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     WHEREAS, The time having come for prosecuting most vigorously our Educational interests, and being thoroughly impressed with the fact that we cannot do a greater work for God and humanity than to rightly educate the children and youth of America; therefore

     RESOLVED, 1. That we will never cease our efforts to build an institution of learning, such as the times demand, until crowned with abundant success.

     RESOLVED, 2. That we will take the cause of education to our hearts, pray over it, preach on the subject, and commend it to the people, claiming for it HEIRSHIP.

     RESOLVED, 3. That we most earnestly solicit the hearty co-operation of the friends of education with the Conference Beard of Trustees.

     Respectfully submitted.

     The board of Conference Trustees beg leave to report that they have not been able to fix upon any location for a Conference Seminary, no proposition which has been presented having been acceptable.

     In view of all circumstances we recommended that the Board of Trustees be increased to fifteen--nine ministers and six laymen--one-third for three years, one-third for two years, one-third for one year, the term of each to be determined by lot at the first meeting; and we submit the follow nominations, viz: John B. Maxfield, G. S. Alexander, J. G. Miller, A. G. White, T. B. Lemon. W. B. Slaughter M. Pritchard, H. T. Davis and S. P. Van Doozer, ministers; and E. H. Rogers, W. E. Hill, M. L. White, D. W. Scott, J. L. Lemington and W. A. Burr, laymen.

G. S. ALEXANDER, Clerk.          

     RESOLVED, 1. That we deem it inexpedient to entertain any proposition for the location of a Conference Seminary which does not include the offer of at least twenty acres of ground for campus, and and (sic) $50,000 for building purposes.

     2. That the Trustees be directed to locate the Seminary at Lincoln at any time during the coming year, when in their judgment a proposition from that city containing the above provisions shall be presented before them.

     3. If no proposition with the above considerations be made from Lincoln within the next six months, then the Trustees may locate at any other available point within the Conference which shall present a proposition in compliance with the above provisions.

J. G. MILLER.          

     We offer the following resolutions:

     1st. That we are in sympathy with the W. F. M. Society, and will give it all the assistance we consistently can.

     2d. We ought to increase our zeal in behalf of domestic and foreign, missions. We therefore request every pastor to live up to the requirements of the Discipline on this subject.

     3d. We request each pastor to furnish a detailed Missionary Report hereafter.

     Respectfully submitted.

     Your Committee on Church Extension beg leave to report that they regard this Society one of the greatest agencies of the church, second only to our Missionary Society, and meeting wants the Missionary Society does not supply--furnishing the means to help in the erection of churches where our people without such aid must do without, and allow others to enter the field and do the work Providence clearly points out to be our duty to do. Such places requiring help in our Conference, annually increasing as immigration pours in among us and extends settlements in all directions. These increasing demands for help require an enlargement of liberality in our offerings to the treasury, from which we expect to draw the means to aid us in serving those who ask the Word of Life from us.

     We rejoice to find that she is growing in favor and enlisting the energy and means of the church, as she advances in her noble work; therefore

     RESOLVED, That we have implicit confidence in the management of the Parent Society, and believe under the wise administration of the Board she is destined to continue to be a great and growing blessing in helping to extend the borders and strengthening the outposts of our beloved Methodism.

     RESOLVED, 2. That as a Conference we will endeavor to urge her claims upon the people, and as far as possible secure larger offerings to her treasury.

     We, the Committee to whom the subject of the Sunday School was referred, having had the same under advisement, would beg leave to submit the following report; therefore be it

     RESOLVED, 1. By the Nebraska Conference assembled, that we as members of the same will be more active in the Sunday School work, and will give the Sunday Schools our presence and assistance on every possible occasion.

     2. That we will urge our people to adopt the Berean System of Sunday School lessons, for we think their use will make the Sunday Schools more successful than any other system extant.

     3. The Sabbath school is the church at work, and the preacher that does not work in the Sunday school loses the best opportunity of winning souls to Christ, and must necessarily prove to some extent unsuccessful in being instrumental in the conversion of children.

     4. That we as a Conference would call the attention of the Presiding Elders to this subject, asking them to see that the preachers in their respective districts carry out the design of the Discipline as far as may be possible.

     Whereas, We are a reading people, and untiring efforts are made to flood our land with a vicious and corrupt literature, the tendency of which is to poison the minds of the people, therefore

     RESOLVED, 1. That as ministers of the gospel of Christ, we will do all in our power to counteract this influence by circulating a religious literature.

      2. That we will supply the people of our charges with tracts from the Methodist Book Concern, as far as practicable.

     3. That we will lift collections for this purpose on our several charges the coming year.

     The receipts for the present year are $12.95.

R. BURGE.          

     In our ministerial labor we find our efficiency very materially supplemented by the circulation of and use of our church periodicals. We think they cannot be to generally circulated or read by our people. We pledge ourselves to recommend our periodicals to the people every

where, wherever a suitable opportunity presents itself. And we will especially recommend to the favorable consideration of the public the Central Christian Advocate. And while we appreciate the financial embarrassment that hinder our agents from giving sufficient support to any of our periodicals, we respectfully call their attention to the Central Christian Advocate, and will try to increase its circulation enough to compensate for any extra expenditures of means they may make for its benefit.

     Your Committee on Temperance present for your consideration the following report:

      We desire to call your attention to that part of the Circular or pastoral letter recently issued by the Bishops of our church, which treats of the subject of temperance. They request that the Circular be read in all the churches. The section to which reference is had reads as follows:

     "The LEADING reform of the hour is the abrogation of the sale and drinking of intoxicating beverages. These stimulants are sending multitudes annually to a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's doom. They are undermining our national life. They are the cause of almost all the crimes that infest society. They are the chief foes to the progress of the church.

     "The record of our church in two successive General Conferences is in favor of prohibition. This is the ultimate goal of her efforts. She will not rest from these labors until the use and sale of intoxicating drinks follow to their grave other iniquities, once as powerlul (sic) as these, and as deeply rooted in the appetites and interests of society.

     "Let prohibition receive your support in your personal abstinence and in all other Christian efforts for the overthrow of intemperance."

     Let us respond to this earnest appeal in the same spirit that has hitherto characterized the efforts of the ministers of this Conference. Let us take our place in the front, in all aggressive movements for the crushing out of this great evil. Therefore,

     RESOLVED, 1. We hereby petition the Hon. Governor Furnas that provided an extra session of the Legislature shall be called, he will embody in the call the necessity of a change in the liquor laws of the State, so that the people may have some chance for protection against the extensive sale of intoxicating drinks, the greatest curse Nebraska has to contend with, which is eating out our substance, depraving our

young men, demoralizing whole communities, filling the land with vagrants, paupers and criminals, being the cause of three-fourths of the murders and other crimes committed in the State, and making the streets of our towns and cities a pandemonium of obscenity, blasphemy and staggering debauchery; causing a heavy burden of taxation to fall upon the industrious and innocent classes, and being the direct cause of more misery than any other influence known in the land. We ask for the rights of freemen, to protect ourselves by our votes. Let the question be submitted to a vote of the People--"License, or no License." And

     RESOLVED, 2. That we hereby present the above as a petition to the honorable Legislature of Nebraska, praying for protection against this great evil. As an Annual Conference, also, we hereby ask our sister denominations to join with us in this petitition (sic) to the Governor and Legislature, and to co-operate with us in this greatest reform of the age. Also we hereby pledge ourselves to endeavor to effect temperance organizations in the counties in which we are called to labor during the coming year, and to procure a complete history of the liquor traffic, comprising the names or all persons licensed, with their nationnality, the names of their petitioners and bondsmen, the number and the nature of the crimes committed as the result. Also we wlll (sic) hold union temperance prayer meetings in the towns and cities where we are severally stationed, and try to get the co-operation of our sister churches. Also, we hereby endorse the State temperance union, the Sons of Temperance and the Good Templars, with all other active instrumentalities in the temperance work, and hid them "God speed."

     Also, we respectfully ask the publication of this report in all the papers of the State.

TO THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH:

      REV. FATHERS AND BRETHREN: At another annual meeting, just concluded, we have it to report that a pleasant Christian harmony prevailed, which rendered it easy to transact all necessary business, while at the same time the free discussion of differences served only to strengthen the unity of aim and purpose.

     The presence of the lay element in our counsels, as a component part of our body, served to vindicate the legislation of the Church so recently exercised in respect to the great organic change which brings preachers and people into a closer co-operation.

     The financial status of the New York Book Concern June 29, 1872, and of the Western Book Concern November 30, 1872, with statements of sales and periodical business of both for the year ending at the date last named, are so fully set forth in the accompanying exhibits as to render any extended remarks here unnecessary.

     As compared with the average of a few recent years, there is no change worthy of notice as to the volume of business either in sales

of Books or the patronage of periodicals, though it is in place to say that for the past two months of the new year especially, our principal weeklies and Sunday school papers have been handsomely growing in circulation, and their condition is considerably better than an average at this period of the year.

     The Committee are of the opinion that the large transactions of both Concerns are being judiciously managed by the agents in charge, end an increased assurance in this regard arises from the reports of the local sub-committees at New York and Cincinnati, who, being prominent business laymen, have given an unusual amount of time to an investigation of the modes of business, and the manner of keeping accounts, and also to the inspection of receipts and disbursements.

     Without descending to particulars, the Committee can say that there has probably never been a time when there was less to complain of or more to commend in the editorial management of our numerous periodicals, under their respective editors, than at the present time.

     After an animated and very interesting discussion, the Committee, without a dissenting voice, requested the agents at New York to issue on the 1st of October next, a first-class weekly Sunday school paper, to take the place of the Sunday School Journal, or rather to be a continuation of the Journal in an enlarged form, and to include reading matter better adapted to the more advanced Sunday school scholars and teachers. Of the nearly one and a half million in the Sunday schools of our Church, it is believed there are not less than six hundred thousand, about one-third of that number, teachers,. to whom the proposed paper is especially adapted, and for whom up to this time only very inadequate provision has been made: After having provided a general weekly paper for about every 125,000 of our members in the United States, the immensely larger number to whom the proposed paper is adapted will, if the Committee do not much miscalculate, give the new Sunday School Journal in a single year a circulation of 100, 000. If so, it can be afforded at one-half the price of our general weeklies.

     The Committee discussed anxiously the various suggestions of members as to methods for a more vigorous and successful prosecution of the business of the Book Concern. It was generally admitted that to effect extensive sales we have not an equal chance with a large class of popular publishers, because our publications are not such as are demanded by the vitiated public taste for a flashy and dangerous literature, such as is thrown broadcast by those houses whose sole object is money-making.

     The German department of our Church stands fully acquitted. The Book Concern has one subscriber to the "Christian Apologist" for every two German Methodists, and almost one Sunday school paper

subscription besides for every member. A magazine just started, a periodical of a heavier and more costly kind, has already reached a subscription equal to one in six of the whole number of our German members, which ratio would give a circulation of more than two hundred thousand copies of the "Ladies' Repository" among the English-speaking Methodists, and a combined circulation of seven hundred and fifty thousand copies of the several Advocates.

     The Committee express the earnest hope that the solicitude and energies of our preachers and people will be brought to bear earnestly and unitedly upon the spread of truth and righteousness by the wider diffusion of Methodist literature through this and all lands.

     The Committee, in reviewing the operations of the Book Concerns, are impressed with the fact that the system of credits has been practiced to an extent injurious alike to our people and the welfare of our Book Concerns. We have consequently urged on our agents the importance of restricting credit, and bringing our business as nearly as possible to a cash basis.

     NEW YORK, February 14, 1873.

TO THE NEBRASKA ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH:

     DEAR BRETHREN :--We submit the following statement, showing the condition of the Book Concerns on the dates mentioned in the exhibits respectively.

February 14, 1873.

New York, June 29, 1872.     

     *Prior to the adjournment of the General Conference, San Francisco was not a depository, but a part of this Concern, with a resident agent. Hence no separate report of its stock on hand was made. Up to the date of this Exhibit we were not able to obtain an inventory of its stock, and therefore for this year it is embraced in the general exhibit of the Concern, as in former years.

Cincinnati, November 30, 1872.     

Presses, Plates, Type, Printing Paper, etc.,	in Cincinnati,	$128,681 04
	Chicago,	3,455 40
	St. Louis,	2,710 66
	Atlanta,	1,174 81
		$136,021 91
Material and Tools in Bindery in Cincinnati.		15,261 45
Material and Tools in Stereotype Foundry in Cincinnati		1,587 55
Real Estate.--	In Cincinnati	$204,575 86
	In Chicago	10,000 00
	In St. Louis	45,650 00
		$260,225 86
Notes and Accounts.--	In Cincinnati	$199,843 59
	In Chicago	113,907 30
	In St. Louis	38,370 89
	In Atlanta	8,139 58
		$360,261 36
Deduct 25 per cent. for probable losses		90,065 34
		$270,196 02
Due from the Episcopal Fund		8,031 25
Office Furniture and Safes, in Cincinnati		2,500 00
Office Furniture Safe and Store Fixtures, in Chicago		6,330 72
Office Furniture and Safe, in St. Louis		605 00
Office Furniture and Safe, in Atlanta		226 30
		$9,722 02
Cash and Drafts on hand		12,608 55
		$910,154 31

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METHODIST BOOK CONCERN, NEW YORK.

Sales for the Year Ending November 30th, 1872,

Books at New York Concern	$322,914 98
Books sold to Depositories	59,919 41
		$382,834 39

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MINUTES OF THE NEBRASKA CONFERENCE.

23

Periodical Sales..	$177,696 87
	$560,531 26

SALES BY DEPOSITORIES:
Boston	$84,079 68
Buffalo	46,884 22
Pittsburgh	41,598 25
San Francisco	8,979 00
		$181,532 15
		$742,063 41

Circulation of Periodicals February 11, 1873.

Quarterly Review	3,750
Christian Advocate	40,000
Sunday School Journal	70,700
Sunday School Advocate	117,800
Good News	51,000
Ladies' Repository	4,350
Golden Hours	825
Lesson Leaves:	535,000
Picture Lesson--Paper	59,850
Leaf Cluster	1,500

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WESTERN METHODIST BOOK CONCERN.

Sales for the Year Ending November 80, 1872.

Cincinnati.--	Book Sales	$239,232 81
	Periodical Sales	207,880 40
	Total Sales at Cincinnati		$447,113 21
Chicago.--	Book Sales	$80,132 42
	Periodical Sales	95,744 39
	Total Sales at Chicago		175,876 81
St. Louis.--	Book Sales	$48,260 63
	Periodical Sales.,	33,599 37
	Total Sales at St. Louis		81,860 00
Atlanta.--	Book Sales	4,508 82
	Periodical Sales	4,950 51
	Total Sales at Atlanta.		9,459 33
Total Sales for 1872			$714,309 35
Total Book Sales		$372,134 68
Total Periodical Sales		342,174 67
			8714,309 35

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MINUTES OF THE NEBRASKA CONFERENCE.

Circulation of Periodicals, November30, 1872.

Quarterly Review	1,270
Ladies' Repository	22,500
Golden Hours	7,800
Western Christian Advocate	22,032
North-western Christian Advocate	15,873
Central Christian Advocate	10,967
Methodist Advocate	3,100
Christian Apologist	15,072
Sandebudet (Scandinavian)	1,100
Sunday School Advocate (average)	163,136
Good News	29,433
Sunday School Bell (German)	22,000
Sunday School Journal	20,337
Lesson Leaves	175,000
Picture Lesson Papers	12,300
Bible Lessons (German)	9,000

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EPISCOPAL FUND.

From June 1 to November 30, 1872.

Paid for the Support of Bishops:
By New York Book Concern	$19,083 77
By Western Book Concern	9,672.80
		$28,756 57
Received for the Episcopal Fund:
By New York Book Concern.	$602 13
By Western Book Concern	1,641 55
		2,243 68
Deficiency in the six mouths		$26,512 89

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