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


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-
tionS 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 q
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 Mr.. 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, 9l5,2 S4; adj
herents, 4, 9,60l. Asia. ministers, 533 !;
members, 81, 1874; adherents, 1l4,96S.
Africa. ministers, 294; members, II, AZ:
adherents, 2S3,376. Australasia and
Polynesia, ministers, 7S6; members. 3d.
40; adherents, 4SS, 1873. Totals for east
ern section, ministers, 6,094; members,
LIB, 905; adherents, 1906, l2S. Western
sectiOn-Ministers. $500; members,
$3.50. 494: adherentS. 20, 1876.
The report, which was not quite COM
plete, was criticized by several mem
bers, DR.. Turner. of England, holding
that it would, If adopted, vItiate the re-
turns i'll 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 in
this respect the report was adopted.
The Church and Morality.
A resolution was adopted making to-
morrow S 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
and direction of all the 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 vari-
Gus branches in given proportion.
After some discussion the report went
over until tomorrow. and the topic of
the day, The Church and Public
Morality" was taken up.
In the unavoidable absence of Hon.
3. w. B. Hill, OF Macon. Ga. his essay
on Legal Restraint OH the Vice of So
ciety' was read by Rev. DR.. w. V.
Tudor, of Richmond, Va. You can
not make men moral by acts
of parliament" Now, if this
means that law cannot generate
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 70 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 inferential 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
colossal scale and INDUCED in by not
q few Christian professors, is the
gambling OF the stock exchange. Talk
of q frantic, fanatical. uDroariouS en-
thuSiaSm on matters religious as
something to be condemned. For
my part | have never seen or heard
anything in connection with the wild
est religious excitement at all compare
BILE with what [ saw for the space OF
half an hour III Wall street in New
York.
Marriage and Divorce.
Judge II. l.. Sibley, of Marietta, o.,
spoke Oh Marriage and Divorce Laws y
| The speakers proposition was that a
| right to divorce Is complemental to and
| demanded by the right 10 marriage, not
| only in cases of adultery, but also of
| desertiOn. Marriage was a 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 10 the union to its essential
! benefits. DesertiOn deprived the limo
! cent party OF these, unless made a
! ground Of divorce. y primal law OF
| the relation is mutual society and help
! fulnesS. This desertiOn wickedly VIC
| lated. Hence in reason it is cause for
| divorce.
-.,rhe right to marriage as the only con-
tN01n for righteous propagation be-
IS paramount to the rule of its per-
| "a 8ence in eases OF wrong TO an limo
! temt partner. hereby the fundamental
| shq cations o. the relation are abne-
,qts 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.
Churchmcn 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, 3.
| A.. Devon, England. spoke OH 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
| 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 nlusement.
| He srolied once into Lonaon theateT
I and found so many-preacherS there that
[ he thought for the time he was in an
| ecumenieal co1nsil. People would SO