The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-18
METHODISTS AT BALTIMORE.
All Indications Point to a Closer Union
Of the Churches North and South.
Views of Prominent Southern Delegates On
this QueStiOn-HOw Shall the Masses
Of the People Be Evangelical?

HFNNN' ~ nv phAhu
BALTIMORE, Nd, Dec. 16.-In another day
the great Centennial Conference of American
Methodism will have reached its end. The last
service will be a centennial love-feast, which, it
may be safely predicted, will wind up IN what
Methodists would call "a blaze of glory Tho
old men will weep and shout over the triumphe
of the past, while the younger delegates will be
thrilled with lofty hopes for the future, and as
hands clasp for the last time in sad and tender
parting, there will be a hallelujah tune all
around. In watching the proceedings the mind
of your correspondent has been occupied largely
with one thought, one query. viz: Will the two
leading bodies who have taken part-the NJ. e.
Church and the NJ. E. Church South-whieh
were divided just forty years ago, ever be united
again in organic union, and if so, how soonf
The fact that these two bodies were willing to
sit side by side was in itself a bright
augury. Ten years ago this could not have
been. But they were ready in this centennial
year to hold counsel together, and
in the most friendly spirit they have done so,
the results being that they know each other bet
ter, are less jealous of each other, have each q
better appreciation of the work which the othen
is doing, as well as the motives which have con-
trolled their divergent history in the years Of
separation, and that, consequently, there is a
truer and deeper fraternity existing between
them, both as individuals and as churches. But
there may be fraternity without union in form,
or if fraternity must finally lead to union, itmay
not do so for years. Upon this question your
readers must draw their own differences FROM
the following interviews with leading delegates
from the Church South:
Rev. DR.. Marshall. of Mississippi, was a dele
gate to the London Ecumenical Conference, and
was the chief actor there in a spectacular scene
in which the Southern Church stretched out its
nand metaphorically to the negro race in the
person of Dr.. j. G. Price, who, in speaking Of
the new freedom which the negroes enjoyed,
had reused the feelings of that assembly to fever
heat by an eloquent eulogy of the white Method
lists in the Southern States. DR.. Marshall is one
of the most liberal old men from his side of tie
line. In answer to several Undergraduates on
the subject, he said that he believed
that a union in some form would o-
cur finally, but thought it would come
by slow degrees. The first thing, he judged,
would be the adoption of a common hymnal, q
measure which he had advocated for twenty
years. Then, possibly, he thought, the bishops
of the two churches would interchange in presid-
ing over the annual conferences. Then, as the
next step, there would probably be a liberal in
terchange of preachers between the twos~ sections,
and at last, very likely, the virtual union Of the
two bodies, with separate administrations in two
or more general conferences.
DR.. c. B. Galloway is editor of the New Or
leans Christian Advocate. He is a young man
of gentlemanly instincts, we'll qualified to speak
Go, +I,a vo,or A ~ ar;o, of +ba Coutboro Ob,,no1,
both from his superior gifts and by reason of his
official position. His remarks were pointed and
frank. "All the tendencies" he said, point to-
a closer union, and, no doubt, before a great
many years the churches will be virtually one.
The young ministers of the South can't live on
memories. Still, no formal action would hasten
the union, and such action might retard it"
The ablest editor in the Church South, and
one of the ablest in the country, is DR.. o. P.
Fitzgerald, of the Nashville Advocate. The Doc
tor is a great class-meeting man, and a great be-
lever in growth in grace, in contradistinction
from the idea held by some Methodists
that you can jump at once into per-
lection. He is also a profound believer
in the growth of the union sentiment
between the two churches, and is himself. in
fact, an illustration of this doctrine, as the writer
knows, from a comparison between the inter
view had with him a few days ago, and one on
the same subject some years previously. His
progress, however, was indicated less in what
he said than in how he said it, and in the in
creased geniality of feeling displayed while the
matter was under consideration.
well, said the Doctor, as 1 buttonholed him
in the lobby of the church, ''the spirit of unity
iS orovvipp Wa muet wait for tho diviDa ;nJs-
cations and follow them. The separation of the
two churches was divinely ordered, Had the
Southern men in 1874 indorsed the action Of
the conference in regard to Bishop Andrew and
his slaves, Methodism could have done nothing
in the South. AS in the past, so in the future,
God must lead ns,
Rev. DR.. Hendrix is the efficient president Of
one of the colleges of the Church South, aud q
man who stands an excellent chance of being
struck ere long with the lightning that darts
around when new bishops are wanted. 1.-THE
question of organic union" said he, lis one, of
such gravity that it should be let alone. l am
opposed to any action by this conference. 1 will
say, however, that the sentiment among our
people is generally favorable to it, with perhaps
no more exceptions that in the M. E.. Church.
Methodists, too, you may say, are nearef
together North and South than any of the
other bodies that split on slavery"
THE SOUTHERN LAY DELEGATES.
Among the lay delegates from the Southern
Church 1 interviewed Congressman Robert B.
Vance, of North Carolina, a brother to Senator
Vance. The Senator is a Presbyterian, and one
of his standing witticisms with reference to the
congressman is that, as he expresses it, bob be-
lieves in falling from grace, and don't, and I
don't believe in it, and do" Mr.. Vance did not
commit himself very extensively, nor very defn-
itely. The tendency, he thought, was constantly
toward a closer union. though perhaps not tow
ard organic union. That the churches would
co operate in their work in the near future he