The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-04-26
QVADREHNTAL SESSION
OF the General Conference Of
the Methodist Church,
SOON TO MEET IN NEW YORK.
Forecast of the Work to be Accom-
pIished by the Great Body-can-
didates for Vacant Bishoprics.
A Notable Meeting.

: pIished by the Great Body-Can-
didates for Vacant Bishoprics.
A Notable Meeting.
Special Correspondence Of H.e IateligAeG.
NEW YoRE, April 24.-The Genera
: Conference Of the Methodist Episcopa
, church, which meets quadrennially, vii
convene in this city on the lst Of Ma!
for its twenty.fifth session. It met foul
years ago in Philadelphia, and in 1881
Cincinnati was the favored place. Tht
local arrangements are unusually elab
crate. The Metropolitan Opera Houst
: on Broadway will be the scene OF the
gathering, and the elegant hotels in tha
select neighborhood will shelter most o
. the delegates. The cost OF the building
has been provided for by the sale Of thu
eighty.four private boxes 1t contains
Each of these accommodates from six t.
i. ten persons, and the price for each dur
ing the month the body will be in ses
sion has ranged from $50 to 500. The
Conference proper will occupy the par
uuet, and there will still remain about
1900 seats which will be open to the
public. This is admirable, and with the
exception of those who think that q
church which condemns theatrical per
formances ought not to use an opera
house for the transaction of its most i'm
portant business, all will no doubt be
satisfied and happy.
ITS COMPOSITION.
The Conference will consist of about
$50 delegates. These will come from all
parts OF the country and some OF them
from abroad. In the NJ. f. Church
there are Annual Conferences to the
number OF one hundred and eleven.
Each of these will be represented in the
General Conference by from one TO six
ministers and by one or two individuals
| from the iaity. The Conference which
sends two or more clergymen sends two
laymen-never more than that number,
while il only one minister goes, but one
layman can be sent. Among the minis
tiers the ratio OF representation is one
delegate for every % members OF each
Annual Conference, and one for every
fraction OF two-thirds that number.
Formerly it was one for every thirty,
but that made the General Conference
too large. Many think it is still too
large, and the Bishops, during this
quadrennium, have submitted to the
Annual Conferences proposition to re-
duce it. This, however, has met IN en-
phatic negative, largely, no doubt, be-
cause so many aspire to be elected to
that body. Nor are the ministers to be
blamed very much, for it is undeniably q
great honor to go as delegate to Cen
eral Conference, not to speak OF the ad-
vantage it is in making other dignities
possible.
"THE WOMAN IN THE CASE"
Among the lay delegates are found
Governors, Judges, and others who are
prominent in civil life, including even a
few distinguished women, like Mrs.
Angie F. Newman, of Nebraska, Mrs.
Mary G. Mind, of Minnesota, and Fran
ces G. Willard, OF the whole country.
This, by the way, will be the first entry
of the good sisters within the arena Of
the General Conference, the male spe-
cies having hitherto had their own
sweet way there, none daring to make
them afraid, so to speak. This, too, in
spite OF the fact that women constitute
so large majority OF the Church's con-
stituency. In this new departure some
| -. - n,k 80 tordHy iy1s@;na onI otbnVsa
are so enthusiastic that they think they
see in it almost the dawning OF the mil
lenium. But the cooler heads, led by
DR.. Buckley, say these women have no
right in that body, and will not be al-
lowed there. The matter has already
excited long and. heated discussion in
the Methodist press, and it will doubt
less be bone OF contention within u
few days in the Conference itself.
Doubtless, too, this Conference, like its
immediate predecessors, will be asked
to license women to preach and to pro-
vide for their ordination, request to
which the Church has always so far re-
sponded in the negative. Thus "the
woman in the CASE will be conspicuous
early and often, and the promise is that,
as usual, she will make things lively.
INTERESTING STATISTICS.
The General Conference is the only
body in the NJ. E. Church possessing the
power to make or change any OF its laws,
and considering the numerical strength
of the church, this one fact accounts
abundantly both for the honor inhering
in IN election to that body and for the
wide spread interest felt in its results.
Late statistics place the whole number
OF travelling ministers at over 1900,
with nearly 1900 local preachers, while
the total membership falls but little be-
low 100000. 1t controls also 23,000 or
more Sunday Schools, in which there
are grand aggregate OF people, young
and Old, amounting to 2,l6O,2i4. Add to
these items the additional facts that this
Church is raising annually for various
purposes over $40, 900, 900; that its Book
Concerns did a business last year
amounting to 100000, and that it
touches the masses OF the people to an ex.
tent to which, perhaps, no other Protest
ant Church does, ndone sees ut once, not
I only the greatness OF the Church itself,
but the great Importance, also, Of the
body which has the sole right TO legislate
for It. Usually, though, notwithstand-
ing the great power inhering in it, the
general Conference is exceedingly delib-
crate and very slow to make changes. 1t
looks, sometimes, Just before the body
convenes, as though it might so trans
form the organism OF the Church as to
render it unrecognizable by even its
Oldest friends. The coming Conference
would certainly do this II it adopted all
the suggestions volunteered by cor
respondents in the Church press, and il
would not fall very far short Of doing il
J. should itact fayorlbly upon all the prop
ositions that will be made in due time
by its own members. 1t is safe to pre-
dict, however, that this gathering will
be little less conservative II any, than il
predecessors have been and that the old
ship will emerge from the forensic TEN.
pests lying before her, not at all dam.
aged, and with very little alteration in
her rigging.