Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-11-25
The Methodist Churches.

ernment and mode of worship are
| identical. Now that the original
cause of the division of the church has
passed away, there seems to be
no reason why the two branches
should not be reconciled and dwell to-
gether i'm unity If, as some say,
"the territory is too large and the
great body too numerous to be con-
| trolled by one general conference"
there is no reason why they could not
form q general conference North and
one South, and, if need be, form Pa
cific General Conference. These gen.
eral divisions could form an alliance
| and thus become a unit. Transfers
could be made from one division to
| another to suit the convenience of
ministers and members. TO an out
slider there seems to be many reasons
why this should be done. "In union
| there is strength United we stand,
divided we fall" are old adages of
great significance, but these are only
human expressions of divine truth
"a house divided against itself cannot
stand" The churches may object and
say they are not divided against each
other, but are only working under
separate organizations to accomplish
the same end. How much unity of
spirit there may be we have no means
of knowing. The laity of the two
churches in this city are social, pleas
ant, visit each other and seem to be
happy together, and we imagine they
could all be gathered into one fold and
worship together in the bonds of peace
and Christian fellowship. The mis-
sion of Christ was to reconcile the
world unto Himself, and surely if these
members, having the same faith and
same church government, are recon-
ciled to Christ and have His spirit,
they must of necessity be reconciled to
each other. Again, while the world
is beginning to acknowledge the ne
cessity for the establishment of
churches of different forms of church
government and differing in some
minor points of doctrine, so that
every man may find church to suit
his own views and thus be left with
ont avouca fhav oo ~ caa NO naoaCc;txy
for the division of a church holding
the same form of government and
teaching precisely the same doctrines.
However potent the reasons may have
been on the Eastern side of this cont
nent when sectional bitterness made
the anti-slavery party intolerant and
the pro-slayery party stubborn, these
things have passed away there, and
never have influenced the people on
| this coast to any great extent, and we
shall be glad to see all traces of this
old feud forever banished from the
minds and hearts of all the American
| people, saint and sinner. The Meth
odist church was the first organiZa-
ton on the continent that was severed
| by this old disruptive spirit, after
which many other organizations were
| severed, and the government itself
was shaken to its center by it,. The
| government and all other OrganiZa-
tions now stand intact, with stronger
bond of union than ever before, while
the Methodist church alone still pre-
sents the sad spectacle of severed
body. We do not believe the mem
bership of the two divisions are seri-
ously divided, and if their voice could
be Heard an overwhelming majority
would say, "Let us be one people,"
| Then we must throw the blame of this
continued division where it justly be-
longs--upon the shoulders of the min
istry. And let us say to those good
men that they are doing the cause of
their Master, and the government un.
der which they live, great harm by
Keeping up strife between their
brethren, which they could so easily
heal by coming together with the
spirit of their Master and settle all
those disturbing elements. We hope
the end of this century will not find a
divided organization on this conti-
| nent There ara n score Of min
listers on this coast being starved to
death by this division. In every little
town there are two little. churches,
two poor congregations and two half
starved ministers, and it is so all over
the country. Outsiders do not fancy
a union with such churches. These
things ought not so to be. Bishop
KAvANAUGH, of the Southern church,
is now in this city, and we are in
formed that he will preach Thanks
giving sermon in Trinity church on
to-day at III O'clock A. NJ. The
Bishop is beloved by all who know
him = North and South, East and
West. 1t would be pleasant to see all
the Methodists of the city, together
with all the christians and all the sim
ners, meet and worship together on
that occasion. Let the great union
begin here, on the Southwest corner
| Of the continent. ksfr