METHODISTS. 



443 



Missionary Society in 1894, $117,559 hatl been paid, 

 while the remainder was provided for by subscrip- 

 tions not yet matured. The publishing house had 

 done a business within the quadrennium aggregat- 

 ing $1,378,858, and afforded a dividend of $60,000 

 for the superannuated preachers. Its plant was 

 out of debt, and was valued at $895,000. A com- 

 mission was instituted to ascertain and report to 

 the next session of the General Conference what is 

 the constitution of the Church, and also, separately, 

 such amendments as they may recommend to ren- 

 der it symmetrical in form and substance, in order 

 that the next General Conference may, if it see fit, 

 send the same around to the several annual Con- 

 ferences for ratification and adoption. Rules were 

 adopted requiring inquiry to be made into the 

 character of candidates for Church membership be- 

 fore they are received ; and that local ministers 

 coining to the Church from other churches be sub- 

 jected to examination, excepting traveling preach- 

 ers from the British Wesleyan and Canadian con- 

 ferences. The sense of the General Conference was 

 expressed, by resolution. " that our Methodism has 

 never recognized or encouraged any such spirit as 

 c-andidacy for the various connectional or other 

 offices of the Church ; that we do hereby enter our 

 serious protest against the publication of any article, 

 either editorial or communication, in any of our 

 Church organs or other Church periodicals, and 

 against any other methods which tend to foster in 

 any measure an unwarranted rivalry for official pre- 

 ferment." A rule was adopted " that any traveling 

 or local preacher who shall hold public religions 

 services within the bounds of any mission, circuit, 

 or station, when requested by the preacher in charge 

 not to hold such services, shall be deemed guilty of 

 imprudent conduct, and shall be dealt with as the 

 law provides in such cases." The Conference ap- 

 proved and adopted the acts passed by the Joint 

 Commission on Federation of the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church, South, and the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, and agreed to recognize them as in force 

 when they shall have been adopted by the General 

 Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

 The committee on this subject was reappointed, 

 with continued power. A committee was appointed 

 to co-operate in preparing a complete doctrinal 

 catechism for both churches, a work in which other 

 Methodist churches were invited to join. Bishop 

 0. P. Fitzgerald was requested to prepare an auto- 

 biographical volume concerning the times in which 

 he had lived and the men of those times. Presid- 

 ing elders were advised to see that missionary in- 

 stitutes be held once a year in their respective dis- 

 tricts ; that each one of them preach at least one 

 sermon a year on missions in each of the charges of 

 his district ; and that at least one missionary meet- 

 ing be held in each charge during the year. An 

 attempt was decided upon -to raise $1,500,000 dur- 

 ing the year 1900 for educational purposes ; 76 per 

 cent, of the money raised to be retained by the 

 annual conferences, 18 per cent, to be applied to the 

 theological department of Vanderbilt University, 

 and (5 per cent, to be used as a general fund. Two 

 new bishops were elected, viz., the Rev. Warren 

 A. Chandler, D. D., and the Rev. Henry C. Morrison, 

 D. D, The Conference indorsed the Woman's 

 Christian Temperance Union in all its temper- 

 ance work, and bid it godspeed in all its efforts to 

 extirpate the liquor traffic. The Sabbath resolution 

 reaffirmed the faith of the Conference in the Sab- 

 bath as divinely instituted, and declared the con- 

 viction " that it is unlawful for individuals, corpora- 

 tions, or governments to nullify it or set it aside 

 for gain, convenience, or pleasure, and that we will 

 resist every effort to wrest the day from its legiti- 

 mate place in God's economy and discourage its 



desecration by those who buy and sell, and do ordi- 

 nary work therein, all of which we believe to be 

 contrary to the spirit and letter of God's law ; that 

 we will remain faithful in the observance of the 

 holy Sabbath, and both by word and example tes- 

 tify to its sanctity, and also to its utility as a 

 day of recuperation of body, mind, and spiritual 

 strength." A petition to the President of the 

 United States was approved of, asking him to for- 

 bid the transmission of any mails on Sunday, and 

 to order the closing of all post offices throughout 

 the United States on that day ; or, if not empowered 

 so to do, to ask authority from Congress to order 

 the same. The Book Committee were authorized 

 to established a publishing house in Shanghai, 

 China. 



The book agents reported to the Book Commit- 

 tee for the year ending March 31 that the total 

 business of the publishing house in all departments 

 amounted to $336,804 and the total assets to $898.- 

 858 ; while the liabilities were $3.313, leaving the 

 net capital $895,545. 



The Woman's Parsonage and Home Mission So- 

 ciety reported to the General Conference that since 

 its foundation, ten years previously, 1,735 parson- 

 ages had been built in Southern Methodism, being 

 two thirds of the number accumulated during a 

 whole century prior to its organization. Of this 

 number the society had aided 717. The whole 

 number of parsonages in the Church was 3,765, and 

 their total value was estimated to be $4,193,782. The 

 sending of supplies to the families of preachers in- 

 adequately supported had been systematically car- 

 ried on. The total amount contributed during the 

 quadrennium, in goods and cash, was estimated at 

 $15,948. 



The Board of Missions met at Nashville, Tenn., 

 and appropriated $201,916 for the support of the 

 missions during the year, of which $30,400 were for 

 the Brazil mission : $27.279 for the China mission ; 

 $5,497 for Korea ; $31,536 for Japan ; $46,927 for 

 the mission conferences of Mexico and the Mexican 

 border; $12,948 for the Indian Mission Conference: 

 and the remainder for missionary work in the 

 United States. 



In promoting the passage of a bill through Con- 

 gress awarding the sum of $288,000 to the Book 

 Concern of this Church as compensation for the 

 occupation of the premises of the publication house 

 for military purposes during the civil war, the 

 book agents employed a lobbyist, to whom a con- 

 siderable proportion of the. sum awarded was paid. 

 This was done, as was afterward shown, without 

 consultation with any other officers of the Church, 

 and without the knowledge of the General Confer- 

 ence or of the Church at large ; and the fact that 

 any portion of the money was to be paid to a lobby 

 agent was not communicated to the members of the 

 Senate. The fact was learned, however, after the 

 bill had been passed, and some of the Senators 

 stated on the floor of the Senate that they had voted 

 for the bill under a misapprehension, supposing that 

 the Church was to receive the entire benefit of the 

 award. The case was inquired into by a committee 

 of the Senate, who reported July 8, relating the 

 facts as they had found them, and declaring, in 

 conclusion, that they deemed it proper to state 

 "that no censure should rest upon the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church, South, for the acts of its book 

 agent. The Church has been injured by the mis- 

 conduct of its agents, but for such misconduct it is 

 held utterly blameless. The committee has not 

 thought proper to suggest to the Senate any action 

 concerning the matter, it appearing to the commit- 

 tee that the governing authorities of the Church 

 must be allowed to take such measures as it may 

 think proper after it has been fully acquainted 





