OUR GENERAL CONFERENCE.
By Editor
WE have not been there except in spirit, but judging from the Daily Bulletin and reports from delegates, the Conference has up to this writing been one of great interest and much labor. The delegates number upwards of one hundred and twenty, from nearly all parts of the world. The number of standing committees is every year increasing, numbering this year fourteen. Much improvement in every phase of the Conference is manifest in the Bulletin reports. In the first place, a well-digested plan of the meetings was decided upon before the Conference began. The regular work was put into systematic shape. The officers of the various associations and the delegates from various fields have presented the wants and needs of their respective charges in well-prepared reports, thus enabling the delegates and committees to grasp, in the least possible time, the problems with which they have to grapple. Some of these reports it will be of interest to note. The president's address lucidly, though briefly, sets forth the progress which the work has made during the past year, and points out matters which ought to be taken into consideration, among which are the amendments to the constitution, to meet the growing needs of this people, and the districting of the great field, each district being placed under the charge of a member of the General Conference Committee. All matters for consideration are brought in systematic form before the Conference, referred to the proper committee if practicable, and printed in the Bulletin, before final action is taken thereon, thus giving to all the privilege of considering the matter thoroughly before voting upon it. We know that these methods will prove much more effective and satisfactory than the methods less defined, generally pursued in such conferences. The work in foreign fields is encouraging. The publishing house in Basel, Switzerland, built at great sacrifice and labor a few years ago, this year for the first time shows a balance in its favor of $1,559.55 for the year. There is a call for tracts and books in the Spanish and Turkish languages. Reports were presented from the Southern field by R. M. Kilgore; from the Eastern field by R. A. Underwood; from the Western field, by E. W. Farnsworth; from New Zealand by A. G. Daniells; from Australia by G. C. Tenney; from Scandinavia by Lewis Johnson; from South Africa by P. W. B. Wessells, a part of which will be found in our missionary department. Two new Conferences were admitted, namely, the Atlantic Conference, embracing the two southern counties in New York, Staten and Long Islands, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and District of Columbia; and the Conference of New Zealand. The International Tract Society, the Educational Society, the American Health and Temperance Association, the International Sabbath-school Association, the National Religious Liberty Association, and the Central Publishing Association, have all held their preliminary meeting and are well under way. A report of all these will be given in due time. The first General Conference was held, we believe, in 1862, composed of the merest handful; but God was in the work. And what we now see is not what man has wrought, but it is all of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. To his name be all the praise.