Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-01
TIE COUNCIL.
THE METHODIST EcUMENIcAL COUNCIL
AT LONDON, ENGLAND.
The Great Family Reunion-second Letter
From our Special Correspondent
Doings Of the Council.

tFrom the RECORD UNIONS Special Correspondent
LONDON, September s, 1881.
The great family reunion of the Meth
odists of the world, otherwise known as
the Ecumenical Conference, began its ses-
sions in City-road Chapel Wednesday, Sep
TENDER 7th, and by the time this is read
will not be far from the point of adjourn
ment. Or the day previous the delegates
were entertained at Exeter Hall by the
Religious Tract Society. This gathering,
which was held at 8 A. ~, served the
double purpose of enabling the Society to
advertise the work it is doing and of In
Quoting the delegates of America into the
mysteries and pleasures of " Breakfast
Meeting" an institution peculiarly EE-
glish. Bishop McTyeire, of the, M. +.
Church South, SAID he had contracted
great liking for this form of meeting,
and hoped it would soon be imported,
tariff free, to the United States. Bishop
Simpson, after complimenting the Society,
passed facetious criticism on the break
fast. It was ont of harmony, he said, with
the publications of the Society, for tracts
were small and short, while the meal that
had been provided that morning was dis
tinguished by characteristics the opposite
to these. DIR. Osborn, President of the
British Wesleyan Conference could not let
the occasion pass without slight dip into
Methodist history, of which he is so full
and his reference was exceedingly apt, for
he reminded the Society that John Wesley
was the pioneer in the field of tract litera-
ture, twelve-page publications, for sale at
penny each, having been issued by him
from the Old Foundry nearly hundred
and fifty years publications which
were contemptuously spoken of at the time
as Foundry trash"
THE CONFERENCE
Proper began at 10 A. NJ. the day following.
The building in which it convened was al
together too small for such an assemblage,
but the associations clustering about it as
the old homestead of the Methodist fam
lily marked it as pre- eminently the right
place, and convenience, of course, must be
sacrificed to sentiment. How the ticket
committee could succeed in having the
Church only comfortably filled, not in the
least crowded, at the opening service,
when it is said there were eight thousand
more applicants for tickets of admission
than were supplied, is thing not easy to
make out. But it was DONE and though
rather rough on the outsiders, was by no
means disapproved by those who were for.
tunate enough to get in. The delegates,
numbering 400, and coming from all parts
of the globe, occupied the ground floor of
the Church, while the gallery was given up
wholly to spectators. The British and
Continental representatives sat on one
side of the middle aisle, and those from
the United States and Canada on the other.
Looking over the Conference it was notice.
able at once that nearly all the ministers
on the British side wore the clerical coat
and cravat, but that on the American side
these priestly insignias were the rare ex.
ception. The service was opened by the
reading of the prayers of the Church of
England by DIR. Osborn. The doctor, who
was put forth as the leading representative
of old.world Methodism, is rather portly
gentleman, with iron-gray bushy whiskers,
and form of countenance which is indica-
tive of great depth OF feeling and the pos
Sc sion of considerable oratoIical power.
He read the prayers like one very familiar
regulation book responses were made but
to tell the TRUTH this aping of the Estab-'
Gshed Church at worlds Convention of
Methodists was not relished by the dele.
gates from America Unfortunately, too,
prayers any petition for the President of
The United States.
THE QUEEN
And Prince of Wales were remembered,
but at the opening service poor Garfeld's
name was not once mentioned. The Psalms
appointed for. the day were also read from
the Prayer Book, and these, by their pecu-
liar appropriateness, proved the redeeming
feature of the affair. Hearing read the
words, "The Lord hath chosen Zion to be
habitation for Himself, " and again, the
words, "Behold how good and how pleas
ant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity" it seemed as if the forefathers of
the English Church, when they appointed
these Psalms for the 9TH day of September,
must have had in view the holding on that
day of this identical Ecumenical Confer.
ence. The hymn beginning
Ye servants of God your Master proclaim,
was sung, and after brief extemporaneous
prayer by DIR. Osborn, the pulpit was
taken possession of by Bishop Simpson,
who had been chosen to preach the opening
sermon. The venerable Bishop stood in
the place whence frequently the Founder
of Methodism had dispensed the truth. In
his hand he held a dingy-looking little
book, the old Bible which Wesley used
when preaching on the streets and COM
mons of London. Before him was one of
the most distinguished audiences the
Christian religion ever called together-the
picked men OF all the Methodist bodies of
the world, with the elite of British Method
ism looking down from the galleries. Per-
haps no minister ever had a grander oppor-
tunity to deliver an effective discourse,
and the Bishop was equal to the emergency.
His text was "The words which [ speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
THE SERMON
Demonstrated that the words of Christ, as
recorded in the Bible, though seeming to be
like other words, are really different from
all other words in that there is ife-giv-
ing power in them. For illustrations the
Bishop drew largely from the history of
Methodism. One OF his strongest points was
in showing how the prophetic utterance,
''The judgment shall live by faith," trav-
eled through the centuries till it reached
and converted Luther at Erfurth then
800 years later took hold of Wesley in
Aldersgate street in this city, and from
London went out, as the cardinal doctrine
of Methodism, to evangeiize and save the
world. The Wesleyan revival, the Bishop
said, had saved England at critical period
from becoming what France became. He
had heard Cardinal Manning himself say
that but for Wesley's preaching of the
Catholic ~ doctrine of justification
by faith it was impossible to tell
to what depths of Iinfdelity and vice
this country would have fallen. In ac-
counting for the great success of Meth
odism, Bishop Simpson said it could not be
traced to the power of the sword, for it
had never drawn sword or Lit a martyr
fire; nor to the favor of governments, for
i IL Ill