Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-05

States find it necessary to unite in an
ecclesiastical connection distinct from
that Of the North. The Church in the
South and the Southwest in primary as
sembies and in Quarterly and Annual
Conferences sustained the declaration of
the delegates, and measures were imme-
diately adopted for the assembling of q
convention. Acting under the provisions
OF the plan of separation, and in pur-
suance of the formal instructions of
the Annual Conferences, the convention
dissolved the jurisdiction of the General
Conference over the Conferences therein
represented, and created separate eccle-
siastical connection, under the title of
the 'Afethodist Episcopal Church, South"
The first General Conference of the Or
ganization thus formed, was held at Pc
tersburg, Virginia, in 1848, the senior
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
DR.. Joshua Soule, having in the meantime
attached himself to the Southern Church.
A subsequent General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, North, hav-
ing repudiated the plan of separation
and refused to divide the proper
ty of the general book concern,
formerly held in common, suit was
brought in the United States Courts by
the Southern branch, and fair pro rata
division was enforced. Thus the split
was made final, binding and irrevocable.
Through all this schism and organization
of the Church, Bishop Andrew, who was
the immediate cause, was champion of
the church South. Wise, prudent, firm
and unwavering, yet active and laborious,
he brought all the weight of his influence
and the powers of his gigantic mind to
the cause of his church. He lived to see
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at
tain the trent rank in denominational
influence and membership. Spreading
its churches and conferences and colleges
and institutions of learning all over the
land, from the shimmering waters of the
Chesapeake to the prairies of Texas. He
lived to see Conferences increasing, more
Bishops added, thousands and thousands
of additional members enrolled on the
Church record, and q Book Concern
built up here in Nashville that before the
war had issued over six hundred million
of pages of reading matter, and which is
now enjoying wonderful success He
lived to be the senior Bishop of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, of
the independent organization of which
he was the immediate cause, and
to see the country flooded with
its publications, its religious papers, and
periodicals. The venerable Bishop, after
long life of usefulness and honor and
unsullied purity, died with his whole
armor on. He preached his last sermon
in New Orleans on Sunday, February the
10Th, which was one of great power and
fervor. A few days afterward he was
stricken down with paralysis. He was
conveyed to Mobile where, on the I'd
inst, he breathed his last. This great
and good man has gone to receive the
promised reward of "well done, thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou into
the joys of thy Lord" There will be
few pulpits of his Church to-day from
which reference will not be made to his
ilustrious character, and thousands as
they listen to divine ministrations will
drop tears of regret for Bishop James
Osgood Andrew.