St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-20
Relative Relation Of One to
the Other Considered by
the Methodists.
Range Of Discussion Covered
Many Subjects Of Pres
emit Interest.
The Ecumenical Address Is
an Able and Comprehen-
sive Document.
Every Phase Of Methodist Adj
yancement and Policy Is
Touched.

1OuCu6Qs
WASHINGTON, Oct 19.-The eleventh
days session of the ecumenical Metho-
dist council opened with William Mar
den, Wesleyan Reform union, England,
in the chair. Resolutions concerning
civil liberty and the imperial power of
the papacy and the subject of combina
tons of labor and capital were referred
to the business committee, which made
a report recommending that the week
beginning Nov. Is next be set aside as a
week of prayer, and inviting all the
senior bishops and presidents Of COLI
ferences represented in the council to
sign call to all the Methodlsts. The
report was adopted.
Through MIR. Mclean the committee
on Methodist statistics made report
which, i'll substance, states that returns
had been obtained from all churches
represented in the conference and tab
ulated. first geographically and second
enthusiastically. Some of the de-
tails of the report were as. fol-
lows: Eastern Section = Europe,
ministers. 4,4Sl: members, 9l5,2S4; adj
herents, 4, 209, 601. Asia, ministers, 533;
members, 34,334; adherents, 1l4,9o0.
Africa, ministers, 294; members, II, 147:
adherents, 2S3,376. Australasia and
Polynesia, ministers, 7S6; members. 3d.
40; adherehtS, 4SS, 1873. Totals for east
ern section, ministers, 6,094: members,
1,ll3,90 adherents, 1896, 1913. Western
section-Ministers. $500; members,
$3.50, 494: adherentS. 20,2Sl,9 16.
The rnnOrt which WAS not Ouitp COM
plete, was criticized by several mem
bers, DR.. Turner. OF England. holding
that it would, if adopted. vltiate the re-
turns in England. DR.. Stephenson sug-
gested that foot note be attached to
each item of the report stating the basis
of estimate. and with an amendment i'll
this respect the report was adopted.
The Church and Morality.
A resolution was adopted making to-
morrow session the last of the confer
ence. DR.. Hamilton presented the re-
port of the committee on an executive
commission, which recommended that
the next ecuMenical conference be held
in the. year 1891, subject to the approval
aud direction of all tue several bodies
OF Methodists. The committee recon-
mended the appointment of all eXecu-
tive commission which consists OF eighty
members, divided into two sections, the
Western section to consist of fifty mem-
bers and the Eastern section of thirty
members, distributed among the varl-
Gus branches in given proportion.
After some discussion the report went
over until tomorrow. and the topic of
the day, 1.-The Church and Public
Morality" was taken up.
In the unavoidable absence of Hon.
B. w. 3. Hill, of Macon Ga. his essay
OH Legal Restraint oil the Vice of So
ciety'' was read by. Rev. DR.: w. V.
of parliament Now, il this
means that law cannot generate
inward righteousness, it is true; but
those who saw the air with this old saw
very we'll know that the friends of moral
legislation do not propose to accomplish
by il any such results, for statutes of
every kind assume 10 deal only with
mans actS-nOt with intentions or mo-
tiveS. The rules of the churches never
created inward holiness-that is not
their function in church economy. but
they serve as an inferentlal and whole
some discipline of conduct, and thus
they help to make men moral by law.
Rev. Joseph p. Snett, OF England,
said betting and gambling is present
day question and is Of all concerning
Importance. Possibly one of the very
worst forms OF gambling. practiced on
a colossal scale and indulged in by not
few Christian professors, is the
gambling OF the stock exchange. Talk
of a frantic, fanatical. uDrOarious en-
thusiasm OH matters religious as
something to be condemned. For
my part / have never seen or heard
ANYTHING i'll connection with the Wild
| est religious excitement at all compare
| ble with what | saw for the space of
| half an hour IN Wall street in New
| York.
Marriage and Divorce.
| Judge II. L. Sibley, of Mariett@ o.,
! spoke OH Marriage and Divorce Laws. !"
| The speakers proposition was that a
! right to divorce is cOmplemental to and
| demanded by the right 10 marriage, not
| only in eases of adultery, but also of
| desertion. Marriage was means, not
| an end. Special cases excepted, God
| and nature had made the relation the
| universal right of mature men and
women This included the right of
| each party TO the union to its essential
benefits. Desertion deprived the limo
| cent party of these, unless made a
ground of divorce. A primal law of
| the relation is mutual society and help
! fulnesS.' This deSertiOn wickedly vio-
| lated. Hence in reason it is cause for
| divorce.
| 4,rhe right to marriage as the only con-
| tNOln for righteous propagation be-
I IS paramount to the rule of its per-
| "a 1ence in cases OF wrong TO an inno-
t9W-a partner. hereby the fundamental
| sue cations Of the relation are abne-
| sqi ID. This ew of the institution
lies its great ends. moral and social,
| more important than technical preServ-
| alton of its naked bond, as manifestly
| they are. and leaves to innocent parties
| an escape from propagation with the
foulness of known adultery, and from
| being forced by the wickedness of deser-
ton into the life of celibate.
Churchmen and Theaters.
! Bishop E. Il. Hendrix, of the Metho-
dist Episcopal church South, Kansas
] City. Mo-, occupied the chair at the
! afternoon session. Thomas Ruddle, b.
| A.. Devon, England. spoke on amuse-
ments. He said the Romanists have
! made it a council of perfection" to live
| unnaturally, and the Puritans have
! fastened yoke unbearable on every
| single believer. And both have
! utterly failed in their purpose.
| Whatever may be the duty of
/ the church towards amusements.
it is obviously not her duty to be hostile
i towards them.
/ j. Z. Balmer, of Manchester, Eng
] land, said that the strange thing was
/ that the church had failed to recogniz
| the need of the people for muSenient.
| He strolied once into a Lonaon theater
I and found so Inany-preachers there that
he thought for the time he was in an