7. The American Home Missionary Society

forbade all such trifling. Prompt, united action was demanded. Denom- inational supremacy was buried under the all-absorbing issue whether New America should be a heathen or a Christian nation. Between Presbyte rians and Congregationalists, at that time the strong est church bodies in the land, the spirit of union was particularly active. For the long period of fifty years, between 1801 and 1851, these two churches carried on their missionary work in the new settlements under a "Plan of Union" so called, mutually agreed to, by which the churches of either order, wherever formed, might worship in the same house, elect and listen to the same pastor, and profess the same creed, while each body was left free to govern itself by the church polity it loved and preferred. In 1826 Congregational, Presby terian, Reformed, and Associate Reformed churches still further illustrated their unsectarian spirit by uniting in the organization of a national society, known as the American Home Missionary Society. The growth and needs of the home missionary movement made this step a necessity. Hitherto State societies had been doing national work, each in its own wag. But these organizations, operating independently, had resulted in an unequal distribution of both men and money. Some regions were oversupplied, while others were left entirely destitute. Moreover, the laborers themselves inevitably came into conflict with each other. Obviously the time had arrived for federation and coordination under one national society; and that society, as above stated, was organized May 26, 1826, with headquarters in New York, the various state societies making themselves auxiliaries to the national organization. Perhaps nothing more potential in the progress of the home missionary movement, up to this date, belongs to its history than this act. For years the churches forming this alliance labored together in fraternal unity, contributing to a common treasury, and governed by a single board of directors. Receipts rapidly increased, the missionary force doubled and trebled in number, and instead of being an itinerant preacher, the home missionary became a settled pastor, bearing the commission of a national society, dwelling continually among his people, and building them up in unity and strength. It was only when these cooperating church bodies had grown strong that they amicably withdrew from this federation to organize separate societies of their own, leaving the Congregationalists to inherit the name and good-will of this honored society. In fact, it was not until many years later that "American" was dropped from its charter name and "Congregational," which had become more truly descriptive of its nature, was substituted.

Meanwhile the Methodist Church, growing in strength and burning , to have a part in national evangelization, organized its mission-