The Grenada Sentinel

THE METHODIST CONFERENCE IN GRENADA.

The long anticipated North Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, began its session in this city last Wednesday morning. The preachers comprising this respectable body began to gather in as early as the preceding Sabbath, when with large and attentive assemblies of our citizens, they favored us by conducting religious services in the different churches of our city, the different pastors cheerfully yielding to the strangers the privilege of occupying their respective pulpits. On Sunday night we listened to the sermon of the Rev. Mr. Brown, of West Point, and with no part of his sermon were we more deeply impressed than with the picture he so eloquently drew of the terrible struggle of our Savior with Satan, in the days of his temptation in the wilderness. The impression upon the audience was in every respect favorable to the speaker.

By Wednesday morning the preachers to the number of about one hundred and forty--many of whom with wives and daughters,--had gathered, and on the same day the work of the Conference began, the veteran Bishop Payne presiding. In looking over the assembly one is forcibly struck with the intelligent and earnest appearance of the members. upon many of whom years of mental and spiritual toil have not failed to leave their inevitable foot-prints. They seem to us a body capable of the most astonishing results in the moral field. Consider for a moment the blended power of these one hundred and forty men, with minds cultivated. with hearts in the right place, and with that singleness of aim that forms ordinarily the secret of human success, directed to the diversified moral industries of the country. in such fields as the Sabbath school, education, temperance, missions, moral reforms and whatever else is likely to engage the attention of good men, and who can estimate the blessings likely to flow through a series of years by such concentrated labor to the communities of which they are representative. And it is by such concert of purpose that the Methodist Church, in a few years, has been the spectator of its own magnificent march, not throughout America alone. but into every civilized and semi-civilized region our globe.

The object of the present Conference is, we suppose, to take a survey of the field, and adjust all its movements accordingly. New fields will be explored,- every station will be filled, and officers will be assigned to the different posts to conduct the diversified interests of this extensive and popular part of the Methodist denomination,

We are glad our citizens generally have taken the deep interest they always do in such religious bodies. Different churches are at their disposal, and a respectful hearing is given to their earnest speakers. And we are more than pleased that all have found such excellent accommodations at the homes of our people. We have no doubt that they will leave us impressed with the hospitality of our city, and that the memory of the Conference at Grenada will be cherished in years to come.