Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-06-03

plan will enable them to carry out
their scheme Of disintegration and
absorption" The fact of the business
is our northern brethren say to us
in effect: so fully do we trust you
that we leave it to you to say what
our larger body shall do in all mat
tiers that touch the work Of connec-
tional Methodism.' Let this be fully
understood. The northern jurisdic-
ton, under our plan of unification,
can do nothing whatsoever in the
south without the consent and APP
prevail of a majority of the southern
delegates in the general conference.
AS to DeadlOcks
Again, it is objected that there
will be the ever-present danger of a
deadlock with a general conference
composed Of two houses with a. gen.
eral conference composed OF two
houses which must vote separately.
In answer, ] remind the objector
that we do not often have a dead
lock in the congress of the SUnited
States And I further remind the OBJ
jector that in the original southern
plan, approved by the general con
ference of 1914, something not alto
reads as follows:
1--WE suggest that the general
conference shall consist of two
houses. All legislation of the
general conference shall require the
concurrent action of the two houses.
''The original thought of the
southern church was that this would
prevent hasty legislation. And much
hasty legislation. Indeed, it will
make it impossible for the general
conference radically to change any
thing. And while this general con-
ference moves slowly in effecting
changes, everything that in the
discipline of the southern church
stands exactly as it now is and can
not be changed in any particular
unless we ourselves change it.
90 According to our plan of unfit
cation, the Episcopal oversight of
the work in the two Jurisdictions re-
mains precisely as it now is without
any change whatsoever, so far as
local administration is concerned.
"The two colored bishops elected
on a separate ballot and exclusively
for the presidency of colored con-
ferences in the northern jurisdic-
ton, will go on with the work for
which they were chosen, having
nothing whatsoever to do with our
work in the south.
Northern bishops, elected by the
northern jurisdiction and for the
northern jurisdiction, will continue
to serve the northern jurisdiction.
Southern bishops, elected by and
for the Southern jurisdiction, will
continue to serve the Church OF the
South. Bishop Denny will continue
to live in Richmond and be
staunch southerner, while Bishop
Gambler resides in Atlanta and con-
tinues a steadfast Georgian.
"There will be just this advantage
and gain. Once a. year the Bishops
of the two jurisdictions will meet to-
gether and discuss the work of the
whole church And if the College of
Bishops of the southern jurisdiction
should invite a northern bishop to
do so, A bishop from the northern
jurisdiction might come south and
preside over a conference; while
Bishop Gambler might go to New
England and hold an annual confer
ence meeting in Boston, if the north
ern bishops should invite him to do
so.
Overlapping
90. I now call attention to the
greatest advantage to be derived
from the unification of Methodism,
namely, the stopping Of the present
sinful waste of men and money in
that part of the country where the
two Methodisms overlap.
"Unification means little to Metho-
dists living in New England, so far
as its immediate effect on them as
individual is concerned. The average
Methodist living in Georgia does not
every day face the folly and shame
Of wasting men and spiritual ener-
gies in duplication and competition.
But MethOdists in Missouri. and Ok.
lahOma, and Kentucky. and West
Virginia, and where the Holston
conference of the Southern Church
and the HOistOn conference Of the
northern church work side by side.
not TO speak of the Far West these
Methodists have had enough Of this
sort of thing. And they are not go
ing to put up with it any .onger for
the simple reason that they are PEG.
pie of sound business sense. I am
profoundly convinced that in all
these sections of the country, a
divided Methodism is sin. 1t can
no longer be justified either before
man or before Cod
Note carefully how our plan of
anification Will put a stop to this
kind Of the thing:
I. II Immediately stops the or.
ganization Of any new mission or