Easter, John, a distinguished Methodist Episco- pal minister. Dates of his early life are wanting. lie joined tlie itinerancy in 1782, and located in 1792. His ministerial career was "brilliant," and "his success almost unparalleled." In 1787, on Brunswick Circuit, Va., eighteen hundred souls were added to the Church under his ministry. William M'Kendree and Enoch George, afterwards bishops in the Church, were brought to God tln-ough his preaching. See Wakele}''s Heroes of Methodism, p. 219; Life and Times of Jesse Lee, p. 356 et al.
Easter, John, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Norfolk Co., England, Sept. 21, 1800, and join- ed the Wesleyan Methodists in 1824. In 1830 he em- igrated to America, and settled in Geneva, N. Y. He entered the itinerancy in 1832, and took a superannu- ated relation in 1838. His death was caused by a rocket, at Geneva, on July 4, 1842. Mr. Easter was a man of great worth, and a useful and beloved preach- er.— Minutes of Conferences, iii, 345.
Eastern Church, a designation given,
1. Specifically to what is commonly called the Greek Church, in distinction from the Western (or Latin Church). The title claimed b}' that Church itself is KaOoXiK^ icai c'nroaToXiKt) ticKXi'irria r))c ch'citoXiki'ii; : The Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church. See GuEEK Church. Bishop Coxe, in the Churchman'' s Calendnr, calls it the "Grand Trunk, or main stem of the Catholic Church."
2. The name Eastern Church, or, more properly, Eastern churches, is given to Eastern Christendom, di- vided into the churches named in the following list, which gives their statistics to the close of 1867, as far as they can lie ascertained :
1. Thf Creek Church.—V<uf.i^ia (in Europe, 51,000,000; in Sil>eria, 2,600,000; in tlie jirovinces of the Cauca- sus no official account of the ecclesiastical statistics has yet been made ; tlie total population of this part of the empire is 4,257, HOG, tlie population connected with the (Jrec^ Church may be estimated at about 1,500,000 ; liencc total population of Russia connected with the Greek Church is aliout), 55,000,000; Turkey (inclusive of the dpi)endencics in Europe and Egypt), about 11,500,000; Austria, 2,921,000; Greece (inclu- sive of the Ionian Islands), 1,220,000; United "States of America (chiefly in the terr»tory purchased in 1807 from Russia), 50,000 ; Prussia. 1500 ; China, 200 ; to-
tal, 69,692,700. The figures referring to Russia, Aus- tria, and Prussia are from an official census ; those concerning China are furnished by the Russian mis- sionaries in Pekin ; those on Turlvey and Greece are estimates almost generally adopted. See Gueek Church; Russia.
2. The Armenian Church. — According to D-. Peter- mann (in Herzog's Real-Encylclopildie), the total num- ber of Armenians scattered in the world is alout 2,500,000. Of these, about 100,000 are connected with Rome, and are called United Armenians; 15,000 are Evangelical Armenians, and all others belong to the National (or "Gregorian") Armenian Church. The number of the latter may therefore be set down at about 2,400,000. The great majority of them (about 2,000,000) live in Turkey, about 170,000 in Russia, and 30,000 in Persia. See Armenian Church.
3. The Nestorians, including the Christians of St. Thomas in India, number about 165,000 souls, exclu- sive of those who have connected themselves with Rome, or have become Protestants. See Nestorians.
4. The Jacobites in Turkej' and India are estimated at about 220,000, but tlie information concerning them is less definite than that about the preceding churches. See Jacobites.
5. The Copts and Ahjssinians. — The Copts may be roughly estimated at about 200,000, the Abyssinians at about 3,000,000. See Abyssinian Church ; Copts.
Together, therefore, the population connected with these Eastern communions embraces a population of about 76,500,000. All tliese bodies lay claim to hav- ing bishops of apostolical succession, and consequent- ly all of them are emljraced in the union scheme pat- ronized by the High-Church Anglicans. Both the Low-Church and the Bfoad-Church parties dislike the idea of a iniion with the Greeks, Copts, Abyssinians, and the other Eastern communions ; but the Iligii- Churchmen, of all shades of opinion, are a unit on this subject. An important fact in the history of this move- ment is the official transmission of a Greek translation of the pastoral letter issued (1867) by the Pan- Anglican Synod to all the patriarchs and bishops of the Greek Church (Schem, in Methodist Quarterly Revieto, 1808, p. 280).
On tlie Eastern churches, besides the articles on the separate churches in this Cyclopaedia, see Stanley, Lectures on the History of tlie Eastern Church (N. Y. 1867, 8vo) ; Neale, Hidory of the Holy Eastern Church (London, 1847-1850, 4 vols. 8vo). A list of the patri- archates, sees, etc., of the Eastern churclies is given, in the Churchman^s Cedendar, 1808, p. 36 sq.
Eating (properlj' hzH, akaV, taS^ioj). The an- cient Hebrews did not eat indifferentlj' with all per- sons ; they would have esteemed themselves polluted and dishonored by eating with those of another relig- ion or of an odious profession. In Josejih's time they neither ate with the Egyptians nor the Egyptians with theni (Gen. xliii, 32), nor in our Saviour's time with the Samaritans (John iv, 9). The Jews were scandalized at his eating with publicans and sinners (Matt, ix, 11). As there were several sorts of meats the use of which was prohibited, tliey could not con- venienth' cat with those who partook of them, fearing to contract pollution liy touching such food, or if by accident anv particles of it should fall on them. See Toon. At their meals some su]ipose they bad each his separate table; and that Joseph, entertaining his brethren in Egypt, seated them separately, each at his particular table, while he liimsolf sat down se]iarately from the Egyptians, who ate with him ; but he sent to his bretliren ]iortions out of the provisions which were before liim ((ien. xliii, 31 sq.\ Elkanah, Samuel's father, wlio liad two wives, distributed tlieir portions to them separately (1 Sam. i, 4, 5). In Homer, each guest is supposed to have had his little table apart, and tiie master of the feast distributed meat to each