METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHITRCH, SOUTH OtiETHODISTS, ante), was organ ized by a convention of delegates from the southern annual conferences which met at Louisville, Ky., May 1, 1845. Its first general conference met at Petersburg, Va., May, 1846. The property belonging to the whole church was divided, through the action of the supreme court of the United States, in accordance with the plan adopted by the gen eral conference of 1844. A publishing house was established at Nashville, Tenn.; a quarterly review, weekly and Sunday-school papers, books, and tracts were printed. All things went on prosperously until the war of the rebellion hindered the work of the church and broke up its institutions. Much of its property was used by others during the continuance of military operations in the south, but the greater part of this has sine,e been restored. The church is fast recovering from the effects of the war. At the separa tion, in 1844, the southern church contained about 450,000 members. In 1860 the num ber had increased to 757,205, of whom 2,07,766 were colored people. During the war these figures were greatly reduced. Some modifications in the government of the c.hurch have been made. The annual conferences are composed of traveling ministers and four lay delegates (one of whom may be a local preacher) from each district. The general
conference contahas an equal number of ministerial and lay delegates. A revised edition of Wesley's abridged liturgy has been published, but is not much used. The ritual and the psalmody have been revised and improved. Much attention is given to Sunday schools, and many publications for their use are prepared. Seminaries for both sexes, colleges, and universities have been established in different parts of the south. The pub lishing house has revised and reprinted the standard Methodist works, and have added to them many new books of history, biography, and theology. The publishing house, 'destroyed, in part, by fire in 1872, has been rebuilt on a much larger scale. The desti tute portions of the south, laid waste by the war, require a large amount of missionary labor; and, in addition to this, missions have been established in China, Mexico, and among the Indians. The statistical reports for 1879, the latest that are accessible at the north, give 39 annual conferences; bishops, 6; traveling preachers, 3,867; local ditto, 5,832- members of churches, 822,476; Sunday-schools, 8,941; containing 58,528 teachers and 4'21,137 scholars. The total amount expended in supporting and extending the gospel at home and abroad is not reported.