The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church

G.Lane and C.B. Tippett, New York. 1844. Hardcover. Edition / Printing not stated. Book is tight, square, and unmarked but for name and date in pencil on front endpapers; former owner names and dates on rear endpapers in ink. Book Condition: Good; leather boards are not split on rear outer hinge; front leather hinge is split but tightly and strongly held by sewn binding; wear through leather at head and tips; pages are stiff and browned from moisture with tide marks from pages 177 to rear endpapers. No DJ. Brown leather boards and spine with no titles; pages are still but all are readable. 213 pp 24 mo. This edition (1844) of The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church is historically monumental because it is the exact text (pages 202-203 Section X, Of Slavery) that precipitated the grand schism of American Methodism over the issue of slavery. Published immediately following the deeply contentious 1844 General Conference in New York City, this specific edition codified the constitutional crisis regarding the ownership of human beings by church leadership, directly leading to the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Consequently, the 1844 Discipline stands as the last unified manual of governance for American Methodism until the church's ultimate reunification nearly a century later in 1939. A clean presentable copy.…