Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-13
ISSUES A CHALLENGE.
Rev. Dr.. Smith Dares DR.. Townsend
to Come to Pittsburg and
MAKE HIS CHARGES IN PERSON.
4 Denial That the Methodist Conference
Is Now or Has Been
GOVERNED BY POLITICAL METHODS

Rev. DR.. Smith, editor of the Christian
advocate who, with others, in the Pittsburg
Conference of the Methodist Church was
attacked by Rev. II Townsend in recent
| meeting of ministers in Boston, has at last
consented to talk on the subject. Dr. Smith
| challenges DR.. Townsend to come to Pitts
burg and make good the charge that polit-
ical tricks are practiced in the Pittsbnrg
Conference. Speaking on the subject DR..
Smith said:
The Doctor is careful TO limit his charges
to. the few and to give hearty Endorsement to
the good character of the great majority OF
the ministers of the church. But he then
proceeds to read letters from different Sec
tions of the church, making tmpersonal
charges, which by their very nature put the
entire ministry under suspicion. By this
method of procedure the innocent suffer
equally with the guilty. The papers of other
churches make haste to hold up these things
as already established and to charge them
to our economy. They are set forth as the
legitimate fruits of the Methodistic system.
1t is therefore TO be condemned as essen
TALLY corrupting in its tendencies.
Thinks They Should Be Hunted Down.
Possibly there are just such men in our
ministry as he describes They are worthy
of the utmost detestation, and should be
hunted down, exposed and punished. The
ministry cannot afford to tolerate them, and
neither can the church. But 1 protest
against any plan for pulling out the tares
which sramples down and ees destroys t, the
himself responsible % for proving serious
ministers whom he does not name, and this
is in the right direction. But he must not
stop with this. If he has the proof of these
Ia = ts Hv,6 20 hi
church, to put it into the hands of the
proper authorities. that the guilty men may
be convicted and punished. Nothing short
Of this will excuse him. Such men are a dis
grace to the ministry, and If DR.. Townsend
knows who they are he is bound to expose
them. II he is not ready to do this. he had
no right to mention the facts in public to
the great damage of the church.
Demands an Impartial Trial.
The testimony sub mitted by DR.. Town
send consists of letters from various per-
sons, which. for the most part, contained
general accusations against companies of
men, or specific charges against unnamed
men. And Is this an honorable course?
Are men to be condemned OH such evidence3
No one can be convicted in the Judgment of
any fair-minded person until lie has been no
titled that he is accused furnished with
definite charges, confronted, by his accusers
and has had the privilege of cross-examin-
ing t. EN- and their witnesses and has had
permission to answer for himself There is
absolutely no fair conviction short Of these
conditions.
In these essential particulars Dr. Town
sends case is lamentably weak. The ac-
themselves know that they are under
charges; or the charges are SO indefinite ana
general as not to be susceptible of answer,
beyond mere denial; or they have no chance
to face their accusers and examine and an
swer them. And vet this is the kind of tes-
timony on which learned professor as
snmes to have convicted a large number of
his brethren of grave ofrenses, sufficient to
put them outside the church and out OF re-
Spectacle society. This part OF the pro-
ceedings stops not whit short of an out
rage. There are evils in the church be-
lieve, but DR.. Townsend has not in this way
proved them. He has thrown mud on the
ministry, but he has not fastened it on any
individuals.
Would Blast Any Reputation.
If men are to be condemned on the unsup-
ported and unexamined statement or letter
of some individual, whose reputation pos
sibly is not known, thefe is not a minister in
the church. from the senior bishop down to
the newest recruit. whose reputation could
not be blasted. There are personal enemies
enough to do this thing, especially when they
feel safe from responsibility. There is
scarcely o conference. in the church but
could be condemned bv such methods. In
nearly all there are ambitious. disappointed.
soured men who have become desperate in
their spirit They have not been appreciated
according to their own estimate, and they
must have somewhere to lay, the blame. So
they place it on their brethren, and accuse
them of combining against them, and of
thus comprising their defeat.
l judge from the secular papers that he
made some insinuations against the Pitts
burg Conference, based on some sort of in
formation. 1t is impossible to know just
what is involved in this but if it Is any re-
Election, it Is utterly false and slanderous.
A Challenge to DR.. Townsend.
That to find out what it is in manner
about which there can be no mistake, here
and now challenge him, or anybody for him,
to appear at the next session of this Confer
cnce, there to name the men, and put the
If they have any. into definite
form for Investigation. Pittsburg ministers
do not consent to be tried in Boston, in their
absence, but let DR.. Townsend come be-
fore the body to which they are amenabIe,
and which will be swift to punish such
against its honor, or secure some
one to represent him, and then it can be de-
whether they are at fault, or
whether he is slandering them-by lnsinua-
tion.
When asked about the charges made
against him by DR.. Wood, of the Duquesne
College. DR., Smith heSitated moment |