Conference Constitution.
By Editor
THE old constitution was defective in many particulars, some of which we will mention. It confined the Executive Committee to three, while several of our Conferences need five or more. The number should be left to each Conference to decide for itself. It made the committee of three, who might be all ministers, the sole auditors of all accounts. It based the raising of funds, not upon its own provisions, but upon a plan set forth in a certain book, the plan being entirely obsolete. Such plans should only change with changes of the constitution. It made no sure provision for maintaining the Conference, leaving it optional with individuals or churches how to dispose of their funds. If a member of the Executive Committee were a layman, it did not make him a member of the Conference. Its rule of representation in the Conference was unequal and unjust; a church of five members was entitled to a delegate, but it must have seven times five to be entitled to a second delegate. We opposed this provision when it was adopted, in 1863, and only wonder that it was ever adopted when its inequality was pointed out. By requiring a membership of thirty-five to secure two delegates, it caused the business of the smaller Conferences, having few churches, or mostly small churches, to be transacted by a few individuals, leaving the large majority of business men among them to sit as spectators, without a vote. Out of this grew the abuse of authority, which has become a custom, of electing delegates in the Conference, which a Conference has no more right to do than it has to elect an elder or a deacon for a church. It is a sure method of making the churches careless in their duties, to do their duties for them in an unauthorized manner. For want of the proper provision, the Conferences have adopted the custom of electing delegates for unorganized companies; said delegates generally lacking experience in our work, and the custom serving oftentimes to delay the work of organizing churches when it should be done. By making the ministers “delegates at large,” they become the representatives of all companies raised up by them, and they are able to present their wants and secure aid for them where others could not. We know that this will raise a question in regard to representation in the General Conference. And this question ought to be raised, and the present rule of inequality be done away. Heavy Conferences, as that of Michigan, cannot adopt the same rule of representation which ought to be adopted by the smaller Conferences, without making their deliberative bodies too large for the speedy transaction of business. Let each Conference adopt its own rule, according to its evident wants, and let the delegates to the General Conference be elected, not according to the number of delegates in the State Conferences, but according to the whole number of members reported in the Conference. This would give a representation in the General Conference on an absolutely equal basis. On this and on at least two other points the Constitution of the General Conference should be amended. One is that it does not recognize tithes, which it certainly should. We have thrown out some of these suggestions for the benefit of those who will attend the General Conference, that they may be considered before that body shall meet. They are the result of much thought and careful study of our constitutions. “LET no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man; but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” James 1:13, 14.