Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-05-23
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Christian FeIIovship. 81 ID. f'a aI
At the General Conference Of the hethoT
dist Church. now in session at Buhalo, me-
MORALS numerousiy signed and representing
about seventy-eight thousand members Of
Methodist Churches in England, were pre-
sentea entreating The General Qonferenec 70
no longer tolerate the enormous crime of
laye-holding in the Methodist Church. The
Conference rejected these memorials by an
overwhelming vote. The reasons for this
summary action, as stated by the speakers,
were that the British Methodists had better
attend to their own business, and the Ameri-
cans were competent to regulate their own
domestic Institutions besides, they said' the
British introduced this institution among u.s.
and therefore II did not look well for them to
be meddling with il now
Il is TO be lamented that the reluctance OF
the Conference TO take sound position on
slavery. as a Bible ordinance should draw
them into an attitude toward their brethren
in England which is entirely untenable, and
which, if carried out, would strike the foun-
dation from the great benevolent enterprises
of the day. Is Christian brotherhood to be
limited by nationality, and must it, like the
witches at the tail Of Tam O'Shanters mare
never dare to cross the water2 II looks
rather ominous TO see qualities peculiar to
evil spirits introduced into the practice of
the Church.
Really, this seems little different from the
command of Christ" Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every crea-
ture." If this is to be the established rule of
the Methodist Church, where can it stop,
short of a cessation of all effort for the saliva
ton of mankind2 1t strikes at the root
of all our missionary efforts. viii
not the Pottawottomies retort upon
the Christian missionaries that Pottawotto-
mics can manage Pottawotomie ? Our mis-
sonaries have usually thought that some
change in the lives of their hesthen converts
was necessary, to make them bright and shin
ing lights to the world. They have put many
of their converts to sore grief by denouncing
polygamy and compelling them to put away
their wives. In some instances old women,
who had raised family of children without
a thought that the relation was improper,
were obliged to leave their husbands and set
up anew in the world, in widowhood, because
the missionaries taught that one wife was al
that a man could go TO Heaven with-the rules
having been made considerably more strict
since Abraham, Isaac, Jacob David and Solo
mon and others went in. 1t was q remarka-
BILE instance of presence of mind under sore
trial, that in these cases, the younger
wife was always retained, leaving the old and
infirm to shift for themselves But win not
the heather answer the missionaries who de-
nounce polygamy, that they are competent
TO manage their own domestic institutionsl
Will not the cannibals retort upon the mis-
sonaries who interfere with their peculiai
appetite, that they are abundantly competent
to regulate their own diet? . =,
This rule is quite different from that of st
Paul. If he had practiced it, Christianit,
might have been yet struggling in obscurity
and but for that remarkable voyage of his
during which he established the Christiai
Church in England, there might not at thi
moment have been any Methodists in Eng
land to interfere with our affairs. Hearin
that the Church at Corinth was abusing tn
gospel liberty opractice fornication, he wrot
to them, sharply reproving them for it, an
also gave them much advice in regard t
marriage and the treatment of widows. w
do not learn that the Corinthians answered
Paul that the Corinthians were competent +
take care of Corinth, and that they shoul
regulate their domestic institutions in thei
own way.
1t seems to us that the lesson taught
the collection of animals which was let dow
in such an unusual manner before Peter, ws
quite the opposite of this position of ,th
General Conference; and if the rule is el
tablished that it is improper to extend rel
gious effort into other notions, we do not SC
why it is not equally so to extend it int
other families, which were the foundation
nations; and so to individuals. We are col
fdent that when the General Copieren,
comes to consider the sequences of this rp
of exclusion, it will reconsider its postio
and not be driven to one so fatal to all re-
gious and benevolent enterprises, by its 7
luctance to recognize slavery as an ordinan
established by an abundance of the me
comforting precepts and, examples in ,Seri
ture. ...-.-n.r
Let the Conference put itself on the IT,
ground, and IL can easily put down THIS Br
ish anti-slavery heresy with the Bible. Wh
right have they TO ask us to remit the cur
which Noah pronounced on Canaan for Han
parental irreverence? But to declare slave
a sin, as the Conference) has done, and tn
to allow it in the church, places it in po
tion entirely untenable; and then to decls
that the British brethren have no right
advise US in regard to our sins, only sho
how every step plunges us deeper into erl
when we start wrong.
AAl The esChampionship.
The energies of England at this time se
to be fully employed in an effort TO prev
Heanan from Meeting Savers again. Thre