RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Methodists
the results appear commensurate with the expenditures and efforts. These members have every ecclesiastical right and privilege, including representation in the general conference and eligibility to all offices. Methodism has always made extensive use of the press. Nearly all the churches bearing that name have Book Concerns and Advocates. Hospitals were introduced in 1880. The first is the Methodist Episcopal in Brooklyn, N. Y., founded by George I. Seney; and the second, in Philadelphia, was founded by Scott Stewart, M.D., who provided for it in his will. Twenty-six hospitals are now directly under the care of the church. Deaconesses were authorized in 1888. More than sixty institutions are now managed by them, including training-schools, hospitals, and homes, and they are numerous and increasingly useful in the foreign mission fields. Children's institutions are growing in numbers, proportions, and endowment. Homes for the aged are not yet in sufficient numbers, but some of the few that exist are models for those that should be built. That phenomenon of growth — the Epworth League, was the result of a union of several Young People's Societies. Though founded only in 1889, its membership long since passed the million line. At all times, local preachers, in every denomination of Methodism, have been most efficient helpers of the regular ministry, maintaining worship and raising up societies where traveling preachers were not available, and, usually supporting themselves, have been true builders of the church.
The episcopacy has been the most potent personal force in the development of those bodies in which it exists. After Coke and Asbury, the most representative directing and constructive bishops were William McKendree, Joshua Soule 12. Notable (q.v.), and Elijah Hedding. Since 1844, Represen- Edmund S. Janes (q.v.), who was most
tatives. efficient for more than thirty years, Edward R. Ames, who was a dominant factor for a quarter of a century, and Matthew Simpson (q.v.), who combined administrative skill with unsurpassed persuasive oratory, were the most notable. The last-named probably did more to popularize his denomination in the United States, and other countries, than any other of its bishops. In higher education, Wilbur Fisk (q.v.) occupies the first place in time and value of influence. In the organization and promotion of foreign missions, John Price Durbin (q.v.) stands forth most clearly; and among the missionaries whose work is done William Butler, William Taylor, and Robert Samuel Maclay (qq.v.) will be recognized as leaders. The relation of William Nast to his countrymen in Germany, and in this country, is similar to that of the men who, having migrated from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to this country and falling under the influence of Methodism, have returned and laid the foundations of that form of Christianity in those countries.
The whole number of communicants in the United States at the close of 1909 was 3,159,913; and the number of communicants in the foreign missions of the church, 313,618— a total of 3,473,531 members.
2. The Methodist Episcopal Church South: The separate history of this body, the second in number of communicants in the Methodist world begins with the close of the fourteenth general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The momentous proceedings of that body are recorded
above. It adjourned at midnight June
1. Organ- 10, 1844. The next day the southern
ization. delegates met to determine what course
should be pursued. Wisely they suggested to their constituents that nothing be done till " all the conferences represented " could assemble in a general convention. It was decided to meet in Louisville, Ky., May, 1845. In the interim the quarterly conferences, stations and circuits, and annual conferences discussed the subject and concluded that " dire necessity " was upon them to be freed from the jurisdiction of the northern conferences. All recommended strict adherence to the Plan of Separation adopted by the general conference. The convention assembled, and a committee on organization was instructed to consider events and influences which had a bearing on the possibility of maintaining the " unity of Methodism under one General Conference jurisdiction, without the ruin of Southern Methodism." It reported that ninety-five per cent of the ministry and membership in the south deemed a division of jurisdiction indispensable, and on May 17, by a vote of ninety-four to three, the convention adopted a report which declared :
" The jurisdiction hitherto exercised over said Annual Conferences by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church entirely dissolved; and that said Annual Conferences shall be, and hereby are, constituted a separate ecclesiastical connection under the provisional Plan of Separation aforesaid, and based upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral, ecclesiastical, and canonical rules and regulations of said discipline, except only in so far as verbal alterations may be necessary to a distinct organization, and to be known by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal Church South."
The first general conference (under this plan of withdrawal and organization) met in May, 1846, in Petersburg, Va., and its successors were to convene in the month of April or May, once in four years successively. There Bishop Soule formally declared his adherence to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, upon which, by a unanimous rising vote, he was received as one of the bishops of that church. A permanent Board of Missions was organized, and an agent chosen to establish a Book Concern. Three commissioners were elected to confer with a similar body from the Methodist Episcopal Church concerning the division of the property of the Book Concern. Lovick Pierce (q.v.) was elected fraternal delegate to the ensuing general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William Capers and Robert Paine were elected bishops, and ordained by Bishops Soule and Andrew. The pastoral address, sent out to the conferences, declared:
" No recognized principle of the Methodism of our fathers has been in any way affected by these changes. All the doctrines, duties, and usages, the entire creed and ritual of the Church before the separation, remain without change of any kind."
Methodists