METHODISTS. 



395 



ference shall not fall short in any particular of 

 perfect wisdom and righteousness." In answer, 

 Senators Clay and Mason wrote, with the written 

 concurrence of nine-tenths of the members of the 

 Senate, whose names were appended to their letter, 

 that from their personal familiarity with what 

 occurred in the discussions of the Senate con- 

 cerning the matter, and from the subsequent in- 

 vestigation made by the Senate and the resolution 

 which was adopted by the Senate as the result of 

 the investigation, they found the Church not under 

 obligation, either of necessity or of propriety, to 

 return the money which had been paid it. " From 

 our personal knowledge of what occurred at the 

 time of the consideration and the passage of the 

 bill, we are enabled to say that no Senators who 

 voted in favor of the bill thereafter expressed dis- 

 satisfaction because of any act by the Church in 

 securing its passage, or because of any regret on 

 his part that the Church had received the portion 

 of the money which was left after the payment 

 of the commission which was complained of. The 

 dissatisfaction which found expression when the 

 fact of the payment of the large commission be- 

 came known, was not because the Church had re- 

 ceived a part of the money, but because it had 

 not received all of the money. There were ex- 

 pressions by Senators to the effect that if they 

 had known of the contract for the payment of 

 the large commission, they would not have voted 

 for the bill. By this they simply meant that 

 they would have required the bill to be so 

 amended as to secure to the Church the entire 

 amount appropriated, excepting only such an 

 amount as they would consider a proper fee for 

 services rendered." Two reports were presented 

 by the committee to which the subject was re- 

 ferred, that of the majority, which, after criti- 

 cizing the features of the transaction that were 

 objected to, advised that the action of the Senate 

 be taken as a final and definite settlement of the 

 whole matter; while that of the minority re- 

 viewed the proceedings of the Book Committee 

 and their agents in presenting the claim to the 

 Senate, condemned certain statements made by 

 them as " misleading and deceptive," and de- 

 clared that in making those statements their 

 authors " did not properly represent the Church 

 and were not its exponents in the ethical ques- 

 tions involved," and recommended that the entire 

 sum collected, $288,000, be returned to the United 

 States Government. Neither of these reports was 

 satisfactory to the General Conference, and the 

 subject was again referred to a committee which 

 brought in a revised minute. This report held 

 that in view of the record of the action of the 

 Senate and the bishops and of the correspondence 

 just mentioned, " we are unable to see upon what 

 ground there can be based the contention that the 

 Church should make a second offer, and invoke 

 a second refusal from the Government, or any 

 department thereof," and concluded with the 

 resolutions : "1. That the Church distinctly repudi- 

 ates all the acts of concealment, misstatement, or 

 unfairness on the part of any and all persons 

 representing the Church in the prosecution of the 

 claim before Congress, either intentional or other- 

 wise, and whether the same did or did not affect 

 the vote or opinion of any Senator or Repre- 

 sentative. 2. That we indorse the purpose of the 

 bishops in their communication to the United 

 States Senate, and do hereby ratify and confirm 

 their conditional tender of the money, and make 

 their action the act of this General Conference 

 and declarative of the mind of the Church, and 

 that this action be entered on the journal of the 

 General Conference as a final disposition of the 



whole matter." This report and the resolutions 

 were adopted. 



With respect to federation (with the Method- 

 ist Episcopal Church), the General Conference 

 approved and adopted the acts passed by the 

 Joint Commission on Federation of the two 

 Churches at their late session in Baltimore, Md., 

 and recognized those that had also been adopted 

 by the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church as having the force of law. It 

 further declared that it would recognize the other 

 measures as being in force when they should have 

 been adopted by the General Conference of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church. The bishops were 

 authorized to act in concert with the bishops of 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church in the work of 

 preparing a common hymnal for public worship, 

 a common catechism, and a common order of wor- 

 ship. In continuing the Commission on Federa- 

 tion during the coming four years, with the same 

 powers as heretofore, the Conference expressed 

 itself as acting in the confident hope that the 

 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church would in its session of 1904 adopt the 

 action of the joint commission recommending 

 that the General Conference enact provisions to 

 the effect that when either Church is doing the 

 work expected of Methodism in a place, the other 

 Church shall not organize a society or erect a 

 church building until the bishop having jurisdic- 

 tion in the case has been consulted and his ap- 

 proval obtained. Provision was made for the ap- 

 pointment of representatives of the Church to the 

 General Council of the National Federation 

 of Churches to be held in 1905. In view of the 

 movement toward the organic union of the 6 

 Methodist churches in Japan, the Conference ap- 

 proved conditionally of the entrance of its 

 church there into the union, and appointed a 

 commission, with power, to confer with the com- 

 missions of the other churches on the subject.. 

 A commission was appointed with full power to 

 negotiate with the Missionary Society of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church in regard to establish- 

 ing a joint publishing house in China, where this 

 Church already had a publishing house at 

 Shanghai. The sense of the Conference was ex- 

 pressed by resolution that no part of the period- 

 icals published for Sunday-schools should be used 

 for any other purpose than to teach the people 

 the great principles and truths of the Bible; and 

 it therefore directed that no part of those pub- 

 lications should be used for advertising purposes 

 other than relating to the publications and in- 

 stitutions of the Church. By special resolution 

 the address on worldly amusements was con- 

 tinued in its present place in the Appendix of the 

 Discipline of 1902. The Board of Missions was 

 authorized to organize, with the approval of the 

 annual conferences and in cooperation with their 

 boards of missions, a system of city missions; 

 these missions to cooperate in all cases so far as 

 possible with the Church Extension Board and 

 with the Woman's Home Mission Board. The 

 office of deaconess was instituted and placed in 

 connection with the Woman's Home Mission 

 Society. The article adopted on the subject pro- 

 vides that the board of that society shall pre- 

 scribe a course of training for candidates for the 

 office, and shall pass upon the application of 

 persons recommended by the Quarterly Conference 

 for admission to the school ; and shall, upon ap- 

 plication, recommend deaconesses to Church 

 agencies wishing to employ them. Deaconesses, 

 when employed, shall report to the Quarterly Con- 

 ferences of the charges in which they labor, and 

 shall be, as far as is practicable, under the direc- 



