Date. Place. Length. 1840 Baltimore... .34 days.. 1844 New York..........41 " 1848 Pittsburg...........32" 1852 Boston.. ...32" 1856 Indianapolis...... 35" 1860 Buffalo...... 34 " No. Confs. Ratio. Del. 28. .1 to 21......143 .33.. ...........1 to 21......180 .........23...............1 to 21......151 .........29.........1 to 21......178 .........38...............1 to 21......220 .........47.........1 to 27......220 It will be remembered that subsequently to the General conference of 1844 ten of the southern annual conferences separated from the Church, forming a southern organization. Eight years later the loss appears to have been very nearly made up. It should also be observed that there are two mission conferences which do not enter into this computation, as they have no representation in the General conference. They are the Liberia Mission conference and the Foreign German Mission conference. SEAT AND ACCOMMODATIONS OF THE LATE CONFERENCE. Buffalo occupies a commanding position in western New York, being the great commercial entrepôt, receiving the freight brought down the lakes and forwarding it through the Erie canal and by railroad to New York city. It is a city of about 80,000 or 90,000 inhabitants-well laid out, with broad, regular streets, and substantially built. Main-street forms a noble avenue, one hundred feet in width, passing through the heart of the city and extending some five or six miles. A bird's-eye view of the city was given in the Repository in May, 1855. There are four principal Methodist Churches in the city. Two of them-Grace Church and NiagaraStreet Church-are elegant edifices. The General conference held its sessions not in any of these churches, but in St. James's Hall. This is a spacious edifice, centrally located. The delegates occupied about one-third of the lower floor. Behind them a bar was fixed, in the rear of which a large number of visitors were accommodated. The galleries on three sides afforded still more ample space for visitors. But large as these accommodations were, the Hall was not infrequently crowded to its utmost capacity. The platform, about four feet in hight, was large enough to seat over a hundred persons. It was occupied by the presiding officers, secretaries, representatives of other religious bodies, etc. We doubt whether the General conference was ever before so well accommodated in its place of sitting. We may say the same of the homes provided for the delegates. The Buffalonians certainly manifested a hospitality noble and worthy of commendation. We feel quite certain that in this we speak the universal sentiment of the delegates. COMPOSITION OF THE CONFERENCE. As already intimated, the late General conference was composed of two hundred and twenty delegates, chosen by the ratio of one delegate for every twentyseven members of the respective annual conferences. All the Bishops were present and presided in regular rotation. Besides, there were delegates and representatives from other Wesleyan bodies. It was conceded on all hands that it combined an unusual amount of the wisdom, experience, and talent of the Church. There were men venerable for their years and for their services in the cause of Christ. There were men who have long been burning and shining lights in the Church of God, and whose names have become "household words" in all our Zion. There were men who have done hard service in frontier and border regions, as well as in foreign fields. There, too, were men who shine in the educational departments of the Church-men refined, chaste, classical in their style of thought and action. But there were also in that body men whose lips had been sweetened with the honey of Hymettus-men gifted with the loftiest powers of eloquence. They came from Maine and Missouri, from Virginia and Minnesota, and from distant California and Oregon. They came to legislate for the Church of God-to devise means for the removal of obstructions that hinder her progress, and also to devise others to secure for her increased efficiency and success. mains to look into their transactions and see how they met the questions that came before them. A body, composed of men, such as we have described, will not be likely to be led away with combustive excitement. Nor will it easily be deterred from the calm and deliberate execution of what it believes to be right and just. It re In the missionary department the progress, during the past four years, has been great, though falling far below what the great Head of the Church has given us the ability to do. Still the figures furnish ground of thankfulness for the past and of hope for the future. In the foreign work the number of missionaries has been increased from fifty-four to one hundred and twenty, and still the pressing calls are not half supplied. The number of converts has increased from 2,126 to 3,565. How full of encouragement that single fact! Souls are being saved in foreign lands. From among them God shall raise up his own messengers to herald salvation to their own people. In the domestic missions the number of missionaries has increased from two hundred and twenty-two to three hundred and five, and the membership from 15,631 to 22,033. The Sunday school interests of the Church have also been equally prosperous, as the following table will show: What a tremendous power is wielded by these 139,299 teachers and officers in the nearly 12,000 schools committed to their charge! Nearly a million of the young are thus being trained up in the Church. From among these shall come forth the giants who under God shall sustain the Church when the fathers have fallen in sleep; the heroes, who shall perform noble achievements and win new laurels for the cross of Christ. The great publishing interests of the Church have also manifested a healthy and substantial growth. It will be borne in mind that the "Book Concern," as it is awkwardly termed, was started in 1789-just 71 years ago. Its projector was a Methodist preacher, stationed in the city of Philadelphia; and the capital on which he commenced business was $600, borrowed money. It has not been used as a money-making concern, but to supply a cheap and good literature to the Church. For this purpose, its funds have often been diverted to establish depositories, and to sustain new and weak papers where they were needed by the people. From the small beginning indicated above, the Concern has steadily advanced till it now exhibits an aggregate capital, The number of books issued from the two Concerns is almost inconceivable. Yet every one is a messenger of light and truth to the understanding and the heart. Every one has its mission of beneficence. In nothing does the far-reaching wisdom of Mr. Wesley shine forth more clearly-showing him to have been greatly in advance of the age in which he lived than in his conviction of the necessity of providing a religious literature for his people, and in the practical methods employed to secure that object. The fact is, that after the experience of two-thirds of a century we have scarcely improved upon the methods of our great Founder. The following is an approximate to the aggregate of our periodical force. The figures are for 1859; but we can not vouch for their entire accuracy. Lay representation in the General and annual conferences has occupied the attention of the Church, more or less, for several years. Many of the best friends of the Church-we are not sure that they make a large proportion of the whole number-have soberly and earnestly desired it. And we think that we may safely say that the feeling of the great majority of the ministry has been in favor of it-conditioned upon the concurrence of two circumstances, namely: 1. That the people approved of the measure; and, 2. That some plan should be presented which would not mar the unity, nor impair the efficiency of our present system-especially our itinerancy. It is safe to say that up to this time there has been no such concurrence of these circumstances. No evidence has been given that a majority of our people approve the measure; and no plan has as yet been devised against which there were not insuperable objections. Such were the aspects of this question as it came before the late General conference. With a unanimity almost unparalleled, that body ordained, substantially, the following provisions: First, an approval of the principle of lay representation in the General conference, whenever the people should express their wish for such a measure. Then, in order to ascertain the voice of the people, each preacher was directed, at a called meeting of the male members of his charge over twenty-one years of age, to take the ballots for and the ballots against lay representation, and report the same to his annual conference at its session in 1862, to be entered upon its journals and reported to the next General conference. It was also provided that at the sessions of the annual conferences in 1862, the votes of the traveling ministers should be taken and recorded, and reported in the same way and to the same body. We know of no more just and equitable method of ascertaining the voice of the Church upon this subject. A measure like this, so heartily enacted by the General conference, should forever silence those empty blusterers who have been accustomed to charge the ministry with an unrighteous grasping of usurped power. Every lover of Zion must be cheered with the hope that a measure so auspiciously proposed will eventually lead to a happy solution of this difficult problem in the Methodist economy. Let the electors come together in an orderly and brotherly manner, and determine the question. THE SLAVERY QUESTION. This question presented itself to the late General conference under new aspects, in its relation to Methodist law and usage. The old chapter on slavery, which in itself was a bundle of crudities and contradictions, had become virtually obsolete, as, with scarcely an exception, emancipation is rendered practically impossible upon the soil of the slave states. Besides that, a new theory of exposition-making the Methodist Church constitutionally a slaveholding Church-had been propounded, and unfortunately received by those who should have been the first to have repudiated it. Under these circumstances, conservative men who had sought no change of Discipline, so long as its antislavery character was unimpeached, found no way of vindicating their own antislavery position and that of the Church, but by making the language of the Discipline explicit. The debate upon the question was not always so much to the point as could have been desired. But nevertheless it was conducted with much Christian courtesy and manliness, and with great good feeling. The new chapter clearly sets forth the moral judgment of the Church and the significance of our ecclesiastical rules upon the subject of slaveholding. It is a declaration of principles, on which the Church of Jesus Christ every-where can stand. And standing upon that, firmly and truly, the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. The passage of this chapter by the decisive vote of 156 yeas to 57 nays, will go far, we humbly trust, toward the settlement of this question in the Church for years to come. We trust it will leave the Church more compact and united than ever before. As in 1856, we have to record that when our brethren from different sections came together and compared views, they differed less-far less in principle, than was apprehended. Upon questions of policy-the best, the most judicious method of action-they differed widely. Each viewed it from his peculiar stand-point of observation, and stoutly, as was his right, contended for his view. A cotemporary says "that in all bodies where this slavery question has been discussed, far too little allowance has been made on both sides for the presence and controlling influence of sincere conviction upon the subject." If any thing of this kind was manifest in the earlier stages of the debate, it was not so in the end. Indeed, when the views, purposes, and action of the majority came to be more fully understood, the partition walls that separated brethren seemed to be so insignificant that the current of sympathy and brotherly feeling was unchecked by them. The General conference then became one in feeling, as it had been all along one in doctrine. God grant that it may ever so remain! GENERAL CONFERENCE OFFICERS. Perhaps never before was the election of General conference officers canvassed with more propriety or effected with greater unanimity. Most of them were made by acclamation, and in no instance was a second ballot necessary. The following are the results in the order of their occurrence: 1. Editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal. 7. Editor of Ladies' Repository and Books at the Western Book Concern. Rev. D. W. Clark, D. D., was elected by acclamation. 8. Editor of German Apologist and Books. Rev. W. Nast, D. D., was elected by acclamation. 9. Editor of North-Western Christian Advocate. Rev. T. M. Eddy elected by acclamation. 10. Editor of Central Christian Advocate. Number of votes cast............................................................. Necessary to a choice.. Rev. C. Elliott, D. D., had. Dr. C. Elliott was declared elected. 11. Editor of Northern Christian Advocate. Rev. I. S. Bingham was elected by acclamation. 12. Editor Pittsburg Christian Advocate. Rev. S. H. Nesbitt elected by acclamation. 13. Editor California Christian Advocate. Rev. E. Thomas was elected by acclamation. 14. Editor Pacific Christian Advocate. Rev. T. H. Pearne was elected by acclamation. 15. Book Agent at New York. Rev. Thomas Carlton elected by acclamation. 16. Assistant Book Agent at New York. Rev. James Porter elected by acclamation. 17. Book Agent at Cincinnati. Rev. A. Poe elected by acclamation. Rev. L. Hitchcock was declared elected. 217 .109 .131 83 218 113 ..115 90 13 All these elections, together with quite an amount of miscellaneous business, were effected in a single session of less than three hours. The Editor again makes his bow to his numerous patrons, and enters once more upon his duties with a determined purpose to make the Repository, more than ever before, a welcome visitor to the family circle. Scattering Dr. Thomson was declared elected. 73 3 We shall complete our résumé of the General conference proceedings in our next number. |