Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-18
METHODISTS TO. VOTE.
A Question On Which the Churches
Will Express an Opinion.
WOMEN AS LAY DELEGATES
Origin OF the Question -Arguments
Made Pro and Con ON the Adn,issio
Of Women ~ Delegates % the General
Conference.

a. HE government Of Episcopalian Meth
IA odism in the United States is of the men,
E bers, by the members and for the men,
~ 81 bers, and this fundamental fact will be
&Sxw illustrated in q somewhat notable fashion
within few days. Other religious segments
OF the population may temporarily become in
terested in the struggle in Maj McKinley's
district, or, perhaps, their enthusiasm will find
vent in the fight which is being made on
Joe" Cannon in his Illinois home, but Meth
odism has its own campaign on hand and will
not be able to find much time for anything else
30 far as this city is concerned until the even
ing Of Tuesday, the 2Sth instant, has gone to
join the majority of those days which decorate
the calendar for the current year. There will
be no general all-over-t he-country election on
the 2Sth; it will be but little more than local
that evening, for each pastor will be at liberty
to select such time and place as will. in his
opinion, be most convenient to the greatest
number OF those who count themselves men,
bers OF his flock. Last Monday the preachers
meeting-the preachers of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church III this city-decided that next
Tuesday week would suit most of them and on
that date, from $3.50 pm. to pm, there will
be opportunity for all members in good stand
ing to cast each one ballot. This same oppor-
tunity, but not altogether on the same day nor
all in the same month will be given to every
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
this broad and somewhat lengthy land.
WHAT THE QUESTION Is.
What 10 this election for? Why everybody
knows all about it. Mop How strange! Why
the Methodists are going to say whether or not
they would like to have women made eligible
for membership in the great Methodist legis-
lature-the general conference.
Some people who know little and care less
may imagine that to be very small matter.
but II they do they are wrong; considerably off
the track. There are now nearly or quite
3.OOO,OOO persons who are members in good
standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
and OF this enormous total a solid majority are
OF the sex which was first represented by one
Eve. Now, II campaign in which 3, DOC, 900 of
people, mostly female, are interested is a small
thing then the fight now on is a diminutive
affair.
The history of this movement is but slender
thread OF narrative, and the proposed reform
had Its origin in q peculiar manner. For wears
there has been an endeavor made by members
possessed of the woman suffrage spirit to enter
the fields OF ecclesiastical honor, which have
been occupied exclusively by men. but the re-
suits were disappointingly short lived until the
question In Its present form was brought be-
fore the congregations. There has not been
any general demand on the part Of the female
membership that they should be made men,
pers OF the legislative conferences of Methodism.
AffLflNt FOh ADMISSION.
About two years ago, however, some Of the
quarterly conferences in portions Of the west
elected women to represent them in the cleo
toral conference. There were not, probably,
more than half a dozen such in all the land,
but they went to the general conference held
IN New York city IN 1888 and very unanimously
demanded admission. This was denied them.
for the conference had no power to take apy
other action. The discipline-the constitutional
law-made no provision whatever for such a
contingency, SO the conference came to the con-
cluslon that the only thing to do would be to
send the matter back to the churches for an ex-
preston OF opinion. OF the importance of tho
question there can be no doubt, and if the pro-
posed innovation becomes an accomplished
fact then the Methodist Episcopal Church will
have undergone the most radical change to be
found IN all its wonderful history.
what VIII be the immediate effect II q ma
jority favors the adm ssion of women as Law
delegateS3 is the question being asked quite
frequently now. There will be no immed,ate
effect. 1t will be nothing more nor less than
the expression Of the views held by the greater
portion OF the membership. The majority
vote makes no law; it is simply pulse feeler.
The next step in case of success Will be to have
the matter taken up by the annual conferences.
In these 1t would be discussed until both warp
and woof looked threadbare and when the time
came Tor vote 1t would take three-fourths of
the preachers in each annual" to send the
movement along toward the higher court.
Discussion would be continued in the general
conference, and if the amendment became
law 1t could only do SO by securing a two thirds
majority. And all this takes time, for if the
members should decide in the affirmative and
the annual conferences also vote .yea" and the
general conference comedies there can be no
woman delegate to the general conference
until 1896. The next conference meets in
Omaha IN 1892 and its immediate successor
will not be visible until four years later Not
until then. II then. can woman hope to secure
delegates seat In the great governing body of
Methodism.
WOMEN WHO OPPOSE IT.
1t ia a singular fact that most Of the women
prominent in local Methodism are opposed to
the proposition which has within it the new
order of things. In Methodism all over the
United States the most numerous party is that
OF the females who are totally opposed to the
Idea OK "a more exalted place for women" All
the Methodist papers have given up a great
deal OF their space recently to q thorough dis
cussion OF the motion and the great bulk of
'antl-opinions" come from women.
one OF the brightest contributors Of this
great debate-a Mrs. ]. II. Knowles of Newark,
n. J.-says: ''To know and to do the will of
God is the highest sphere Of living. His will
IS written in the very constitution of our being
de made men and women equal yet SO essen
TALLY different that they cannot interchange
z r.
! believe there is no place given TO mortals
higher than that which belongs to
Christian woman in this nineteenth century of
glorious opportunity, in which the demands of
domestic, social, charitable and practical af-
fairs tax every resource of her knowledge and
requirements. Controlling the very springs of
ntiuence-politlcal, social, religious-in that
place which is peculiarly her kingdom, and
which may be nearest like the Kingdom of God
Of anything on earth-the home; using her pen
and voice with the utmost freedom on all oues-
tions OF the day; recognized as an essential
factor IN every moral and social question
really it fills one with wonder that any Chris
tian woman can imagine there is a higher
sphere than that which she now occupies, or
desire any addition to the vast responsibility
aire ady put upon her. / am so exultantly APP
pr eciative OF the place God himself has given TO
wo man that 1t never occurs to me that my
br others have any advantage in any particular.
The simple question then, az it seems to
me, 10 this: Will the presence OF woman in the
general conference edify-build up in q true
sense-the church, including all its memb er-
ship, men, women and children? My answer
IS. IN regard to the first, no. because woman's
strongest influence over men is not felt in her
public acts and ministrations
The story of our first mother never loses its
significance and suggestiveness. It does not
appear that it was her gift in argument which
swayed her husband. She welded a Quiet
force which made him take the forbidden fruit
from her hand without resistance so far as we
know. Happy are her daughters who recog-
.w~.l- .--laI l. a. =