christ gave all; we should not do less. We can not with safety do less. We can not enjoy Christ as we ought and do less. During the last two years 68 missionaries have been sent to other lands by the Foreign Mission Board. Had there been more means, more missionaries could have been sent. IN the interests of the glorious gospel of health nine sanitariums, or health homes, have been established during the last biennial period,—one in Germany, 2 in Australia, 1 in New Zealand, 5 in the United States, a total in the world of 24, besides many bath-rooms and minor establishments in various parts of the world. IN educational lines there has also been advancement. This people now have among them 6 colleges, 4 academies, 10 industrial and training-schools, 15 intermediate schools, and 228 church-schools, a total of 263 schools, employing 381 teachers, with an aggregate attendance of 6,600 pupils. OTHER fields of labor and institutions were referred to, but these will be more fully considered at later times. The above reports are of interest. Yet to no past record does a living Christian look with satisfaction. He may raise “Ebenezers” all along the way, saying by them, “Hitherto hath God helped us;” but every advance only brings into stronger relief the glorious heights which are yet to be climbed before Mount Zion is reached. The real benefit in advancement in Christ’s cause is not in any goal reached, in any result attained, but in increased faith, capacity, growth, effectiveness in doing larger, better, truer, holier service for God. THIS conference will mark not only a crisis but a new era in this last work of reform. Old rules and methods and plans have already been laid aside, and a new organization is forming or growing. The plan by which Christ’s living cause shall work must be expansive, living, permitting the wine of God’s grace to expand, permitting each child of His care to grow. His Word can not be bound. Men may be, but the living Word will expand and bear fruit in other lives, and leave those who are tied to the traditions and words and rules and plans of men to a dead past. But if men will by faith receive the engrafted Word it will enlarge the heart and life and mind, and lead to ever-glorious victory. Such we believe will be the results of this conference.