Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-05-20
Address of the Bishops.


To the General Conference of the ~ E,
Church, South:
BELOVED BRETHREN would join you
in devout thanksgiving to God that
another quadrennial session of your body
has occurred. Representing as you do,
all parts of our wide field of labor, con-
versant with their conditions and wants,
and invested with authority over the whole
Church, we beg respectfully to remind
you of the importance of prayerful, vigil
ant and impartial attention to the duties of
your delicate and responsible position.
We trust that the subjects which may be
brought before you will be discussed and
decided as in the immediate presence of
God, and with direct reference to the well
fare of the whole Church.
With profound emotion we announce to
you that since your last session our veneer
able and beloved colleague, Joshua Soule,
has departed this life. His death occurred
in Nashville, Tennessee, March 9th, 1867.
in the 87th year of his life, and 10th year
of his itinerant ministry. In many re-
spects Bishop Soule was a remarkable
man. At the time of his death he was,
probably, the oldest travelling preacher in
America, if not in the world and was thus
the connecting link between the Method
ism of Wesley and Asbury and that of the
present day. Throughout his whole min
isterial life he was eminently devoted to
God, ard employed exclusively in the ser
vice of the Church often filing positions
of the highest responsibility and always
honorably and usefully. His mind was
clear and vigorous, his department digni-
fed, and his course was marked by consist
ency, purity and unswerving fidelity to
principle. Whether viewed as man, a
Christian or o minister, or as filling the
highest Office in the Church for forty three
years, his character deserves to be held IN
the highest esteem and his memory to be
perpetuated in the history of the Church.
We devoutiy thank God for such q man,
and for the gifts and grace which rendered
his eventful life SO useful, his declining
years and closing day so beautifully serene,
so sublimely triumphant.
HARMONY AND CHURCH POLICY.
We rejoice also to report that the great
est unity and harmony exists throughout
the whole connection. It has been truly
said 'sMethodists all over the world are
one in doctrine;" SO that however widely
scattered and differing in other respects
they present the popularity Of agreeing
cordially in the great doctrines of Christi
anity, And as the members OF commu-
MON are o unit in faith, so also there is
scarcely any disagreement among them as
| to our Church polity. Their prevalent de-
sire is that both be preserved-the former
intact, the latter, if altered at all, to be
modified so far only as to make it more ef-
fective in accomplishing the original pur-
poses of Methodism. This is seen in the
fact that we have quietly passed what is
Justly regarded in all forms of govern
ment great crisis, in the adoption OF a
new element in our system. We alluded
to the introduction of Lay representation
into the Annual and General Conferences.
This important change in our economy
was not peace offering, rendered neces-
sary for the preservation of the unity and
peace of the church from the attacks of a
dissatisfied and refractory membership,
but was proposed and effected by the near,
~ unanimous voice OF the ministry, and
the acouiescence of the laity, both be-
lieving that the time had sally come when
it would enhance the effectiveness OF the
church and the glory of Christ.
In attestation of the approval OF the
| whole Church of the measure, we are
| gratified to see in this body 80 large a
number OF lay delegates. representing the