The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-03
EPWORTH LEAGUE
CONVENTION OPENED LAST NIGHT
 IN SELMA.
Judge W. H. Thomas Delivered an Ad- dress on Asome Educational
 History of Methodism
 In Alabama.-


 History of Methodism
 In Alabama.v
 Advertiser Bureau,
 Selma. une 2.
 The seventeenth annual conference of the Epworth League of the Meth odist Churches of Alabama convened at the Church Street Methodist Church here tonight at o'clock. The opening session of the conference was attended by large number of the delegates as well as citizens who are interested m the work all church societies.
 The Church Street Methodist Church is one of the largest in the city, but the edifice was comfortably filled when the first session began. Throughout the church was scattered an occasional palm or potted plant which helped 70 add to the attractiveness of the church. Delegates to the conference of the Epworth League began to arrive this morning and came on every train. More delegates reached the city on the trains of this afternoon and tcnight. and it Is expected that others will ar- rive tomorrow morning. It is thought that when all of the delegates have arrived that there will be nearly 150 in attendance at the conference.
 The delegates to the conference who have already arrived are looking for ward with pleasure to their trip to- morrow afternoon to the Methodist Or phanage at Summerfield. They will be the guests of the Orphanage during the afternoon and evening and will witness the closing exercises of the orphanage school. which will take place there tomorrow night.
 A delightful program for the clos ing exercises of the Orphanage school has been arranged and in which there will take part the many little father less and motherless inmates of that in- stitution. They will make an excellent showing before one of the greatest church organizations of the State and the trip of the Epworth League dele- gates to the .orphanage will prove a most pleasant epoch of the conference. The first session of the conference to- night opened with a musical program which was rendered by the lady mem bers of the Selma Epworth League. A number of delightful selections were rendered which proved cause of con siderable enjoyment. After the rnusi- cal program pr. W. P. Dickinson, pas tor of the Church Street Methodist Church offered an eloquent and ferv- ent prayer for the work before the League and for the work which 1t had been doing in the years since its or ganization as we'll as asking the bless ing of God upon the workers and mem bers of the league.
 In the place of Dr. Thomas M. Owen  Judge William HoIcombe Thomas oi Montgomery delivered an address Some Educational History of Ala bama Methodism." Judge Thomas's address was most interesting and was heard with the closest attention by the large congregation who attended the opening session of the conference. He said:
 s'The history of the education of a people is the history of it's civilization Its civilization Is measured by It's in. tellectual. moral and religious life. The casual observer has marked the in. tellectual and moral evolution of man. kind as he progressed from the, bar. baric state. Long did man find himself coming to higher ground, not suspect. ing how he was driven by an innel consciousness demanding that his needs be known and strength tried in rela' tion to the aggregate experience. ol by how much he was led on by hil faith and hope of the social mind {.