union, and confusion and schism followed; but its primitive standard of opinion at last triumphed, and at the General Conference of 1844, rather than endure further encroachments from the barbarous evil, it suffered the greatest schism in the ecclesiastical history of the country, the secession of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, by which it lost at a stroke nearly half its members and half its territory.

In the further progress of the antislavery controversy as a national question, no religious communion of the country has been more energetic than Methodism. It was the first denomination to enter practically and prominently into the contest, notwithstanding the opposition of many of its strongest men; and if, in its southern and schismatic people, have been found the strongest abettors of slavery and rebellion, northern Methodism has redeemed the denominational honor by its uncompromising devotion to the slave and the Constitution. A Methodist conference (the New York East Conference) was the first ecclesiastical body to pledge its loyal and utter co-operation with the government, after the attack on Fort Sumter; and by a happy coincidence was the first to telegraph congratulations to the government at the downfall of the rebellion, by the surrender of Lee.* Methodism has contributed, it

* This Conference happened to be holding sessions at the time of each of these events.

has been estimated, a hundred thousand white and seventy-five thousand black troops to the war for the Union. The Methodist Episcopal Church has thinned its congregations, disbanded many of its Sunday-school and Bible classes, by these patriotic contributions. Its pulpits have resounded through the war with enthusiastic pleas for the Constitution. Its entire denominational press (the most extensive in the land) has, without one exception, been fervently and continually devoted to the national cause. The national flag has waved from its spires and draped its pulpits, and its characteristic enthusiasm has been kindled to the highest fervor by the national struggle. Many of its preachers have followed the army as chaplains, others as officers, and others as privates. Thousands of Methodist martyrs for the Union sleep under the sod of southern battlefields. In fine, Methodism, as the chief religious embodiment of the common people, has felt that its destiny is identical with that of the country, and has thrown its utmost energy into the great struggle for the national life. The government has recognized its services, and, at its last General Conference, President Lincoln addressed it an emphatic testimonial, saying: "Nobly sustained as the Government has been by all the Churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet without this it may fairly be said that the Methodist

Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers, the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church! bless all the Churches! and blessed be God! who in this our great trial giveth us the Churches."

SUCH

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10 prea

multipli local pr

odist E

SUMMARY VIEW.

213

CHAPTER VII.

SUMMARY VIEW.

en, is Methodism, historically viewed; such which entitle its birth in the New World eful commemoration of its people. 's little congregation of five persons, in ouse, has multiplied to thousands of Socin the northernmost settlements of Canada alf of Mexico, from Nova Scotia to CaliThe first small conference of 1773, with its hers and its 1,160 reported members, has d to 60 conferences, 6,821 itinerant, 8,205 achers, and 928,320 members in the Methscopal Church alone, exclusive of the southCanadian and minor branches, all the off-f the Church founded in 1766 and episcoganized in 1784.

as property in churches and parsonages ing to about $27,000,000.

s 25 colleges and theological schools, with y amounting to $3,055,000, 158 instructors, 345 students; and 77 academies, with 556 tors and 17,761 students; making a body of structors, and an army of 23,106 students.