Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-06

I V. A. hdTSudll, OI6 UT tuc IuOsI and striking figures in the southern dele gation, sprang to his feet and reached over | several pews to take the black mans hand, saying, as he grasped it with unction which thrilled the vast worlds gathering -'1 greet you as a brother and I thank God that your people are free"
 Among those who at first did not favor Methodist Ecumenical conference were
 many, no doubt, who felt as did the re- | nowned editor of the New York Advocate. | Dr. Buckley is always for or against, and when he is against he is very much against; nor, when he takes 8 stand, is he an easy
 man to convert. And yet-let it be known | everywhere-Dr. Buckley has been con- verted, and he stands before the world as a convel ted man upon his own formal and editorial confession. This conversion, however, has no reference to his bellige- | rent attitude toward the question of wo-
 men in the general conference; it is simply | change of mind in regard to the good | which may result from the Ecumenical conferences change which, doubtless, is but one in many hundreds; for when & | man so firm in his opinions as Dr. Buck | ley confesses to change of heart, we may quite believe that conversion has become | epidemic. The doctors confession is in | the last issue of his paper. He was not in | sympathy with the Ecumenical movement | at first, he tells us, ''suspecting it to be l another name for a dress parade of the | different bodies, mutual admiration so- ciety, kind of sectarian worlds fair" but now, he tells us, he is in sympathy | with such gatherings, a critical observa- | tion of the proceedings of the first con-
 clave of this kind having converted him | to a belief in their utility.
 For the better regulation of its business, | the vast Methodist community represented | in the Washington conference will be sep arated into four general divisions as fol- | lows: First division: The Methodist Episcopal church and the Methodist Epis- | copal church, south. Second division: Other Methodist churches in the United l States and Canada. Third division: The | British Wesleyan Methodist churches Fourth division: Other British Methodist churches. Besides this division by four, | the conference and the community it rep resents will also be divided for convenience by two, the resultant aggregates being | called severally the eastern section and the western section. The business committee, | having entire charge of all the affairs of the conference, will consist of twenty members, ten being visitors from abroad
 and the other ten representing Methodism | in America. The members of this com mittee from the western section are: Bish- | op J. F. Hurst, Bishop J. c. Granbery,
 Bishop A. Carnam, Drs. J. c. Embury, J. | w. Hamilton, J. M. King, J. T. Murray, | A. Walters, P. H. Whisner and Professor
 J. M. Van Week. To this business com
 mittee must be submitted all questions, | proposals, resolutions, communications or other matters not included in the regular | program, and the gentlemen composing | this body will be the court of final appeal | as to which of these various matters shall Il ha ata1f fNva fNs 1.r hsNSl, Such an arrangement as this is not only necessary for the economy of time, but it will serve the additional end of keeping the conference from getting into wrangle upon questions on which the various
 branches of Methodism may conscientious
 ly differ.
 | The utility of such a committee as this l was strikingly shown at the first Ecumen- | ical, especially in the handling of the ever l present and ever urgent temperance ques- | ton. American Methodists, it is well
 known, are in the front rank of this
 movement in the United States, and, per,
 haps, it may also be said, that the English
 Methodists are in the front rank of that
 reform in Great Britain. But if the latter | fact be granted, then it will be seen al
 once, not only that there is a vast differ l ence in the status of this question in the
 two countries, but that there is also a
 great difference in the relative attitude to. l ward it of the eastern and western branch
 es of Methodism. Think of wine being
 used in the vestries of City Road chape
 while the first Ecumenical was in session
 therel Think of the Methodist lord may
 or of London entertaining the delegates at
 the Mansion House, and inviting them tC
 refreshment tables at which, among other
 good and bad things, the distilled essence
 of Europe's best vintages was freer fol
 those who chose to take it than water
 Think of old ministers declaring on the
 floor of the conference that they could no
 condemn the moderate use of wine as 6 beverage, or question the propriety of ar
 occasional glass taken at suitable times by
 even the Methodist clergyman! Think oi
 the confession made in open conference by
 MT. Atkinson, J. F., who said that Metho
 dist lsymen were compelled to put tn, i wine bottle on their tables when they wer,
 visited by some of the older ministers, be
 cause, if they did not, these men would gt l away and berate them for their lack O
 hospitality; and then, his remarks beinl
 challenged, think of this doughty magis
 trate returning to the charge with speci6 l cationsl Think of dear, grand old Bishop
 Peck, and the genial and noble Bishop I McTyeire, being offered the wine glass a
 the close of their ministrations in Metho
 dist churches during that first Ecumeni
 cal! Imagine the consternstion and hol,
 horror of these good men, gone now wher
 the wicked cease from troubling, at sucl
 developments!
 Of. course much was said in that confer
 ence by even British delegates which wa fully up to the exalted standard main
 tained on the temperance question by tn
 united delegation from this side of the At lantic. Who can forget the ringing word of Hugh Price Hughes, just then comini , into prominence, who stood up like tn
 prophet of a new dispensation, and, wit , his long arms outstretched, and pale fac winter than usual from intense feeling
 pleaded for that cause, as he now plead , from one of the most conspicuous pulpit , in London, for the masses against tn classes and the Christ of scripture a against the Christ of the churchesl An B another fearless advocate of temperance O
 the British side was one who had grow
 gray in this holy service, and who ha D since been elected to the presidency of th 8 British Wesleyan body-that consecrate 8 man and uncompromising reformer, Rev : Charles Garrett. Still there was no poss F bility of an agreement on this subject-n l chance whatever that resolutions such 6 t would have satisfied the American delt 3 gates would have received anything like a unanimous indorsement on the Britis a side; and hence the utility of the bushes @ committee, to whom, as matter of cours. = the subject was finally referred, and wh @ wisely, in the circumstances, by not brins s ing it back again for action, relieved th '- conference from the difficulty of comin 6 to an agreement in regard to it. The COT @ ference, however, did make an expressio ), ppon this subject in the pastoral address l. \put forth, and the American delegates Is and, perhaps, many on the other side alst n were delighted to hear from the lips { e Bishop Peck, who had helped to prepal
 this address, and afterwards had the hol al or of reading it, that, as to the proper a d titude of Methodism toward intemperanc E. they owed it ''to the memory of the d great founder, to their own history and T. the truth of religion, to stand in the fro, ss rank of those who are sworn to crush it ar fhe earth"
 g. The business committee, which regulat