This work was strengthened by the establishment of a mission from the Wesleyans of England. A German layman of the name of Muller had been converted in London, and had become an exhorter and class-leader. Upon his return to Wiirtemberg, his native place, after an absence of fourteen years, he could not conceal from his family the change which had been wrought in his heart, and he soon began to hold meetings from village to village. A revival took place, and the jjersons con- verted organized themselves in classes. Muller, finding himself in a work that demanded all his ability, gave up his secular business and devoted himself to the evangel- ization of his fellow-countrymen. This work, begun in 1831, has resulted in the founding of a number of small churches, which comprise (in 1873) a membership of 7026, and 6778 Sunday-school scholars, with 101 travelling and local ministers; and has extended from Wiirtemburg into the duchy of Baden and to the borders of Austria.
But the grandest and most enterprising of the branches of German Methodism is unquestionably that of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, which, as we have seen above, took its rise from the work among the German emigrants in the United States. In 1862 this missionary field was constituted into an Annual Confer- ence, and it now covers all the German-speaking people in (Germany, Switzerland, and France, divided into seven districts : Bremen, Berlin, Frankfort, Ludwigshaven, Carlsruhe, Zurich, and Basle, which comprise more than sixty circuits or stations, with (in 1872) 73 travelling ministers, 386 places of worship, 229 Sunday-schools
with 10,071 scholars, 6230 Church members, and 1369 probationers. This mission is thoroughly organized. It has a book publishing-house^, which issues, besides a va- riety of treatises or books, every fortnight the Evangelist and Khukr-Freund ; every month the Missionar-Samm- ler and Monatlicher Bote ; and every quarter thelFac^^er- Stimmen, It has also a theological college, which has had as its professors Dr. Warren, of Boston University, and Dr. Hurst, of Drew Theological Seminarj-. Its pres- ent instructors are Dr. Sulzberger and L. Nippert. It had had an existence of fourteen years, when, by the timely and princely gift of John T. Martin, of Brooklyn, N. Y., the present commodious and substantial Iniilding, four stories high, standing on a lot one hundred by tive hun- dred feet, was erected, free of debt, at Frankfort-on-the- j\Iain. The property is estimated at about $30,000. The following branches are taught: Greek, Latin, Eng- lish, German, Hebrew, geography, arithmetic, music, homiletics, dogmatics, discipline of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, history of Methodism, Church history, profane history, literatu*e, archseology, exegesis. There are at present twelve young men in this school prepar- ing for the ministry. Sixty or seventy ministers have already gone forth in the course of twelve A'ears. About fifty-four labor in Germany, and others have come to America and are laboring here.
4. Methodism among the Scandinavians. — The Meth- odist Episcopal Church has also done immense service to the cause of personal religion by its missionary efforts among the Scandinavians, with whom the Church was brought face to face in this country. As early as 1845 these labors Avere commenced, under the auspices of the Home Missionary Societj'. The work has grown until it presents this imposing array :
STATISTICS OF THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSIONS OF THE METH. EP. CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.
Conferences.
J
1
a
1 1
i
1
i
1
i 1
1 1
i
i
1
II
Swedish— Central Illinois
Erie
23
1
1 2
2,200 120 312 204
405
6
110
65
22 1 8 4
20 2 6
2
$64,800 5,000 8,000 41,000
12 5
$12,000
sjooo
175 00 117 00
New York
East Maine*
Total, Swedish
27 10
12
2,s;i6
433
805
586
84
90
35
T
io
30 G
12
$118,800 8,350
4g;766
17 4
$15,000 2,450
ib;456
$1,.545 20 198 00
sie'oo
N. Y. East*
Wisconsin
Total, Norwegian and Danish.. Total, Scandinavian
22
1,2.38
174
17
18 1 $55,050
10
$12,900
$714 GO
49
4,0T4
760
52
48 1 $173,850
27
$27,900
$2,259 80
* To be organized.
STATISTICAL REPORT OF THE METH. EP. CHURCH MISSIONS IN SWEDEN FOR THE YEAR 1872.
. 04j$IS2 25
STATISTICAL REPORT OF THE METH. EP. CHURCH MISSIONS IN NORWAY FOR 1872.
lucre:
METHODISM
164
METHODISM
For the last three years a monthly, called Missionaren, devoted to relif^ion, has been i)ubUshed. A hymn-book has also been^ prepared for the members of this branch of the Methodist Eyjiscopal Church.
Tlie success of tliis work at home gave rise to the es- tablishment of a mission to the Scandinavians in 1854. It now extends over Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Its imix)rtancc may be judged by the last annual re- jiort. In Denmark there are now 301 members, G class- leaders, 3 exhorters, 2 local preachers, 20 regular ap- puiiitnicnts. and -i missionaries, under the superintend- iiuT (.1 ihc I lev. Karl Schon, at Copenhagen, where the niissiuii |Hi~>(.>ses a A'cry elegant church. In the other two c()inilri(s the reports are as given in the two pre- ceding tables.
T). Mctliiidism in A usiralia. — Methodism at the begin- ning of this century found its adherents in Australia. The lirst class was organiiied March 6, 1812. The tirst missionary to this colony was Samuel Leigh, who land- ed in 1815. At tirst the labors of the preacher were coidined to the whites, particularly the convicts who liad been transported hither from the mother country. Gradually the work was extended to the natives also. In 1853 Methodism had progressed so well that the for- mation of an independent Conference was counselled by the home Church, and in January, 1855, the tirst session of the Wesleyan Conference was held at ilelbournc, and was presided over by the Kev. W. 15. Boyce, at that time j general superintendent of Methodist missions in Aus- tralia, now secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Soci- ety, London. At that time there were some CO jireach- ers and 1 1,000 members. Now this bough of the vigorous tree planted by John Wesley divides itself into three branches. The first extends over Australia Proper and Van Diemen's Land, the Methodist districts in whicli adapt themselves to the colonial divisions of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. These arc the home districts of Methodism in tliat region, the work in them being missionary only as regards a few surviving relics of the feeble aborigi- nes, or the swarms of immigrant Chinese. The second branch of Australian jMethodism divides itself over New Zealand into the two districts of Aucklan<l and Welling- ton, and the work is of a mixed character, embracing the Ijritish settlers and the JMaori. The third branch is purely missionary', and extends over the Friendly and the Fiji Islands. " Tliese," said the Kev. G. T. Perks, at tlie anniversary of the Wesleyan JMissionary Society, May 5, 1873, " have been among the most successful of modern missions." See Fiji Islands. " The statistics of these missions speak for themselves: 23 European missionaries labor in connection with 63 native mission- aries, and 90G native catecliists, and 1790 local preach- ers; the number of Church members is 33,149. Tliere are above 133,000 attendants at ])ublic worship in 802 chapels and in 357 other preaching-places. The work of education has not been neglected; 1508 day-schools, tauglit by 148 head teachers, and by 2469 subordinate masters, return 53,804 day-scholars, and about the same number attend the Sunday-schools, in which there are 3551 teachers." At the lii'teenth session of the Confer- ence in ]8(;8, held at Sydney, tlie reports from all parts of the work were very encouraging. Tliere were then 241 preaclicrs and 57 native helpers. The collective to- tals of tlie Australian connection were, in 1868, 30,.590 members, with 8953 persons "on trial." Australian Metliodism lias three flourishing high-schools— Newing- ton College, at New South Wales; Wesley College, at Victoria; and llorton College, in Tasmania. Of late a theological school has been jirojected.