who advocated it were careful to raise no issue of this kind. Their object was simply to make a present provision for a present want, and the history of the past ten years has abundantly demonstrated the wisdom of those who first devised this plan for the better administration of the affairs of a very widely scattered Mission. The Central Conference meets every two years, and its sessions are constantly growing in interest and importance. It has to deal with common interests which affect the welfare of the work at points very widely scattered. Two of our presiding elders, for instance, live at stations which are no less than four thousand miles apart. Our missionaries and other workers are preaching in sixteen different languages. A meeting of this body is somewhat like a gathering of delegates from all the nations of Europe, with a few added from Egypt and the upper Nile. It is evident that as time goes on the gathering of delegates from such widely scattered communities will constantly grow in interest, while the feeling will become more and more deeply rooted among all our people that they are truly engaged in building up a mighty Christian empire which is to affect for good the whole of Southern Asia.
Perhaps I could not do better than to insert here a brief extract from Light in the East, containing a reference to the last meeting of the Central Conference:
“Early in last March our Central Conference held its biennial session in the city of Allahabad. Delegates were present from all parts of the empire, and also two, Dr. Luering and Mrs. Munson, from the distant Malaysian Mission. This Central Conference has authority to deal with all questions which pertain to our general interests throughout the vast field which we occupy in Southern Asia, and its last meeting was an occasion of extraordinary interest. A number of our Hindustanee brethren were present as delegates, and I was greatly struck with the impression made upon them by those who had come from such immense distances in the interests of our common work. It was also noticed that the old-time missionary spirit, which used to be
