The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-12-01
THE METHODIST CONFERENCE.

Thp good people of Raleigh feel deep
w gratified at the presence in their midst
of the members of the Methodist Con
ference. which viii this morning begin
its deliberations.
We give them a warm welcome across
our hospitable threshold.
North Carolina has been singularly
marked by that moral sense, among its
reoo,e which furnishes field ready to be
sown with best results by those chosen
of God to carry His message.
The State is no less marked in the
Catholic spirit of cooperation, in the
larger sense, VIII ,ch permeates the sever
al great denominations.
The field is Eeing covered to the
STRENGTHENING OF the citizen and the
home, and no gathering of those speak
ing for whatever demon nation should b.
looked upon with any other feeling than
one of deep reverence for its purpose.
Therefore, this week the proceedings
of this great annual Methodist gather
ing will he followed with interest by
all our good citizens.
There was, 40 10 the ease
with every successful reformer,
place and need for Yves
ley and Wesleyanism. He came. and
that need was adequately met and that
place adequately filed. Wherever men
love things that are Of Christ, the
aroma Of the abundant blossoming of the
seed Of Whitfield 10 felt to DO wholesome
and helpful In all religious. The CON
sers:on in which NetAodisn was planted
was enc to bear fruit for unexpectedly
for the poor and needy. The history OF
It's progress, as told by the lamsnted Nc
Iyiere and others, reads like an epic, and
yet the tale win never be told in all the
details of its splendid sacrifices.
It's life in America. if it has been by
rugged ways, has yet felt, a. it could moi
have felt elsewhere, that glow and fire
and electric thrill possible at its best,
9Dly when, as in this case, the obstacles
f pioneer field have been met by az
organization uniquely OF the pioneer
spirit. It is not always that the field and
the FASH ner are 90 happily one. or
what have been the results, men know
IN what suherings they i, have been
achieved, men feel an advance in what
might have been thought to be the limit
OF heroic endeavor
Very recently, Bishop Keener, before
the conference at Asheville, took occa-
SION to say that in all his experience he
had never known the reports upon the
characters Of the ministers to be SO sat
isfactory. In this time when be-
wiiuerments seem to beset more than
ever the straight and narrow way, it is
much that the fact justifes such re-
mark from the presiding Bishop. 1t is
even IN the midst of modern
vicious depressants, to know that, while
the Methodist ministry is meeting, in
auoptiDii1LlGS. All tie just OculdDuS Oh
a time more vivid in color than that
of Wesley, it is yet, as suggested by
the character of It's ministers, strong
with the same simplicity and single pur-
pose that We're the golden thread of the
life OF its founder. 1t has not lost sight
of its point of departure, nor yet of its
point of destination. In its methods of
rotation, there is moS than mere change
of pastor: there is involved, likewise,
a spirit of resignedness ON the part Of
each one to go where the work calls.
But it is needless to follow this line
further. Our purpose is to give greeting
to their learned and consecrated Bishop,
and to the brethren. as well as to ex-
press the wish that the work they have
in hand, in it's visible results, may seem
good to them, and may continue, even
more abundantly, to seem good to-
a world it has so signally helped to
anlighten and to uplift.