METHODISTS. 



541 



session in St. Louis, Mo., May 7. The quadren- 

 nial address of the bishops represented, in refer- 

 ence to the condition and growth of the Church, 

 that while four years before there were reported 

 in the General Minutes 4,406 traveling preachers, 

 of whom 3,885 were effective ; the report of the 

 last year gave the number as 4,862, 4,295 of 

 whom were effective, showing an increase of 456. 

 The number of local preachers had grown in the 

 same period from 5,943 to 6,269, giving an in- 

 crease of 326. In 1885 there were 980,645 mem- 

 bers. The whole 'number of preachers and mem- 

 bers was now 1,177,150, showing an addition in 

 four years to the strength of the Church of 186,- 

 156. Regarding the missions, that in Japan 

 asked for the organization of an annual confer- 

 ence, and the bishops recommended that the re- 

 quest be granted ; but they did not consider the 

 mission as yet in a sufficiently forward state of 

 .advancement to become a part of the independ- 

 ent Methodist Church which it was proposed to 

 form by uniting the several Methodist missions 

 in that country. The missions in China and 

 Brazil had been organized into annual confer- 

 ences. The mission in Mexico was making steady 

 progress. A question arose as to whether lay- 

 men were competent to sit on the standing com- 

 mittees those on episcopacy and appeals 

 whose functions involve matters relating to min- 

 isterial character. They were not given such 

 right in the law regarding lay representation in 

 Annual conferences, but the law regarding the 

 general conference was silent on the subject. 

 The Conference declared it to be its sense "that 

 lay members of this body are eligible to appoint- 

 ment on all its committees." In reply to a com- 

 munication from the House of Bishops of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church, proposing a con- 

 ference for the promotion of union and concord 

 among Christians, and of the organic union of 

 all Protestant churches, the Conference declared, 

 as to the first part, that 



The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has always 

 been broad and- catholic, and must, in the necessity 

 of the case, remain thus so long as she welcomes to 

 her membership all persons of every name and race 

 and color who desire to be saved from their sins and 

 intend to lead a new life ; she claims the world for her 

 parish, and is bending all her energies to the propa- 

 gation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spreading ot 

 Scriptural holiness over these lands. Claiming lead- 

 ership to herself, and yielding leadership to none, she 

 has always wclcomed/with grateful heart, any agency 

 or any organization which proposes to stand by her 

 .side in working out these glorious results and the pro- 

 motion of godly union and concord ; has always been 

 ready to accept the hand of fraternal intercourse and 

 brotherly love offered by any of her sister churches. 

 Whatever barriers to this closer union may exist to- 

 day have not been raised by her, and can easily be re- 

 moved by those who erected them without the assist- 

 ance of a commission from this body. 



On the second proposition the Conference 

 " would deplore the organic union of all Protes- 

 tant churches as an evil which would intensify 

 the differences sought to be removed, and clog 

 for centuries the wheels of progress in Christian 

 thought and work." The Conference, therefore, 

 respectfully declined "to appoint a commission 

 to meet a similar commission appointed by the 

 bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church for 

 the purposes indicated in their declaration." 



Provision was made for a genera] board of trus- 

 tees, to be invested with corporate powers and 

 authorized to receive and hold in trust for the 

 Church gifts, bequests, and grants of every kind ; 

 also for the incorporation of individual societies 

 in those States in which it is allowed by law. 

 The report on the subject of worldly amuse- 

 ments adopted by the Conference, after calling 

 attention to the pledge made by all persons be- 

 coming members of the Church of renunciation 

 of worldly conformity and of obedience to the 

 discipline, declares that " we regard theatre-go- 

 ing, dancing, and card-playing and the like, so 

 often indulged in by many of our members, as in 

 clear violation of their religious vows, and the 

 failure of some of our pastors to notice their 

 violation as inconsistent with ministerial vows"; 

 deplores the danger that comes to the purity and 

 power of the Church from such a state of affairs ; 

 urges pastors to diligence in warning the people 

 .against the danger of worldliness ; and u regards 

 the impressions made on the minds of our young 

 people by the use of such expressions as 're- 

 formed theatres,' 'legitimate drama,' and the 

 like, as misleading and dangerous, and the more 

 so if they emanate from a preacher of the Gospel, 

 and we heartily condemn the use of these ex- 

 pressions by our preachers as hurtful to the 

 cause." A standing Committee on Temperance 

 was constituted, whose report, as adopted by the 

 Conference, expresses the conviction 

 That if any more advanced position (any position 

 that comes within the province of a church*) than the 

 one which the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

 occupies to-daj upon the questions of temperance and 

 prohibition our membership is ready at once to 

 take it. We are emphatically a prohibition Church. 

 We 'stand out squarely and before the whole world 

 certainly in theory, and for the most part in practice 

 for the complete suppression of the liquor traffic. "We 

 offer no compromise to and seek no terms from a sin 

 of this heinous quality. We are opposed to all forms 

 of license of this iniquity whether the same be " high " 

 or u low." 



The inquiries of the committee had developed 

 the facts that in most sections there is very little 

 drinking among the membership of the Church : 

 that the members for the most part throw the 

 full weight of their influence and authority as 

 voters against the liquor traffic : and that the 

 preachers were uniformly faithful to the cause 

 of temperance. The Conference pledged itself 

 to continue to agitate. the subject of prohibition 

 as a great moral question in all its bearings on 

 the life and work of the Church. It was directed 

 that preachers who refuse to serve the work as- 

 signed them, or cease to travel without the con- 

 sent of the Annual Conference, instead of being 

 tried as heretofore by the Conference in open 

 session, be dealt with as in cases of immorality 

 and by a committee; and that after the com- 

 mittee has acted the final determination be with 

 the Conference. The Board of Church Exten- 

 sion was enlarged by the appointment of an ad- 

 ditional secretary. 'The powers of the Woman's 

 Board of Church Extension were enlarged, and its 

 name was changed to " Woman's Parsonage and 

 Home Mission Society." The object of this or- 

 ganization was declared to be " to unite the efforts 

 of Christian women and children in the collec- 

 tion of funds by private effort, personal solicita- 

 tion, membership fees, donations, devises, and 



