THE WOMEN WIN by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 11.

THE WOMEN WIN.

By G.

At last the women of the Methodist Episcopal Church have won their way to a voice in the General Conference. It has been a long, hard contest, but they have won; and the laymen also won a recognition for which they have been contending some time. If there is any class in that church that deserve recognition, it is the women. They have done much to build up and sustain the denomination. They faithfully rocked the cradle in its infancy, and bore the brunt of ridicule that was heaped upon its humble beginnings—especially in their giving public testimonies to the love of God in their meetings. It does not need “the memory of the oldest inhabitant” to recall instances when Christians of some other denominations, then more popular, would piously censure, yes, even sneer at, the Methodist women for speaking in meeting. The idea that a General Conference is more holy or more dignified than a prayer-meeting is not born of the injunction, “In honor preferring one another,” or, “In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”

At the last General Conference a new constitution was adopted. But before it could become operative it was necessary that it be ratified by three-fourths of the local conferences of the denomination. It now has received this indorsement, and therefore is in force. The principal changes are these:—

It gives women the right to sit as delegates in the general conference.

It gives laymen’s electoral meetings authority to vote on constitutional questions.

It changes the vote necessary in the general conference to amend the constitution from three-quarters to two-thirds.

The first proposition was the one that attracted the most attention and the deepest interest. The “conservatives” resisted it quite strenuously, but they have been obliged to yield. The new innovation received not only the required majority of conferences, but about four-fifths of the total vote in the conferences.