The San Francisco call., 1895-10-09

| appointed to select the next place of meet
| ing reported in favor OF Boston and an
amendment was made substituting Louis
| vile and the matter went over.
| Ex-senator Edmunds of Vermont asked
for leave of absence to leave the city for
| the rest of the session and rendered his
resignation as member of the committee
on constitutional amendments. The leave
was granted and the resignation accepted.
| DIR. Rhodes of Southern Ohio raised a
| question as to the mode of procedure
observed in the morning in acting upon
the proposed amendments to the new con-
stitution. He urged the house in a rather
long speech to take up the committees re-
port and act upon its provision inde-
pendently without section 8, as adopted by
the House OF Bishops, providing that the
senior Bishop of the church should act as
the presiding officer OF the House of
| Bishops and be known by the title of pri-
mate, and to that end moved the postpone
ment of the message of the House of
Bishops. This provoked considerable dis
cussion, but was lost, and the question
| then fell upon the amendment offered by
Judge Bennett to take the place of section
2, as approved by the House of Bishops.
The section as approved by the Bishops
extended to the resigned Bishops whose
designations were made necessary by in
| trinity the right to vote in the House of
| Bishops, and the amendment deprived
| them of this right One of the delegates
from Rhode Island called attention to the
| fact that if the section be adopted as ap-
| proved by the Bishops, his small State
| would have two retired Bishops and one
officiating Bishop in that house.
| Mr.. Lightner, lay delegate for Mime
| sofa, thought the line should be very care
| fully drawn in granting permission to vote
| in the House of Bishops. DR.. McVicker
of Philadelphia also spoke in the same
tenor, and said that in denying retired
Bishops the right to vote the house would
| not be depriving them of any inherent right.
He spoke strongly against the plan, but
| Judge Benefits amendment was lost and
| the house concurred in the action of the
House of Bishops.
George G. Thomas of Pennsylvania shot
| Off the first arrow with all amendment sub
stituting the words Presiding Bishop"
| DR., Elliott of Maryland stepped to the
chancel, and with his tall form towering
above his associates from the altar steps,
said with cutting sarcasm that he was
greatly surprised at the marked change of
temper which had come over the house.
| The members of this democratic body had
met with representatives of the House of
| Bishops and unsolicited had extended
and broadened the episcopal power of the
| Bishops, and now these members wanted
to create an Office and adopt for it a name
which carried with it every suggestion of
| hierarchy. This church has retained its
name and it's institutions for 100 years,
and now it was proposed to transform the
face and personality of the church. He
had even heard one member say that he
hoped he would some time see an Arch
bishop in every State. There was too
much of a tendency to adopt the customs
of the Church OF England, and he did not
consider it digniied. The idea that the
church in this country was identical with
the church in England had in the past
worked great injury to the American
branch, from which it was just beginning
to recover, and this recovery was due to
| the sim rplicity of the American church.
| DR.. McKim OF Washington and DR.. Har-
wood of Connecticut also made addresses
in the same tenor. and DR.. Huntington OF
New York presented the other side OF the
1
| had, he said, to stand up to reply to three
of his best friends after the strong appeals
to good feeling which he had just heard.
| If it was intended that the Office of
| primate should be elected he would op-
pose it to the end, and if it was proposed
to associate it with new office he would
oppose it, but it was the intention to be
merely as title for the senior Bishop,
| and thus il would be mark of veneration
| to old age, and veneration for old age was
one OF the primary principles of good
| church morals. What he had intended to
say yesterday was that he wanted to see O
| presiding Bishop in every State, instead of
an Archbishop. The adoption of the term
Archbishop would, in his opinion, be alb
surd. This remark aroused some feeling
on the part of DR.. Carey of Albany, who
rose to defend himself. and DR.. Hunting
ton was compelled to mollify his friend by
withdrawing the word "absurd.'
DR.. Green of Cedar Rapids Iowa, thought
the house was wasting time in eulogizing
American churchmanship. Puritansm
had been the spirit of American church
manship during the first fifty years of the
country. That, and not adherence to the
English customs, was what had worked
injury to the church. But the course had
been gradually changed for the better. 1t
was the broadening out and assumption of
greater dignity that had now made this
church one OF the greatest institutions in
the country, while the American" insti-
tutions were crumbling to pieces at its
feet. The American church did not go to
England for Primate or Prlmus, but it did
go there for altar and chancel, for creed
and TIE Deum and for all the beautifulform
of worship now in use. And, why should
the American church not go to its
mother for its names as well as its form of
worship3 He would welcome the word
Primate, as it would put this church in
touch with that grand Anglican Christian
ity to which IL owed its being.
After brief addresses by DR.. Battershall
of Albany, DR.. Park of Massachusetts, and
Mr.. Fairbanks of Florida, Mr.. Thomas
amendment was balloted on and lost by
| vote of 152 ayes to 162 nays.
The question will thus revert to section
3 as adopted by the House Of Bishops when