METHODISM, EPISCOPAL, IN THE 'UNI TED STATES. 1. The Methodist
Episcopal Church. Small, indeed, the beginnings, but steady the
growth and mighty the present stature, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Figures gathered nearly two years ago (the
latest accessible) make the total ministry and lay membership of
the church at that time 2,925,629.. The same authority
(Methodist Year Book, 1901) makes the total value of church and
parsonage property $145,759, 844, or in round numbers, at the
present time, $15o,000,000 for these two items alone. (1)
Introduction to America. This is certainly a sizable tree. From
what sort of a seed did it spring, and how did it get rooted? A
young Irish carpenter, Philip Embury, is believed to have de
livered what may be fairly called the first Alethod ist sermon
in America, to a congregation of five persons in his own humble
house in New York. He had been licensed as a local preacher
among the followers of Wesley in Ireland, but had made no move
religiously during the six years of h