Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — METHODISTS MAKEUP [ARTICLE]

METHODISTS MAKEUP

TWO GREAT DIVISIONS OF THE CHURCH FRATERNIZING. After Just Fifty Yean of Ettrangemeat the Norther* and Southern Branches Berta to Exhibit Symptoms of a Desire for Reconciliation. Hold a Ix>re-Feast. For the first time in half a century the two great branches of the Methodist Church in America—the Methodist Episcopal Church, by which name the Northern body is designated, an? the Methodist Church South—have come together in a love-feast. This has just taken place in St. Louis, and is especially noticeable as having taken place in that city, because there the passions aroused by the civil war ran high and with unusual virulence. It is specially significant as showing the growing strength of the fraternal feeling between the bodies, which may yet lead to their organic union. The question on which the once united Methodist Church of the United States split was that of slavery, and the tama lines that marked the seceding States in the war marked the division of the church. But this question, while always a cause of dissension in the denomination, and condemned by the laws of the church, had been tolerated for years, because the church recognized that under the laws of some of the States the emancipation of slaves was not always possible. Hence it contented itself with occasional fulminations on the subject of slavery, but did not debar the owners of or dealers in slaves from membership. These expre:sions pleased the Northern sentiment, and while the South did not go into ecstasies over them, it took the matter quietly as long as its pet institution was not menaced.

DUraptiou of the Conference. This good feeling was rudely shattered in the General Conference of 1844 and the secession spirit which later threatened to disrupt the nation made itself painfully manifest. The conference, which was held in New York, was required to take action on an appeal frem the Baltimore conference. The case was that of the Rev. Francis A. Harding, who had been suspended for failure to manumit slaves belonging to his wife, the Baltimore conference holding that the laws of Maryland permitted such manumission. The General Conference upheld this decision. The decisive case, however, was of Bishop James A. Andrews of Georgia. Bishop Andrews had married a Georgia widow, whose former husband, among other possessions, had left her several slaves. When the Bi-hop married he secured these slaves to his wife by a deed of trust. The connect! m of a general superintendent with slaveholding caused- a profound sensation in the N< rthern church, and it was claimed that this relation would infract the provision forbidding the General Conference to destroy the plan of the itinerant General Superin' e idenc.y, since it would be impossible lor a slave-holding B'shop to preside over the Northern conference. The solution o’ the difficulty was for Bishop Andrews to dispcse of his slaves or resign his office. The first he would not do, because cf his deed of trust; the latter his people would not allow him to do. Division Decided Upon.

Steps were at once taken toward securing a division of the church and its property. The South demanded a proportional share of the capital, assets, etc., of the Book Concern, and this division was generally assented to as equitable by the Northern conference i. Owing to the opposition of a few, however, the United States Supierne Court had finally to decide the question, which it did in favor of the South. A call for a convention of Southern Methodists was then issued, and in May, 1845, delegates from all tae slaveholding States assembled at Louisville, Ky. Here an organization was effected, and the first general conference decided upon for May, 18 i 6, at Petersburg, Va. Since that time the organition has steadily progressed in strength and riches, although the war somewhat impeded its progress. It has now about 12,000 churches and the same number of clergymen and nearly 1,500,0jd communicants. Bishop Andrews continued actively engaged in the ministry until his death in 1872. May lof that year he preached in New Orleans; the next day he died suddenly of heart failure. He was 77 years old.