The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-21

or America One rule forbade the taking
of such diversions could not be taken
in the name of the Lord Jesus" What
these consisted in was left to the conscience
of each individual, but the social conditions
OF the period as definitely included horse
racing, card playing, dancing and the the
alter as If they had been named specifically.
These rules" were adopted by the early
societies in America, and when. in 1854:
those were organized into an Episcopal
Church the rules were made the rules Of
personal conduct in it. and they have
manned unchanged in form 10 the present.
In Difference to the social life of the
period in America, in England,
the omnibus rule, which forbids diversions
which could not be taken in the name
of the Lord Jesus was held to forbid the
same class of diversions here as these,
hence Methodist EpiscOpalians were expect
ed to refrain from attending horse racings,
card playings. dancings and the theater,
and they did for half century or more.
But social life meanwhile underwent radi-
cal changes as to the moral influences of
most If not ALL of these diversions, and
Methodist Episcopalans began TO exercise
their personal opinions as TO their fitness,
under given conditions, for one who was
leading religious life, that the tradi-
tional classification became obsolete and
they visited horse races, theaters, dancings
and card parties, regardless of the tradi-
tional sentiment as to their moral infiu-
ences. Like the passing of the class meet
ing, this such a grief to many good
people that the General Conference of 1872
composed wholly of ministers, undertook
TO incorporate the effete traditional con-
struction of the rule, as given by Mr.. Wes-
ley, into special omnibus statute, which,
first recognizing the changed social condi-
tons of society in reference to dram drink
ing and dram selling, since the law of the
church allowed its members TO drink drains
at pleasure if they only did not get drunk,
and TO sell drains II they kept an orderly
house, made total abstinence condition
of membership, and not only wholly disal-
lows dram selling by member, but forbidS
the going the bond of saloon keeper
or otherwise helping him. There has been
no difficulty in enforcing this provision of
the omnibus statute because ii is in har-
mony with the consensus of religious peo-
pie. But with the second paragraph of the
statute, which many regard extra-con-
StftGtiOnal, therefore unconstitutional IL is
quite otherwise. The idea of chasing dane
ing and dancing schools and card playing
and theater-going and the other prescribed
diversions, as they are now taken in cul-
tured society, with dram drinking and sa-
bookkeeping, as they now exist, is of itself
inconsistent to say the least. AS an historic
fact the statute has not been enforced a
dozen times in the thirty years, nor has
the taking of these diversions been de-
creased. The only practical result has been
the withdrawal of many families from the
church who believed il their personal pre-
rogative to judge what diversions they
might take consistent with a religious life,
and the turning away of many others who,
in other church homes, have been exemp-
larry and useful Christians, doing good and
keeping pure.
MR.. COOPER'S STAND.
The sad occurrence referred TO above was
the death of Willis W. Cooper in the the
alter fire of Chicago. 1t is safe to say that
no member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. lay or ministerial, was ever held in
higher esteem by those who knew him init
mately, as a consecrated, useful and pure
man, but he persistently refused to accept
the construction arbitrarily put upon the
rule by the General Conference of 1872. He
claimed the right to exercise his own judg-
ment as to what diversions he might or
might not take in the name of the Lord
Jesus, as do tens of thousands of his CO.
members. In the exercise of this preroga-
tive he often attended the theater, claiming
that il afforded him rest and recuperation
from the many cares of an extensive and
could 1t was thus that he, a model Meth
odlst Episcopal, was drawn TO the theater
on that fatefql day. There Were hundreds
ent but his national and international rep
utatiOn as model Christian gave more
Inah oIulnary slshIieahce TO the sad event
and greatly lntensities the discussion al
ready well advanced as to the unconditional
repeal of so much of that statute of 1872
as-is entirely out of harmony with the So
cial life OF the present period. The event
is the more interesting in the fact that he
as lay member of the General Conference
OF 1896. moved the repeal of so much of the
statute as related to diversions 1t was
a failure because the ministerial members
outnumbered the lay members two to one
and the further fact that he was at the
time of his death member elect of the
next General Conference, and was intending
TO bring up the question again with every
reason to expect an affirmative result
In other things that polity evolution has
done its work. Three-quarters of a century
| ago there was not single school or acad-
| envy or college under the management of
the church, but the prevailing sentiment
was against the undertaking of educational
\ work by it. In 1902 there were i'm the two
| Methodist Episcopal churches, the North
| ana the South. 302 academies and colleges
| with an aggregate of 81 1888 students and a
| national university at Washington for post
| graduate work occupying ninety-three acres
or wel-located land, with twenty-three
| buildings, all paid for
| one may criticise, as an abstract propo-
sltlon, the poiity of such a church as being
uh-American, but when he studies results
IN the race of the fact that its beginnings
We're among the unlettered and the poorer
| people OF the period. he comedies that after
| all IL mas met the wants of its times in a
| WONDERFUL degree. In 1893 the enrolled mem
| pership OF the two branches was more than
-FOUR million, three-eighths of whom are
| IN the church South and five-eighths i'm the
| Northern branch. In the nineteenth CEN
| fury the population of the United States
multiplied hfteenfold. while the Methodist
| Episcopal churches increased sixty-onefold,
| or more than four times as rapidly as the
| population OF the United States, including
| the new island possessions while the
preachers in the two churches are eighty
| times as many as they were a hundred
! years ago All this is through evolution
! not revolution. T. a. GOODWIN.