The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-22
EoUMENICAL CONFERENCE.


 London-The First Conference, ane
 London's Methodist Lord Mayor-Th,
 Delegates to the Coming One-Ir
 John WesIey's Church.
 London, Aug IA.
 To the Editor of the Journal and Courier:
 The first week in September will be g
 memorable one in the religious life of
 London, and to at least one body of re-
 ligionists it will be memorable through
 out the world. for it will witness the
 home coming to this city of the forces
 of world wide Methodism, and the
 gathering together in the very Church
 in which John Wesley himself used to
 preach of those five hundred ministers
 and laymen, three hundred from Amer
 ica and two hundred from this side,
 whose honor and happy lot it will be to
 represent the twenty or more branches
 of this numerous family in what, af-
 ter, fourteen days of fellowship and
 counsel, will pass into history as the Third Methodist Ecumenical Confer 9ence, The first of these Conferences
 " Nt' iACit tNCillS yCdlo rSO. LieAb N&is3o, as the present one will do, had its hab- itation under the historic roof of Wes- sleys own Chapel, but the second found its fitting place of assembly in the capi- tai of that new world in which Method~ isp has had it's greatest expansion. It was held ten years ago in Metropolis an M. E. church, Washington, D. c.
 A fortunate circumstance in connec- ton with the first homecoming of those who represented worldwide Methodism was that at that time Methodist held that civic position in London which is second only in author ity and honor to that of the Sovereign. At the Mansion House in the Lords Mayors seat was Sir William McAr- thur, the son of a Methodist preacher, and himself a Methodist of the fervld, old fashioned kind, as the thousands of Americans who saw him will readily recall. It was a wonderful thing for the English followers of John Wesley to have one of their own faith in po- 8sition of supreme dignity such as that and when it came about that during Sir Williams term of office John Wes- Iey's Chapel in City Road happened to be the gathering place of the hrst Methodist Ecumenical British Method- ism, it may we'll be supposed, was in high feather. Here was a chance to let the country in which Methodism was born to see in the strongest possible light, under the glamour of the high est civic patronage, what Methodism had grown to be both in the mother land and in those lands across the sea where this simple form of worship had found a wider field and altogether easier conditions
 < This Methodist Lord Mayor of Lon- don met the occasion in really mag niflcent way. A delegate to the Con- ference, he was always present when his higher civic duties would permit, but his greatest service-one for which American no less than English Method Ism must always honor his memory was in rendering the Conference itself l and all foreign visitors to it formal at the Mansion House. No | of civic State was lacking | It this memorable function. Sir Will lam MacArthur was so determined not | e slight his co-religionfsts that he did | aOt diminish by even so much as sin Fla variety the seven kinds of wine that | ire provided at Mansion House recep- l ions These products of the finest | yintages of Europe were all present on | he beautifully laden refreshment ta- lies. with each of the different colored | ylasses in which they are served, and 1 he American delegates, despite their 1 temperance sentiments were it liberty to share in these stimulating beverages, had they chosen to do So, 1 with their brthren of the Methodist churches in England who, it $ well known, are not so self denying n such matters. But they didn't, and | lt first some of them seemed to resent he social necessity which had compell- .d them to even Hook upon the wine when it is red and when it moveth it. elf right" But good feeling trium- ,hed before long, as it could hardly ,eip doing under the genial, whole o,lled influence of such 0 host as Sir William McArthur provide himself to
 One recalls this Methodist Lord May N as a fat jolly looking Irishman, with all the wit and good nature of his ace His features were rosy and full. Ie was hearty in manner, and there vas more suggestive of a Methodist lass meeting than of the Mayoral dig ftfes of a great city like London. In III the splendid regalia of his office did ir William receive the thousands of istfnguislled Methodists who that day the Mansion House, and when his imposing formality had ended, he roceeded to do something which made he ministers from America fully for i've him for having, in the true Brit ,fl style of hospitality, put the tempta- lon of wine before them What he did i fact, considering the place and all be circumstances, was something thich ought to be commemorated by very Methodist historian on both sides the Atlantic. The era of flash lights ad not dawned twenty years ago, oth rWise the camera would surely have ( augl1t Sir William in this act, and f would hve been the richer for I Z just as ten yearsA later, it cought < isllop Hurst in the act of welcoming lat second Ecumenical at Washing m. What the Lord Mayor of London did ( ]at day, after formally receiving his T nests, was first to put on a pair of ,ld-rimmed spectacles and then to q Ike cut of the inside pocket of his I ayoral robe a well-worn Methodist I ynn Book. Then, mounting canop- q pedestal, he called the meeting to Il der, preliminary to the speech mak- [ !