The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-14
METHODIST LAYMEN.
Rev. MIR. league Thinks the COmiT
Convention Unnecessary.


To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
have seen in the Journal a call for a
convention of Methodist laymen on the 18th
inst in the interest OF equal lay repre-
sentation. After noting most that has been
said and done, and, having an annual con-
ference membership of near forty years
standing, 1 see no need of such action.
The lay people do not want it. They are
satisfied. This is evident from the church's
unequaled prosperity in the last forty
years. Also, because in that time all the
changes which have been made of a prom
inent character and called by DR.. T. A.
Goodwin Evolution, have been placed be-
fore the lay people of the church, and not
one of the proposed changes has called out
a vote of one-fourth of the membership.
Most Methodists are loyal to the policy of
the church as it was when they joined it,.
and so devoted to it as not to put it to
the test of untried methods which may him
der rather than increase it's great useful
ness. Those who Joined annual conferences
forty years ago regarded our appointments
as coming from God and not result of
cliques and calls-the result of the inter
ference of laymen's work for or against
charges as such; nor yet of the inor-
upon the part of individual ministers or
laymen.
The changes proposed, as those adopted,
take us further from the ground of our
success and interpose difficulties almost
insurmountable. We are destroying our
itineracy just so far as we get away from
the ways of our fathers, and no one can
aver that the itineracy has not been a
reasonable
say, as they have done in the past, Let
we'll enough alone"
There have been large concessions made
to laymen, among them giving them one
third the membership Of the General Con-
ference, the only and highest law-making
department of the church; a, below the
annual conference the laynen hold in their
grip the completely controlling power of the
church. In all this the minister has no
determinate power whatever what more
can they ask? In the laymens hand, also,
are the sinewS of war. They make and
unmake salaries; they report benevolences
in reality they advise policies and dictate
appointments. AS a result, there is not a
less salaried, more patient and less COM
planning body of devoted men according to
their varied abilities than the body of M.
L. ministers Yet these laymen are often
heard to characterize the church, in which
they hold all determinate power, as a
esneciaiiVy one Of ministers It can be moth
ing else. It's work pertains only to the
ministerial office. 1t cannot make nor I'M
make any law. II Is COilpOSSO VI pdSlOl >
who report the grand work of the lay
men, as we'll as their own work. If lay
men are there. workers, 1t is to do
some work committed to them by the min
listers; or on the other hand, inject their
church politics. into the work of the
conference, in most cases TO the detriment
of the work OF the ministers and the good
of the charges they represent The annual
conference is about the only place the
ministerial office is exercised from that of
bishop down In the General Conference he
is only a presiding officer. In the annual
conference he adds to that his pGerogative
belonging to his ministerial office a
bishop. n fact, it is said that he makes
the appointments. This, under the present
regime, he cannot do, because of the in
reference of laymen and politics OF
preachers. Nor can he do ii, because of his
ignorance of both preachers and charges
to be supplied; not one-tenth of which is
he at all acquainted with. All that he can
do is to sanction the appointments as his
own and announce them as such, after
hearing his advisors. the presiding elders.
Yet we hear these bishops termed auto
Gratis when their Office is limited on every
hand and often made noneffective by lay
men whose ofIiciousness has done more
harm than benefit.
The presiding eldership is probably the