Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-04-30
General Conference.

|
about $50 delegates. These will
come from all parts of the country
and some of them from abroad. In
the Methodist Episcopal Church there
are annual conferences to the num-
| Der of Ill. Each of these will be
represented in the General Confer
ence by from one to six ministers
and by one or two individuals from
the laity.
Among the lay delegates are found
governors, judges and others who
are prominent in civil life, including
even few distinguished women, like
Mrs. Angie F. Newman of Nebraska,
Mrs. Mary c. Mind of Minnesota and
Frances q. Willard of the whole
country. This, by the way, will be
the first entry of the good sisters
within the arena of the General Con-
ference, the men having hitherto had
their own 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 constituency. In this new
departure some see the act of tardy
Justice, and others are so enthusiast
tic that they think they see in it al
most the dawning of the millennium.
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
doubtless be a bone of contention
within a few days in the conference
itself. Doubtless, too, this confer
ence, like it's immediate predecessors,
will be asked to license women to
preach and provide for their ordina-
ton, a request to which the church
has always SO far responded 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.
The General Conference is the only
| body in the NJ. Z. church possessing
the power to make or change any of
| it's laws, and considering the numeri-
cal strength of the church, this one
fact accounts abundantly both for
the honor inhering in an election to
that body and for the widespread in
terest felt in it's results. Late statis-
tics place the whole number of tray
cling ministers at over IA, 900, with
nearly 10000 local preachers, while
the total membership falls but little
below two millions. 1t controls also
$4,000 or more Sunday Schools, in
which there are grand aggregate of
people, young and old, amounting to
2,160,214. Add to these items the
additional facts that this church is
raising annually for various purposes
over SO, 100000 that its book con-
Germs did business last year amount
ing to two millions, and that it
touches the masses of the people to
an extent to which, perhaps, no 9th
er Protestant church does, and one
sees. at once, not only the greatness
of the church itself, but the great i'm
portance, also, of the body which has
the right to legislate for it.
The conference will complete ar
rangements for gathering in this
country in 1891 of representatives OF
all the Methodist churches in the
world, a similar body to the famous
Ecumenical Conference which met il
1881 in London.
But the greatest interest will cen
ter in the elections. 1t is not quite
true, as some have said, that the con
! ference will have in its gift sutii
cient number of offices to allow o.
, one or more being conferred upor
each of the 40 delegates; but it il
true, that, if service on boards anC
committees be counted, it will have
nearly enough to allow of such dis
, tribution.
The office of Methodist Bishop il
a very desirable one. The term il
for life, the salary large and the infu
ence tremendous. The Bishops MAKE
, the appointments, and it is moderat
, to say that each Bishop in the NJ. +
, church controls on the average 1000
: preachers and as many churches
= Since the last general conference
. three Bishops have died. By thes
losses the Episcopal force of th
! church has been reduced to II men
and some of these are not robust an.
+ longer. A reasonable prediction
f would place the number of new Bish
4 | OPS dU uOl Ulllu ANSs 90 iAiOI
r. than that would involve radical de
+ parture from all recent presidents.
n One upon whom the lot is not un
i likely to fall is DR.. John I'll. Vincent
!. who four years ago gave Blsho
: Fowler such long and close tussle
. DR.. James King of New York is an
q other probability, as is also DR.. d
9 A. Goodsell of the same city. /
4 the West DIR. Charles H. Payne O
# Ohio Wesleyan University looms u
o as decided probability, being close
# ly followed by Earl Cranston of tn
q Cincinnati Book Concern. In Ne1
h England the tug of war will be be
tween Drs. j. w. Hamilton and
F. Upham, each of whom, in certal
contingencies would stand an exec
N lent chance. Dr. Daniel Dorcheste