you on behalf of the society God-speed. Our success is bound up with you, and your success is bound up with us. God speed you in your work for the evangelization of the world! (Applause.) RESPONSE BY REV. MATTHEW SIMPSON, D. D., LL. D., BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. BISHOP SIMPSON said: The reception of the deputations is now ended, and we shall have some replies from different sections of the Churches represented in our Conference. I have been requested by the committee to say a few words on behalf of the Episcopal Methodist Churches of America. (Applause.) Our Churches and our people, so far as I know, most cordially greet the brethren of all denominations which have been represented here this evening. We know and love the friends of the Presbyterian brethren, looking to Scotland, as we are accustomed to do, for many of our earliest professors and presidents of our colleges, and receiving from Scotland through the north of Ireland in large masses that Scotch-Irish population which laid the foundation of many flourishing colonies in our country. So, too, we are brought into contact with the Baptists, and, as has been said of themselves this evening, we find the Baptists almost wherever we go, scattered among the people as we are scattered and working in a great measure on the same great platform. The Moravians, though not so numerous, receive our affection and most fraternal feelings, accustomed as we have been to read of Mr. Wesley as having had those interesting conversations with Count Zinzendorf; and so the Methodists of America fraternise most joyfully and gladly with our brethren of other denominations. (Applause.) I can only join in wishing that the time might soon come when we could stand more closely together, not in organic union, but in presenting before the world the unity of affection and love, the unity of Christian effort more earnest for the souls of men in all parts of the world. For myself I want to say that I have had some close connections with these bodies. I visited Herrnhut a number of years ago, and saw their order. About the same time I was a member of the Evangelical Alliance Meeting at Berlin, and we were received by the King of Prussia at Potsdam. When I was introduced, he asked me where my diocese was. Well, as we have no diocese in our country, I was rather at a loss, and I said to him: "I live in Pennsylvania." He said, "O, that is not it. I want to know what your district is over which you preside." "Well," said I, " may it please your majesty, we have no particular districts; we travel at large over the country.' "O yes," said he in a moment, you are like the Herrnhuters." He understood their Episcopacy: it was a type of ours. 66 As for myself, in religious training I come on the one side from the Scotch-Irish-these Presbyterians represented here. My father's family were from Ireland, and from Scotland before that time; and so, on my father's side, I am about half Presbyterian. (Laughter,) My mother was of an old American family, and was a Baptist (laughter)—and so the Baptist and the Presbyterian uniting formed a Methodist. (Great laughter.) I mention this as a type of the coming union. (Laughter.) I rejoice to meet with my brothers of all these denominations, and to bid them God-speed. It may be a little time in our own Methodist bodies before we attain present and perfect unity. I have stood in our own country by the side of great rivers where they come together, and I have noticed the flow of the waters, that although they come together, perhaps for two or three miles, the streams seem to keep a little to their own sides of the shore. But by-and-by they forget it all; the drops mingle into one, and no one can tell whence they came. (Applause.) So may it be with all Christians of all denominations-melting into the Spirit of Christ, and doing good through all the world. RESPONSE BY REV. GEORGE OSBORN, D. D., PRESIDENT OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE. DR. OSBORN said: I am here, as you well know, to represent the old, original Wesleyan Methodists. ("Primitive," some one responded.) (Laughter.) No, I won't say Primitive—(laughter)-because I am sure that would convey an incorrect impression-but the old, original Wesleyan Methodists; and on their behalf, and in their name, humbly and respectfully to thank the brethren who have addressed us this evening from the Presbyterian body, from the Moravian body, from the Baptist body, from the Congregationalist body, and from the Jews' Society, for those kind sentiments which they have been pleased to express, for that appreciation of our unworthy character to which they have given utterance, and for those good wishes which on this occasion they have so freely and so eloquently poured forth. As we have been speaking on the subject of hymnology to-day, and this is an adjourned meeting of the Conference, it did occur to me that if I could find a Moravian verse, and a Presbyterian verse, and a Baptist verse, and a Congregationalist verse, the best thing I could do would be to recite it, and give them a welcome in the shape and form with which we are both familiar; but for the life of me they won't come just now. (Laughter.) I can remember a Presbyterian verse which, forty-five years ago, when, with many of the glorious old Presbyterians with whom I was then on terms of familiarity, not to say intimacy, Dr. Candlish, Dr. Duff, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Cunningham, Dr. John Brown, Dr. William Symington, and a score of others, I used to delight in singing: "Behold how good a thing it is, And how becoming well, Together, such as brethren are, (Applause.) And the other verse that comes at this moment into my mind is a Baptist verse: "Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love; We all agree how good and pleasant it is to look one another in the face; not to provoke one another to renew hostilities or to envenom existing controversies; but to see how much we can diminish the area of controversy (hear, hear)—how much we can enlarge the area of agreement, how much we can assist one another in a common struggle against the common enemy of God and man. (Applause.) Those great and holy men of whom I have just spoken, and not a few others with whom it was my happiness to be associated at the time to which I refer, in an attempt to promote Christian union held with me and I with them, that our union is to be sought, not in a uniform system of Church government, not in uniform standpoints of doctrine, but by the cultivation of a uniform love; and that it is by the cultivation of the principle of Christian love that the essential unity which really subsists, although sometimes we find it hard to manifest, will become increasingly manifold, until the world is compelled to own it. But that cultivation and development of mutual love absolutely requires intercourse as frequent as we can make it; the wider we stand apart the wider we shall keep apart, and the oftener we come together the oftener we shall like to come together, and the better we know one another the better we shall like one another; and therefore, at meetings like these, although they may of necessity be few, and be (whenever they are held), I was going to say conscientiously attended, every opportunity should be given in the manner just now indicated, to set forth that in heart we are one, however our respective intellectual convictions may differ, and however our external forms may differ. At the throne of grace there is no perceptible difference whatever, and before the throne of glory, to which, I trust, we are all hastening, what difference will there be? What do those blessed men of whom I have now spoken, who are all gone, not one of whom is here on earth--after forty-five years, what do they think now of our attemps to approximate? And what shall I think forty-five years hence of our attempts to approximate? Shall I regard them? Do they now regard them? I have held to this principle from the beginning of my long ministry. Every year confirms me in it; and now, perhaps, on the brink of that world to which they are gone, I would only express, in the words of John Wesley, his ideal of Christian unity, and pray that we may be enabled to realize it: "Many are we now, and one We who Jesus have put on. There is neither bond nor free, Male nor female, Lord, in thee! Love, like death, hath all destroyed, RESPONSE BY REV. W. B. REID, PRESIDENT OF THE BIBLE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. (Applause.) Mr. REID said he believed he should correctly express the sentiments of all the bodies that were represented when he said that they heartily reciprocated the kind and fraternal greetings to which it had been their pleasure to listen. In common with all the sections of the Methodist family, and of all the families of Christendom, they would hail with interest and delight the assembly of such a council as would comprise representatives from all those who held the headship and faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whilst holding to those doctrines which with so much stability and fixity had been held by the Methodist bodies, and adhering to those usages which they had preserved in common to so large an extent, yet they might be permitted to yearn after a wider and fuller catholicity than had yet obtained. They had heard once and again of divisions, and certainly the time had been when the various phases of Christian doctrine had been vividly and distinctly expressed, and when the several forms of Church polity had been illustrated, to say the least, with equal amplitude and emphasis, and yet possibly they were reaching a period when they would look not to the extension or even the overshadowing of any one of those phases of faith and practice; but to such a reconciliation of the whole as should take place when their Lord the great Head of the whole Church should reconcile all things unto Himself, both which were in heaven and which were on earth (applause)-and should make them to be beautiful as the rainbow which surrounds the throne. RESPONSE BY REV. JAMES GARDNER, D. D., OF THE CANADA METHODIST CHURCH. DR. GARDNER, after expressing a desire to repeat the sentiments to which utterance had already been given, said in their distant geographical position in Canada they were not separated by any estrangements, any doctrine or usage or sympathy or fraternity, either from PUBLIC MEETINGS, SERVICES, AND RECEPTIONS. 617 their own Methodist people in other parts of the world or from the branches of the several bodies represented that evening. It had been his privilege for more than forty years to co-operate in several departments of Christian enterprise and activity most cordially with all these branches, save the Moravians, not having met those honoured people in the range of his special ministration. They treated each other with great courtesy, with Christian kindness, with brotherly love, occupying often each other's pulpits, bearing one another's burdens, and so attempting mutually in the name of Christ to fulfil His law. (Applause.) Haying these privileges, he had scarcely been able to decide that there was really a distinction in the branches of the Church where they met away near sunset. Once and again it had been his privilege, with other brethren, to tread that far-distant west to which they were inviting the overflow population of Great Britain and the Continent, because they had room for them all, and a place in which they might carve out an honoured position and greatly increase the interest of the new settlements by bringing with them a fervent piety, a true loyalty, and a broad Christian catholicity-the charity and love of Jesus Christ. (Applause.) In the name of the five Methodist churches of Canada he desired to extend to the deputations, and to those whom they represented, their most affectionate response, not simply formal or barely cordial, but most affectionate and' most devout; for in love to God, in love to souls, in love to each other, and in love to their common Christianity, they claimed to be peers with the most earnest and the most devoted of God's dear servants in any and in all the Evangelical Churches of the land. (Applause.) The proceedings were brought to a close by the Benediction. PUBLIC MEETINGS, SERVICES, AND RECEPTIONS. PUBLIC MEETINGS IN LONDON. (a) Numerous meetings were held during the Conference in the Methodist chapels of London in connection with local religious objects, and for Christian fellowship; and in these meetings Representatives, especially from America and Canada, took a prominent part. (b) Three large central meetings were held at Exeter Hall, as follows: On Monday evening, September 12th, the meeting was under the presidency of General Clinton B. Fisk, of New York: the subject being Methodist Work on the Continent of America. The speakers were the Rev. Dr. O. H. Tiffany, Rev. Dr. J. M. King, Rev. Dr. A. W. Wilson, John Macdonald, Esq., Rev. Dr. Southerland, and Bishop Dickerson. On Tuesday evening, September 13th, the meeting was under the presidency of S. D. Waddy, Esq., Q.C.; the subject for consideration being Methodist Work in India, China, and Japan. The speakers were Rev. Robert Stephenson, Rev. Dr. R. S. Maclay, Rev. Dr. J. W. Waugh, Rev. Dr. A. Sutherland, and Rev. David Hill. On Wednesday evening, September 14th, the meeting was under the presidency of Governor E. O. Stannard, of St. Louis; the subject being Methodism in Australia and Australasian Missions. The speakers were the Rev. John Watsford, Rev. A. Reid, Rev. J. D. Dodgson, S. S. Barton, and P. C. Kendall. [We regret the necessity of omitting the Addresses at these meetings as published in the Daily Recorder. Their insertion here would increase the volume to about seven hundred pages, whereas, in view of the proposition for the publication of the Journal, accepted by the Conference, we are not at liberty to so far exceed the specified size of volume.EDITORS. PROVINCIAL MEETINGS. An important feature, and, as it proved, one of the most successful in connection with the Conference proceedings, was the holding of central meetings in several conveniently-situated provincial towns of England. The meetings, six in number, were held at Bristol, Leeds, Truro, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hanley, and Birmingham. The following list contains the names of the representatives who attended the provincial meetings as deputations from the Conference: BRISTOL, September 21st and 22nd, REV. BISHOP PECK, D.D., LL.D., Rev. J. M. WALDEN, D.D., LL.D., REV. BISHOP WOOD, REV. J. C. PRICE. LEEDS, September 21st and 22nd, REV. BISHOP SIMPSON, REV. BISHOP DICKERSON, D.D., REV. G. R. CROOKS, D.D., LL.D., REV. A.W.WILSON, D.D., REV. DAVID MORTON, GEN. CLINTON B. FISK. TRURO, September 21st and 22nd, REV. A. C. GEORGE, D.D., Rev. A. EDWARDS, D.D., HON. G. W. FROST. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, September 22nd, 23rd, and 25th, REV. O. H. TIFFANY, D.D., REV. W. P. HARRISON, D.D., REV. G. R. CROOKS, D.D., LL.D., REV. J. B. MCFERRIN, D.D., REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D.D., HON. OLIVER HOYT, ESQ. HANLEY, September 25th and 26th, REV. PARK S. DONELSON, D.D., HON. J. WOFFORD TUCKER. BIRMINGHAM, September 28th, REV. BISHOP DICKERSON, D.D., REV.W. P. HARRISON, D.D., Rev. A. C. GEORGE, D.D., Rev. T. D. DODGSON, GEN. CLINTON B. FISK. SUNDAY SERVICES IN LONDON. Arrangements were made by the Committee for the Services in most of the Methodist chapels in and around London to be conducted on Sunday, September 11th and September 18th, by delegates to the Conference. By this arrangement most of the Ministers in attendance had an opportunity of preaching in London pulpits. RECEPTIONS IN LONDON. (a) The Religious Tract Society of London entertained the Conference to breakfast at Exeter Hall, on Tuesday, September 6th. The Treasurer of the Society presided. The meeting was addressed by the President of the Wesleyan Conference, the Revs. Dr. Craig, Bishop Simpson, the Lord Mayor, Bishop Payne, Rev. W. Hocart, Rev. W. Arthur, Rev. E. E. Jenkins, Rev. Bishop McTyeire, Rev. Dr. Cooke, Rev. C. Kendall, Rev. Dr. Stoughton, and Rev. W. Griffith. |