The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-15
EPWORTH LEAGUE.
Methodist Churches to cele-
brate Tomor row the
Society's Eighth
Anniversary.
CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARIES
Meeting in Sara
toga in Jane-Christian En-
deavor and Church News.
CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARIES

Sary of the EpWGrth League, which Will
be celebrated tomorrow in $1,000 Metho-
dist Churches throughout the United
States, it is interesting to note that the
man who named this far reaching and
powerful organization Is a resident of
this city. The story of how the name,
which has become famous as that of the
most powerful auxiliary society which
the Methodist Church in America has
today, came to be adopted has been told
again and again, but the occasion gives
an excuse for repeating 1t. 1t was in the
convention called for the purpose of form
ing a league of all the young peoples
societies in the Methodist Church. The
league had been decided on and there was
a great struggle over the name. Robert
Doherty of this city was one of the dele
gates to the convention. The two names
which the convention were considering
were oxford League" and Wesley
League" DR.. Doherty arose to speak in
favor of the former name. He had an
Epworth hymnal in his hand. There is
a great CHARM he said, Sin the Did
historic names such as the Oxford
Hymnal and the Epworth League" 1t
was q slip of the tongue and the doctor
was somewhat embarrassed at his blum
der, but it acted as an inspiration to the
other delegates. "Epworth League; that's
the name for us: let it be the Epworth
League" came from all parts of the hall
and the name was adopted, Mr.. Doherty
being the only delegate to vote against it.
Mr.. Doherty was seen by a News"
reporter last night at his home, No. Il
Belmont avenue, and at his request told
the story of the formation of the Ep-
worth League and briefly sketched it's
history to date.
Prior to 1889" he said, there were five
little societies in the Methodist Church.
The two stronger ones were the Oxford
League, with its headquarters in New
York, and the Methodist Alliance, with
its headquarters in Chicago. The oxford
League was mainly literary, while the
| Alliance was purely religious in its char
acter. In their aggressiveness and desire
to increase In membership these societies
got in each others way and there came
to be difficulty in the West. where three
or four of the societies would sometimes
be found in one church.
Bishop Merrill of Chicago saw this
and wrote to several of those interested
in the work among the young people, in
| viting them to meet and consider the adj
| visibility of uniting all these scattered
| societies.. The result was that a con-
| vention was held at the invitation of the
Methodist Alliance. I was one of q
men, most of them quite young. who went
as delegates to that convention. We met
in Cleveland on May Is md 16, 1889, in a
| little frame chapel known as the Central
Church.. The impulse given this church
by the formation of the Epworth League
has caused it to become one of the larg-
est churches in the west. It's name has
been changed to Epworth Church and its
large congregation worships in a magml-
ficent stone structure, the dome of which
is an architectural wonder The forma-
ton of an alliance of the societies was
quickly decided upon. but the harmonizing.
of the plans for the organization was
not very easy. There was a struggle
over the name, the colors, the badge and
the constitution, each society wishing to
! ~perpetuate its own organization. 1t was
compromised by adopting the colors of
the Methodist Alliance. and most of the
stftution of the Oxford League. Then
came the struggle over the name" 1t
was here that the incident already de-
Continuing. DR.. Doherty said:-"At that
time the Bishops of the Church were
holding their annual convention at Della
foASy NiAO, AtNo Go oOOAA as Wc matt oO-
cided upon the name we appointed a
committee of five whic went to Della
ware and handed the new organization
to the Bishops will a request that they
appoint a Bishop to superintend it. They
promised to have the Epworth League
adopted as a part of the church at the
next general conference. which was three
years distant, and in the meantime ap-
pointed Bishop Fitzgerald to take charge
of the League. Although he was then
is an Eastern man. He was born in
Newark and was brought up in the old
Central Church on Market street. He
was a lawyer before he became a Matho-
dist Bishop and spent some time studying
in the office of the late Chancellor Run
accepted by the General Conference in
1892.
Bishop Fitzgerald remained president
of the League until this spring. when he
was assigned to other work and was sue
enormous growth of the League may be
| seen from the fact that when it was
formed it had only 1900 local societies,
whereas It now has nearly 1900 chapters
and few short of a million members. The
The Rev. ". ]. Haven of Boston, in
charge of the religious department.;
Robert H. Doherty, Ph.D., literary de-
partment; the Rev. w. N. Mills of Ell
mira, mercy and help department, and
J. A. Patten, a young medical man Of
Chattanooga, who is in charge of the
social branch. W. E. Piper, a Chicago
lawyer, is treasurer, and the Rev. DR.. III.
A. Schell is. travelling secretary. DR..
Berry publishes the official paper of the
has a circulation of 100, 900.
The League is also carrying on a
f1ourishing work among the negroes in
the Southern States. In no two ways