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An influential committee has been appointed to ascertain how
concerted action may be taken by the Methodist Churches; and the hope
is cherished that their suggestions may lead to the adoption of
methods which will prevent strife and friction and unworthy rivalry.
The New Connexion and Methodist Free Church Conferences also
appointed a joint committee to consider the same subject. The
brotherly desire for spiritual fellowship and mutual help and counsel
thus indicated must be held as a very hopeful token of something
better than numerical advance.
[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number Two.]
The bitter experiences through which the Church passed called
attention to the need for modification and expansion of Wesleyan
Methodist polity. The Conference of 1851 appointed a committee of
ministers to consider the question; 745 laymen were invited to join
them. Their recommendations led Conference to adopt resolutions
defining the proper constitution of the quarterly meeting, and to
provide for special circuit meetings to re-try cases of discipline,
which had been brought before the leaders' meeting, when there was
reason to think that the verdict had been given in a factious spirit.
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