Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-24
THE EPISCOPAL CONVENTION.
rwHrrrrr FOR THE DISPATCH !

THE EPISCOPAL CONVENTION.
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArcH.i
1T Is pity that the good old English
word for . deliberative assembly should
have been allowed to fall into disuse. and
that its place should have been taken by the
French name which they use in England. or
by the Latin name which we use in America.
1t is true that "Wittenagamot" Is not an
easy combination of syllables for every day
utterance. But 1t has q most excellent
meaning. It signifies . convention of wise
| mon. Happy the nation whose laws are
| made in q convention Of wise monl Il may
have been the change of speech at the Nor
man Conquest, or it may nave been desire
to get name which should ft closer to the
fact-anyhow, for some reason, men began
/ to speak, perhaps in satire, of parliament"
For that name signifies an assembly OF
takers. congress of orators, q synod Of
| speech-pakers-the most useless, perhaps,
of all human congregations. Our names,
| congress" and convention" do not mean
even so much as that All that they say is
| that this company has come together. Wise
| or unwise, with speech or with silence. owls
| or magpies, we do not venture to say. They
have come together. Further than that wise
| experience declines to be committed.
1t would be interesting to speculate upon
| the connection between legislation and
| ventilation, between bad laws and bad air.
was in the House of Representatives the
| other day at Washington. 1t was being
swept and garnished. Come" said my
guide, "and will show you the bear garden
without the bearsp' So looked into the
| big empty room. The carpet was up, the
desks were covered from the dust, and men
were cleaning out the ventiIating f1ues. 1t
was enough to make one tremble for the
future of the country. The air which is
supplied to keep our Congressman alive, to
| clear their brains and quicken their con-
sciences is part oxygen and part nicotine.
1t comes through a stratum of dust which is
heavily charged with tobacco Juice. It
would take saint to be decent Chris
tian in such an atmosphere. Aristides
himself would be unjust amid this poison.
l can understand many strange things now
that have seen the inside of the ventilating
f1ues of the House Of Representatives. I
know the reason for some of our extraor-
dfnary pension laws I can see read
lily how men breathing such air could
assent to the pardoning Of deserters.
The remarkable appropriations for the
establishment of religion in this country are
no longer a mystery to me. 1t is but natural
that in this purgatory OF nicotine men
should give nearly four hundred thousand
dollars to the Sixth Day Baptist and only
four thousand to the Hicksite Unltariansl
Anything is possible in such an atmos-
phere.
How Preachers Are Handicapped.
THE ventilation is better in the General
Convention OF the Episcopal Church now
assembled in the city Of Baltimore, though
even here there is much to be desired. The
House of Clerical and Lay Deputies meets
in Emmanuel Church, and churches are
notoriously ill-ventilated. The devil jogs
the elbow Of every ecclesiastical architect,
and shuts of the pure air of heaven. The
devil. the architect and the sexton conspire
together every Sunday morning and succeed
in doing more harm than the preacher. can
do good. Half of the deputies at Baltimore
wear skull-caps and have the collars of
their overcoats turned up about their ears,
while the other half are tanning themselves
with newspapers and complaining Of closed
windows.
Nevertheless the convention is surpass-
ingIy sensible and Christian. One of the
characteristics of which the Episcopal
Church has reason to be proud is that wise
breadth which makes room for the existence
side by side of greatly different schools of
thought. There are 'high" and slow" and
''broad" churchmen in that communion
The Presbyterian Church Is almost univer-
sally "low;' the Roman Church is almost
universally "high;' the Unitarian Church i g
almost unanimously "broad." But there
are all kinds in the Episcopal Church. and
no one can CLAIM predominance. Ali insti-
tutions, however, have the defects of their
qualities. This diversity exposes the Epis.
copal Church to the danger Of unhappy di-
visions. And in the past these divisions
ho va in nd in ma nj fod Rut
in this present assembly at Baltimore the
lines of clearage cannot be traced.
There arose, for instance, one day in the
course of the delibera tions of the hour, this
most curious question:: ought we to go upon
an excursion on Friday2 The good people
of Baltimore in the kindness of their gen.
erous hearts had invited the convention to
take q halliday of from their serious
ard fatiguing business. and view the
beauties of the harbor from the deck of
steamboat And the house of deputies had
gratitude. But it was presently discovered
by some observant and conscientious
ecclesiastic that the excursion was ap-
pointed for Friday. CONSERVATION and |
horror! Shall we presume to enjoy our
selves on Fridayf Shall we expose ourselves |
to the fearful temptation OF eating roast |
chicken and sweet potatoes on that day of |
abstinence2 Perish the thought! So 1t was |
moved to reconsider. And the convention |
reconsidered.
Sensible Folk In the Convention.
HERE now was a presumably party |
question. On the one side would be the |
men who hold to the value and importance |
of fish dinner on the sixth day OF the |
week; on the other would be the men who |
account all that side of religion to be me-
dieval nonsense. But when the vote was |
taken all lines were lost in confusion. Some
broad ohurchmen voted to stay at home on
the ground that the best occupa tion of the
was to attend to business. They
were quite unconcerned about the ecclesi-
astical and ritual side of the question, but
they had no liking for junkets. Some
high churchmen voted to go on
the ground that this was courteous
invitation which ought to be courteously
accepted, and an opportunity for a good
time not to be despised, and accounting the
scruples of their brethren to be nothing but
nonsense. The conven-
ton decided to go. And All sorts
Of people went. DR.. Dix, the repre-
Of sensible conservatism; DR..
the representative OF sensible
Bishop Brooks, of Massachu-
setts, and Bishop Seymour, of Springfield,
than whom no two men could we'll be
farther apart in their ecclesiastical ideas,
we're to be seen enjoying the fresh breezes |