The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-09-10
LETTER FROM MI. BLANCHARD.

Correspondence Je ffeTsonian.
ONO ANNUAL CONFERENCE.-The
next session of the Ohio Annual Con-
ference will convene at Mt. blanchard,
Ohio, on Tuesday, September 81,
1869, at 10! o'clock a. NJ. The
opening sermon viii he preached by
Rev. j. j. White, President of the
Conference. Subject Church Ex
tension. n. G. OGLEsBY. Sec'y.
EDS. JEFy We have taken the
above notice from the NethOdiss Re
ccroler. published in Springfield, Ohio.
This ecclesiastical body met in our
place eight years ago this fall, just at
the commencement of the war, in the
midst of ''troubious times,n and now
that peace and prosperity so happily
pervades our land, its approaching
session in our town under such favor
able circumstances, is looked forward
to with much interest by our citizens.
The Conference is composed of about
one hundred and twenty members
sixty of these being ministers and
sixty being laymen. Each minister is
accompanied by a lay delegate, who is
elected by the charge of which he Is
a member,-all members of the
church, male AID female, over the age
of twenty one years, having the right
to vote in his election and instruction,
SO that every station, circuit, and
mission is represented in the body by
one of its members, who acts as the
agent of the church, participates in
all the deliberations OF the Conference
by voice and vote, and has a place on
all of its committees, except such as
are strictly ministerial in their charac-
ter and work,
In this church the question of lay
delegation was fully settled Gin the
beginning" Indeed this was the
grand reason for the organization of
the New Church, and the "mutual
rights" of the ministry and laity in
all governmental affairs has been the
distinctive feature of its polity from
then till now. We believe it stands
alone as the advocate and exponent of
"Repubilcan Methodism" in this coun
try, and as such must commend itself
to every liberty loving American citi-
zen.
The church Is comparatively young,
having been born into the world about
the year eighteen hundred and thirty.
Its sponsors--the old "Radicals," as
they were coEtemptuously called
were hardly treated: the sanctuaries
were purged of their presence, and
their very names were 'cast out as
evil.n But these reformers of the
church, such as ShinD, Snetheh, Brown,
Laishley and Evans,--the author of
"Questions and Answers on Church
Government" which was familiarly
called the "blue pill" and "yelloW.
iacket''--with a hardy host of others,
whose names shall be ever worthy of
honorable mention as "among the
mighty men oil old" bravely bore the
brnnt of the battle, and fought and
suffered and sacrificed in religious
revolution for the "Rights of Man.
But, s'the world moVes.n The
times have greatly changed, and truth
| is triumphing. These ''flthers' did
not live nor labor in vain, for now their
names are on the ''Roll of Honor;''
the epithet of reproach has become a
term of renowd, and it is popular to
be Radical To-day the princi.
Piles of ecclesiastical freedom for which
the fathers struggled is moulding
the great mass OF Methodism, and
the leaven of Liberty, which they hid
IN the meal Of sEpissopaeya is slow