Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1867-08-14
N. &. Church Quarterly Conference
Resolutions.
PASSED AT MILLS RIVER CHAPEL, HENDERSON
VILE CIRCUIT.

WILLIE LlhJJlI.
WHEREAS, The Lord has gloriouslv omen.
ed the way for building up the waste places
formed in our blessed Methodism by seces.
sion and slavery; and, whereas, the Church.
es that we and our fathers helped to build
nave been virtually closed against us; and
whereas, we have been greatly prosecuted
and misrepresented in the corrupt, disloyal
public press Of the country. In that they
have called us political agitators, negro
worshippers, evolves in Sleeps clothing,
''horse thieves" and many other hard and
unchristian names therefore,
RESOLVED, That we do not think that our
equitable right to use the churches built for
the uses Of Methodism is DESTROYED by the
ways true and loyal, Methodist Church
that this position is strengthened by the
fact that the NJ. E.Church, South, had Ia.
ken such position on the subject of loyal
ty and slavery, as amounted to departure
from Methodism itself, in these two partic-
Hlarss that is. from Methodism, as it was
when first organized as a Church in Ameri-
ca.
Resozrea, That the design of the M. E.
| Church in forming conferences in these con-
quered States, is not political one, but
rather the carrying out Of her great mis-
sion, that of spreading scriptural holiness
over these lands.
ResOlUed, That our name is not the
Church North, or Northern NJ. E. Church,
as we have been called and it seems to us
that every intelligent reading man ought to
have known that fact Our Church is not
sectional, therefore she wears no sectional
name
ResoEUed, That the NJ e. Church was not
an abolition church, yet her record shows
that her laws, her pulpit and her literature
have always opposed slavery as an evil +;
her position on that subject was prudent
and conservative.
ResolUed, That she does now most fully
recognize the hand of Providence in the
overthrow of slavery and that if the NJ. z.
Church South would do the same thing, a
great barrier, now standing in the way of
the reunion of the too long divided Meth
odist families, would be thereby removed
ReSoLUed, That it is a matter of undenia-
BILE history that the troubles and divisions
of our suffering land were greatly increased
and hurried on by the unfortunate divisions
that accrued among the leading Churches
in the United States. beginning with the
secession Of the M. e. Church in the year
1874. fttF
ResolUed That there ought to be in these
American States, extending from the At
lantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to
the Gull, but one Methodist Church, and
that we will labor as earnestly for that re-
suit now, as we would have done had we
remained In the Church South
Resolved, That the NJ, E. Church is more
like what the Wesleys designed that Meth
odism should be, than any other Church in
America, also, that she is as true to Meth
odism as any Church in the world
Resolved, That the record of our old moth
er Church, the parent of all the branches of
the name in America, with reference to her
loyalty on the subject of slavery, and espe-
eially in what she has done, and is doing to
evangelize the world, is well calculated to
win for her the admiration and esteem of
the whole Christian world.
RESOLVED, That we will ever hereafter en-
deavor to impress upon the minds of the
masses of the people, with the fact that
union among. the Methodists can only be
effected by vigorously pushing forward the
great work of recognizing and rebuild
ing conferences, districts, circuits and sta
tons, which the Lord has so far so signally
crowned with success among us.
Signed in behalf of the Conference by
F. NJ. TANNING, P. r.
T. F. BIRD, Sec'y.
Mills River Chapel, July II, 1867,