METAPHYSICS, AMERICAN. 



METHODISTS. 



365 



over ills. The full - fledged believer in New 

 Thought proclaims at all times and seasons that 

 the best clothing and best environment that the 

 world has to give is no more than the birthright 

 of every creature coming into it as an expression 

 of " God's Thought." All the good things of life 

 are conducive to spiritual joyousness, and joy, 

 harmony, and love are the creative factors in the 

 universe. Vibrate harmony, and it draws you 

 within the vibratory forces of Nature, which 

 works with you to the possession of all you need. 

 Thp older spiritual movement had not rid itself of 

 the notion of the efficacy of self -inflictions; it 

 was in its tendency combative, as witness the 

 vehemence of the antislavery crusade led by its 

 adherents. The new movement preaches nonre- 

 sistance. Create harmony out of discord, and 

 thus gain control ; conquer all things through the 

 law of spirit. 



This pervaded all Emerson's philosophy, and its 

 jractical ethics were attempted even by Alcott in 

 lis school-teaching; but its objective results were 

 somewhat crude, and amid the hard ethics of his 

 day resulted only in ridicule from his neighbors. 

 Indeed, the teachings of Emerson himself were 

 far from being understood when he uttered them 

 y most of his nearest acquaintances; their com- 

 ments on them sound very queer to-day. 



Unlike as they are, however, in expression and 

 method, some of the spiritual light of the older 

 aeriod has filtered down, and may be traced in 

 some of the utterances and writings of the pres- 

 ent-day movement. It is the boast of its expo- 

 lents that no one man, or period, or philosophy, 

 ispires it to the exclusion of others. It is em- 

 phatically inclusive. But the core of its working 

 to-day, that which makes it talked about 

 ind antagonized, is the widely accepted belief in 

 ts power to heal physical and mental ills and 

 loral deformities. On this point no fair-minded 

 idherent denies the priority of practical discovery 

 ind demonstration to P. P. Quimby. Whether 

 Ir. Quimby was indebted for inspiration to lead- 

 rs of the older movement, which was at its height 

 his young manhood, it is impossible to say. 

 Nothing in his recorded utterances gives evidence 

 lat he was. There is in them ample evidence that 

 le was a keen and critical investigator of all that 

 aassed under his ken, and that he had no love for 

 the theology of his day. He plainly blamed the 

 eligion of the time for a large part of the mental 

 ind physical disorders that came to him for cure. 

 It the same time, it is quite evident that he was a 

 leeply religious man and a devoted student of the 

 iible. The Newness died out for want of co- 

 icsion or a practical point around which to rally. 

 Through Quimby New Thought has found a key 

 riiich it fits to the most vital needs of humanity. 

 Its value is not a matter for comment here, but 

 this latter quarter of a century movement, under 

 me name or another, counts, all told, considerably 

 lore than 2.000.000 followers. 

 See Henry Wood: Studies in the Thought 

 /orld ; God's Image in Man ; The Political Econ- 

 omy of Natural Law; and two stories, Victor 

 !erenus, a tale of the Pauline era, and Edward 

 urton, a story of modern life. Dresser: The 

 of Silence, The Perfect Whole, and In 

 of a Soul. E. D. Babbit: The Principles 

 Light and Color, Human Culture and Cure, and 

 lealth and Power. Ernest Loomis: Your Prac- 

 tical Forces, and How to use Them; Force Mass- 

 ig and Methods ; Practical Occultism ; and Meth- 

 1s of Self-help. Among the contributors to the 

 two leading magazines Mind and the Metaphys- 

 eal Magazine Dr. Alexander Wilder fills a prom- 

 inent niche. His writing is both scholarly and 



searching. Prominent, also, is a younger writer, 

 Stanton Kirkham Davis, a lawyer, author of 

 Where Dwells the Soul Serene and other works. A 

 Better World" of Philosophy, by J. Howard Moore, 

 is also much approved. There are popular writers 

 by hundreds in this line, and there is no doubt 

 many of them draw inspiration from a man who 

 would not be likely to rank himself with this 

 school at all, namely, the famous Dr. Franz Hart- 

 mann, of Germany, one of the most noted occultists 

 of any age, author of many noted works, among 

 which may be mentioned Life and Works of Para- 

 celsus and Magic, White and Black. The latter 

 is one of the most marvelous books ever written, 

 and is now rare. 



METHODISTS. I. Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. The 150 annual organizations of this 

 Church embraced in the plan of episcopal visita- 

 tion for 1900-'01 comprise 124 annual conferences, 

 12 mission conferences, and 14 missions in the 

 United States and foreign countries. The statis- 

 tical returns of these conferences, as published in 

 the Methodist Yearbook for 1901, give aggregates 

 of 17,752 ministers in full connection and on trial 

 (including supernumeraries and superannuates), 

 14,232 local preachers, 2,907,877 lay members (in- 

 cluding full members and probationers), 32,119 

 Sunday schools, with 350,271 officers and teachers 

 and 2,700,543 pupils; 27,382 churches, having a 

 probable value of $126,273,871; and 11,202 par- 

 sonages, valued at $19,486,073. As the Yearbook 

 went to press before the reports of some of the 

 conferences, which were held late in the fall of 

 1900, had been made up, it was necessary to in- 

 sert for these conferences the figures given in their 

 journals for 1899; hence the numbers here given 

 will not exactly agree with those which will ap- 

 pear in the official minutes of the annual con- 

 ferences for 1900. 'ihey nevertheless accurately 

 represent the life of the Church for a twelvemonth. 



The educational institutions include 25 the- 

 ological schools, with 100 professors and teachers 

 and 1,230 students; 56 colleges and universities, 

 with 1,821 professors and teachers and 28,619 stu- 

 dents; 60 classical seminaries, with 496 professors 

 and teachers and 9,320 students; 8 institutions 

 exclusively for women, with 157 professors and 

 teachers and 1,187 students; 99 foreign mission 

 schools, with 533 professors and teachers and 7,454 

 students; and 4 missionary institutes and Bible 

 training schools, with 87 professors and teachers 

 and 453 students; making in all (allowing for 24 

 institutions, with their teachers and students, du- 

 plicated), 228 schools, with 3,040 professors and 

 teachers, 46,545 students, grounds and buildings 

 valued at $16,843,295, productive endowments ag- 

 gregating in value $10,573,306, and a total value 

 of property and endowments, productive and pro- 

 spective, exclusive of debt, of $28,909,471. 



The list of official periodicals of the Church 

 includes 2 English magazines and 1 German maga- 

 zine, 11 English and 1 German weekly periodicals, 

 and 14 Sunday-school periodicals and lesson helps 

 in English, German, and Swedish. Besides these. 

 a large number of independent and local unofficial 

 periodicals are published, representing many as- 

 pects of the life, thought, and interests of the 

 people of the Church. 



The institution of deaconesses in the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church was begun under private initi- 

 ative in 1887. It was recognized by the General 

 Conference of 1888. This General Conference also 

 instituted an order of deaconesses in India, to 

 whom authority was given to administer the 

 sacraments to such women only in that country 

 as could not be reached otherwise. Deaconesses 

 have been the subject of further legislation by 



