hearers.

The Methodist Book Establishment consists of the President and
ex-President, the members of the London Book Committee, thirty-nine
travelling preachers, and the representatives of the Irish Conference.
There is also a Wesleyan Tract Society.

Such is Methodism on paper; of Methodism in practice we can only say
_Circumspice_. In London there are 132 Wesleyan, 54 Primitive Methodist,
52 United Methodist Free Church, 9 Reformed Wesleyan, and 13 Methodist
New Connexion Chapels.

AT A WATCH-NIGHT SERVICE.

Methodism has one special institution. Its love-feasts are old--old as
Apostolic times. Its class meetings are the confessional in its simplest
and most unobjectionable type, but in the institution of the watch-night
it boldly struck out a new path for itself. In publicly setting apart
the last fleeting moments of the old year and the first of the new to
penitence, and special prayer, and stirring appeal, and fresh resolve, it
has set an example which other sects are preparing to follow. In the
Church of England the Methodist plan is being extensively carried out.
On last New Year's-eve there were midnight services in the churches in
all parts of London. Especially have the Ritualists availed themselves
of the opportunity. Dr. Cumming chose the occasion for preaching a
sermon to young men, and Mr. Spurgeon's great congregation met, as usual,
to see the old year out and the new year in. But after all, the
Methodist services were the most numerous. In the metropolitan district
they advertised services on watch-night at no less than seventy-three
chapels, and there were other smaller ones at which watch-services were
held, though they were not advertised. At first sight there seem to be
many obvious objections to midnight meetings. They keep people up late;
they keep them out in the streets late; they interfere with the routine
of business and the prescribed order of domestic life; they cause
delicate people to wake up next morning with an aching brow and a fevered
frame. To others they bring catarrh, disorder of the mucous membrane,
cold, necessitating as a remedy water-gruel and cough mixtures.
Obviously, however, these are minor considerations. It may be asked: Is
not the soul, that never dies, of more value than the body, which
to-morrow may be dust and ashes? The life that now is--what is it
compared with the life that is to come?

Last year's eve I was one of a crowd that found their