FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE.

353

of the prevalence of a violent epidemic. The fact of their reëlection in 1805, and the record of the reason for the failure to hold an election in 1804, is regarded as evidence that it was the purpose at that early period to elect the superintendents for quadrennial terms. Bishop Otterbein, it should be observed, did not retire from his position as pastor of the church in Baltimore, while adding to his duties the office of general superintendent. He continued regularly in his pastoral relation up to the end of his life.

4. The First General Conference.

The first General Conference of the United Brethren Church was held in the year 1815, and this year thus became of great historic importance to the church. The missionaries of the revival movement had multiplied in the countries westward. Many preaching-places had been established in Ohio and Indiana, and some in Kentucky. The center of their greatest activity was in southwestern Ohio, in the Miami Valley; and when in 1810 the first conference west of the Alleghany Mountains was organized, it was called the Miami Conference. Meanwhile

the eastern work had been divided into three conferences, known respectively as the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia conferences. These four conferences were represented by an aggregate of fourteen delegates in this initial General Conference. The conference was held at Mount Pleasant, Pa., commencing on the 6th of June. Bishops Otterbein and Boehm, each venerable in years and rich in good works, had passed on to the eternal reward. Bishop Otterbein, as already noted, had died in December in the year 1813, while Bishop Boehm had preceded him the year before, the two being of almost equal age. Bishop Newcomer, who had already been associated with

them in the office of superintendent to relieve these venerable fathers of burdens which had become too heavy for them, presided over this first General Conference. He was rechosen to the office, and the Rev. Andrew Zeller was elected to be his associate. The Confession of Faith previously adopted by the Conference of 1879 was, with a few amendments, reaffirmed. The general interests of the work were passed under careful review, and various steps were taken to promote its efficiency.

Among the most important of these was the arrangement and adoption of a book of discipline, the object being to secure and maintain homogeneity in faith and practice throughout all the various portions of the church. Indeed, it was chiefly for the purpose of providing such a book of rules and regulations that this General Conference was assembled, the call for the conference originating in the Miami Annual Conference. The book of discipline adopted was an expansion of that agreed upon by that earliest of all the formal conferences, convened in the parsonage of Bishop Otterbein's church in Baltimore, in 1789. The book of discipline, including the Confession of Faith, was now for the first time printed. No essentially new feature of church polity was adopted. The practice of the church as already familiar was embodied in the rules. The itinerant system of ministerial supply for the churches, already so well tested as to its efficiency, was more clearly defined and adopted as the settled policy of the church. The essential features of this system have undergone but slight amendment to the present day, the most important change being the elimination of the time limit as to the pastorate by the General Conference of 1893.

The names of the members of this first General Conference of the church were as follows: Christian Newcomer, Andrew Zeller, Abraham Hiestand, Christian

TRANSITION FROM GERMAN TO ENGLISH. 355

Berger, Abraham Mayer, John Schneider, Henry Kumler, Daniel Troyer, George Benedum, Abraham Troxel, Henry G. Spayth, Isaac Niswander, Christian Krum, and Jacob Baulus.

It should here be remembered as a fact of considerable interest, that up to this time, and for some years after, nearly all the ministers of the United Brethren Church preached only in the German language. The business of the conference was transacted in German, and the book of discipline as first printed appeared only in that language. The widening contact with people speaking the English language began gradually to create a necessity for preaching in that language also. The change proceeded slowly at first, but has in the lapse of years become so thorough that at the present time less than four per cent. of the congregations worship in the German language. The comparative slowness of the growth of the church in its earlier periods may be attributed in part to this exclusive use of the German, and to the fact that constant losses were experienced by the transfer, especially of the younger converts, to denominations using the English language. This was particularly true of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose ministers affiliated very closely with those of the United Brethren Church, preaching in common with them in the same houses, and often holding protracted meetings jointly with them. The methods of work of the two denominations being so nearly identical, the question of language frequently determined the choice of converts when connecting themselves with the church.

CHAPTER IV.

DOCTRINE AND POLITY.

1. Doctrinal Basis.

THE doctrines in general held by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ are expressed in the Confession of Faith. We have already seen that the first formal declaration of doctrine was made by the Conference of 1789, in the Confession adopted by that body; also that this Confession, in amended form, was reaffirmed by the General Conference of 1815. The Confession, as thus approved, remained without material amendment until a revision was ordered by the General Conference of 1885, a period of seventy years. It had long been felt before this order was made that, excellent as the instrument was, some important omissions of fundamental doctrine should be supplied, while in several points amendments in the form of expression seemed desirable. The General Conference accordingly, after mature deliberation, determined upon the appointment of a Commission on Revision to whom the subject should be committed, with instructions also to prepare certain amendments to the constitution of the church. The commission as chosen consisted of twentyseven men, including five bishops, eighteen other ministers, and four laymen.

The commission assembled in November, 1885, in the city of Dayton, O., and after full deliberation put in form the contemplated amendments. In accordance with the pro

PRESENT CONFESSION OF FAITH.

357

visions of the constitution these amendments were submitted to the vote of the entire membership of the church for approval or rejection. A period of three years elapsed before the vote was taken, thus allowing time for the fullest discussion of every point presented in the amendments. The vote as finally taken in November, 1888, an unusually full ballot, resulted, on the revised Confession of Faith, in an affirmative of nearly eighty-three per cent. of the ballots cast. On the amended constitution, several of the features being voted upon separately, the lowest per cent. upon any one feature exceeded a two-thirds majority.

At the General Conference ensuing, held at the city of York, Pa., in 1889, the result of the popular vote was announced, and after due inquiry as to the regularity of all previous proceedings, as to the work of the revising committee and the taking of the popular vote, the amended constitution and revised Confession of Faith were declared adopted. The Confession as it now stands a most admirable instrument in brevity, clear, compact, and comprehensive statement, and general felicity of expression-is as follows:

"CONFESSION OF FAITH.

"In the name of God, we declare and confess before all men the following articles of our belief:

ARTICLE I.

Of God and the Holy Trinity.

"We believe in the only true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that these three are one-the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, and the Holy Ghost equal in essence or being with the Father and the Son.