than compensate for the loss of brotherly union. The part of the plan which was laid before the Annual Conferences failed to receive the constitutional majority, and many supposed that thereby the whole plan had been defeated. The South, however, as we have already said, taking a different view. proceeded to elect delegates to a convention to meet on the first of May, 1845, in the city of Louisville. This convention consisted of delegates from fourteen. Annual Conferences, and was presided over by Bishops Soule and Andrew. It declared the Conferences represented to be an independent Church, and thus organized "The Methodist Episcopal Church, South." The doctrine, usages, and discipline of the Church were retained intact, except that every thing against slavery was omitted. They called a General Conference to meet May 1, 1846, which elected additional bishops, and which has since met quadrennially.

The separation did not take place until the summer of 1845, but the agitation which had been kept up during the year caused a decrease of thirty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine members. Possibly this may have been, in part, occasioned by the reaction from the Millerite excitement, to which we have already alluded. We are not able to give accurately the number which separated from the Church, but we find that in 1847 the traveling

preachers were reduced to three thousand six hundred and forty-two, and the members to six hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and fifty-eight, showing a decrease in three years of nine hundred and seventy-nine traveling preachers, three thousand one hundred and seventy-four local preachers, an five hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundrcd and ninety-eight members. The decrease which occurred in 1846, and which probably corresponded most nearly with the actual loss of mernbers by the separation, was four hundred and ninety-five thousand two hundred and eighty-eight. Such a fearful price did the Church pay for its antislavery sentiments, and such a loss it firmly resolved to bear rather than yield what it believed to be its true loyalty to the great Head of the Church. Other Christian bodies had frequently called in question the real antislavery sentiment of the Church, and ministers, assuming great boldness, had denounced it as time-serving and compromising. There is, however, no record in the history of our country of any Church having made such sacrifices for its stern. devotion to principle, and no other Church so greatly influenced the public sentiment on this great question. In the border States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, great excitement followed, and doubtless many members were lost from both Churches. This resulted not

merely from the bitter feeling which the controversy excited, but also from the action of other Christian Churches, which seized the occasion for extensive proselytism.

In reviewing the excitement of the years which followed, it must be admitted that severe and exaggerated statements were made, both orally and from the press, which the calm and sober judgment of all parties would now disapprove. Still there was a radical difference in sentiment, and the spirit of slavery being aggressive, would brook neither restraint nor opposition. To carry some of the border Societies into the southern organization, not only argument was employed, but, in some instances, force and violence also. In several instances ministers were mobbed; their letters and periodicals opened in the post-offices; the papers of the Church were decided to be incendiary, and were not delivered to their subscribers; and those adhering to the old Church were fearfully ostracised, their business destroyed, and, in a few instances, some were even put to death. We can now, however, see the guidance of an all-wise Providence, which overruled the counsels of men in the midst of all these commotions. It was the Divine will that slavery should be destroyed. With determined purpose, step by step, the South moved forward in the separation, first, of the Christian Churches, and then in the attempted division

of the States, to that fearful war which resulted in the emancipation of the slaves. No instance in history more clearly shows how God has made "the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he has restrained.

FOREIGN MISSIONS.

In 1847 the Missionary Board resolved to open a mission in China, and four missionaries were sent out during that year. Thus in the midst of excitement at home, and actual decrease in members, the Church took its first bold step of founding its missions in the heathen world. Though no speedy results followed, yet the eyes of the Church being turned to its work abroad, and the great contest with sin throughout the world, it gathered strength and unity at home. The work among the German population continued to grow with increasing rapidity, and steps were also taken to begin a work among immigrants speaking other languages. Rev. O. G. Hedstrom, an earnest minister in the New York Conference, a converted Swede, commenced a mission in a Bethel Ship in New York city. His congregation was composed not only of Swedish sailors, but alsɔ of immigrants from Denmark and Norway, and a religious interest was excited which led to the conversion of a number of active men. Some of these, emigrating westward, originated

Swedish and Norwegian missions, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1848,

The General Conference met for the second time in Pittsburgh, on the first of May, 1848. Its previous session in that city had occupied much of its time in connection with what was then termed the "radical controversy." Its second session was still more fully occupied with the consideration of the relation of the Church to the southern separation which had taken place. As the Conference believed that the provisions of the plan, adopted by the General Conference, had been seriously infracted upon the border; and as they further believed that the previous General Conference had exceeded its constitutional right in enacting, even provisionally, such a plan, resolutions were adopted, almost unanimously, declaring that the General Conference had no power "either directly or indirectly to effectuate or sanction a division of the Church." A resolution was also passed declaring the plan null and void.

Dr. Lovick Pierce, the father of Bishop Pierce, of the Church South, an old and highly estimable minister, had been sent by the Southern Church as a delegate to propose fraternal relations. The Conference was disposed to receive him cordially, and to grant him every personal courtesy, but he made