Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-12

| tolk-who, however, are only common in
 their lack of the episcopal title-that large
 framed man with bald cranium, but with
 @ beard long enough to quite make up for
 the hair he lacks on his head, is Rev T. B. Stephenson, D. D., president of the largest
 Methodist body in Great Britain. He is | the first real live Wesleyan president who has ever been allowed to leave Great Bri-
 tain during his term of office, and if all | who have filled this office are as genial and l sparkling and able as the present incum-
 bent, we cannot but think that the close detention of these gentlemen in their own little island is an injustice to Methodism
 elsewhere which ought to be severely con- | demned. Next to Dr. Stephenson sits the | idol of the Methodistic heart in both hem | ispheres, the saintly, scholarly, seraphic | William Arthur, voluminous and great as
 an author, and once flame of fire in the | pulpit, but now, in old age, laboring under
 such weakness of the throat, that he is
 compelled to abstain from public address;
 a disability on his part which unfortunate l ly puts the conference under the disability of having to take his opening sermon at | second hand-or second mouth, to speak more properly-which is never so good as l to catch what is said as the words come
 steaming hot from the lips of the man in
 whose brain and heart they had their ori- 1 gin.
 | DUH WnO Ttau iuls uls- l course, did quite well with it, and if one was very anxious to look at Dr. Arthur l while hearing from him, one had but to l glance to the left of the reader and there
 he was, ar undersized man in physique, | but with an enormous soul; pale, delicate l and quite feeble looking, but intellectually
 and spiritually a very Hercules; silent,
 and yet, as another spoke his words, show | ing such an atfiuence of the oratorical tenn | perament, and such deep sympathy with l the theme and the occasion, that his eyes sparkled and his frame twitched, almost as we should have expected them to do had 1 the noble and inspiring sentiments been | falling there and then from his own lips. | Interest on this opening day culminated ! with the addresses of welcome and the re- sponses they brought out. For three solid | hours, with only the short breaks needed | to introduce the speakers, did that favored l audience sit literally spellbound at the feet l of those great Methodist orators. There | were six speeches, each different from the | others in both matter and style, each hay l ing some distinctive excellence, all being l first-class, and most of them approIima ting to the grand and even sublime. With
 years of observation and experience in great church gatherings, we do not re- l member an occasion when the flow of 1 speech from so many different sources maintained so high a level or gave such l continuous delight to those so favored as | to enjoy it. Bishop Hurst was so happy and well poised as to defy disturbance by even the fash turned upon him for photo l graphic purposes, though, for q moment, many of the audience felt as though flash | of lightning had struck the platform; and
 in very truth there was lightning of the
 Promethean kind playing on that ever memorable opening day all about that | platform and radiating constantly all over that enraptured and spellbound audience | And to carry out our simile, when the ornate and scholarly Hurst had finished
 those flashing sentences which made his
 hearers see lightning, J. H. Carlisle, of l South Carolina, stately and tall, the pie l ture of a southern gentleman, came for l ward, and with his strong, deep voice, and weighty thoughts, charged with deep con | viction made everybody feel as though in the natural order of things the lightning was now being followed by thunder; not 1 such thunder as startles us by it's vocife- 1 rousness, but such as in the Alps some 1 times tumbles and rolls and dies away, | and breaks out again, as though it were l rendering low, sweet lullaby over the l cradle of nature, or were charming into
 repose some restless spirit hidden in the 1 Alpine mists. Here again, too, does our l figure of speech agree strikingly with the facts in the case, for those rolling sen l tences from the lips of Dr. Carlisle were l literally charming away the great Metho- I dist demon of division. Coming from 8 l distinguished representative of the Metho- l dist Episcopal church south, what else 1 could be the intent or the effect of his ap- peal to us to talk more hereafter of our | concords than of our discords and to quit
 our envyings and yexings that we might
 throw ourselves unitedly upon the com | mos foe?
 This reminds us that all the speakers re- | ferred to the topic of Methodist union, 1 and doubtless these eloquent gentlemen,
 in the fervent wishes they uttered for | closer federation of the Methodist forces,
 not only voiced the sentiment of the con | ference, but afforded a fairly reliable | prophecy of the action it will take upon
 this subject. Bishop Hurst spoke of the Canadian delegates as being worthy of
 special welcome, because of the skill and
 zeal they had shown in weaving the Meth
 odist families of Canada into one house.
 hold. Mir Green, layman from Eng
 land, closed his lively speech by express
 ing the hope that the result of this Ecu
 menical gathering the dividing line be- | tween the Methodist bodies would at least
 be worn down little, if they were not
 entirely worn away. Even Dr. Stephen
 son, who represents the most conservative
 of the English bodies. could not help
 touching the keynote of union. Referring
 to the first Ecumenical he observed that, as the result of that meeting, the Metho-
 dists had buried many of their differences, | and 'please God" he added, i've will
 have some more funerals as n consequence
 of this second Ecumenical," the body, by
 loud and long continued applause, seeming
 to indorse this grave and deadly purpose. After the magnificent efforts of Bishop
 Hurst and Dr. Carlisle it seemed almost
 inevitable that the tide of interest at the
 opening service, from having flowed so | high, must begin to ebb. But this was
 quite mistake, for the old man eloquent
 of the dominion of Canada had yet to be
 heard. A wonderful man is Dr. George
 Douglass. As he sits in his chair, blind
 and with his hands falling down helpless
 in front of him from paralysis, he looks
 half dead; and that really has been his
 condition for years. Yet, when he rises,
 and that marvellous voice, with its rich Scotch brogue and deep organ-like full ness rolls out sentence after sentence,
 faultlessly modelled after the best antique
 style of eloquence, you feel at once that
 however dead may be his other parts,
 brain and heart are not only fully alive,
 but are gloriously on fire with his theme
 To listen to this most eloquent of Canada's ministers at his best-as the conference
 did to-day-has an effect similar to that
 produced when one looks at some master
 piece of one of sthe great painters, or walks entranced through baronial halls re-
 do1ent with memories of the glorious past,
 or listens in the glow of even-tide to the
 pealing of chime of cathedral bells.
 To make our picture of the opening
 scene complete let it be noted that the brother in black was conspicuous figure
 in it; for in the person of Bishop Way man, very black and looking very happy,
 he was on the platform with the other no tables, and had the central position there,
 with Bishop Bowman on one side, Dr. Ste phenson on the other, and Bishop Keener of the church south offering fervent
 prayer in front Woman, lovely woman,
 was also in the scene, even as we had ex-
 pected, notwith tanding her rigid exclu- sion from place among the delegates.
 Bishop Hurst, in speaking of the first , Methodist meeting on this continent in
 1766, said, with peculiar gesture and en-
 phasis-"And there was woman there;'' which seemed to mean that it was a re- proach there should be no woman in this body, and appeared to array the bishop on
 woman's side in the great fight being made to admit her to the general conference of hI-At~ f.@AE Ef... II IL