WESLEYAN CONFERENCE AT. LIVERPOOL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1533, 31 August 1912, Page 9

WESLEYAN CONFERENCE AT. LIVERPOOL.

VACANCIES IN THE LEGAL HUNDRED. ' The one hundred ami sixty-ninth annual Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist. Church assembled in its representative .cession oil July 17 in the Central Hall, Liverpool, umler llio chairmanship ot' the Kev. Henry Ilaijjh, the retiring president. i The first act of the conference on its assembling' is to till up vacancies in the Legal Hundred eaiised by death, or by absence for two successive yeari without a. dispensation. During the past twelve months there have been live vacancies created bv the dentil of the lievs. Dr. D. r .l. AVallor, Dr. Arthur E. Gregory, William. H. Clogg, Dr. 11. J. Pope, and Dr. Stephenson. From a list of twelve ministers who have travelled not less than thirtysix years, nominated by the Pastoral Session' of the last, conference, the following were, alter a ballot, declared sleeted into the Legal Hundred:— Kev. >V. Scott Page, of Manchester, vice Dr. Stephenson; Kev. John Kinnings, of Plymouth, vice Dr. Pope; Kev. Thomas Lockver, nf London, vice Dr. Waller; Kev. liiplev Wiiuton, uf the Channel Islands, vice i)r. Gregory; and Rev. Alircd \ ones, of Bradford,, vice l!ev. William Clogg. Last year the 'Pastoral Session of. the Cardiff 'Conference nominated the Kev. F. Luke Wiseman, of Birmingham, as president for 1«12, and this designation only recptirpd Ihu vote of the iully-constitutcu ]iO»al Conference to confirm Hie elochon. This wa* unanimously given. aiuUlvc Kev. Simpson Johnson was in ihe same wa} re-elected secretary. Frederick Luke Wisemany* young as AVe-levaii presidents go. Hugh I rice Hughes was- accounted a juvenile president when he reached the chair ot ihe confer-enc-e at. the age of tifly-one. ■ Dr. Lidgett was fiflv-four when he became president, and Mr. Wiseman-has attained to the su]iremo honour of his ministerial lite at the same axe. Since Hush Price Hughes s term of office there have' been thirteen presidents; none of them, Willi perhaps lli3 exception of Dr. Lidgett and Dr. Hiugh, have impressed the Connexion with a Sense of their personality. In Mr. A\ifoman Methodism has a personality vivid and versatile—a scholar who was a 1111-ver-itv prizeman ill Hebrew and Greek in his student days; a burning nussioner who has proclaimed the Gospel ot redeeming grace from the pulpit of the Birmingham Mission for a quarter of a csnturv without a suspicion of staleJiess; 'a brilliant musician who can direct a musical festival with the skill and verve of the professional conductor; a composer whose choicest is enshrined in the tune-books cf his own Church To these outstanding gifts mWit also l:o added elocutionary powers of "a very .high order-his reading of the lessons at the Birmingham Central Hal service is one of its main features, and is said to prcdtico that magnetic thrill which marks the work of tho.preat actor. \ journalistic critic remarked not long a«o upon the mediocrity of llie Methodist ministry. Mcdiocritv is the last word that could be apnlied to the new president; and it will 1)0 a. strange thing it tho year ot office nf one so bountifully favoured with natural .gifts does not make an impression of an unpreeeilentcd kind. At the close of Mr. Hushed presidency 5000 meinbers had been added lo the Church; it may be that Mr. Wrseman is dcslmed to see his year marked by a ureal turn ill the tide of tl'.e fortunes oi" Methodism. If .Mr. Wiseman c«n succeed in reconciling llie modern tendency of his Church to"a more, rcvoreiilial -aml beautiiul expredion of the spirit of worship with the

>ld soul-saving fire end living, articulate jxperience c;f renewing grace, ho will make lis presidential year a landmark in Metliidist history. Mr. Wiseman's life-story is soon tolu. With Dr. Jlol>ert Newton Young only, miuug tlio hundred and twenty Wesleyan nosiclents sinco Wesley's (lay, ho is tlio i wn of a president. Educated at a prirato school at Higligate nml Dnnheved I'ollego, Luuuceston, Mr. Wiseman graduated at the University,of London, taking prizes 111 Hebrew and Greek Testament; and later in his student days,; at Diiisbury College, he becanio ]>o I'riwjman in Hebrew at Ov:ens College, now Manchester University. Ho entered the ministry ill 1881, and, after spending, five vcors as assistant tutor at Didsbur.v, lie began his ministry in Birmingham at Cherry Street Cliapel. 'J'lio next year saw tho foundation of the Birmingham Central Mission, and from (lint, day to this Mr. Wiseman lias remained faithful to this charge, witnessing in turn the ministries of the great Church leaders of tlio :it.f—Dale, Jowett, and; Gore—find their completion tin death or removal ■ clscivlicrc. In tte city life..Mr. Wiseman lias made his mark, and is universally ?steemed bv men of all parties and creeds. Ho has announced that the note of his year of office is to bo the inspiration cf voung Methodism, and with tlio aid ot tho .Sunday-school department and the si ass-leaders' committee, arrangement have been made on a large sude for gat.Uorings of the youthful life of (the Church in nil the great eentrof> < (luring the coining autumn and winter.—'' Christian World."