Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/423

* METHODISM. 387 METHODISM. who began his work iu Xova Scotia in 1782. Other branches of English Methodism were like- wise planted in Canada. In 1874 the Wesleyan Methodist Church of the Dominion united with the New Connection Cluirch, and in 1SS,3 these united with the Methodist Episcopal, Primitive Methodist, and Bible Christian — making one Methodism in Canada. The union has been emi- nently successful. There are also colored churches. AiSTBALi.. Two schoolmasters and farmers, who were sent out from England to take charge of the convict schools, established the first class, in Sydney. March G, 1812. They soon applied for a missionary and in 1815 Samuel Leigh, the Apostle of Australia, landed and took up the work. Others followed, and wonderful success at- tended their labors, often wrought with heroic self-sacrifice and bravery. In 1820 ilethodism went to Tasmania, 1822 "to the Friendly Islands, 1823 to Xew Zealand. 1835 to the Fiji Islands, 1838 to South Australia, and 183!) to Western Australia, In 1854 all the Wesleyan Methodist Churches were united in one conference ( includ- ing New Zealand), and in 1873 those of Tasmania and the South Sea Islands were luiited with these, making the Australasian Church. The Primitive Methodist and other Engli-sh ilethodist denom- inations were also established in Australia, but in 1900-02 these all united with the Wesleyans, making one Methodism in the South Pacific, Mi-ssioxs. All the Methodist Churches sus- tain extended missionary operations, but it is impossible here to do justice to their work. A society was gathered in Sierra Leone in 1792, and in 1811 the Wesleyan Conference sent George Warren as the first missionary to Africa. Churches have been established among both na- tives and Europeans, and in 1884 William Tay- lor opened up the Congo country, Bisho]) Hartzell has done much toward coordinating the work oer a vast territory with the progress of civilization. In 1814 Thomas Coke, with six missionaries, founded the first Methodist missions in Asia, which have realized great results in converts, lit- erature, and scholarship. The American Churcli sent Melville B. Cox to Africa in 1833, and William Butler founded missions in India in 185(5, which have recently achieved notable results among the peasants of North India — the natives coming into Christianity faster than they can be cared for. In 1873 Butler also began work in Mexico, where hospitals, schools, and churches have been estab- lished. Numerous missions exist in South America. Scandinavia has proved a good soil for Methodism ; even Finland has been entered, and Switzerland has several societies. In 1900 the Methodist Episcopal Church made John H. Vin- cent resident Bishop in Europe, where there are already five conferences. Mission work in (^hina has had marvelous success, considering the cir- cumstances, where various ^lethodist bodies are working in harmony. This is eminently true of Japan, though here efforts have been made to merge the Methodist denominations into a single Japanese Church. The ilalay country has lieen entered, and in 1900 missionaries were sent to the Philippine Islands, Enic.TioN, Though Wesley was obliged to use uneducated men as preachers, he insisted on their diligence in reading and study. He was wont at times to gather them at Kingswood, near Bristol, where he instructed them in Pearson, On the Creed, Aldrich's Loyic, and rules for action and utterance; but it was not till 1834 that it was decided to open institutions for the training of ministers, and even then amid much opposition, partly on account of fear of loss of the old spirituality, freshness, and independence, and partly on account of the preponderating infiu- ence of Bunting. In 1834 an institution was opened at Ho.xton, London, removed to Riclimond, Surrey, in 1843 ; another was opened in Stoke Newington in 1839, merged in the Kichmond school in 1843. The Didsbury institution near Manchester received students in 1842 ; that at Headingly, near Leeds, in 1808; that at Hands- worth, near Birmingham, in 1891. These schools are both academic and theological, and not on the grade of American theological seminaries. These, as well as Wesley College for boys at Shef- field, the Leys school in Cambridge, and Trinity College, Taunton, are in connection with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which also supports a system of day schools having 159,000 scholars and an annual expenditure of £259,000, with training colleges for teachers in Westminster and Southlands. In Ireland there are Wesley College, Dublin, and the Belfast Methodist College. In Australia and New Zealand there are three theological institutions and ten. colleges. The Primitive Methodists have a college for min- isters at Manchester, and colleges for youths in York and Birmingham. The New Connection Church has a theological instittition at Ranmoor, near Sheffield, opened in 18t)4. The Bible Chris- tians have Shebbear College at Highampton, Devon, and a girls' school at Edgehill. The other ilethodist churches of England have their own schools, of which there are also many — especially among the Wesleyans — in mission fields. In America foundations for a college were laid as early as 1785, and in 1787 Cokesbury College was opened at Abingdon, Md. After eight years of prosperous life it was Inirned, It was rebuilt, btit was burned again in 1797, After this Asbui-y turned his attention to founding humbler schools here and there. In 1817 an academy was built at Newmarket, N, H., closed December 30, 1823, btit opened again at Wil- braham, Mass,, November 5, 1825, The oldest academy having a continuous existence is at Kent's Hill, Maine, founded in 1821. Cazenovia Seminary, at Cazenovia, N, Y., was founded in 1825. The oldest college is Wesleyan University (1831), at Middletown, Conn. A regular course of study for probationers for the ministry, con- tinuing four years, with annual examinations at the Conference, was marked out in 1810, Between 1820 and 1847, however, academies and colleges furnished all the education received in school in theological branches by candidates for the min- istry, and that was meagre, as classical and scien- tific studies necessarily predominated. There was in fact a deep-seated prejudice against theo- logical schools, lest they should become centres of heresy, as well as deprive men of that spiritu- ality, earnestness, and self-sacrifice which char- acterized early Methodist preachers. It was not till 1840 that the first theological institution was opened, that at Newbury. Vt., removed to Concord, N. H., in 1847, to Boston in 1807, and incorporated in Boston University in 1871. Car- rett Biblical Institute at Evanston, HI., now in connection with Northwestern LTniversity (the largest university in Methodism), began in