They have in the United States about one thousand churches, four hundred ministers, seventy thousand communing members, and about one hundred and forty thousand which do not commune.
Education, &c.—They have a college, located at Gettysburg, Pa., and several academies in different parts of the country; also four theological seminaries, located at Gettysburg, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Lexington, S. C.; Hartwich, N. Y., a fifth is contemplated in Indiana. Their different education societies support about eighty beneficiaries, preparing for the ministry, at an expense of one hundred dollars each, annually. The Lutheran Observer is published weekly, at Baltimore.
The Lutherans are one of the most numerous sects of Christians in the world. The whole number in Europe is estimated at twenty-seven millions, embracing seventeen reigning sovereigns. This estimate, of course, includes the Moravians.
Protestant Methodists.
This infant church is rapidly increasing, especially in the middle States. Its population in the United States exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand.
This class of Christians have twenty-one annual conferences in as many states; nearly four hundred travelling, and a large number of unstationed ministers. They have a general conference, which meets once in four years, consisting of two delegates from every thousand communicants, one a minister, the other a layman: this is their legislative body. The number of communicants is about sixty-five thousand.
Publications. The Protestant Methodists support four religious papers:—the Olive Branch, Boston, Mass.; the New York Luminary, New York, the Methodist Protestant, Baltimore, Md., and the Western Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio.