cony of each community. Moneys were | is administered, and the missionary contaken up, under the special superintend- cern in general managed, by another deence of the elders, and of the committee partment of the Board of Elders of the above mentioned, and invested; the pro- Unity, called the Missionary Department. ceeds went to defray the disbursements of A third department of this board is termed that particular community; the under- the Department of Education. This has standing was, that, if the avails were such charge, not only of the subject of the eduas to leave any thing to be disposed of cation of children throughout the society after defraying their own expenses, such generally, but, in a special manner, of surplus was to go to aid other communities, those who are educated at the public exwhose means might not be so ample, or to pense. assist the general concerns. Thus, in most communities of the United Brethren, certain trades or manufactures are carried on for their benefit, as such. By these means, together with the voluntary annual subscriptions of the members towards the maintainance of the ministers, and the support of the church and schools, the necessary funds are raised for defraying the charges on the particular communities, and for certain proportionate contributions, which each is expected to furnish to that fund of the Unity, which is established for the support of the superannuated ministers and other officers, and their widows, as well as the education of their children. The funds required in each community, for the purposes of police and conveniences, are raised by regular taxes on the householders, assessed by the committee before mentioned. The rest of the assets on hand, at the death of Count Zinzendorf, was put under the control of a special board of elders of the Unity, and the proceeds applied to discharge the debt before mentioned. The disbursements required by the missions among the heathen are supplied by voluntary contributions. The greater part of the annual amount at the present time is furnished by persons not connected with the society. Some few of the West India missions are in part supported by the industry of the missionaries, and those in Labrador by a commercial establishment trading thither under the guidance of a society established at London. In the United States, there is a society for propagating the gospel among the heathen, incorporated by several states, and consisting of members of the United Brethren's Church. This society has recently acquired large funds, by the bequest of one of its members. All these resources flow into the common fund, which | In many of the communities of the United Brethren in Germany, England, and America, boarding schools for the educa tion of young persons of both sexes are established, in which not only their youth, but a great number of others, are instructed in useful sciences and polite acquirements. For many years these schools have sustained, and still maintain, a con. siderable reputation both in Europe and America. At Niesky, in Upper Lusatia, the Unity maintains a higher classical institution, where those receive a preparatory education, who intend to embrace the liberal professions, or to be prepared for the ministry. The latter complete their studies in a college situated at Gnadenfeld, in Silesia, which serves the purposes of a university. Similar institutions, upon a smaller scale, are established at Fulnec for the English, and at Nazareth for the American portion of the Unity. These are, properly speaking, theological seminaries only. Young men, desirous of devoting themselves to the medical or other learned professions, resort, of course, to the public universities of their respective countries. In the three departments of the Board of Elders of the Unity, before alluded to, taken collectively, the direc tion of the whole Unity is concentrated. This board, however, is responsible to the synods of the society, which meet at stated times, generally at intervals of from seven to twelve years, and from whom all its authority emanates. They are composed of bishops and certain other general officers of the society, such as the members of the Board of Elders of the Unity for the time being, and of the representatives. chosen by each individual community. At these meetings, a revision of all the concerns of the society and its parts takes place, and such alterations are adopted as circumstances seem to require. They are terminated by the appointment of a new Board of Elders of the Unity. The following is a sketch of the mode of life of the United Brethren where they form separate communities, which, how. ever, is not always the case; for, in many instances, societies belonging to the Unity are situated in larger and smaller cities and towns, intermingled with the rest of the inhabitants, in which cases their peculiar regulations are, of course, out of the question. In their separate communities, they do not allow the permanent residence of any persons as householders who are not members in full communion, and who have not signed the written instrument of the brotherly agreement, upon which their constitution and discipline rest; but they freely admit of the temporary residence among them of such persons as are willing to conform to their external regulations. According to these, all kinds of amusements, considered dangerous to strict morality, are forbidden, as balls, dancing, plays, gambling of any kind, and all promiscuous assemblies of the youth of both sexes. These, however, are not debarred from forming, under proper advice and parental superintendence, that acquaintance which their future matrimonial connexions may require. In the communities on the European continent, whither, to this day, numbers of young persons of both sexes resort, in order to become members of the society, from motives of piety and a desire to prepare themselves to become missionaries among the heathen, and where, moreover, the difficulties of supporting a family greatly limit the number of marriages, a stricter attention to this point becomes necessary. On this account, the unmarried men and boys, not belonging to the families of the community, reside together, under the care of an elder of their own class, in a building called the Single Brethren's House, where, usually, divers trades and manufacturers are carried on, for the benefit of the house or of the community, and which, at the same time, furnishes a cheap and convenient place for the board and lodging of those who are employed as journeymen, apprentices, or otherwise, in the families constituting the community. Particular daily opportunities of edification are there afforded them ; and such a house is the place of resort, where the young men and boys of the families spend their leisure time, it being a general rule, that every member of the society shall devote himself to some useful occupation. A similar house, under the guidance of a female superintendent, and under similar regulations, is called the Single Sister's House, and is the common dwelling-place of all unmarried females, not members of any family, or not employed as servants in the families of the community. Even these regard the Sister's House as their principal place of association at leisure hours. Industrious habits are here inculcated in the same way. In the communities of the United Brethren in America, the facilities of supporting families, and the consequent early mar riages, have superseded the necessity of Single Brethren's Houses; but they all have Sisters' Houses of the above descrip. tion, which afford a comfortable asylum to aged unmarried females, while they furnish an apportunity of attending to the further education and improvement of the female youth after they have left school. In the larger communities, similar houses afford the same advantages to such widows as desire to live retired, and are called Widows' Houses. The individuals residing in these establishments pay a small rent, by which, and by the sums paid for their board, the expenses of these houses are defrayed, assisted occasionally by the profits on the sale of ornamental needlework, &c., on which some of the inmates subsist. The aged and needy are supported by the same means. Each division of sex and station, just alluded to, viz.: widows, single men and youths, single women and girls, past the age of childhood, is placed under the special guidance of elders of their own description, whose province it is to assist them in good advice and admonition, and to attend, as much as may be, to the spiritual and temporal welfare of each individual. The children of each sex are under the immediate care of the superintendent of the single choirs, as these divisions are termed. Their instruction in religion, and in all the necessary branches of human knowledge, in good schools, carried on separately for each sex, is under the special superintendence of the stated minister of each community, and of the Board of Elders. Similar special elders are charged to attend to the spiritual welfare of the married people. All these elders, of both sexes, together with the stated minister, to whom the preaching of the gospel is chiefly committed, (although all other elders who may be qualified participate therein,) and with the persons to whom the economical concerns of the community are entrusted, form together the Board of Elders, in which rests the government of the community, with the concurrence of the committee elected by the inhabitants for all temporal concerns. This committee superintends the observance of all regulations, has charge of the police, and decides differences between individuals. Matters of a general nature are submitted to a meeting of the whole community, consisting either of all male members of age, or of an intermediate body elected by them. Public meetings are held every evening in the week. Some of these are devoted to the reading of portions of scripture, others to the communications of accounts from the missionary stations, and others to the singing of hymns or selected verses. On Sunday mornings, the church litany is publicly read, and sermons are delivered to the congregation, which, in many places, is the case likewise in the afternoon. In the evening, discourses are delivered, in which the texts for that day are explained and brought home to the particular circumstances of the community. Besides these regular means of edification, the festival days of the Christian church, such as Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, &c., are commemorated in a special manner, as well as some days of peculiar interest in the history of the society. A solemn church music constitutes a prominen feature of their means of edification, music in general being a favorite employment of the leisure of many. On particular occasions, and before the congregation meets to partake of the Lord's Supper, they assemble expressly to listen to instrumental and vocal music interspersed with hymns, in which the whole congregation joins, while they partake together of a cup of coffee, tea, or chocolate, and light cakes, in token of fellowship and brotherly union. This solemnity is called a Love Feast, and is in imitation of the custom of the Agape in the primitive Christian churches. The Lord's Supper is celebrated at intervals, generally by all communicant members together, under very solemn and but simple rites. Easter morning is devoted to a solemnity of a peculiar kind. At sunrise, the congregation assembles in the grave-yard; a service, accompanied by music, is celebrated, expressive of the joyful hopes of immortality and resurrection, and a solemn commemoration is made of all who have, in the course of the last year, departed this life from among them, and "gone home to the Lord"-an expression they often use to designate death. Considering the termination of the present life no evil, but the entrance upon an eternal state of bliss to the sincere disciples of Christ, they desire to divest this event of all its terrors. The decease of every individual is announced to the community by solemn music from a band of instruments. ward appearances of mourning are discountenanced. The whole congregation follows the bier to the grave-yard (which is commonly laid out as a garden,) accompanied by a band, playing the tunes of well-known verses, which express the hopes of eternal life and resurrection, and the corpse is deposited in the simple grave during the funeral service. The preservation of the purity of the community is entrusted to the Board of Elders and its different members, who are to give instruction and admonition to those under their care, and make a discreet use of the established church discipline. In cases of immoral conduct, or flagrant disregard of the regulations of the society, the following discipline is resorted to. If expostulations are not successful, offenders are for a time restrained from participating in the holy communion, or called before the committee. For pertinacious bad conduct, or flagrant excesses, the culpable individual is dismissed from the society. Out The ecclesiastical church officers, generally speaking, are the bishops, through whom the regular succession of ordination, transmitted to the United Brethren through the ancient Church of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, is preserved, and who alone are authorized to ordain ministers, but possess no authority in the government of the church, except such as they derive from some other office, being most frequently the presidents of some board of elders; the presbyters, or ordained stated ministers of the communities, and the deacons. The degree of deacon is the first bestowed upon young ministers and missionaries, by which they are authorized to administer the sacraments. Females, although elders among their own sex, are never ordained; nor have they a vote in the deliberations of the Board of Elders, which they attend for the sake of information only. It now remains to give some account of the number and extension of this society, which are often strangely exaggerated. On the continent of Europe, together with Great Britain, the number of persons living in their different communities, or formed into societies closely connected with the Unity, does not exceed thirteen or fourteen thousand, including children. Their number in the United States falls somewhat short of six thousand souls. Besides these there are about three times this number of persons dispersed through Germany, Livonia, &c., who are occasionally visited by brethren, and strengthened in their religious convictions, while they have no external connexion with the Unity. These cannot be considered members of the society, though they may maintain a spiritual connexion with it. The numbers of converts from heathen nations, are regularly reported, and do not now exceed 40,000 souls, comprehending all those who are in any way under the care of the missionaries. Indeed it never was the object of the society to attempt the Christianization of whole nations or tribes, as such must be a mere nominal conversion. They profess to admit those only to the rite of baptism who give evidence of their faith by the change wrought in their life and conduct. On this account, they have every where introduced among their heathen converts a discipline similar to their own, as far as circumstances permit. It would be preposterous to conceive that the peculiar views, and the regulations of a society such as that of the United Brethren, could ever be adopted by any large body of men. They are exclusively calculated for small communities. Any one desirous of separating from the society meets with no hinderance. The following is a succinct view of the principal establishments of the society. In the United States, they have separate communities, at Bethelem, Nazareth, and Litiz, in Pennsylvania, and at Salem, in North Carolina. Bethelem is, next to the mother community at Herrnhut, in Germany, their largest establishment. Besides these, there are congregations at Newport, in Rhode Island, at New York, at Philadelphia, Lancaster and York; at Graceham in Maryland; and several country congregations scattered through Pennsylvania, the members of which chiefly dwell on their plantations, but have a common place of worship. There are four of this description in North Carolina, in the vicinity of Salem. The whole number of congregations is twenty-two; of these there are ten village congregations, four city, and eight country congregations. The number of pastors and assistant pastors is twenty-four; two bishops, two administrators, four wardens, and four principals of schools. The total number of members, at present, in the United States, is about six thousand. In England, their chief settlements are Fulnec in Yorkshire, Fairfield in Lancashire, Ockbrook in Derbyshire. Congre gations exist likewise in London, Bedford, Bristol, Bath, Plymouth, Haverfordwest, together with a number of country congregations in divers villages. In Ireland, they have a considerable congregation at Gracehill, in the county of Antrim, and small congregations at Dublin, Gracefield, and Ballinderry. On the continent of Europe, Herrnhut, Niesky, and Kleinwelke, in Upper Lusatia; Gnadenfrey, Gnadenberg, Gnadenfeld and Neusaltz, in Silesia; Ebensdorf, near Lobenstein; Neudictendorf, in the duchy of Gosna, Konigsfeld, in that of Baden; Neuwied on the Rhine; Christianfeld, in Holstein; Zeyst, near Utrecht, in Holland; and Sarepta, on the confines of Asiatic Russia, are the names of their separate communities; besides which are organized societies at Berlin, Rixdorf, Potsdam, Konigsberg, Norden in Friesland, Copenhagen, Altona, Stockholm, Gottenburg, St. Petersburg, and Moscow. Their principal missions among the heathens at this time are the following: among the negro slaves in the three Danish West India islands; in Jamaica, St. Kitts, Antigua, Barbadoes, Tobago, and in Surinam, among the same description of persons; in Greenland, among the natives of that desolate region; in Labrador, among the Esquimaux; at the Cape of Good Hope, among the Hottentots and Caffres ; and in North America, among the Delaware Indians in Upper Canada and in the Indian Territory, and among the Cherokees in Arkansas. It is a general principle of the society, that their social organization is in no case to interfere with their duties as citizens or subjects of govern ments under which they live, and wherever they are settled. They have always supported a good reputation, and been generally considered valuable members of the community, on account of the moral and industrious habits successfully inculcated by their system. HISTORY OF THE METHODIST SOCIETY. BY THE REV. W. M. STILWELL, NEW YORK. THE Society was first composed of a number of members seceding from the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of New York, in the year 1820, together with several of the trustees. It had its origin from the circumstance of the ruling preacher, so called, insisting on receiving the money collected in the different churches under his charge, through stewards of his own appointment, instead of by the trustees appointed according to law, and in accordance with the practice of the church in all time previous, together with certain resolutions passed by the New York Annual Conference of Ministers, to petition the legislature for a law recognising the peculiarities of the church discipline, by which the whole properties of the church would have been placed under the supervision and control of the body of ministers, who according to their disci pline, from the bishop, downwards, are to take charge of the temporal and spiritual business of the church. A church was erected, and about 300 members organized, under one preacher, the Rev. William M. Stilwell, who withdrew from the travelling connexion, and assumed the pastoral charge of them, which he retains until this present year, (1843.) In the course of the three years following, they had erected two other places of worship, and formed a discipline, in which the general principles, as taught by the Methodists, were recog nised; but in the government of the church there was a difference: 1. No bishop was allowed, but a president of each annual conference was chosen yearly, by ballot of the members thereof. 2. All ordained ministers, whether travelling or not, were allowed a seat in the annual conferences. 3. Two lay delegates from each quarterly |