Evening star., 1904-04-27
OFF FOR CONFERENCE.
Six Special Trains Take Methodists to
Los Angeles.

A dispatch from New York says: The
delegates to the general conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at Los An
geIes, together with a large number OF Wis
iting friends, left Jersey City on the per-
sonally conducted excursion arranged by
the Pennsylvania railroad on six vestibuled
trains at 10 o'clock today. Every provi-
sion has been made for the comfort of the
passengers crossing the continent. 1t Is
the largest excursion ever planned by one
company for the trip to California. and will
be complete in it's entire outfit with ste
nographers and all necessary attendants.
The party will spend next Sunday at
Grand Canyon Col, leaving there on Mon
day and arriving at Los Angeles on May z
At the close of the general conference,
which will probably adjourn on May q, the
excursionists will return by different routes.
Some will call at San Francisco. going
north to Oregon and on to the Yellowstone
Park. Others will take the Union Pacific
to Salt Lake City, Pixies Peak, Denver, st.
Louis and Niagara Falls. Business men
will shorten the trip and come home the
quickest way possible, having been absent
from five to six weeks.
The general conference will convene In
Hazards Pavilion, Los Angeles. at o o'clock
Wednesday, May i, and will be called to
order by Bishop Merrill; then, after the
seating of the Observation-Disclosures and lay
men from all parts of the world, about
seven hundred in number-the various COM
mittees will be appointed and the time OF
their first meeting determined.
AS early as possible the bishops address
will be read by Bishop Cyrus d. Foss of
Philadelphia. This address includes a re-
port of the episcopal superntendence of
the work throughout the denomination for
the last four years, with suggestions con-
cerning any change desirable in the policy
of the church, the necessary retention
of present forms of government, which are
subjects of widespread agita ation.
They will express themselves on the sub
Ject of amusements, the time limit of pas
tora tes, the consolidation of the publishing
establishments and the consolidation of be-
nevolences. The election of missionary
bishops will have their attention. well
the necessity for increased zeal in world
wide evangelization. The episcopal address
generally determines important legislation
| by the conference, and is studied with great
care by the body and the church at large
Much has been said and written about the
consolidation of benevolences, but little
change is anticipated in these organizations.
| Those who have been agitating a return to
| the time limit" of pastorates are likely to
be disappointed, at least for the coming
quadrennium.
In the west a large number Of the an
nual conferences have voted for the reten-
| ton of the 24Sth paragraph in the Disci-
| pline, which enjoins abstinence from GER
| tain forms of MISUNDERSTANDING, patron
| izing dancing schools, playing cards for
| gambling, attending theaters, etc. Other
| conferences are divided in their desires
| some requesting no change, others that the
| provisions be changed from mandatory
to an advisory relation in the Discipline.
This conference promises to become the
most important in history making since the
general conference of 1914, held in the
Greene Street Methodist Church. New York
city, when the denomination divided on the
question of slavery, leading to the organi-
zation of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South