dient and impracticable, the Northern General Confor- ence of 1872 empowered the bishops to send a deputa- tion to the General Conference of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South, in 1874, to see if fraternal intercourse cannot be established between the two connections. It is hoped that this will take place on a basis honorable . to both parties. The fraternal messenger sent to the Northern Conference in 1848, assured that body that the jMethodist Episcopal Church, South, was always ready for fraternization on the basis of the plan of sep- aration.
in. Present Condition. — The Church has been rapidly recovering from the sad effects of the war. At the time of the separation, in 1844, there were about 450,000 com- municants in the Southern Church. In 1860 there were 757,205, of whom 207,760 were colored members. These figures were greatly reduced during the war. In 1872 the number of communicants was 054,159, of whom only 3557 were colored. There were 3232 travelling and 5134 local preachers — all embraced in the foregoing figures. Most of the colored members had j-iiied other colored bodies of Methodists. Many of them arc con- nected with the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, which was organized in 1870 by the sanction of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with a distinct connection in fraternal relation with this Church, the bishops of the latter con- secrating as bishops two colored ministers chosen by a colored General Conference. One of them died in 1872 ; but the Connection is prosperous, having a number of Annual Conferences, and at a special General Confer- ' ence, held in Augusta, Ga., in 1873, three other bishops were elected. Their Disciiiline, nuifatis mutandis, is the same as that of the Methodi-i K|iiMH|ial Church, South. Four bishops of the Southern Cliunli have died, in the following order: Bascom, eapi rs. Scudr, and Andrew. The Episcopal College now consists of bishops Paine, Pierce, Kavanaugh, Early, Wightman, Doggett, Mar- vin, McTyeire, and Keener. There are thirty-seven An- nual Conferences, compose<l of travelling ministers and lay delegates— four of the latter (one of whom may be a local preacher) from every district. The General Con- ference is constituted of an equal number of ministers and laymen. District Conferences are held in all the districts once a year, for the purpose of review, etc., but without legislative or judicial power. Quarterly Con- ferences are held in all the pastoral charges, at which exhorters and local preachers are licensed, and preachers are recommended to the Annual Conference for ordina- tion or admission into the travelling ministry. Church Conferences are ordered once a month, to review all the spiritual and temporal affairs of the pastoral charges. Sunday-schools, love-feasts, class-meetings, and prayer- meetings enter into the economy of the Church. The General Conference ordered a revised edition of the Lit- urgy, as abridged by jNIr. A\'esley for the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, to be published for those congregations that might desire to use it; but few, if any, do so. The Ritual is still in use for all occasional services, and it has been carefully revised and improved, as also has been the psalmody of the Church. The Sunday-school cause has received a great impulse, and many valuable publications are issued to meet its demands. Universities, colleges, and academies, for both sexes, have been multiplying all over the Connec- tion. Jlany original Avorks, which are held in high es- timation, such as histories, biographies, sermons, com- mentaries, and other works on theology, have been is- sued from the publishing-house of the Church; and the great staple works of the Wesleyan press have been carefully revised and re-printed. The publishing-house was in part destroyed by fire in February, 18/2, but a magnificent edifice, approaching completion, is to take its place. The missionary Avork of the Clinrch ■was well-nigh broken up by the war; but it is recuperating — except the missions to the colored people, wliich were considered the crowning glory of the Southern Method-
METHODIST PROT. CHURCH 186 METHODIST PROT. CHURCH
ist Cluircli. The mission to China has received a great | the official character of its members, licenses jireachers, iini)etiis and promises well; so do the Indian missions, recommends candidates for ordination to the Annual A mission has been established in Mexico under favor- | Conference, etc. Tliere are classes, leaders, and stew- able auspices. But the destitute portions of the South ards, as in the Methodist Eiiiscopal Church, —destroyed by the war— rcijuire a vast amount of mis- | The slavery question divided the iSIcthodist Trotes- sionarv work.' and in rendering this the Church is re- tant Church into two bodies— /7/e Mtthodhl I'rotestunt
stricteil, for want of sufficient men and means, from ex- tending its work in the foreign iMiX.—lJiinplineK, Gen- end Minutes, Journals of the General Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Churches North and South ; j ICmory's Ilistorij of the Discipline; Methodist Church I^ropertij Case ; Redford's JJistory of the Onjanization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Sec Meth- odism. (T. (). S.)
Methodist Protestant Church is the name assumed by a body of Christians who seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1830. The primary causes for this step were opposition to the episcopate, and tlie decided refusal of the Methodist Episcopal min- istry to vest any authority in the laity. I'rom the very
outset efforts