Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/256

232 HISTORY OP Churcli. The succeeding year, (1844,) the dissolution of the Methodist Church was brought about, the result of angry dis- sensions and contentions in relation to slavery, which resulted in the formation of two distinct organizations, the Methodist Church North, and the Methodist Church South. The next religious denomination, and the only one besides Methodism, having a sufficient number among the citizens of the county, to render an article of general interest, is the Presbyterian Church. Under this head are included all the churches formerly represented in the General Assembly, viz. : Congregational, and Old and New School Presbyterian. Presbyterianism as well as Methodism owes its origin and in- troduction in America to Irish emigrants. As early as 1705 or 1706, a Presbytery was convened in Philadelphia, by seven or- dained ministers, four of whom were Irishmen, two were Scotch- men, and the seventh, a native-born American. Rev. P. Douglass Gorrie, in his interesting work on " Churches and Sects says: "In 1788 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was duly organized, and two years after- wards the Assembly invited the ministers of the Congregational churches to renew the Annual Convention (which had existed prior to the Revolution but had been broken up by internal dissensions,) in connection with the ministers of the Presbyterian Church." This conciliatory feeling evinced on the part of Presbyterians, met with a mutual return on the part of Congregationalists, and resulted in 1801, in the adoption of a plan of union between the two bodies, which existed with the best of consequences for more than thirty years. Among the questions on morals, which have at different periods, disturbed the harmony of the Church? is the one respecting slavery. The Presbyterian Church in its earlier history bore decided testimony against slave-holders and slave-holding, but foreseeing that sooner or later these dissensions would result in a dissolution of the church similar to that effect-