The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-12-26
Methodist Centenary Conference.
The Methodist Centenary Conference at Bal
imore closed on Wednesday

The Methodist Centenary Conference at Bal
| imore closed on Wednesday
THE PASTORAL
Of the bishops is addressed I the Methodist
people in the United States and Canada" 1t
saws: "Permit Us to remind you, dear breth,
rem, while we extend hearty congratulations
upon the success Of the past and express the
profoundcst conviction that even nObler and
grauder achievements await us III the future,
that the mission given us by proVldentiaI
allotment is not yet accomplished. we
eutreat YOU, brethren, do not forget
that hitherto Methodlsts have been dis
tlnguished by the emphasis they have given
essential doctrines of Christianity. In all the
years of our history truths relating to God, to
moral government, Immortality to etern-
nj retributiOn, have been saCrodly main
tanned and asserted with great distinct.
ness, and that we have held in com
mon with all Christian people to the insPlra-
ton and divine authority of the scriptures, the
divine origin of the church, and the vocation
of the ministry, the value of the sacrament,
and indispensableness of the ~strictest morali-
tv. according to the New Testament standard;
and that beyond all these points, we have made
conspicuous the Nervousness of sin, the neces-
sltv of atonement, the universally of pro-
nounced redemption, freedom Of will, and
pureness of grace. Not one of these can be
discarded or distorted without manning the
scheme IF salvation and revealed Gospel But
even these foundations of truths, however en-
phaslzed, will not meet the demands of the
soul, and never could have produced the phe-
nOmena of Methodist life and history.
THERE r H DOCTRINES
10 be emphasized, doctrines which re-
late to salvation applied as well rs
provided, doctrines which underlie the
experiences Of the soul in its emergence
out of the darkness and death Of sin into the
lpbt oD1 Efa ~ righteousness H'hn CtInr lpn
trines have been the rallying cry of Methodism
i'll the past, and must be in the future. They
are repentance, faith, justification, adoption,
the witness of the Spirit, sanctitiCation and
Christian perfection. Out Of these come all
our experiences, all our joys and hopes, our
inspiration and zeal; and upon these are built
all our special forms and means of grace, our
charities, our benevOlences and our correction
al Institutions. These doctrines, above all
others, have given tone and shape and spirit to
our Organlzat on and determined its work and
place III history. Take from MethOdism these
doctrines of experience, or even the emphasis
given them, or overlap them with ~lfeless forms
and ceremonies, or mar them by human specu-
latlOns concerning the mode of divine proceed
ure in them, or confuse them by any %cOnceiv-
able departure from their simplicity, so they
shall become only doctrines of the creed, I'M
voiced IN the soul as the very essence. Of saliva
ton, and then our glory Is departed forever.
We therefore plead with you, brethren, as you
value the purity of the church and it's power to
convert the people and spread Scriptural holi-
ness, hold fast these doctrines, as they com
from the fathersas they appear in the Script
uTes and as theyhave been attested by the ex-
pericncos OF the church in past ages" The
address urges a maintenance OF family reli-
gion. "The hottest sanctuary on earth, " The
address says, sis the Christian home. Neither
the church nor the Sunday school can do the
work of the home, or become an adequate sub
stltute for the influence of prayer in the house
hold. See to it that your children be all taught
of the Lord with sound instruction. Let a
THE HAN OF RESTRAINT .
be employed, yetwith such firmness and gentle
ness as to win and keep the children, as we'll
as to hold them in subsection to authority"
address speaks of the sabbath as a pillar
of Christian civilization. ga spiritual church
without the Sabbath is an impossibility. God
has consecrated one-seventh of our days to
rest and worship. The law enjoining its OBJ
servanee is both positive and moral, imbedded
in the Decalogue, enforced iii the New Tesla
ment, and interpreted and illustrated in the
practice of the primitive church. The grand
march for the conquest of all lands for Christ
has begun. The voice Of the Lord bids us go
forward We dare not accept a secondary
place. With our schools and colleges, with
wealth and culture, with our social power
and our vast Numbers, We must have o large
share in the worlds evangelization."