Evening star., 1901-09-07
IN The CHURCHES

Members of the Methodist Episcopal
churches throughout the country are inter
ested in the fact that the approaching con-
ferences will be called upon to decide the
long-pending question of a revised consti-
tuition. The preliminary work has been
done with great deliberation and care, and
the instrument itself, which has served the
church for ninety years, is revised and
adapted to the needs of the present time
Objection is made that the annual con-
ferences are not to be allowed to consider
and act upon the items in detail, as did
the general conference. The annual confer
ences were, however, all represented in the
general conference, which studied the items
in detail and adopted them and recon-
mended them to the annual conferences for
concurrence.
The members of the annual conferences
are to act not coordinate body enact
ing a law, as the two houses of a legisla-
ture but as a concurrng body with the
single duty which is to concur or not con-
cur. Then, again, the annual conferences
as such are not to act at all. They have
no constitutional function in the matter as
conferences. The individual members of
the annual conferences vote and are count
ed as individuals, and the whole body of
the membership in all the conferences con-
stitutes the one concurring body.
A prominent minister, in speaking about
this matter, Safd
perhaps the strongest objection that has
yet appeared to the revised constitution is
that which protests against making the
articles of religion a part of the constitu-
tion or bringing the doctrines of the church
into the demain of legislation or under the
governing power of the church. The fact
is, the revised constitution does not affect
or modify the posture Of the church or the
general conference with reference to the
articles of religion or the doctrines of the
church or the general rule of the church in
the least degree. All these remain as they
were. The same restrictive rules that have
without the change Of a syllable The doc
trines and general rules have always had
the nature and force of a Constitutions; they
have yet and always ought to have. 1t is
not unlikely that behind some of the ef-
forts to defeat the pending revisions is the
old objection that women may get into the
general conference under it. If the revised
constitution goes into effect
The next meeting OF the board of foreign
missions Of the general synod of the Eng
lish Lutheran Church will be held in ROYAL
Arcanum Hall. Baltimore, October 8. The
board held a meeting there this week at
| which the principal topic discussed was
pe Th
UP before the general synod at it's meeting
in Des Moines, Iowa, May 20 last, and it
referred the matter to the board, which
that the work should not be abandoned.
but that the obstacles which the mission,
aries have met with have served to show
the greater need of the work and the need
Of increased activity dE,aaass amsng the workers;
Kruhlman OF Frederick. Nd, president;
Rev. D: M Gilbert a4 d,,aar Of HHarTisburg, + Pa.
timore, treasurer. and Rev. DR.. A. III.
studebaker Of Brooklyn; Mr.. Henry c.
Hines Of Baltimore; Rev; Dr. R. w. HUFF
master OF the theological seminary at
Gettysburg. Pa. Rev. DR.. E. H. Bell Of
Baltimore and Mr.. =. B. Stork Of Phila-
delphia.
Mr.. G. Campbell Morgan, now being gen.
orally accredited as the successor to the
late Dwight L. Moody. will. 1t is under
stood, soon visit Washington. In a letter
received here Mr.. Morgan says he is not
an evangelist but a Bible lecturer, engaged
in Northfield extension work. Those who
knew Mr.. Moody and have heard Mr.. Nor
gan say that undoubtedly he is not an
evangelist in the sense that Mr.. Moody
was an evangelist. He is, they say. too in
teliectual and spiritual to move the vast