Morning journal and courier., 1892-04-26

at ODuahA-NAuCh LAPCCkco- y The Composition of the Conference
 to be Done.
 LEXINGTON, Ky, April 20. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 It so happens that presidential year is always a great Methodist year, and that just before the meeting of the political conventions there is held in one of the large cities what is known as the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. The last assembly of this kind was held in New York in 1888, and now, the requisite four years having elapsed, we are upon the eve of another such conclave, the favored locality this time being Omaha. It will convene on the 2d of May, and so great will be the amount of work before it that final adjournment will be reached only when May itself adjourns, and even then, judging from the past, it will not be ready to adjourn. Out of the thousand or more propositions submitted to the last conference, deliberate action was taken upon about a hundred; the remainder, when the final doxology was sung, were either on the table or under it, and in that unsettled situation have they been com pelled to remain-for the good of the church probably-while another quadren- nium has gone by.
 This conference, which meets only in presidential years, is, in some respects, the most important gathering in which Metho- dists ever convene. From the standpoint of sentiment it must perhaps yield the palm to the Ecumenical conference which met in Washington in October last, and in London ten years before. But judging by the power inhering in the two bodies, and by what they can do along practical lines, the first place must unquestionably be given to the body which convenes next week in Omaha. The last named body, it is true, does not represent the Methodism of the world, but it does represent the most extensive branch of Methodism. Be sides, it has many great offices to fill, while the Ecumenical had in its gift-beyond the few honors bestowed during its brief sea son-neither dignity nor emolument. IT one respect the Ecumenicsl was only big Methodist class meeting. The brethren were called together merely for the ex change of views and the cultivation oi good feelings. They could talk adlibitum and they did this, it must be admitted, 1T excellent spirit, with signal ability ant
 with untiring perseverance,. We may req | sonably expect, too, that there will be nt end of speech making at Omaha. In for
 mer sessions of the same conference it hal
 been nothing unusual for thirty or fort,
 to clamor for the privileges of the floor a
 the same time, while the spectacle of any
 measure appealing in vain for some one tt
 throw light upon it is a wholly unheard-o
 occurrence in that body. But the genera
 differs from the Ecumenical conference il
 the fact that besides being endowed witl
 the gift of utterance, it likewise possesse
 an enormous power of legislation.
 From this point of view the approach
 ing ouadrennial conclave is not only supe
 rior to the Ecumenical conference, but i
 far outranks the annual conferences. Tn,
 latter are merely executive and admins trative bodies. They have no power t,
 enact laws; the whole of this inheres il
 the conference which meets every fourtl
 year. From this body must emsnste al
 changes in polity and all notifications O I the Qleclpllu6 III lncb, ~itu IoW Iesef
 vstions-instances in which the acts of tn
 general conference are rendered legal onl, by the concurrent action of the annus , conferences the body which holds its ap
 preaching session at Omaha has entire con
 trol ecclesiasticslly, not only of all tn : ministers of this branch of Methodism but of all the members, of even those es ; ceedingly privileged characters, the bish ops, and, what Is perhaps still more in portant to practical minds, of all the val . property interests and all the inerting oi
 Aces.
 To appreciate fully what this means N must dip into figures little. The Metht dists of this continent number little lei than five and half millions. The 6, , rolled communicants number that man, , or nearly SO, and If for each member V . allow the addition of two adherents vi are not members, we see at once that th prospective gathering at Omaha will affe 3 In some measure 6 Methodist constituent - aegregating about sixteen millions of pc . pIe. Of course the influence of the co
 ference upon the great bulk of these wi be slight and wholly indirect. But ov ]. moro than two-ffths of this great constl
 uenoy its control will be ct once direct sl h That contemplating and prosperous bran 3. of Msthodism known ss the Method a Episcopal church south-the second large of all the denominations into which Met d odism is divided-will be represented 'e this conference only in fratsrnsl sem ss 1t will send greetings by honossd de