Where all is peaceful, bright and fair,
My home is there, my home is there.”
Chevaliers, divine!
“Their burning zeal no langour knew,
For Christ, his cause, his tempted few;
At home, abroad, where’er their lot,
Their much-loved theme they ne’er forgot.”
“One soweth and another reapeth,” is the divine law. The foundations of the church among the Virginia hills and mountains were laid amid self-givings, known only to Him who gave to his servants their marching orders, and who accompanied them every foot of the way. A better day has come to the conference. The fields of labor have been greatly reduced in size, pastoral support has been improved, educational advantages have been increased, which means so much to the itinerant’s family, and in other respects conditions made many-fold better.
The present membership is 15,000 divided among sixty circuits and stations. Two hundred and six church edifices, worth $243,869, are reported, and thirty-eight parsonages valued at $31,939.
The territory embraces four districts. While the number of presiding elders might be diminished, it would not be wise to try the experiment of giving one superintendent charge of the whole conference. The country is too rough, the distances too great, and the public facilities for travel too meager for one man to do it all.