Having been elected to the General Conference, with Z. Warner and E. Harper as associates, I attended the meeting of that body which occurred in Lisbon, Iowa, the following May. This was all new to me, but the conference was hardly so interesting as were the vast prairies of Illinois and Iowa, and the marvelous products of the great farms to be seen on every hand. In feeding our horses and cattle in West Virginia, we almost invariably allotted to each just so many ears of corn. Even the swine we expected to butcher were given a daily allowance; but in Iowa I was surprised to see chickens, hogs, cattle, and everything else given free access to the compile. But such is their way of doing out West. The rich soil is transmuted into corn, the corn into pork and beef, and these into gold, which has developed on the material side a wonderful country. During each of the four years I spent on the district, we held a ministerial institute. This portable school of the prophets was suggested by Rev. E. Harper, now a presiding elder in North Nebraska, as far back as 1875. A whole week at a time would be spent in hearing recitations and lectures, and the work was most thorough. Our studies embraced Old and New Testament history, systematic theology, Christian ethics, homiletics, church history, mental and moral philosophy, English grammar, the English Bible, etc. Some of the textbooks used were gone through again and again in the course of a few years. We used charts, maps, the blackboard—in fact, everything that would aid in the study of the Word, quicken a desire for knowledge, and increase the preacher’s efficiency in the pulpit. Dr. Warner was at first our main preceptor; and what a teacher he was! thorough, clear, and enthusiastic; he knew what he wanted to say, and how to say it. He was mighty in the Scriptures; and as a pulpiteer and platform speaker had no equal in his conference, and perhaps nowhere else in the Church. Later, others took part in the work of instruction, which greatly pleased him, relieving him of much of the burden assumed in the outset.