The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-05-27
METHODIST GENERAL CONFERENCE.
Seventeenth Day-Friday.

seventeenth Day-frliay.
The Conference was called to order at
Q o'clock, Bishop Harris, and afterwards
Bishop James, presiding.
Rev. J. W. Adams, of New Hampshire,
offered a resolution recommending Il change
in the Discipline of the Church, so that
members renting their houses for saloons
may be tried by an ecclesiastical court for
immoral conduct.
Under the rules the resolution was laid
over for one day.
The special committee appointed to con-
fer and report as to the best means of bring
ing about satisfactory relations between the
Methodist Episcopal Churches North and
South reported, recommending that com
mission be appointed consisting of three
ministers and two laymen, who shall meet
the same number from the Southern Church
in order to try and adjust all existing diff
culties.
On motion, the report was unanimously
adopted.
The order of the day, the election of an
additional Corresponding Secretary of the
Missionary Society, was then taken up.
DR.. Cummings expressed thanks for the
votes he had received the previous day, but
in view of the circumstances he wished to
withdraw from the nomination.
Rev. A. G. George moved that John NJ.
Reid be elected by reclamation.
On the vote being taken number Of
members voted to the contrary, but the
Chair, without recognizing the fact de
cided that DR.. Reid had been elected
A discussion followed on this point, and
it was at last decided that by common con
sent there should be no record made of the
vote that had been taken.
n y,nl 20 hlro,x
his name, but the Chair ruled that it was
too late.
The vote was next announced as follows:
Total number of votes cast, 319; necessary
to choice, 100. OF these John NJ. Reid
received 23S. and was declared duly elected
Messrs. Reuben Nelson and Luke Hitch
cock were elected Treasurer and Assistant
Treasurer of the Missionary Society by
reclamation.
Rev. DR.. Loury said that all the other
delegates, who had visited the Conference
from over the seas and beyond the lakes,
had been, so to speak, part of themselves
and of their own circle; but that now he
had the pleasure of introducing a gentle
man connected with a sister Church, a man
of natural gifts and scholarly attainments,
BISHOP CUMMINGS,
of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
Bishop Cummings, in responding, said
he represented the youngest and the small
est of the Christian Churches, but church
which was founded on the same rock AS the
Methodist Church. 1t had been said that
John Wesley was a high churchman and
ritualist but whatever he might be. he was
at least the first reformed Episcopalian.
The principles of the two churches were
A. tb,t Shn t,)I
obey God rather than man. They were
loyal to Christ rather than rubrics, and
John Wesley, in defiance of canons, went
out to the plains and the DOWNS the streets
and the alleys, and preached a gospel of
purity and love. They, the Reformed Epis
copal Church, went out from the parent
church because they were compelled to
close their pulpits to Methodist ministers,
and debar them from taking part in their
communion. The purity of the clergy, the
equality of Bishops and presbyters was
their principle. They believed a Bishop
was only Presbyter presiding as Bishop,
and they were entirely in accord with the
Methodist prayer book, if he might call it
so, in that they had struck out every thing
relating to sacerdotalism, baptismal regen-
Grafton, absolution and priesthood. The
baseless fiction of apostolic succession they
also had protested against, anu ii Metnou-
ism has done nothing else than demonstrate
the worthless character Of this dogma it
would have done good service to the cause
of Christ Without this doctrine, we have
been told, there can be no church and no
grace but the Methodist Church which is
out of this succession, has done all the
work the Holy Ghost could do The cease
less conversion of souls, the building up of
Christian character, the girdling of the
globe with truth, the filling of the world
with missions has been done by that church;
so that on every land on which the sun
shines and every shore on which the sea
beats, the true apostolic power has fallen.
But the coming glory of Methodsm is that
it is preached to the poor. He should be
sorry to see her system changed and hoped
she would keep to her civil polty; it had
been tried for one hundred years and pros
pered, and the church of the future would
be the church Of the poor. Applause.
A resolution of greeting to Bishop Cum
mings was unanimously adopted.
Eighteenth Day-Saturday.