METHODISTS. 



in.. 11, spoke of thoir substantial oneness in doc- 



triii.-, polity, and usage, and n-i.-rr. d to the 



time whii-h hud i-lapsed sineo tho division OC- 



Imving removed the most active, 



of difference, and with thorn the most 



formidable obstacles to the establishment of 



foil'* w.ship. The addresses were received with 



ami worn referred, totfetln-r with the 



tri-nerol subject of fraternal relations with the 



Methodist Kpisoopal Church, to a committee 



of nine persons, who wore directed to prepare 



a Buitablo response. Before the committee 



h.nl MM opportunity to report, the following 



re-olutioii was unanimously adopted : 



Whrta, The message of love and brotherly kind- 

 ness from the Methodist Episcopal Church has been 

 lly received, and has been referred to a com- 

 of nine, who, in due time will formally and 

 rually reply thereto : 



Jktolcta, That wo regret that the distinguished mes- 

 sengers sent by that Church cannot remain to await t ho 

 itation and reception of that report; but, under- 

 ng that they leave us to-day, wo are unwilling 

 that they should return home without carrying with 

 them the knowledge of our appreciation of their 

 Christian, courteous, and fraternal bearing among 

 us, and our wishes and prayers for their future hap- 

 piness and prosperity. 



The response was reported by the commit- 

 tee May 22d, and was adopted on the follow- 

 ing day, after full discussion and slight amend- 

 ment. After speaking of the pleasure with 

 which the visit and addresses of the Northern 

 delegates had been received, it said : " We are 

 called upon by the terms of tho action of their 

 General Conference to consider measures nec- 

 essary ' to prepare the way for the opening of 

 formal fraternity.' Every transaction and ut- 

 terance of our past history pledges us to regard 

 favorably and to meet promptly this initial re- 

 sponse to our long-expressed desire." It then 

 gave a review of the past action of the Church 

 South in this direction. The General Confer- 

 ence of 1846 delegated Dr. Lovick Pierce to 

 visit tho Northern General Conference in 1848, 

 and tender to that body its Christian regards 

 and salutations. He was met by a resolution 

 declaring tho existence of "serious questions 

 and difficulties between the two bodies," and 

 declining to enter into fraternal relations. He 

 replied with an address to the Northern Gen- 

 eral Conference, in which he said that tho 

 Church South could never renew the offer of 

 fraternal relations, but that the proposition 

 could be renewed at any time by the Northern 

 Church. The General Conference (South) of 

 1850 also declared, by resolution, that it could 

 never renew the offer it had made, but that it 

 would at all times entertain any proposition 

 coming from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 whether by written communication or by del- 

 egation, having for its object friendly relations, 

 " and predicated on the rights granted to us 

 by the plan of separation, adopted in New 

 York in 1844." In May, 1869, the bishops of 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church invited tho 

 bishops of the Church South to confer with 

 them as to " the propriety, practicability, and 



method of reunion." Tho Southern buthopi 

 <!. riined to consider this Hubjcct, but invited 

 attention to tho cultivation of fraternal rela- 

 tions, and suggested the removal of causes of 

 strife. The Northern bishops having, in their 

 communication, spoken of the Church Sooth 

 us having separated from tho Methodist Episco- 

 pal Church, tho Southern bishops replied to 

 this point: 



Allow us, in all kindness, brethren, to remind 

 you, and to keep the important fact of history promi- 

 nent, that we separated from you in no sense In 

 which you did not separate from us. The separa- 

 tion was by compact and mutual ; and nearer ap- 

 proaches to each other can be conducted, with hope 

 of a successful issue, only on thb basis. 



A deputation from the Northern Church 

 visited the General Conference (Sonth) of 1870, 

 proposing to treat with it, in the name of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church, on the subject of 

 union, but they were not commissioned by 

 their General Conference, and could not act 

 authoritatively. Their communication was 

 received, however. The General Conference 

 (South), in reply, approved the action taken 

 by the bishops the year before, and expressed 

 its judgment that even had the commission 

 been clothed with authority in the premises, 

 the true interest of the Church of Christ would 

 require the maintenance of a separate and dis- 

 tinct organization, but uttered the desire that 

 the day might soon come when proper Chris- 

 tian sentiments and fraternal relations between 

 the two branches of the Church should be per- 

 manently established. The address continued : 



Thus stood the case when the distinguished dele- 

 gates of tho Methodist Episcopal Church, duly 

 authorized by their General Conference of 187*, 

 brought us their fraternal greetings. "We hail them 

 with pleasure, and embrace the opportunity at length 

 afforded ua of entering into negotiations to secure 

 tranquillity and fellowship to our alienated commun- 

 ions upon a permanent basis, ani alike honorable 

 to all. 



Wo deem it proper for the attainment of the ob- 

 ject sought to guard against all misapprehension. 

 Organic union is not involved in fraternity. In our 

 view of the subject, the reasons for the separate ex- 

 istence of these two branches of Methodism are such 

 as to make corporate union undesirable and imprac- 

 ticable. The events and experiences of the last thir- 

 ty years have confirmed us in the conviction that 

 such a consummation is demanded by neither reason 

 nor charity. We believe that each Church can do 

 its work and fulfill its mission most effectively 

 by maintaining an independent organization. The 

 causes which led to the division in 1844, upon a plan 

 of separation mutually agreed upon, have not disap- 

 peared. Some of them exist in their original form 

 and force, and others have been modified but not di- 

 minished. 



The first cause mentioned was the size of 

 the connection, and the extent of the territory 

 covered by it. 



Another cause of division was, that the two 

 Churches differed in regard to the powers of 

 the General Conference. On this point it was 

 said: 



It will be remembered that the last formal deliv- 

 erance of the Southern representatives, in the united 

 General Conference, was a protest against tho power 



