The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-24
Judges Decide in Favor of
Those Contending That
Clause Forbidding Dane
ing, Card Playing, Theater
Going, Etc, Should Not Be
Elimated From Church
Discipline.


defining improdudent and unchristian
conduct be eliminated from paragraph
248 of the discipline of the Methodist
Episcopal church: Dancing, playing at
| games of chance, attending theaters,
horse races, circuses, dancing parties,
or patronizing dancing schools.
This question was the basis of a.
highly animated debate in the meeting
of the Mems League Of the First M. E..
Church last evening.
By vote Of 2 to / Of the judges,
the negative side was declared vic
torious.
L. j. Cleman's, the newly elected
president of the league occupied the
chair and in taking his seat delivered
Drlef address urging activity among
the members in not only the business
OF the league, but in church work as
well.
c. D. Bentley had been chosen as lead
ing speaker for the affirmative, and
Z. d. Riser for the negative, but all
present were urged to express them
selves. AS the attendance included rep
resentatives of all branches of the
church membership, both sides of the
question were vigorously set forth.
The judges were DR.. Miller and
Mr.. Bentley in opening the discussion
for the affirmative read the entire Sec
tlon or the discipline for which the
clause under confederation had been Sc
lected. as we'll as other sections of the
discipline and rules. He said it was
not his purpose to discuss the pro-
priety or improperly Of the interdicted
amusements, ana as far as that phase
or the question was concerned, he was
free to admit that he considered some
of them to be sinful
He would base his argument for the
elimination of the clause from the rules
upon the point that no board of mis-
s1ons, no conference, or no preacher
or body of preachers need or should
dictate to the members of the Metho-
dist church as to what is right and
wrong. Those things man should be
permitted to judge for himself and in
the present day he believed the mem
bers Of the church to be sufficiently
enlightened to be trusted to that ex-
tent
Law Should Be Repealed.
Some of the requirements Of the
clause in question he knew to be more
honored in the breach than in the OBJ
servance and he believed 1t would be
best that the law be eliminated.
Mr.. Riser read a written address
UNFOLDING the rules and discipline of
the church as wisely conceived and
oounseling strict adherence to them
The church, he said, should not relax
In it's requirements.
'- I'VE don't want society,"" said he,
ito place the standard for the church;
rather that the church should set the
standard for society"
F. II. Ewing said this question was
one which impressed him very seri-
ously and he believed that it should
be we'll considered. He thought that
there were some highly moral perform
ances in theaters and possibly that
dancing might be done under circum-
stances not detrimental to morals. But
he felt that If these things were to
be tolerated the discipline should be
accordingly amended, and If the dis
cipline remained as 1t is, 1t should be
lived up to.
DR.. Love, pastor Of the First Meth
odist church of Minneapolis, said he
believed that he, as an individual, was
the only person who had the right to
determine what practices would have
a misleading tendency as affecting his
own conduct.
Opposed to Too Much Law.
He thought the principle Of all Pro-
testant churches was to make men
rather than to get the custody of mems
SOULS" and he believed that too much
law would have a detrimental effect.
DIR. Glvler, pastor of the First church,
spoke briefly, saying that when this
question was considered in the Meth
odist conference some of the newspa-
pers printed the assertion that the
Methodist church would ''set the seal
of its approval upon dancing and card
playing. To prevent any such mis-
leading impression, he felt that the
discipline must be allowed to remain
as it is.
w. H. Galbraith made the statement
that Of the last conference a majority
of the house voted for the elimination
of the clause in question, and the high
est legal authority in the church had
declared the vote to be valid, but there
was some question as to a quorum and
the clergy in revising the discipline
had left the clause in.
F. H. Fitz, ]. l.. Allen, E. p. Penni-
man and w. l.. Huntington spoke on
the negative side of the question, and
c. 0. Krieger, w. HI. Galbraith and