METHODISTS. 



483 



ence "reaffirm the doctrine of the fathers of 

 our Church that the bishopric is not an order 

 but an office, and that in orders a bishop is 

 merely an elder or presbyter." A rubric was 

 also directed to be prefixed to the order for the 

 consecration of bishops, declaring that "this 

 service is not to be understood as an ordina- 

 tion to an advanced grade in the Christian 

 ministry beyond and above that of elders or 

 presbyters, but as a solemn and fitting conse- 

 cration to the special and most sacred duties 

 of superintending in the Church." 



Various efforts were made to extend the 

 number of years in which a minister may suc- 

 cessively be appointed to the same pastoral 

 charge, but the Conference refused to change 

 the present rule, which limits the term of 

 service at one place, except in the case of mis- 

 sions (among which is included, as to this 

 point, the Germany and Switzerland Confer- 

 eace), presidencies and professorships in educa- 

 tional institutions, and the administrative of- 

 fices of the Church, to three years. A minute 

 was adopted declaring that direct negotiations 

 between pastors and churches in advance of 

 the making of the appointments by the bishop 

 are contrary to the spirit of the itinerent min- 

 istry, and subversive of the ecclesiastical polity 

 of the Church, and as such should be discour- 

 aged by the bishops, pastors, and people. It 

 was decided to be inexpedient to take action 

 on the subjects of licensing women to exhort 

 and preach, and of ordaining women. The 

 Conference, by resolution, declared " the policy 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Church to be, that 

 no member of any society within the Church 

 shall be excluded from public worship in any 

 and every edifice of the denomination, and no 

 student shall be excluded from instruction in 

 any and every school under the supervision of 

 the Church, because of race, color, or previous 

 condition of servitude." It also declared that 

 color -is no bar to any right or privilege of 

 office or membership in the Church, and that 

 the propriety is recognized of such administra- 

 tion as secures the largest concession to in- 

 dividual preferences on all questions involving 

 the merely social relations of members. Pro- 

 vision was made for the organization of the 

 missions in Japan, Mexico, and Denmark (con- 

 ditionally), into annual conferences, and for the 

 construction of three conferences out of the 

 existing two bodies of that class in India, if 

 that should be deemed desirable. The order 

 of words in a portion of the baptismal service 

 was changed from "immersion, sprinkling, or 

 pouring," to "sprinkling, pouring, or immer- 

 sion." The General Missionary Committee was 

 advised to consider the subject of establishing 

 evangelizing agencies among the Roman Cath- 

 olic population of the country. The Confer- 

 ence was asked to give a definition of the doc- 

 trine of sanctification, but, while it reiterated a 

 steadfast adherence to the belief, it declared 

 it not within its province to give specific and 

 authoritative deliverance upon any one of the 



fundamental doctrines of the Church. A rul- 

 ing, which had been made by one of the 

 bishops, that the ordination of a Roman Cath- 

 olic priest could not be recognized in constitut- 

 ing him an elder in this Church, was sustained. 

 The rule requiring young preachers to advise 

 with their brethren before taking steps toward 

 marriage, was repealed. A proposition to 

 change the ratio of ministerial representation 

 in the General Conference to one delegate for 

 every forty-five members of the Annual Confer- 

 ence, was adopted for submission to the mem- 

 bers of the annual conferences. To become 

 valid, it must receive the assent of three fourths 

 of those members. A resolution on the subject 

 of divorce declares that "no divorce shall be 

 recognized as lawful by the Church, except for 

 adultery, and no minister shall solemnize mar- 

 riage in any case where there is a divorced wife 

 or husband living ; but this rule shall not apply 

 to the innocent party, in the case of a divorce 

 for the cause of adultery, nor to divorced parties 

 seeking to be reunited in marriage." The pro- 

 priety of the enactment of uniform codes of 

 divorce, and of reducing the number of causes 

 therefor, was commended to the governments 

 of the several States. The report on temper- 

 ance urged the people of the Church to use 

 their influence to banish the social glass from 

 society ; recommended the formation of juve- 

 nile temperance societies in Sunday-schools, and 

 that there be one temperance lesson each quar- 

 tern the Sunday-school series; that the doc- 

 trine of constitutional prohibition be taught in 

 all the schools and colleges; and declared 

 complete prohibition of the liquor-traffic to be 

 the duty of civil government, and that the 

 people ought not to allow themselves to be 

 controlled by party organizations managed in 

 the interests of the liquor-traffic. The pursuit 

 of ordinary business or labor on Sunday, all 

 unnecessary travel, the buying and reading of 

 Sunday papers, and all forms of pleasure-taking 

 on that day, were condemned ; and the atten- 

 tion of all to whom is committed the care and 

 training of youth, in the family and in the 

 school, was directed to the danger to the 

 tastes, the minds, and the morals of their 

 wards arising from the general circulation of 

 sensational and pernicious literature. 



Church Extension. The General Committee 

 of Church Extension met in Philadelphia, No- 

 vember 13, Bishop Bowman presiding. The 

 treasurer reported that the available resources 

 of the society for the year, which included a 

 balance of $104,599 from the previous year, 

 and $222,990 of current receipts, had been 

 $327,584. The disbursements for the year 

 had been : On general account, donations, etc., 

 $141,265; on loan fund (loans to churches, 

 $116,254; invested in marketable securities, 

 $70,000), $186,254; in all, $327,519. Four 

 hundred and eighty-three churches had been 

 aided by donations or loans, or by both, or forty- 

 one churches more than had been aided during 

 the previous fiscal year. Grants had been made 



