The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-15
Rev. DIE. Teague on dine convention.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
VIII you allow me to say to Rev. NJ. A.
league, of Pendleton, that his suggestion
that we drop the laymen's convention busi-
ness comes 100 late. All the preliminary ar
rangements are made. and it will have to
come off as advertised. 1t cannot be post
poned, even on account of the weather.
Nevertheless, his excellent paper is very
timely We are duly thankful for the con
cession' the preachers made when they
provided that half as many laymen as
preachers might go to the General Confer
ence; but, that certain predictions made at
the time may be fulfilled, we now want an
equal number there and in the annual con-
ferences, too, and them what next no
prophet can foresee. But believing the
church will be all the more effective by the
proposed notifications, we are inclined to
proceed. Certainly it has suffered nothing
from the concession" already made; but,
since in no quarter of century has it
prospered half so WELL we think the logical
result of the experiment is to grant still
more concessions" The men who foresaw
that equal representation in all the confer
ences would ultimately come were not in
spired; they We're only good logicians. To
one who knows and loves Brother league
/ do his paper is very suggestive. We
admit the laymen have never turned out
very strong when chance to vote on cur
rent questions has been conceded them,
but he must remember that while the voting
was going on DIR. Buckley said, in SUBJ
stance in The Great Otficial," GO on with
your voting, dearly beloved, If it affords
you any comfort, but 1t does not count,
for the preachers will not be bound by It,
OF course, he was correct; hence only three
voted who enjoyed the sensation, like lit
tie children play housekeeping" just to
enjoy the sensation which they imagine will
with q cal a
wonder that half as many voted as did
under the circumstances. Now, Brother
league Is one of our NEST iovable preach
ers. He has belonged to conference, ne tells
us, about forty years, but he fails to tell
US that for twenty years or more he has
been IL respected business man in PendIe-
ton, conducting a shop that is as distinc-
lively secular as any business can be, ana
presumably as profitable as the average
Vocations are; yet all these years he has
not only shared with the other slXty-elght
claimants on the conference funds, but he
has belonged to the ruling class by virtue
of retaining his membership in the con-
ference, while such local preachers as
Rev William Bowen, of this city, who for
more than nifty years preached as local
preacher, quite as well and quite as often
as Brother league ever did, have done 1t
without a dollar of compensation, ana With
out a word to say at any point In the gov
eminent of the church. AS L understand
this laymen's movement it is not to reduce
such as Nr. league to any lower grade or
to deprive him of his claim upon the con-
ference fund, but to give such able, faith
full and self-sacrificing men as William
Bowen and thousands like him an equal
voice in managing the business OF the
church without asking an equal snare IN
the funds of the church, however well they
may deserve it if measured by services
rendered 1T is, however, a little remark
able that in this controversy the men most
hostile to enfranchising the laity are men
who, like Brother league, are in health
enough to engage in remuneratlve pusl-
ness and yet hold fast to their place in the
governing class. For his sake am sorry
he wrote that paper, but for the laymen
very weak the arguments against It are,
even in able hands. LAY MAN.
New Castle Ind, Sept. IA.