y mornings and
week-days. Missionary prayer-meetings are held once a month, and
meetings in private houses for prayer are strongly recommended.
Quarterly days of fasting and humiliation are also held. The religious
services known as Watch Nights are usually celebrated on the New
Year's-eve, but they are not always confined to the close of the year,
for it is the custom of some places to hold them quarterly. On the first
Sunday afternoon in the New Year, a solemn service is held entitled the
Renewing of the Covenant. It generally commences at two and closes at
five. None but members or those who have obtained special permission
from the preacher may be present.

Baptism is regarded by the Methodists as a dedicatory act on the part of
Christian parents. The Sacrament is their most solemn and sacred
festival. In the bread and wine they see no mystical efficacy, but a
significant emblem of the body and blood of Christ; but they do not make
it the test of Church membership. Originally the Wesleyans went to their
parish church for the purpose of celebrating it, and it was not till
after Wesley's death that the body received the Sacrament in their own
chapels, and from their own ministers.

On the Sabbath morning public worship is usually commenced by the reading
of the Church of England service in a more or less abridged form. The
Conference has appointed that, where this is not done, the lessons for
the day, as appointed by the Calendar, should be read. A hymn is then
sung from a hymn-book compiled by Charles Wesley, and subsequently much
enlarged. Extemporaneous prayer follows; then another hymn; then, unless
the Church service has been previously used, the reading of portions of
the Scriptures; then an extemporaneous sermon, and the worship is
concluded with singing and prayer. With the exception of the Church
service, the same order is observed in the evening.

Among Wesleyan institutions must be placed first and foremost pastoral
instruction. Catechumen classes for the instruction and edification of
the young are held by catechists. Sunday-schools were next established;
then day and infant schools. In 1843 steps were taken for the
establishment of the Wesleyan normal schools in Westminster. This led in
1856 to the establishment of the Westminster Training College. Other
schools, such as those at Sheffield, Taunton, and Dublin exist for the
children of such as can pay for a good education for their chil