Methodist missionary work had its origin among the Indians of Ontario in 1829, and in the Northwest began about 1840. Its annals abound with noble achievements. There then existed in Canada five principal Methodist bodies. In addition to the two main bodies already mentioned, different branches of British Methodism had been brought into the country, namely, the Methodist New Connection, the Primitive Methodist body and the Bible Chris tians. All these became firmly rooted in Canada and developed into strong bodies. The need of unification began to be earnestly discussed as early as 1866. In 1873 a union was consum mated between the Wesleyan, the New Connec tion, and the Eastern British-American Con ference, but it was not until 1883 that, at a general conference held in Belleville, the union was consummated. Then all the Methodist bodies, hitherto locally or ecclesiastically separated, were brought together; and, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, there is now one great Methodist Church of Canada, with 2,337 or dained ministers, 3,821 churches and 1,639 other preaching places, 376,761 church members, and 3,824 Sunday schools, with 41,929 officers and teachers and 420,210 scholars. There was contributed for all missionary work, through her various boards and funds, $1,170,434; she has invested $7,200,391 in her educational in stitutions, and her activities seek the evangelism of both the individual and society, and the ap plication of the principles of the gospel of Jesus to all the moral, economic, social and political relations of life.
The Baptist Churches derived their origin from the American Baptists. From 1760 on ward there are traces of individual Baptists in different localities in Nova Scotia. In 1820 the first Baptist association was formed for the Maritime provinces. The first Baptist Church in Lower Canada was formed in 1794, and con sisted chiefly of Loyalist refugees from Con necticut. In 1795 another was organized in Upper Canatla. The first Baptist Church in Montreal was not organized until 1830. The Baptists of Canad i to-day (1917) occupy a very strong position. With 885 ordained ministers, 1,335 churches, and a membership of 138,197, they represent a very strong religious force in the life of the Dominion. Their leading edu cational institutions are the Acadia University and Seminary.. in Wolivilk, Nova..Scotia, the Woodstock College in Woodstock, Ont., the Brandon College in Brandon, Manitoba, and chiefly the McMaster University in Toronto. In Sunday school work, missions both home and foreign, and in social service, the Canadian Baptists are always to the fore.
Congregationalism has never found a strong footing in Canada. A few scattered adherents came from New England to Nova Scotia in 1758. In the eastern townships Congregation alism was founded in 1811 by settlers from Massachusetts, and in Ontario some 10 or 12 years later. Nothing was done west of Ontario until 1879, when work was begun in Winnipeg. There are in Canada about 13,000 members, and 100 ministers mostly in Ontario, with a few congregations in Nova Scotia, Quebec and the Northwest.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada dates from the middle of the 18th century. The first German Lutheran landed at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1749. The first Lutheran con gregation in Upper Canada was founded in 1775. Others came in with German immigra tion. In 1853 the Canada Conference of the Lutheran Church was founded. The main body of Lutherans is in the district of Ontario near he city of Berlin (in 1916 changed to Kitchener) and in the Northwest where large numbers of Swedes and Norwegians are found. There is an Icelandic branch of the Lutheran Church in the Northwest.
There are a number of small religious bodies in Canada, none of which exercises any appre ciable influence upon the religious life of the country; chief among them are The Disciples and The Brethren, The Adventists and Men nonites. There are a few Unitarians and Quakers, and the Russellites, Theosophists and Christian Scientists have increased not a little, especially in the cities. The Salvation Army has acquired a considerable foothold in the larger cities and towns, and has latterly given much of its strength to the development of social work in the towns and cities.
There are four paramount considerations which have profoundly affected the whole religious history and development of the Do minion namely, the relations of the churches to the state and to education, their beneficient and missionary activities, and the problem of church union.
Church and In the 18th century the authorities believed that an Established Church was necessary in order to secure the loyalty of the colonists, and it was, without doubt, the intention of the British government to maintain an Anglican establishment in Upper Canada the counterpart of the Roman Catholic establishment in Lower Canada. In 1791 the Constitutional Act was passed ing the provision of previous legislation which gave the King the right to set apart for the support of the "Protestant clergy' the seventh part of all ungranted Crown lands. This was the origin of the "clergy (see CAN- ADA - THE CLERGY RESERVES). The ambiguity of the term "Protestant clergy' admitted of a variety of interpretations. The Anglican clergy maintained that they alone were intended by the designation. The few clergy connected with the Established Presbyterian Church of land contended that they had an equal right to their ckaim supported by eminent legal authority in England. The Methodists, in general, resisted such an appropriation of the public lands, but the British Wesleyan urged an acceptance of a portion of the (clergy re serves? After years of fruitless ecclesiastical strife, an act was passed by the legislature of Upper Canada, by which the lands were handed over to the municipal corporations of the prov ince for secular purposes, provision being made to satisfy the claims of existing incumbents. In lieu of these claims there was paid over to the Church of England the sum of $1,103,405; to the Church of Scotland, $509,739; to other Pres byterians, $8,962; to the Wesleyan Methodists, $39,074; and to the Roman Catholics in Upper Canada, $83,731. The Anglican Church was thus delivered from what might have been its ruin in Canada, and the people of the province released from a grievous injustice and a source of political discontent and strife. In those days the representatives of the churches of England and Scotland, especially the former, had a cer tain status accorded to them, denied to other denominations. The Methodists were most un justly charged with disloyalty, to which their connection, in origin and government, with the United States gave some color of plausibility. Until 1830 the Methodists and other dissenters had no right to hold land for places of worship or for the burial of their dead, nor had the Methodists and their ministers the right to solemnize matrimony, even among their own people. It was only after long and bitter con troversy that laws were passed authorizing the various religious bodies to hold land for churches, parsonages and burial grounds, and empowering their ministers to celebrate mar riages. At the present time all the leading Christian bodies are in a position of practical equality, and marriages can be performed by members of every church and religious de nomination duly ordained, and also by any elder, missionary or evangelist of the so-called Congregation of God and of Christ, the Dis ciples of Christ, the Brethren or any duly ap pointed commissioner or staff officer of the Salvation Army. Marriages by a magistrate or of the peace are unknown in Canada. o civil official is qualified by any legislative act in Canada to celebrate marriage. It is evident then that there is throughout Canada complete separation of church and state, with the exception of the peculiar position held by the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, secured by treaty and the terms of British occupancy of that province. Canadians believe in a church supported state, not in a state-supported church, and with a few exceptions the religious spirit of the Dominion is remarkably free and democratic.