Trouble for Methodists
By Editor
Trouble for Methodists.—It is not our prediction that the great Methodist Episcopal Church will reap trouble in plenty from her sowing in the removal of the time limit of pastorates. It was said by strong, earnest men that the step meant the ruin of Methodism. We understand that now the itinerancy of the pastorate rests in the arbitrary authority of the bishops and presiding elders; but this exercise of authority they will hardly use against the wishes of a large church and influential minister. It will result in a continued pastorate in the large cities over large churches, and will, as indicated by some, cut off aspirations which younger men in the ministry may have for such positions. Other churches, having settled pastors, often split up, and many fear that this will be the case in Methodist Churches, kept from it hitherto by the time limit. For, however a certain pastor might be disliked by a portion of his congregation, they felt assured that the time limit would remove him. To the plea that more time was needed to do a better work in great cities, Paul's experience and mighty work in Corinth and Ephesus was cited in reply. To our mind there was a divine principle in the time limit, if pastorates of that kind are admissible. Wesley knew that all men were not revivalists, all were not church builders. The itinerancy provided a change in gifts, prevented one-sided development in churches, and threw church members more on their own responsibility. How much had the imperialistic tendency of the age to do with the decision of the conference?