The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-04-04
NEWARK CONFERENCE.
The Thirty-Second Annual
Convention of Method
lists at P1ainfield.
ATTENDANCE VERY LARGE.
Organization Effected, and All Ready
for the Sessions Work.
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lVl iilo ptSStOuS 3 W0Tks
Especial to the Jersey City Nssrs1
PLAINF1ELD, April 4, sS9.-The thirty.
second annual session Of the Newark Com
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church
opened in Plantield yesterday morning,
in the Methodist Church on Front street.
The meeting was more fully attended
than any ever was before
There were only thirty-flve absentees at
the opening, and most of them have since
put in an appearance. There are 227 MEM
bers of the Conference beside the Presid-
ing Bishop, the Rev. DR.. S. M Merrill, and
his cabinet, the Rev. DR.. A. L. Brice, the
Rev. DIR. d. r. Lowrie, the Rev. DR.. S.
Van Benschoren and the Rev. DR.. s. P.
Hammond. These four gentlemen are
sometimes called Presiding Elders, but are
really the Bishops cabinet.
The ceremonies began with the sacrar
ment of the Last Supper, administered by
Bishop Merrill, assisted by his guest,
Bishop Fitzgerald, and the Presiding
Elders.
Then Mr.. James McGee, layman Of
the Plainfield church, made an address Of
welcome to the Conference. He welcomed
the Conference as q body, and the
members as individuals and said that
he spoke on behalf of Plainfield, of the
churches and of the people. He remarked
that tWenty-One years had gone by since
the Conference had met in Plainfield, and
remembered that at the Conference then,
lady, who was still alive, got up to
speak, but was stopped by preacher,
also still alive, who told her that women
should not speak in meeting He saw, he
said, that the Conference had made no
progress from that standpoint even yet.
This speech took the Conference by
storm. No such thing had ever been
known as speech of welcometo the Con-
ference, and to have it made by a layman
was better yet. When the handclapping
and laughter had subsidized, Bishop. Merrill
made short and bright speech, thanking
Mr.. McGee on the part of the Conference.
THE ORGANIZATION.
The Conference was then organized by
the reappointment of last years officers
and the appointment of few new assist
ant secretaries, as follows:--
Secretary John +. DOdd; assistant,
Jonathan NJ Meeker; engrossing secre-
tary, John j. Morrell; statistical secress
tary, John A. Gutteridge; assistants, E.
N. Crasto, s. K. Doolittle, w. w. Wander
uOll, anu w. ". A1DS6ys treasurer H. W.
Palmer; assistants, p. Clement, w. Fl.
Ruth, j. A. Cole, and w. G. Nelson.
Committee on MeMoirs-L. r. Dunn, A.
L. Brice, j. Atkinson, George p Eckman,
R, B. Lockwood and E. w. Burr.
Committee to Investigate Public School
System with View to Improving It--L
r. Dunn, ID. Halleron and II. Vanhorne.
Postoffice Committee-C. C. Winans, q.
G. Maulsdale, G. E. Walton and Henry
Rice
The whole town is upside down, because
there is scarcely house in the city where
there is any room, that has not its billet
of visiting clergymen. There are as many
and the streets look more crowded, but
more respectable, than common.
REVIEW OF THE WORK.
At half-past two in the afternoon there
there was a statistical meeting, when all
the preachers answered to their names
and told how much thoir churches had
been assessed and how much had been
raised toward Conference needs, and then
there was a closed doors session of the
Conference Life Insurance Society from
which even those members of the Confer
ence wee do not belong to the Insurance
Society w ere excluded.
In the evening there was a meeting of
the Freedman's Aid and Southern Educa-
tional Society. The Rev. N. Van Saul
presided, and the Rev. E. 0. Howland and
the Rev. DR.. James S. Chadwick made
eloquent addresses, describing what pro-
gress was being made in the South
The real business of the Conference be-
gins tomorrow and will not be completed
for week. Everything done so far has
simply been preliminary to getting down
to hard work. The statistical session was
held in order to enable the Rev. Mr..
Gutteridge to get together most OF the
facts on the progress made in the several
churches in the course of the past twelve
months, and the result of his labors will
not be manifest for several days.
JERSEY CTTY'S WORK AND NEEDS.
At the business session this morning,
the Rev. DR.. d. r. Lowrie, Presiding
Elder of the Jersey City District, spoke of
the wretched condition of Sunday school
libraries. He said that there was
lamentable lack of good reading, and
wonderful flood of trash. In the lat
ter category he very properly placed
'"Ten Nights in Bar Room" He then
spoke of the growing absence of young
people from public worship, and was ap-
plauded for saying that it would be better
to teach them their Sunday school lessons
at home and make them go to church than
to have their devotions limited to attend-
ance at Sabbath school.
He then found fault with people for
slack giving, but incidentally mentioned
q legacy of $4,000 to the Conference from
Nine new parsonages, costing in all
$50, 900, and eight new churches, costing
S65, 900, mark the progress of this district
for the year.
AS to church work, specifically, DR..
Lowrie said that the Centenary had paid
over 50, 900 of debts; james had raised 81 500
in the year on the new church,
Lafayette had made improvements, at a
cost of $4,000; had finished a new
parsonage, and collected $500 by
subscription. The Linden Avenue had
Just built one of the finest
churches in the Conference at cost of
$50, ,O0O to be dedicated in May, with little
debt. st. Paul's, the Palisades, Simpson,
Trinity, and West Side Avenue were also
mentioned for good work.
The Rev. J.. Meadenhall, editor Of the
Methodist ReUielV, found fault with Law.
renee Oliphant's Scientific Religion" /"
and incidentally scored Harvard and Yale
colleges and DR.. Heber Newton for their
rationalism.
Txyaptv-Isour Hours, Weather.