To the relief of worn-out and needy preachers, and the widows and orphans of preachers, the der.omination has always been attentive. At first, in 1784, the preach- ers themselves instituted a '• Treachcrs' Fund," each paying out of his poverty a specilied sum aninially into its treasury. It was afterwards merged in the "Char- tered Fund," instituted in 1790 for the same purposes. Tills fund has never been a favorite charity ; it amounts to only about $40,000, and its dividends to the Confer- ences have, of course, always been small. IMany of the Annual Conferences hold trust fimds, whose proceeds are devoted to the same end. Surplus profits of the Book Concern were for many years employed for their relief, but the chief reliance is on the annual contributions of the congregations, amounting now yearly to 5*150,000.
The missionary work of the Church took an organ- ized form in 1819, when its Missionary Society was in- stituted. Jlethodism was itself a missionary system, " the great home-mission enterprise of the North Amer- ican continent, and its domestic work, demanded all its resources of men and money." The Conference of 1784 ordereil an annual eoUeclion in everj' iirincipal congre- gation to jirovide a fund for '-carrying on the wliole work of Cod," chietly for the expenses of preachers sent to new or feeble fields. Missionaries were early sent among the slaves and Iiidiaiis, and the constant exten- sion of the Ciuirch, wlutlier in the older states or on the ever-advancing froniicr, has been a missionari- ' movement. The society, org.iniz( d [primarily to aid the home-mission work, grouixd wiili it the foreign field; and now, besides more than 2(iil(t missionaries in the English-speaking Conferences. 101 in the (Jerman Con- ferences, and 90 among the Indians and other peoples of foreign Idrth in the I'liited States, supported in whole or in part by the society, its foreign missionaries, in-
cluding native preachers and teachers, number 679, and are scattered in Africa, South America, China, India, Japan, (iermany, Switzerland, Denmark, Nor^vay, Swe- den, Bulgaria, Italy, and Slexico. Its receipts in 1872 amounted to $661,056 60. It is supplemented by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, and by other or- ganizations of a quasi missionary character, equally with it under the control of the General Conference, its Sunday-school Union, its Tract, Freedman's Aid, and Church Extension societies.
The educational movements of the Church began with the Church itself. John Dickens, afterwards the first book agent, suggested to Asbury the plan of an academic institution as early as 1780, and at their first meeting the latter subinitted it to Coke, who heartily approved it. It was laid before the Christmas Confer- ence, which agreed upon measures to establish a college. Five tliousand dollars — a large sum for those days — were raised for it liefore the building was begun; its founda- tions were laid at Abingdon, ]Md., in the following June, and in the last month of 1787 it was solemnly dedi- cated under the name of Cokesburj' College. The cur- riculum embraced "English, Latin, (Jreek, logic, rhet- oric, history, geography, natural philosophy, and as- tronomy, and, when the finances will admit of it, Hebrew, French, and German." IMore than seventy students were at one time within its halls. I'nfortunately it was burned down in 1795: "a sacrifice of £10,000 in about ten years," says Asburj-. A new edifice was soon pro- vided in Baltimore, and the college reopened with fair prospects, but in a year it also was lost by fire. An- other college was projected in (Jcorgia in 1789, and sev- eral academies were opened before the close of the cen- tury. The disastrous fate of Cokesbury led Asbury to think the Lord had " not called Jlethodists to build col- leges," a saying of his that has been most sadly per- verted. He would have had the same thing, but would have called it a "school," and not a "college," and he would place one in every Conference. He actually framed a scheme to bring " two thousand children under the best plan of education ever known in this country." In 1818 a second attempt was made to establish a col- lege in Baltimore, but without success. The educational plans of the early ^Methodists were simply broader than their financial ability. At no time has the slander been just that they were enemies to educaiion. In 1817 an academy was opened in Newmarket, N. H., since removed to Wilbraham, Mass.; and in 1819 an- other in New York City. In 1820 the (ieneral Confer- ence took up the subject, and recommended that each Annual Conference establish as soon as practicable a lit- erary institution under its own control. This action was followed by new efforts. Several Conference semi- naries were soon opened, and, to meet the increasing de- mand for higher education, within twelve years no less than five colleges were put in successful operation. The- ological schools are of a later date, and assumed at first the modest title of " Biblical Institute." The first, pro- jected in 1839, after various fortunes, was located at Concord, N. H., in 1847; in 1867 it removed to Boston, and in 1871 became the school of theology in the Bos- ton University. The Garrett Biblical Institute, at Ev- anston. 111., founded in 1855, received an endowment of .*3(l(>.(l(l0 and its name from a liberal Methodist lady of Chicago. Tlie Drew Theological Seminary was orig- inated in the Ccntenarj' movement at JIaiiison, N. J., through tlie munificence of the gentleman whose name it bear.s. There is also a mission institute at Frankfort- on-the-Main, in tiermany, nameil Martin Iimlilii/c. after the gentleman whose munificence mainly endowed the school; and there are similar sdiools in India, and at two or three points in the Soiilliern States. By the close of the centennial year of American Jlethodism, " the Methodist Episcopal Church alone re|iorte(i no less than 25 colleges (including theological schools), having 158 instructors, 5345 students, al>out 84.0(10,000 in en- dowments and other property, and 105,531 volumes in