PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



773 



Common Prayer ' and have made it what it 

 is." 



The three dioceses within the State of Illi- 

 nois took steps to organize themselves into a 

 Province during 1880 and prior to the meeting 

 of the General Convention in that year ; and, 

 as required by the canon, they submitted to 

 the General Convention for its approval a 

 draft of the organization and of the powers 

 which they proposed it should exercise. The 

 organization and its constitution were approved 

 by both houses of the General Convention, 

 except a provision relative to the establish- 

 ment of an appellate court, to which the 

 House of Bishops made objections. The first 

 meeting of the Provincial Synod for business 

 was held at Springfield, Illinois, January 26th, 

 when the three bishops and five clergymen 

 and five laymen, as delegates from each of the 

 dioceses, were present. The Bishop of Quincy 

 presided. The Synod engaged actively in the 

 discussion of the question of organizing an ap- 

 pellate court, notwithstanding the objections of 

 the House of Bishops to that measure. It was 

 maintained that while the House of Bishops 

 had declined to approve giving the power to 

 form a court, and the House of Delegates had, 

 after long resistance, acquiesced in its action 

 for the sake of saving the rest of the measure, 

 the latter house had defined that its acqui- 

 escence was based on the express ground that 

 since the proposed court was to be " first insti- 

 tuted by the several dioceses, under the per- 

 mission already granted by Article 6 of the 

 Constitution," this power did not need the ap- 

 proval of the General Convention. The record 

 of the action of the two houses of the Gen- 

 eral Convention in 1871 was read, showing that 

 both houses had then, in the clearest manner, 

 recognized the precise diocesan right which it 

 was now proposed to exercise, and it was held 

 that the action of both houses in 1871 could 

 not be repealed by a want of consent on the 

 part of one house in 1880. A preamble, citing 

 the precise language of the action of the Gen- 

 eral Convention in 1871, was added to the 

 resolution it was proposed to adopt, and the 

 measure, asserting the right to act in the estab- 

 lishment of the court, and embodying the 

 draft of a canon for its organization, was 

 passed. The canon has, in order to be of 

 force, to receive first the approval of each of 

 the three diocesan conventions represented in 

 the provincial organization. This is the first 

 real step that has been taken toward the organ- 

 ization of a Court of Appeals in this Church. 

 The bishops were requested to confer and re- 

 port to the next meeting of the Synod con- 

 cerning the practicability of establishing any 

 educational or charitable institutions to be 

 under the care of the province. 



A Church Temperance Society has been or- 

 ganized and placed under the ex officio presi- 

 dency of the presiding bishop. Its objects 

 are declared in its constitution to be 1, the 

 promotion of temperance; 2, the removal of 



the causes which lead to intemperance ; 3, the 

 reformation of the intemperate. Its constitu- 

 tion declares that " recognizing temperance as 

 the law of the Gospel, and total abstinence as 

 a rule of expediency in certain cases, and fully 

 and freely according to every man the right to 

 decide in the exercise of his Christian liberty 

 whether or not he will adopt such a rule, this 

 society lays down as the basis on which it rests 

 and from which its work shall be conducted a 

 union and co-operation on equal terms for the 

 promotion of temperance between those who 

 use moderately and those who entirely abstain 

 from intoxicating drinks as beverages." Among 

 the means relied upon by the society for the 

 promotion of its object, besides religious influ- 

 ence and subordination to it, are 1, systematic 

 teaching on the physical, social, and moral evils 

 of intemperance, by means of sermons, lectures, 

 and the press; 2, the formation of diocesan 

 and parochial societies on the general plan of 

 the general society, and in affiliation with it ; 

 3, counter-attractions, including the promotion 

 of coffee-houses, workingmen's benefit socie- 

 ties and associations, reading-rooms, with so- 

 cial gathering for amusement as well as for in- 

 struction; 4, total abstinence from all intoxi- 

 cating beverages, to be urged on the intemper- 

 ate and those under special peril, and to be rec- 

 ommended to the temperate under certain cir- 

 cumstances, and especially to the young, as a 

 safeguard against temptation. 



The seventh Church Congress was held in 

 Providence, Rhode Island, October 25th, 26th, 

 and 27th. The bishop of the diocese presided, 

 and opened the Congress with an inaugural ad- 

 dress. The proceedings of the sessions con- 

 sisted of discussions, previously arranged for, 

 as follows : " Civil Service Reform " papers 

 by the Hon. Charles Gibbons, Joseph Packard, 

 Jr., of Baltimore, Maryland, and Seth Low, 

 Esq., of Brooklyn, New York ; " Methods of 

 Charity Organization " papers by the Rev. S. 

 H. Gurteen, the Rev. S. H. Giesy, and Robert 

 Treat Paine, Esq. ; " The Revision of the King 

 James Version of the New Testament " pa- 

 pers by the Rev. John Cotton Smith, D. D., 

 the Hon. George Lunt, and the Rev. Walter 

 Mitchell; "The Relations of Parishes to the 

 Dioceses and the Dioceses to the General Con- 

 vention, in the Matter of Jurisdiction and Rep- 

 resentation " papers by the Rev. John Henry 

 Hopkins, D. D., the Rev. G. W. Ridgely, and 

 the Rev. A. V. G. Allen, D. D. ; " Liturgical 

 Growth " papers by the Rev. Joseph F. Gar- 

 rison, M. D., the Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D. D., 

 and the Rev. Phillips Brooks, D. D. ; ''Educa- 

 tion of Divinity Students " papers by the Rev. 

 F. 0. Ewen, D. D., the Rev. E. W. Donal, the 

 Rev. Leigh ton Parks, and the Rev. R. B. Fair- 

 bairn, D. D. ; " Spiritual Culture" papers by 

 the Rev. E. L. Stoddard, the Rev. Benjamin 

 Franklin, D.D., and the Rev. J. S. Lindsay. Be- 

 sides the papers, each of the subjects was consid- 

 ered in verbal addresses by " appointed speak- 

 ers," who were followed by volunteer speakers. 



