The New York herald., 1872-09-17
THE METHODIST PREACHERS.

TdE METHODIST PREACHERS.
The Ecclssiastical Bummers vindl-
cated-C. @. Leigh ON DIR. Curry and
Local Preachers-What He Thinks OF
the District Conference Scheme and Of
Ittnerants and Fashionable Churches.
The announcement In the HERALD last week that
Rev. @. G. Leigh. local preacher In the Methodist
Church, would vindcate the character of his class
and craft from the aspersi0n cast upon them by Dr.
Curry Of being ecclesiastical bummers caused q
large gathering of ministers and lay preachers yes
terday at sos Broadway. Half O. dozen reporters
present also showed the interest taken
in the subject by the press. After the
devotional exercises had ended Mr.. Leigh
took the stand, and deliberately read tho
travelling preachers lecture which had far
better been left unread. In matter ana
In spirit it manifested hostile and bitter feelings
toward the itinerant ministers body. Mr..
Leigh set out with brief sketch of the organiza-
ton of American Methodism by a local preacher,
Philip Embury, and added that in this city, and
within radius OF ten miles of 1t, sixty Methodist
churches have been organized and built up in whole
or in part by local preachers and as soon as the
organization was complete the ''regulars" stepped
in and turned the 'ocaIsn out Of their own house.
In Brooklyn proper fifteen churches have been Or
ganized in the same way. After .euogizing the
say that tho District Conference plan was c0verty
and openly designed to take away the license OF
ference the right not only to suspend or
fuse to renew the license of local preacher,
put II can n also expei nm m9m yne Meta0dss 6
now in the hands OF the Quarterly Conference. He
deemed it unworthy the land we live in and the
It is a stupendous folly. Dr. Curry, being grieyed
because lie could not keep laymen out Of the Gen.
eral Conference, said the speaker, determined he
would keep them out Of the Methodist pulpit And
he (Mr. Leigh did not know any man 80 capable OF
suc piece Of Jesutica trickery as d. r. me NC
Doctor and his class, aud would to God, T" he added.
''they would 60 to Ritualism or to Romanism, where
they belong" Mr.. Leigh regretted this tendency to
JEsUIrIsM IN THE METHODIST CHURCH,, :,
and feared that the time may come l when tne edi,
spirit OF Jesuitism. ''Can it be possible" he
asked, ''that DR.. Curry is placed at the
% prssa0srs naa to @s TINS GSsT Saana
all classes Of men, from the peer Of the realm to the
peasant the hillside, are licensed to preach the
and build fne churches, richly upholstered place
grand organ and an operate quartet in tfe gallery
and fancy minister ip the n":..pt and then expect
that we haYe d"n5 all that is required. 1t is this
constant effort of Methodists to be like other secta
lnat has lost 1t its ancient power. The minister
comes fresh from the colleges and the seminarieS,
and has no sympathy withthe people, Heis learned
and polished ana becomes grea. 49," III ihoortan' ~
his own eyes, and when he ascends the pulpit he u
monarch Of all he surveys and his right there ia
none to dispute. The present policy OF the MethO-
dist Church denies that there are any GOd-sens
ministers save those who come through colleges
fOrmedla certain class of opinions. In this style
Mr. Leigh continued for threequarters Of an hour,
when
Rev. Mr.. CorrIERE, another local PREACHER from
Brooklyn, took the floor to reply to Mr. Leigh's
TRADE UPON THE TRAVELLING PREACHERS, .ll
and to discaim uron the part OF the great body OF
local preachers in the United States any sympathy
with the views and sentiments contained in Mr.
Leigh's paper; He discarded all the hard names
used by his brother Leigh, and was amazed to
hear him SO bitterly oppose district conferences
DIR. s. d. BROWN, presiding elder, also regretted
that Mr. Leigh should have presented such paper,
because 1t Will exert bad influence. He denied
ALLEVIATE the clergy and the ty Of the Metnodls
Church or to disgrace the local preachers He be-
lleved there was no want OF harmony between the
local and the travelling ministers
Rev. Mr. BARBER, another local preacher rom
Brooklyn, regretted both the words of Mr.. Leigh
do not represent either the spirit the feelings OF
the local preachers and neither are by the author
No brother in the local ranks is afraid Of being ex
PEELED by the District Conference unless he deserves
In ha e ho 20
the word ''bummers, I" used by DR.. Curry. 1t was
an unfortunate word, but yet 1t Is fact that the
local preachers are unOrganzed
HANGERs-oN TO THE REGULAR MINISTRY
Of the Methodist Church, and Or, Curry was right.
Mr.. Barber said that there Is but one Me ethodiSs
mission in Brooklyn, with its population OF 100000
souls, and the policy of moving up town is every
year throwing large districts into the mission field.
What the local preachers want Is some organized
system OF work and the wedding out OF the drones
and 'lOaiers" that are now carried along by the
body. There are q thousand places in New York
and Brooklyn that might be occupied to-day were
there some such organization that provided for
in the District Conference plan
Rev. G. L. TAYLOR explained the military mean
ing of the word ''bummers" )" and said that rightly
understood, 1t was an honor rather than degrade
ton to be one, and he was ready TO hurrah for the
bummers.
DR.. CURRY made a few personal explanations to
his and meaning OF the word as military
phrase, after which, on motion of Mr.. Dickinson,
the subject was continued till next Monday when
some further revelations will be made.