tination. The monthly meetings are made up of all the
officers of the churches comprised in each, and are split up into
districts for the purpose of a more local co-operation of the churches.
The monthly meetings appoint delegates to the quarterly Associations, of
which all officers are members. The Associations of North and South are
distinct institutions, deliberating and determining matters pertaining
to them in their separate quarterly gatherings. For the purpose of a
fuller co-operation in matters common to both, a general assembly
(meeting once a year) was established in 1864. This is a purely
deliberative conclave, worked by committees, and all its legislation has
to be confirmed by the two Associations before it can have any force or
be legal. The annual conference of the English churches of the
denomination has no legislative standing, and is meant for social and
spiritual intercourse and discussions.

In doctrine the church is Calvinistic, but its preachers are far from
being rigid in this particular, being warmly evangelical, and, in
general, distinctly cultured. The London degree largely figures on the
Connexional Diary; and now the Welsh degrees, in arts and divinity, are
being increasingly achieved. It is a remarkable fact that every Welsh
revival, since 1735, has broken out among the Calvinistic Methodists.
Those of 1735, 1762, 1780 and 1791 have been mentioned; those of 1817,
1832, 1859 and 1904-1905 were no less powerful, and their history is
interwoven with Calvinistic Methodism, the system of which is so
admirably adapted for the passing on of the torch. The ministerial
system is quite anomalous. It started in pure itineracy; the pastorate
came in very gradually, and is not yet in universal acceptance. The
authority of the pulpit of any individual church is in the hands of the
deacons; they ask the pastor to supply so many Sundays a year--from
twelve to forty, as the case may be--and they then fill the remainder
with any preacher they choose. The pastor is paid for his pastoral work,
and receives his Sunday fee just as a stranger does; his Sundays from
home he fills up at the request of deacons of other churches, and it is
a breach of Connexional etiquette for a minister to apply for
engagements, no matter how many unfilled Sundays he may have. Deacons
and preachers make engagements seven or eight years in advance. The
Connexion provides for English residents wherever required, and the
English ministe