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BISHOP ISAAC LANE, LL.D.
(AT EIGHTY-TWO YEARS OF AGE)

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
of
Bishop Isaac Lane, LL.D With a Short History of the C.M.E. Church In America and of Methodism

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR
PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH
NASHVILLE, TENN,
1916

COPYRIGHT, 1916
BY
ISAAC LANE

DEDICATION

        To the many hundreds of young men and young women of my Church and race who need encouragement and inspiration; to my Church in general, and the ministers in particular, whom I have served as pastor, presiding elder, and bishop for a period covering more than sixty years; and to the reading public in general

        THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

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PREFACE.

        IN writing this little book the purpose of the author is to narrate in a brief manner the most important events in his own life, give a short biographical sketch of the early bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America who were his contemporaries, and at the same time point out some of the conditions and circumstances attendant upon the organization of his Church. The author has set his hands to this task, using such manuscripts and documents as he has in his possession and relying very largely upon his own memory for much material which he has used freely. He was a witness, if not a party, to every important movement in the Church from its very organization to the present time. What contribution he has made to its progress and development he is perfectly willing for others to estimate and record, but suffice it for him to say that he has done what he could for his Church and for the race.

        In this work the author has had the encouragement of a great many ministers and laymen who have insisted upon his putting in permanent form some of the historical data that he has used so often in his sermons, addresses, and lectures. This he has felt free to do.

        While selecting the material for this book the author has kept constantly in mind two classes of

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persons who may read it - viz.: (1) The young men of the Church who should be acquainted with the struggles of their Church in its infancy, the ambition of the founders (their sacrifices, failures, and successes), and who want to get a clear understanding of the special mission of their Church in the world, its purpose and its polity. (2) The other class of persons whom the author has held in mind is the reading public at large. I refer to that great body of intelligent men and women who want information concerning the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, along with the other great ecclesiastical organizations having for their purpose the saving of the people. The author realizes that it is very difficult for many well-meaning persons to understand why there was ever a demand made for the organization of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, and still more difficult for many to understand its relation to other Methodist Churches, and especially to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. A studious effort, it appears, has been made to impress the world that this Church was "set up and off" contrary to the wishes and desires of the members. Our records show that such was not the case. Several of our Annual Conferences formally and openly petitioned for an independent body regularly organized and properly manned, and it was upon these petitions and in keeping with them that the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, took action.

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        If the author has accomplished nothing more than to show how the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, and to set forth its necessity and the great service it has rendered mankind during these forty-five years of its splendid history, he feels amply repaid for all the efforts he has put forth.

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CONTENTS.

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

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INTRODUCTION.

        IT is with a sense of peculiar joy that I introduce to the reading public Bishop Isaac Lane, D.D., LL.D., as an author. The joy in doing the pleasant task is not due to my ability to do it well, but to a desire I have always cherished to be in some way associated with the life and deeds of great men. The privilege I esteem very highly because of the very helpful acquaintance I have had with the author, the powerful influence of his saintly life upon me, the unblemished life he has lived among the people, and the large service he has rendered his Church and race in particular and humanity in general.

        The author is a bishop of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, having been elected in 1873 at Augusta, Ga., and remained in active service until May, 1914, when, upon his own request, he was granted relief from episcopal responsibilities.

         Bishop Lane is a rare product and gives value and nobility to the age that produced him. Born in slavery, deprived of educational advantages, surrounded by untoward conditions to hinder the progress inspired by the determination of his own soul, he has pushed his way from gross ignorance to a plane of intelligence inferior to none of like surroundings and superior to many of more favorable advantages; he has pushed his way from abject slavery to the highest peak in the esteem and confidence of the best people of both races.

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        As a man he has embodied and exemplified the virtues of a noble manhood - industrious, frugal, and rigidly honest; polite and courteous to everybody; humble but not cringing, respectful but not subservient; noble in purpose, lofty in aim, and persevering in worthy efforts.

        As a Christian he has given evidence of genuine repentance, sound conversion, and regeneration unquestioned. His loving heart, gentle and forgiving spirit, broad humanitarian sympathies, loyalty to truth and justice, and unswerving devotion to the right stand him yonder upon a pinnacle, pure and white, sun-crowned, with his head and heart lifted to God.

        As a preacher he is soundly orthodox, sublime in his conception of God and his eternal attributes, firm in his faith of the ultimate triumph of righteousness. He is deep and profound in thought, logical in reasoning, persuasive in argument, and powerful in delivery.

        As a bishop he has been abundant in labors, safe in his leadership, and wise and honest in his management of the affairs of the Church. His services have been unselfish, untiring, and abundantly fruitful. He founded Lane College and has contributed much in energy, time, money, and sacrifice to its growth and perpetuity. No man in his Church has done more to upbuild and expand the kingdom than has the intrepid Bishop Lane. During the forty-one years of his active service as a bishop there was

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never a cloud or suspicion over his moral character, and his official conduct has never been called in question. He is still respected, honored, and revered.

        He has been a close student of men, books, and conditions and is fitted by study, travel, and wide experience to talk or write in a most interesting manner. For years he has been importuned by people of both races to write a book, and after years of hesitancy he has finally yielded to the wishes of his many admirers.

        This book will be found interesting for its simple, direct, and easy style. The contents are both informational and inspirational. In a style all his own, the author recites interesting incidents and experiences in his own life with a humility that is charming. If the reader finds himself wishing for more than is told, it will be due to disinclination of the author to write fully about himself. He gives also the origin of Methodism in England and in America and then narrates interesting facts concerning the beginning of the various bodies of Methodists. With becoming brevity he discusses essential items of the General Conferences of his own Church, gives a brief sketch of each of the bishops, and furnishes extracts from some of his sermons and lectures.

        With a noble and unselfish purpose, the book is sent forth in the name of Christ. May the blessings of heaven rest upon all who may read its pages!

J. ARTHUR HAMLET

JACKSON, TENN., August 27, 1916.

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CHAPTER I.

THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA ORGANIZED.

        SHIFTING scenes and events brought on by the War between the States forced the recently emancipated Negro to face new conditions and to live a new life. Slavery was abolished, but all of its attending evils did not pass with it. The South had been devastated, her wealth destroyed, and her resources depleted. The Southern white man had not only suffered the sting of defeat on the battle field, but his wealth had been destroyed, and he began to realize that he and his family must erect and support hereafter a lower standard of living than what they had enjoyed before. He could no longer order the slaves to do his bidding. His sons, who had been indulged in idleness and who had acquired a great averseness to labor and been taught by the awful system of slavery to look down upon work as menial and beneath the dignity of a "gentleman," were then forced to till the soil and do all manner of work with their hands. Naturally the Southern white man, smarting under the sting of defeat of arms, dejected in spirit because of a lower standard of living forced upon him and his family as a result of the war, was in no frame of mind to sympathize with the colored man, although the Negro's

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condition was most trying. What the white man had lost under arms he now attempted to gain through the courts and legislation, and thus the Negro had new fields to enter and new battles to fight. Homeless and penniless, he was turned out upon the world without shelter and food; yet the Negro resolved, by the help of God, to find a way or make one. He did not find it, but he made one.

        In the social and economic life of the Southern white people a break had come, and it ran all the way through the whole social fabric. The Methodists and Baptists, the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, all had Negro contingents, and the new conditions in the South made imperative an adjustment in matters of Church and religious affairs to correspond with those which had taken place already in the civic and political life. It was of mutual advantage to both the white man and the Negro for a separation to take place; and fortunately for the good of the cause, both were able to see it and work in harmony for the same end.

        When the Civil War broke out there were two hundred and six thousand colored people who sustained the relation of quasi members to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. I say advisedly that the colored people were, after a manner, members of the Southern Methodist Church, in that religious services were provided for them, they were enrolled as members, and, with certain restrictions, they were permitted to have their own meetings. After emancipation

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BISHOP ISAAC LANE, LL.D.
(At sixty years of age.)

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it can be easily seen that this relation was not satisfactory, and at once a movement was inaugurated to give the Negroes a separate and independent organization that would be regular and orderly in every way. We were severely criticized and maligned because we did not rebel and secede. Other independent Negro Methodist Churches had rebelled and seceded, and because we chose to be regular and orderly we were charged with being sympathizers with slavery. In many places we were called Democrats and the like.

        With a view to our permanent separation, before our ministers had obtained their credentials from the Annual Conferences of the white Church, and before we had been organized into Annual Conferences of our own, we had respectfully requested to be given a separate and independent Church organization. The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, helped in every way the perfecting of the organization; and so, after three years of labor and much prayer and supplication, our Church was organized in Jackson, Tenn., December 15-21, 1870, and thus began the only regular independent Negro Methodist Church organization in all the world.

        This Church has grown until to-day it has about two hundred thousand members, eight bishops, eleven general officers, with the following departments properly officered and manned - viz.: Boards of Missions, Church Extension, Ministerial Relief

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Society, Epworth League, Education, and Publication of Church and Sunday School Literature. These departments are seeking to help in fostering the many interests of the Church and in developing the intellectual, moral, and spiritual life of her constituency. Being the youngest daughter of the Methodist family, "to her much has been given, and of her much is required."

        The Church has property whose value runs into millions of dollars. Lane College, Paine College, Mississippi Industrial College, Miles Memorial College, and Phillips College are the leading institutions of learning.

        The greatest asset of the Church is the loyalty of its members and the consecration of its ministers. These "servants of God" are willing to suffer for the advancement of the "Church our blessed Redeemer bought with his own precious blood."

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CHAPTER II.

HOW AND BY WHOM THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA WAS ORGANIZED.

        IN order to throw more light on this subject, we give below the address of the bishops that was sent out in 1873. It is worthy of a careful reading, in that it throws much light on how the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church was organized:

To the Members of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America.

        We esteem it our duty and privilege most earnestly to recommend to you, as members of our Church, our form of discipline, which has been founded on the line of a long series of years, as also on the observations and remarks we have made on ancient and modern Churches.

        We wish to see this little publication in the house of every Methodist, and the more so as it contains the Articles of Religion maintained more or less, in part or in whole, by every reformed Church in the world.

        Far from wishing you to be ignorant of any of our doctrines or part of our discipline, we desire you to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the whole. You ought, next to the Word of God, to procure the articles and canons of the Church to which you belong.

        We deem it proper in this place to give you a brief account of the organization of our Connection:

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        From the introduction of Methodism on this continent we have ever constituted a part of the great Methodist family, first as members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America and also after the change took place by which we were known as the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States; and when the division took place, in 1844, which we regard as a legal and constitutional division of the Church, we formed a part of that division called the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which relation we have continued to sustain until the organization of our Church took place at the General Conference held at Jackson, Tenn., which began its session December 15, 1870, which day was spent in prayer and supplication to the Almighty, that his blessings might rest upon us; and on the following day the regular business of the session began, Bishop Robert Paine, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the chair.

        The circumstances which led to our separate and distinct organization were as follows:

        When the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, met in New Orleans in April, 1866, the Conference found that by revolution and the fortunes of war a change had taken place in our political and social relations which made it necessary that a change should also be made in the ecclesiastical relations, and provision was made for our organization into separate congregations, districts, and Annual Conferences, if we desired it, and that two or more Annual Conferences should be formed, if it was our wish and met the approbation of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; we should have a General Conference organization like that of the General Conference of the

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Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as deacons and elders; and, should a General Conference be organized and suitable men be elected to the office of bishop, that the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, would ordain and set them apart as chief pastors among us.

        At the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Memphis, Tenn., in May, 1870, it was found that five Annual Conferences had been formed among us and that an almost universal desire had been expressed on our part that we might be organized into a separate and distinct Church, which was acquiesced in by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and recommended to said Conference in their address. Whereupon, by our request, the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, together with Rev. A.L.P. Green, Samuel Watson, D.D., Edmund W. Sehon, Thomas Whitehead, D.D., R.J. Morgan, D.D., and Thomas Taylor, D.D., were appointed by said Conference to aid in organizing our General Conference at the time and place above specified; and at the succeeding sessions of our Annual Conferences delegates were elected to attend our General Conference, in accordance with the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

        It was further determined by the acts of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1866 that, should the time arrive when we should be formed into a separate and distinct organization, all property which was intended for the use and benefit of people of color held by trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church should be transferred to trustees appointed by us, to be held forever for our use and benefit.

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        It will be seen from the facts in the case that our record is clear and that we have descended regularly from the very fathers of Methodism and that our organization is both legal and constitutional.

We remain your very affectionate brethren and pastors, who labor night and day, both in public and private, for your good.

WILLIAM H. MILES, JOSEPH A. BEEBE, LUCIUS H. HOLSEY, ISAAC LANE.

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CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN ENGLAND AND IN AMERICA.

        THE early history of Methodism makes interesting reading matter. It began in the year 1729 in the University of Oxford, England. It was here that John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Wesley, and a few others, while students, banded themselves together for their own intellectual and spiritual improvement. They were so systematic about all things that the less serious-minded students of the University in derision gave them the name of Methodists.

        The name was so appropriate that we find no record of its ever being resented by the Wesleys or any of their followers; and now, after the name has been glorified by more than a century of splendid achievements, there is no stigma or reflection in it as seen or felt by any one.

        The organizations were known first as Societies and continued by that name for more than fifty years. The first Methodist Society was organized in London, England, in 1739 by Mr. Wesley. Like all other great movements, it had a small beginning There were about ten persons who formed it, but soon a great revival spread over all Britain, so that shortly thereafter there were hundreds who joined the little band of earnest believers. It is a subject that has been commented upon frequently that in the midst of spiritual darkness God raised up three servants the equals of whom the world had not seen since the days of the apostles - viz.: John Wesley, the bishop, a man of great spiritual power, unusual executive ability, a ripe scholar and parliamentarian; George Whitefield, the preacher; and Charles Wesley, the poet. To these men more than to any others Methodism is indebted for its existence.

        Methodism began with experimental religion in the heart, and by spontaneous energies it projected itself in every direction by leaps and bounds. Through its class meetings, love feasts, and prayer meetings it propagated itself until its power was felt far and near. Mr. Wesley's own experience as he told it set the work on fire, and soon the fire which "strangely" warmed his heart was felt in the hearts of men the country over. But Methodism that was sweeping over England was not to be confined to that country. It soon spread to America, where it found plenty of material on which to glow and burn.

Methodism in America.

        The first Methodist Society in America was organized by Philip Embury, a local preacher, in the city of New York in 1766. Barbara Heck, a Christian woman, was the prime mover in the work; and so a woman was in the lead in the formation of this Church, and it is a fact worthy of noting that woman has been used largely by Methodism ever since in forwarding its good work The first Methodist

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church was built in John Street, New York, in 1768. Thus began an organization that has spread from one end of our country to the other, and the world is better by reason of its influence and good work.

The First Annual Conference.

        Robert Strawbridge, Richard Boardman, Joseph Pilmore, Francis Asbury, and Richard Wright were all prominent workers in establishing the early Methodist Churches in this country. Francis Asbury soon became the most influential man in American Methodism because of his zeal and power as a gospel preacher. The first Annual Conference was held in Philadelphia in 1773. There were then but ten traveling preachers, six circuits, and eleven hundred and sixty members. Thomas Rankin, an honored minister of much influence and power, presided over the deliberations of the Conference. The business was very simple, and the session was brief. The most important work done was the agreement on the part of the preachers to abide by the doctrines and discipline of John Wesley. These Conferences were held each year at different places until December 25, when the last one was held in Baltimore in Lovely Lane Chapel. This session brought to a close the era of Wesleyan Methodism in America and at the same time prepared the way for the Methodist Episcopal Church. At this time there were eighty-three traveling preachers and fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-six members.

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        In 1784 the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally organized. Thomas Coke, an assistant of Mr. Wesley in England, was sent over for the purpose of consummating the organization. Thomas Coke, LL.D., and Francis Asbury were elected the first bishops by the Conference (called the Christmas Conference), which met December 25, 1784, and Continued in session until January 2, 1785. This organization now gave greater prestige to the Church as a Church. They had been called Societies, and now they were to be known as Churches. They had been considered members of the Established Church of England; now they were to be considered as a separate and independent organization. Mr. Wesley himself continued during his lifetime a regular presbyter in the Church of England and gave Dr. Coke authority to exercise the office of a bishop in America, calling him a superintendent, which is only another name for bishop. Mr. Wesley also directed Dr. Coke to ordain Francis Asbury to the same office; and thus began the episcopacy which has been kept up through all of these years in the various branches of American Methodism.

The First Methodist General Conference.

        The first Methodist General Conference convened in Baltimore, Md., November 1, 1792. The Conference directed that the next General Conference should meet after an interval of four years.

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Although recognizing its full ecclesiastical authority, the members bound themselves not to make any changes in the doctrine and polity of Methodism as enunciated by Mr. Wesley or in any of the recognized rules observed by the Methodists in the past, unless the new measure received a two-thirds majority vote. The presiding elder's term of office in any district was limited to four years, which rules have been followed in practice ever since.

        After the organization of the first General Conference of the Methodist Church, the others were held regularly, and the ordinary routine of work was done from time to time as the welfare of the organization demanded. The question of slaveholding disturbed the peace and quietude of the Church as well as that of the State. The more prominent this question became in the halls of legislation, the more serious it became in the Church. So finally, in 1840, the question of slaveholding became an issue claiming much prominence in the General Conference. This storm that threatened the unity of the Methodist Church was brooding over the organization, without much hope of its being arrested or turned back. So at the very next General Conference, held in New York City May 1 to June 10, a Plan of Separation with the South was adopted. A fuller report of the separation is given in another chapter of this book.

        In 1856 Bishop Burns, of Liberia, was ordained the first colored bishop in the Methodist Episcopal

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Church. He was a missionary bishop and as such exercised the duties of his office only in Africa

        This great Church has grown until to-day her membership is three million six hundred and fifty thousand five hundred, with eighteen thousand nine hundred and fifty ministers and thirty thousand churches. Of these, there are more than three hundred thousand Negro members, who are represented in every sphere of service in the gift of the Church, save that of bishop as a general superintendent. Besides secretaries of the various departments and editors of official organs, Negroes preside over and teach in some of the best schools supported by this Church for Negro people. In these positions of honor and trust they have reflected credit upon the Church and the race to which they belong.

        The proposed organic union of the Methodist Churches, and especially the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at this particular time (1916) is receiving considerable attention. How this union, when consummated, will affect the status of the Negro membership is a question that is as interesting as it is speculative. It will be recalled that colored Conferences were established in this Church in 1852, and by 1860 practically all of the colored Churches belonged to the distinctive Negro Annual Conferences, and this system remains to this day; so the contact is not so frequent or so close as to be objectionable even to the most prejudiced of their fellow Churchmen.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, ORGANIZED.

        THERE were perhaps several causes leading up to the separation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from the Methodist Episcopal Church, but slavery was the one that furnished the background for the most of them. It was the one that could not be held in check or averted. The following resolution, offered by Griffith and Davis, two delegates to the General Conference of 1844, is self-explanatory and indicates the nature of the trouble that was brooding and the one on account of which the great Church was to be divided. (See General Conference Journal, May 23, 1844.)

        Whereas the Rev. James O. Andrew, one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has become connected with slavery, as communicated in his statement in his reply to the inquiry of the Committee on Episcopacy, which reply is embodied in their Report No. 3, offered yesterday; and whereas it has been, from the origin of said Church, the settled policy and the invariable usage to elect no person to the office of bishop who was embarrassed with this "great evil," as under such circumstances it would be impossible for a bishop to exercise the function and perform the duties assigned to a general superintendent with acceptance in that large portion of his charge in which slavery does not exist; and whereas Bishop Andrew, himself nominated by our brethren of the slaveholding population, was, nevertheless, free from all personal connection with

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slavery; and whereas this is, of all periods in our history as a Church, the one least favorable to such an innovation upon the practice and usage of Methodism as to confide a part of the itinerant general superintendency to a slaveholder; therefore

        Resolved, That the Rev. James O. Andrew be and is hereby affectionately requested to resign his office as one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

        There were other documents of a more conciliatory nature introduced, but they served only as oil poured upon the flames already kindled. The delegates from the Southern States were already determined as to their course, and those from the Northern and Eastern States were equally determined in their course. All were able to see that a separation was inevitable. A Plan of Separation was adopted, and soon the movement for a separate and independent organization was set on foot. This plan left the initiative and the final decision with the delegates from the Southern States, and they were not very slow in acting. A general convention was called to meet the next year in Louisville, Ky.

The Louisville Convention.

        The Church in the South and Southwest, in her Quarterly and Annual Conferences, approved the course of their delegates in the General Conference and declared her conviction that a separate organization was necessary to her existence and prosperity. Delegates representing fifteen Annual Conferences

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assembled in Louisville, Ky., in accordance with the call, May 1, 1845. Bishops Joshua Soule James O. Andrew presided, and Rev. T.N. Ralston and Rev. T.O. Summers were elected Secretaries. The following resolutions were adopted, with only three dissenting voices:

        Be it resolved by the delegates of the several Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the slaveholding States in general convention assembled, That it is right, expedient, and necessary to erect the Annual Conferences represented in this convention into a distinct ecclesiastical connection separate from the jurisdiction of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as at present constituted; and accordingly we, the delegates of the Annual Conferences, by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, entirely dissolved; and that a separate ecclesiastical connection under the provisional Plan of Separation aforesaid and based upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral, ecclesiastical, and economic rules and regulations of said Discipline, except in so far as verbal alterations may be necessary to a distinct organization, and to be known by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

        Resolved, That we cannot abandon or compromise the principle of action upon which we proceed to a separate organization in the South; nevertheless, cherishing a sincere desire to maintain Christian union and fraternal intercourse with the Church (North), we shall always be ready, kindly and respectfully, to entertain duly and carefully consider

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any proposition or plan having for its object the union of the two great bodies in the North and South, whether such proposed union be jurisdictional or connectional.

        Bishops Soule and Andrew were requested to unite with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, "upon the basis of the Plan of Separation." Bishop Soule at once gave the convention to understand that he felt bound to carry out the plan of episcopal visitation as outlined by the bishops in New York, while Bishop Andrew connected himself with, and was recognized as a bishop of, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. On May 1, 1846, the first General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was convened in Petersburg, Va., Bishops Soule and Andrew presiding. General officers were elected, and the newly formed Church was provided with all the officers necessary for the proper care of every phase and department of the Church work.

        Thus began a Church that has grown in membership and wealth until to-day it is recognized as one of the world-wide powers for the establishing of righteousness in the hearts of men. This Church has upward of two million members, three large and flourishing Publishing Houses, a complete system of colleges and universities, sixteen bishops, fourteen general officers, and Church property valued at millions of dollars. In the Methodist family the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, takes second rank with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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CHAPTER V.

THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL AND THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCHES - PRIORITY STILL AN OPEN QUESTION - HOW ZION WAS ORGANIZED; ITS GROWTH.

        WHICH of these organizations, the African Methodist Episcopal or the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, is the older is yet an open question. The irregular manner in which they were organized makes it very difficult to determine with any degree of satisfaction when they as organizations were born. The Zionists insist on the year 1796 as the beginning of their Church. If we take this date as their starting point as a denomination, we shall have to recognize this Church as the oldest of the separate and independent Church organizations among the Negro people of this country. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that "Mother Zion Church," in New York, was organized and established in 1796; but the Zion Church as anything like a connection was not organized until 1828. The members who afterwards became members of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church remained with the mother Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, until about this time. This can be easily inferred from the following address, drafted February 22, 1820, by a committee consisting of John Dungy, James Varick, Charles Anderson, and William Miller and sent by them to the members and

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bishops of the Philadelphia and New York Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This address is taken from the history as given by Bishop J.J. Moore, of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church:

To the Bishops and Preachers of the Philadelphia and New York Arrival Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Assembled.

        Respected Brethren: We, the official members of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Asbury Church of New York, of the Wesley Church of Philadelphia, of Zion Church of New Haven, Conn., and of Zion Church of Long Island, in consolidation forming a Methodist body, beg leave to present to your honorable body an address on a subject to us of great importance and, we trust, not a matter of indifference to you. In the first place, permit us to humbly and sincerely tender our thanks for what you have done for us in the kind service you have rendered us when in our infant state. We trust that the great Head of the Church in his goodness may continue to reward you for your labors among us, you who have been the instruments in bringing us from darkness to light, from the power of sin and Satan to God. Permit us further to say that when the Methodist Society in America was small the Africans enjoyed comfortable privileges among their white brethren, but as the white element increased the Africans were pressed back. Therefore it was thought necessary for them to have separate places of worship, giving the African a better opportunity of full religious enjoyment and privileges. It is well known that our

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number has greatly increased within the last few years. Many are still coming into the fold of Christ. Among us preachers have been raised up whose labors God has blessed. But hitherto they have been too limited in their ministerial privileges. They have not had the opportunity of traveling as we think God designs that they should have, at least to reach our own race in the evangelical work of the Christian Church. There is no provision in the mother Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, for us in the itinerant work, that colored preachers may go forth and dispense the Word of Life among our own race. And now it seems that the time has come when something should be done for the improvement of the colored brethren in the ministry. But how shall this be accomplished? We have not the least expectation that the African preachers will be admitted to a seat and vote with their white brethren in ecclesiastical assemblages. [This is not what they ought to have expected among Christian brethren, who could not fail to understand the divine lesson on its being a sin to have respect of person; and if simply on account of clothing, much more a sin on account of race or color. James ii. 9, 10.]

        We do not desire to unite with the R. Allen party, being dissatisfied with their general manner of procedure. The brethren in the city of New York, after due consideration, have concluded to form an itinerant plan and establish an Annual Conference for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion preachers, under the patronage of the white bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. We believe that such an arrangement effected would tend greatly to promote the spiritual interest of our people generally;

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our preachers would receive more encouragement in their ministerial labors. If we should commence this important work of forming said itinerant plan and establishing an African Annual Conference under the supervision of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the two Societies, the Zion and Asbury Churches in New York City, with the Philadelphia Society, with their connectional title, shall be the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America. We have also selected a portion of the Discipline of the mother Church (the Methodist Episcopal Church) for our government, with the necessary modifications to meet the circumstances of our organization. To this we beg leave to refer you for perusal. After you have considered our case, should our proceedings meet your approval, and should you decide to comply with our wishes, we will stand ready to receive such advice or instructions as you may think proper to give us through our reverend father in the Lord, Bishop McKendree or any other whom the Conference may see fit to select. On the subject of ordination to eldership, of which our preachers have all been deprived, we might have obtained it from other sources; but we preferred to follow the advice of Bishop McKendree, given to us in New York, to wait until the meeting of your Annual Conference in this and the New York District; then we could fully understand what the mother Church could do for us in the matter. In consequence of some uneasiness in the minds of some of our brethren or members in New York City, we have been under the necessity of electing three of our deacons to the office of elders and some of the preachers to the office of deacons. We hereby show our people that

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their preachers can be properly authorized to administer the ordinances of God's Church. We believe it has had the desired effect of settling the minds of our brethren and advancing the work of the Lord. We expect our first yearly Conference to be held in the city of New York on the 24th day of June next, at which time we hope to have the happiness of hearing that our reverend father, Bishop William McKendree, presided and took jurisdiction of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. With this hope we rest, awaiting your answer, meanwhile praying that the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls may guide you in your deliberations, in ours, and in all other cases; that your conclusions may be pleasing in his sight and tend to advance the kingdom of Christ among the African race.

        N.B. - Should the above address be sanctioned by your honorable body, and should you be pleased to act upon it immediately, you will forward it on to the New York Annual Conference for their consideration and action. Should the time appointed by us for the sitting of the Annual Conference be inconvenient to the person who might be appointed to organize the same, we are willing to change the time a few days sooner or later, provided you will please give us timely notice for such change. But should you see fit not to favor the address in any respect, you will have the goodness to return it to the bearer.

        Signed in behalf of the official members of both Societies, at a special meeting called for that purpose, March 23, 1821, in the city of New York.

JAMES VARICK, Chairman;GEORGE COLLINS, Secretary.

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        The foregoing address being prepared, Rev. Abraham Thompson and Leven Smith were appointed a committee to present it to the official brethren of the Society at Philadelphia (the Wesley). They presented the same, and it was approved by them. Brothers Thompson and Smith then conveyed it to the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, convened at Milford, Del. The Conference received it and acted upon it. In 1822 James Varick, Abraham Thompson, Christopher Rush, and James Smith were appointed a committee to wait upon Bishop McKendree, who refused to ordain the preachers or recognize them. These men were ordained shortly thereafter by James Covell, Sylvester Hutchinson, and W. M. Stillwell. During this same year an extra session of the Conference was called, and James Varick was elected superintendent of the whole connection.

Zion's First General Conference.

        In 1828 the first General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was held in Zion Church, New York City. There were twelve preachers present, with James Varick presiding. The Rev. Christopher Rush was elected superintendent, or bishop, for "the first time."* At first the bishops of this Church were elected annually; afterwards they were elected for a term of four years.

* Moore's "History of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church," page 100.
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        This continued until 1880, when the bishops were elected for life or during good behavior: Since then this great Church has had a remarkable growth. It now has twelve bishops, two hundred and eighty-nine thousand members, two thousand two hundred and four organizations, with Church property valued at more than five million dollars. This Church has a full set of general officers, a publication department, and much valuable school property. Livingstone College, at Salisbury, N.C., is its leading institution of learning.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

        THE African Methodist Episcopal Church (Bethel) is the largest Negro Methodist Church in the world. Its history runs back as far as 1784, although as a Church organization we must take as the time of its birth the convening of the "Friend of Manhood Christianity" in Philadelphia, April 9, 1816. The following persons were members of the convention:

        The first General Conference of this infant of God was held in the city of Philadelphia in 1816. There we find in this body the following princes in heart: Rev. Richard Allen, Jacob Tapisco, Clayton Durham, James Champion, and Thomas Webster, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Daniel Coker, Richard Williams, Henry Harden, Stephen Hill, Edward Williamson, and Nicholson Gailliard, of Baltimore, Md.; Peter Spencer, of Wilmington, Del.; Jacob Marsh, Edward Jackson, and William Andrew, of Attleborough, Pa.; and Peter Cuff, of Salem, N. J.

        Bishop B.W. Arnett, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, gives the following account of the work of the first General Conference of this Church:

        Richard Allen was elected to preside over the body; Rev. Daniel Coker was elected Vice Chairman; Richard Allen, Jr., was elected Secretary.

        The convention resolved "that we will favor an

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independent Church organization." The committee appointed for this purpose reported the first Discipline of the Church. It was the Methodist Episcopal Church doctrine and government, except the presiding eldership.

        The convention elected, under the new form of government, two bishops, Richard Allen and Daniel Coker. Richard Allen was not present when the election took place; but the next morning when the journal was read he arose and informed the convention that he was sensible of the honor conferred on him, as well as the duties that would be expected of him, but, with a sense of his duty to his Church and the fitness of things, he was of the opinion that two bishops were too many for the organization to start with. One bishop was enough at this time, he said. He stated that he would resign his office and let the convention say which should hold over.

        This speech created some hard feelings on the part of the Baltimore delegation, who were in favor of Daniel Coker. The Philadelphians were in favor of Richard Allen. So the whole matter relating to the election of bishops was reconsidered, and a new election was held, when Richard Allen was elected; and on the 11th day of April, 1816, he was ordained by the imposition of hands of five ordained elders in the Church of God. The convention, after it had made arrangements for the meeting of the Annual Conference at Baltimore, adjourned, after completing one of the most important events of the age, when we consider the effects it has had upon the development of Negro manhood.

        In defense of the work of this convention, we quote further from the works of Bishop B.W. Arnett, of that Church:

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        If Mr. Wesley had a right to ordain Dr. Coke, by the same rule Absalom Jones might ordain Richard Allen, and the ordination must be equally valid. And if "three elders and one deacon" or "three elders" can "ordain a bishop" to answer the purpose, by the same party the ordination of the Rev. Richard Allen must be equal, in point of virtue, as any now among Methodists. Therefore why not emit and transmit as much sanctity among those on whom he may lay his hands as any other Methodist bishop, according to the doctrine of episcopacy, provided he be as holy in heart, walking with God, whereby he may do it in the power of faith under the sanctifying influence of the grace of God.

        No one has ever doubted the real strength of Richard Allen's character or his devotion to racial ideals. From 1816 Bishop Richard Allen continued as the only bishop of the Church until 1828, when Rev. Morris Brown was elected as the second bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. As the Church grew in strength of organization it grew in members, until to-day the Church has a splendid organization, with fifteen bishops, over seven thousand organizations, and more than five hundred thousand members. It has Church property valued at more than ten million dollars. Wilberforce and Morris Brown Universities are its leading institutions of learning.

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CHAPTER VII.

THE STORY OF MY EARLY LIFE.

        I HAVE delayed for some time the writing of this little book, in which I hope to set forth the principal events of my life, in a studious effort to put it in as brief a form as possible. Covering a period of more than sixty years of public service, the difficulty of selecting the material can be easily seen.

        I was born March 3, 1834, in the Western division of the State of Tennessee, in Madison County, five miles north of the city of Jackson, where I grew up to manhood. I was reared almost motherless and fatherless, having no parental care and guidance given me. I had an early conception of God, and somehow I was inspired to be religious. I sought religion when quite young; but I did not embrace faith until I was twenty-one years of age, that being the 11th day of September, 1854. It was then that I was happily converted and set out to serve God. Three or four months after my conversion I was called to preach. I joined the Methodist Church in Jackson, Tenn., October 21, 1854, where I retained my membership until the Civil War was over. It was then that I joined Salem Church, out about five miles from Jackson. I was licensed to exhort in November, 1856. This was the beginning of my public ministerial life. Being born in obscurity, out in the country, five miles from town, on a large

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farm, I thought that no good could come from one raised with these environments and under these unfavorable conditions. To begin with, one can see clearly that my way was dark; but with the gift that God gave me, I began to work and continued until I was brought into notice by the people among whom I lived.

        My early life was spent on the farm; and, like the majority of the members of my race of that day, I was denied all the advantages of early training such as would prepare me for public service. I shared in all the evils common to slaves during those dark and bitter days. Pen will never be able to record, tongue will never describe the trials, the sufferings, and the heartaches of those days. Truly, slavery furnishes the blackest chapter in the history of the American republic and is the greatest and foulest crime of the nation.

        I learned to read and write under the greatest difficulties. I was not only deprived of a teacher, but I was not allowed the use of a book or a pencil. I had to learn the best I could. I soon found out what a great advantage it was to read and write, and I applied myself diligently to them as opportunities could be made. After the Civil War I established regular hours for the studying and the reading of God's Word, and these I have kept all of these years. I coveted the morning hours the most, although in the evening, when the hours for work were over, I would read and meditate until my

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candlelight or pine torch would fail me or my body would succumb to fatigue and I would fall asleep. The Bible, Binney's "Theological Compend," Clarke's "Commentaries," Watson's "Bible Dictionary," and Ralston's "Elements of Divinity" were among the first books that I studied. These books I read with a fascination from which I have not escaped to this day.

My First Marriage and Early Experiences.

        When I was nineteen years and ten months old I was married to Miss Frances Ann Boyce, a young woman of eighteen years, who had attracted considerable attention because of her industry, modesty, neatness in dress, and ladylike bearing. She was not a converted Christian, and I was exceedingly anxious for her to have the joy and love that had come into my life when I was brought from darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ. I at once began to pray that my mother and wife could enjoy the gift of grace unto salvation. There were three large families on the plantation on which I lived, and we held prayer meetings every Saturday night. Many persons professed faith in Christ in our meetings, and one of these was my wife. It was remarkable to me how she was converted. We were singing an old plantation melody, and these were the words: "God has done delivered Daniel; why not deliver me?"

        At night I would hold family prayer with my

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wife and mother; and in those prayers the good Lord blessed my labors, and they were brought into the Church. They joined New Salem Church with me.

        To us were born eleven children, who lived to reach manhood and womanhood. Many were the trials I had to pass through to rear them; but I established the custom of praying three times a day on bended knees alone and in secret, and God did not fail to hear me. This custom I still observe. When I had no closet in which to enter, I made one of my hands, for I wanted to be a good man. I desired not only to live right before the people of the community, but before my wife and children as well as before my God. The natural gifts that God gave me when called upon to lead prayer service soon brought me to the front; and as practice makes perfect, the more I was called upon to pray, sing, and exhort, the greater was the number who professed faith in Christ. This caused my fame to spread throughout the community, and a great many sinners and wicked men were brought to Christ. Soon my reputation as a preacher having power with God and influence with man went abroad among both white and colored people. This was the period between the years 1856 and 1861. When the Civil War broke out, the white people were very hard on the Negroes. They did not want them to meet in any kind of gatherings, save that for preaching and praying. Ofttimes this was offensive and called for

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the greatest vigilance on the part of the slave owners. The only time blood was drawn from my body after I was a man was on the occasion of our holding prayer meeting. As all well know, the Negroes were praying to the Almighty to be set free, and the white people were praying to the Lord that they be held in bondage. So for three years there was much supplication. The whole country was in hostility. The North was arrayed against the South, and the South was pitted against the North, and the Lord only knows how the Negroes were made to suffer during those trying days. Those were times that tried the very hearts of men. It has been a wonder to me how I made it through so well with my home affairs. I had a large family to support, but a painstaking, devoted, and true wife. To me she was a true helpmeet. Her honor and word were above gold and silver. She enjoyed the fullest confidence and profoundest respect of all who knew her. For purity of life, personal honor, and integrity no woman ever surpassed her.

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CHAPTER VIII.

MY EARLY LIFE IN THE MINISTRY.

        SHORTLY after my conversion I was overcome with a feeling that I ought to preach. I strove for months to get rid of it, but without success. I went to a man in whose piety and Christian virtue I had much confidence and made known to him my struggle and the feeling that was then strong upon me. He gave me his sympathy and directed me to a certain preacher for counsel and aid; but this man did not believe in Negroes preaching, and he gave me no encouragement. I next sought the advice of a colored man whom the Methodists had helped. He was a pure Christian man, and he told me that if God had really called me to preach he surely knew his own business better than man and advised me not to trouble myself, but trust God. I did trust him; and soon thereafter the inspiration came, and I firmly decided to enter upon the work of a minister.

        I sent in my petition to a Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for license to preach. The Conference did not grant my request, but gave me license to exhort instead. The committee explained that the Church did not believe it proper to grant license to Negroes to preach. Rev. George Harris was the presiding elder, and Rev. A.R. Wilson was the preacher in charge of the local Church. Rev. Wilson was my

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personal friend up to the time of his death, and he took a lively interest in my career and my work. In the early days of my ministry I regarded him as a great and good man, and during all the years of our acquaintance thereafter the esteem in which I held him when I was a young man did not suffer in any way.

        During the Civil War the attitude of the Southern Methodist Church toward granting license to Negroes to preach had undergone some changes, and so I appeared again for license to preach. This time I was sent before the Quarterly Conference presided over by Elder William H. Lee. After asking many questions bearing upon almost every phase of the doctrines of Christ and the Church, I was granted license to preach. I recall many of the questions that were asked and the answers that I gave. I shall never forget the occasion and the keen interest every one seemed to feel in the examination I was called upon to take. I give below a few of the questions and the answers that provoked considerable interest and discussion - viz.:

        Question. Are all men sinners?

        Answer: Yes.

        Q. What Scriptural proof or reference have you to offer?

        A. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

        Q. Is conviction a voluntary act or an involuntary one?

        A. Involuntary.

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        Q. Can you give a Scriptural reference?

        A. "The grace that brings salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching them godliness."

        Q. What is the difference between justification and repentance?

        A. Justification is the work done for me, while regeneration is the work done in me. The former takes place in the courts of heaven, while the latter takes place in the human heart.

        These questions, together with others somewhat similar, being satisfactorily answered, I was granted license to preach, and I felt a freedom that I had not enjoyed before.

        I have already spoken of the prayer meetings and the splendid opportunity they afforded in exercising the gifts that God had given me and the deepening of the work of grace in our hearts. These meetings proved to be a great preparation for the work that I was called upon to do after I had entered fully into the work of the Christian ministry. Being licensed to preach, I was frequently called upon to preach and exhort, especially on Sunday afternoons, not only to my people, but the white people also would come out in large numbers to hear me. At first I was very much embarrassed to preach before such large crowds, because I realized fully that I was without education and had but little opportunity of learning anything. But God helped me wonderfully and blessed my work.

        From the time I was licensed to exhort up to 1865 I held meetings for our people. We had glorious

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times, and many converts would rise and "tell of Jesus and his love." These meetings made our country famous for Methodism during the war. At some places we had stormy times. The old days of the beginning of the Wesleyan Movement in England, in Ireland, and in Wales had their reflex in these. Many times my life was in great danger, and the white people were constantly being reviled and reprimanded because they had encouraged me in preaching. The persecutors went so far as to burn down the church houses in which I had preached to my people. But I had gone too far in the work to be stopped by such methods. Too many people, both white and colored, believed in me to be sidetracked by any such methods; for at this time not only Methodists, but Christian people of all denominations, upheld me and sought to give encouragement. One good old Presbyterian brother said to me after I had preached in his church: "Brother Lane, keep on preaching the gospel, and we will keep on building church houses until the trumpet blows. Let them burn down. We will build, and you shall preach."

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CHAPTER IX.

THE EARLY DAYS OF FREEDOM.

        THE Emancipation Proclamation that had been prepared by President Abraham Lincoln in the month of July, of the year 1862, was not issued until January 1 of the year 1863. It did not go into effect at this time, as we all know, but its influence was felt at once the country over. A studious effort was made on the part of a good many people to keep the issuance of this proclamation a profound secret to the Negroes. But it could not be done. There was too much excitement for such a clever piece of work to be done with any degree of success, and there were too many Negroes who were able to read and understand the trend of affairs to be misled by any subterfuge that might be resorted to by the sympathizers of the Lost Cause. The Confederacy was doomed, and this proclamation was the death knell to slavery on the American continent. The moral effect was wonderful. Strong men who had put all their faith in the supremacy of the Confederate army now began to weaken and became despaired of success. The slaves saw it, and it required great effort on their part to suppress their feelings of rejoicing.

        After Lee had surrendered and the Confederacy had gone to pieces and Jefferson Davis had become a refugee, our owners called us together and told us

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we were free and had to take care of ourselves. There I was with a large, dependent family to support. I had no money, no education, no mother nor father to whom to look for help in any form. Our former owners prophesied that half of us would starve, but not so. It must be admitted, however, that we had a hard time, and it seemed at times that the prophecy would come true; but the harder the time, the harder we worked and the more we endured. For six months we lived on nothing but bread, milk, and water. We had a time to keep alive; but by praying all the time, with faith in God, and believing that he would provide for his own, we saved enough to get the next year not only bread, milk, and water, but meat also.

        The next year my family fared much better, and I was able to devote more time to the work of the ministry. I took an active part in the Church and soon gained the confidence and respect of both white and colored people. At our own request, our Church was organized as an independent society, and we took the name of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. In 1866 we had a Conference of our own in Jackson, Tenn., known as the Tennessee, North Alabama, and North Mississippi Annual Conference. I was elected and ordained deacon one day, and on the next day I was elected and ordained elder. At the close of this Conference I was appointed the presiding elder of the Jackson District of the above-named Annual Conference,

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which position I held for four years. Meanwhile we found that the territory and membership embraced by this Annual Conference were entirely too large; and so later on out of this Conference we organized the Tennessee, North Alabama, North Mississippi, and West Tennessee Annual Conferences.

        As I won the confidence and respect of the people I grew into prominence in the Church. At the session of the Tennessee Annual Conference that convened in Brownsville, Tenn., I was elected the leader of the Tennessee delegation to the first General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. Bishop David S. Doggett, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, presided over the deliberations of this Conference and gave service that was highly satisfactory to all the brethren. It is difficult for any one who was not present to understand and appreciate the attitude of the Southern Methodist Church, as exemplified through its bishops and other leaders, toward the colored work. It is far more difficult to explain it. There was a fraternal sympathy, a mutual good will, a kindly interest that made the relation cordial and highly helpful.

        The Jackson District was a prominent appointment. As the elder I was given an assessment in the way of a salary of four hundred dollars per year. As a matter of fact, I was paid all the way from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars a year

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during the four years I served in this capacity. Having served the time limit, I was afterwards assigned to the work as pastor of Liberty Colored Methodist Episcopal Church at Jackson, Tenn., and served that congregation for a little more than a year for the handsome salary of one hundred and seventy-five dollars! My family was large and growing, and I had to do much work on the farm in order to support my family properly. Nevertheless, during my pastorate I was successful in increasing the membership of this Church from seventy to three hundred members. These were great days for me in the ministry. I preached with much freedom and great power. My conversion and conduct showed to the people that I was sincere in my purpose and earnest in my efforts, and men seemed to realize that I was called of God. All of these things gave me the confidence and respect of the people, and I gradually grew into prominence and general favor.

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CHAPTER X.

OUR FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE.

        As early as the fall of 1877 several of the Annual Conferences of the future Colored Methodist Episcopal Church were organized, and by the spring of 1870 the number had been greatly increased. The General Conference had been called to assemble in the fall of 1870, and there was much interest displayed in the affairs of the new organization. I shall always remember the session of the Tennessee Annual Conference that convened at Brownsville, Tenn., and was presided over by Bishop David S. Doggett, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The day before the convening of the Conference my wife's mother received a stroke of paralysis and fell dead. I received the message and had to return home to be with my loved ones during those sad hours. I rode all the way from Brownsville to Jackson on horseback. After giving all the comfort and consolation possible, I returned to the Conference room with a heavy heart. I was informed that the brethren, during my absence, had selected me as one of the delegates to the forthcoming session of the General Conference. I felt very keenly the confidence thus expressed and the honor conferred and sought by my conduct to prove worthy of it. I had labored earnestly, and this recognition was a source of comfort to me.

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        In reading of the work of those early days let us remember that conditions were unlike the conditions of to-day in many respects. The people were greatly scattered and were constantly moving from one place to another. This was necessarily true because of the unsettled condition of everything in the country. It was no easy task to keep up with the people and safeguard the interests of the Church.

        On December 15, 1870, the first General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America assembled in Jackson, Tenn. This was an interesting gathering of men. Among the more prominent persons who made up this Conference, as I recall, were Revs. Worden P. Churchill, Joseph Crouch, Benjamin Bullard, R.T. White, John W. Lane, Esquire Bobo, Isaac H. Anderson, R.H. Vanderhorst, and Lucius H. Holsey. W.H. Miles was a reserve delegate from the Kentucky Annual Conference. Among the active laymen there were Henry Hammond, James Graves, Augustus Bostick, and Wesley Ware. These men were the leaders in doing the early legislation of the Church. December 15, the first day of the Conference, was spent in prayer. I shall never forget the scenes of that day. A great work was to be done, and all seemed to realize the necessity of divine help and guidance. It was a precedent worthy of the men and the occasion and one that the succeeding General Conferences might do well to emulate. The white brethren commissioned by the Church to help us in every

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way necessary were there praying with us, that no mistake be made in the important work before us. During that service a great spiritual wave swept over us as we lingered at the throne of grace. Bishop George F. Pierce, D.D., presided over this Conference; while the Rev. James A. Heard, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was the Secretary pro tem. Bishop Pierce then requested Dr. A. L.P. Green, of Nashville, Tenn., to read the action of the General Conferences bearing upon our request to them for a separate organization and their action with respect to the same. These documents made clear the fact that the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was anxious to help in every way possible to establish our Church and give us the advantage of their experience and knowledge. After listening to the reading of these documents, the brethren set their hands to the work before them.

        The organization was made permanent by the election of Rev. J.A. Heard, Secretary, and the Rev. L.J. Scurlock, Assistant Secretary. A majority of the delegates elected being present, the Conference proceeded to business. Besides the various committees that were appointed, the following work was done in a manner highly creditable to the Church and the delegates: The Rules of Order as set forth in the "Manual of Discipline" of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, were adopted for the government of the Conference. The Conference chose as the name of their Church the Colored Methodist

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Episcopal Church in America. It adopted, in the main, the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with such changes as necessity required, as the Book of Discipline of the new Church. It elected the Rev. William Henry Miles, a reserve delegate from the Kentucky Annual Conference, and the Rev. Richard H. Vanderhorst, of Charleston, S. C., as the first bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. It created and established a Publication House, locating the same in Memphis, Tenn., with the Rev. L.J Scurlock as Agent. It established the Christian Index as its official organ and elected the Rev. Samuel Watson as its first editor. It established and fixed the boundaries of the nine Annual Conferences already organized, prorated the amount of funds to be raised by the Annual Conferences, and adjourned to meet four years from that date or at the call of the Senior Bishop, W.H. Miles. Without precedent or experience, the leaders entered upon their duties with a deep sense of their responsibilities and obligations. The polity of the Church had to be established, its relation to all other bodies had to be defined, and the protection of its interests had to be secured. It can be easily seen that these things were enough to fill the hands of the leaders to overflowing; and we venture the assertion that, had they not been men of action and of great vision, they would have failed in their first attempts. Be it said to the credit of the General Conference that both of the

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bishops elected were men of strong personal character and much executive ability. Rev. William H. Miles was a great preacher and a strong executive, while the Rev. R.H. Vanderhorst had won a wide reputation as a great evangelist and a matchless orator. These men with much ceremony were ordained bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America by Bishops Robert Paine and Holland N. McTyeire, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and were consecrated to this holy office December 19, 1870. Both being endowed with great physical parts, they gave promise of many years of usefulness to their Church. But not so. The duties were too onerous, the work was entirely too heavy, and the physical and mental strain was too great for them to live long. In July, 1872, Bishop R.H. Vanderhorst died, after serving the Church only eighteen months as a chief pastor. His passing was a subject of much grief and disappointment to the entire Church. Befitting memorial services were held throughout the connection to his honor and memory. The death of Bishop Vanderhorst multiplied the duties devolving upon the shoulders of Bishop Miles and forced the convening of the General Conference one year earlier than had been planned.

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CHAPTER XI.

THE SECOND GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA.

        ON Wednesday, March 19, 1873, a called session of the General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America convened in Trinity Church, Augusta, Ga. It will be noted that the Conference met in March instead of in August. This was done so as to provide for the holding of the spring Annual Conferences and the summer district meetings that meant so much to the new organization. During these days of organization all of these meetings needed episcopal supervision and direction.

        Since the adjournment of the last General Conference Bishop Vanderhorst had passed away, and the work had grown to such magnitude and importance that the demand for more bishops was imperative. Besides the care of the work itself, there was an estrangement between the other Methodist bodies and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America that seriously threatened an open breach. This came about by the other Churches occupying property that legally and of right belonged to the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. It can be easily seen that these problems and others that were constantly arising would involve us in ecclesiastical entanglement unless they were handled firmly and wisely, and Bishop Miles desired the counsel and

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advice of associates. It stands to the credit of the leaders of our Church that, in a measure, these denominational differences were adjusted in a Christian spirit, and the open breach was averted. It is true that we lost some valuable Church property, especially in the great cities of the South and East. Some of the other Churches sent men from the North, especially persons who had some experience in public life, as politicians and the like, into the South to corral the people in large cities and thus persuade them to leave the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and align themselves with the other Churches. Because we did not have men to cope with the situation, our organization lost heavily.

        At this General Conference a goodly number of the white brethren were on hand. They had come to offer words of encouragement and advice and to give assurances of their continued interest and good will. They knew of many of our trials and hardships and were in great sympathy with us. Among these godly men I recall Bishop George F. Pierce, D.D., Rev. Thomas Taylor, Dr. Sehon, Rev. J.E. Evans, and Dr. Whitehead. Bishop Miles presided over the deliberations of this Conference, and the Rev. J.W. Bell, of Kentucky, was elected Secretary.

        After the devotional exercises had been held and the organization perfected, Bishop W.H. Miles read the first episcopal address ever delivered to a Colored Methodist Episcopal General Conference. It was a masterly production and clearly showed that

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Illustration

TRINITY CHURCH, AUGUSTA, GA.
Where Bishop Lane was consecrated to the office of bishop, March 23, 1873.

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the author had a full grasp of the situation and a clear comprehension of the problems before the Church, as well as the true mission of our Methodism in the world. The Conference was so thoroughly in accord with the work of Bishop Miles that it adopted all of his recommendations and elected three bishops to help him superintend the work of our rapidly growing organization. This election took place after much prayer on the morning of March 19, 1873. On the first ballot the Rev. Joseph A. Beebe, of North Carolina, and the Rev. L.H. Holsey, of Georgia, each having received a majority of the votes of the Conference, were declared bishops elect of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America by Bishop William Henry Miles. On the third ballot Isaac Lane, of Tennessee, was elected bishop, which election was duly announced by the presiding officer. The next Sunday, March 23, Bishop George F. Pierce, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, preached the ordination sermon and assisted otherwise in the ordination of the bishops elect. This work was done in historic old Trinity Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, of Augusta, Ga., where, since then, many notable gatherings of colored Methodists have been held. The whole machinery of the Church was now put into operation. The financial plan was improved upon, the publication department took definite form, the educational and missionary work was begun, and the Church work gained in prestige and power.

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CHAPTER XII.

MY EARLY EXPERIENCES AS A BISHOP.

        HAVING been elected bishop on the 19th day of March and consecrated to that holy office on Sunday, the 23d of March, A.D. 1873, to go out as a bishop and preach the gospel and administer the laws of the Church was no little embarrassment to me. In those early days of the freedom of the race the people were crude and had their own ideas of religion, of the ministry, and especially of the bishops. There was much curiosity attached to the coming of a bishop. This situation had to be met and in a way satisfied in order to reach the people in the interest of the Church.

        After our election and consecration, Bishop Miles called us together, and then and there we allotted and assigned the work for the year. I was called upon to preside over the Northwest Texas, the East Texas, and the Louisiana Annual Conferences. At that time our entire connection was composed of mission Conferences when compared with the work as it is organized to-day, and my work was from every viewpoint missionary. The territory was exceedingly large, covering the present States of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. As all know, this territory was wholly undeveloped and sparsely settled by a wild and adventurous people, who cared very little for the Church, religion, and the ministry. Railroads

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were very few, and most of the traveling had to be done by stage, on horseback, by boat, or on foot. To travel over this vast territory entailed many hardships, deprivations, and much suffering. Pen cannot describe, tongue can never tell, nor can language express the mental anguish and the physical pain I endured on those perilous trips. I shall never forget those early experiences.

        Being without money with which to purchase the necessary clothing, buy books, and the like, I was much embarrassed. At that time the railroad fare was five cents per mile, and my Conferences were far apart. After providing for the protection and care of my family, I started out to hold the District Conferences. Bishop Miles had asked me to hold some of these Conferences for him, and I did so. My first Conference was held at Cumberland City, Tenn. After calling the Conference to order, we conducted our devotional service. I made a talk based upon some portion of Scripture and then called for the election of a secretary. In those days it was a very difficult matter to secure the services of one who could write and record with any degree of intelligence the proceedings of our meetings. Therefore much care was exercised in the selecting of a competent secretary. This having been done, the Conference settled down to work. I spoke to the brethren on the duties of the presiding elder and the pastors. A great congregation was there to hear and see the newly elected bishop, and we had a

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splendid meeting. I returned home only to spend a few days with my family, and then I was off to Minden, La., the seat of the next District Conference that I was to hold. En route to Minden I stopped at Water Valley, Miss., where I enjoyed the hospitalities of friends for a few days, and then I continued my trip. In order to reach the Conference I had to travel seventy miles on horseback. After getting there I was so tired and worn that I could scarcely go. The brethren were there in large numbers, and there was much uneasiness among them as to the proper care of the work of the Conference. I knew the attitude of the brethren, and I went on bravely in His name. Before we had gone far into the work of the Conference the brethren began to see for themselves that the interest and well-being of the Church were safe in my hands, and they soon accorded me all the courtesies, respect, and recognition due the presiding officer of their Conference. We could not secure a competent secretary, and I had to record the proceedings of the Conference and preside also. This made the work irksome and slow. After closing what was considered as one of the best Conferences ever held in Minden, I returned home and made preparations for the holding of my first Annual Conference.

My First Annual Conference.

        My first Annual Conference was the West Texas Annual Conference, which convened at Waxahachie.

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Ellis County, Tex., in 1873. En route to the seat of the Conference my experiences were everything but pleasant. I had only a small sum of money, and while on a train a man robbed me of that. I had to go through St. Louis and Sedalia, Mo., and then via the St. Louis and Texas Central Railroad. I reached the State line of Texas and Oklahoma (then the Indian Territory). It was about sundown, and I had some sixty miles yet to go before reaching Dallas, my destination. Here I found Rev. A.J. Burrows hard at work. From Dallas I went to Waxahachie, a small town about sixty miles south of Dallas.

        The Conference was well attended; but the year had been a hard one for the brethren, and their reports were very poor. The preachers had not received very much in the way of support, and the general interest of the Church had suffered likewise. To indicate the nature of the support that was given, I give one item that will be quite interesting to the students of the conditions that prevailed during those days. For the support of the bishop the Conference had been asked to raise forty dollars, and they reported having raised three and one-half dollars. It was at this place that one of those unpleasant events took place - viz., the African Methodist Episcopal Church had gotten a hold among our people and greatly divided them. As a result the African Methodist Episcopal Church did not do very much and made impossible the success we

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would have had under favorable conditions. I lectured and preached and exhorted and helped them in every way I could and then left for my next appointment.

My Second Annual Conference.

        My next Annual Conference took me to Henderson, Rusk County, Tex., a distance of over two hundred miles. Of this, forty miles had to be traveled on horseback. It was a long and painful trip. Upon the advice of friends, I stopped with Brother McElroy, a very aged man who was greatly afflicted with the palsy. He could not do anything for my comfort; but his wife, a young woman, did what she could to make my stay pleasant. I found the brethren much disappointed and disgruntled. For years Bishop Miles had been using a white man as the secretary of the Conference. The brethren had learned that this white man could not be present, as he had been called to attend court in a neighboring town, and they were at a loss to know how the Conference could be held without a competent secretary. The delegates and ministers hesitated in coming into the Conference room. We opened after the usual manner and then sent for the brethren to come in, as we were ready to begin the work of the Conference. We sang, read the Scriptures, exhorted, and preached the best we could, and gradually the brethren saw that we could have a good meeting if the secretary was not there to make a record of our

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Illustration

RESIDENCE OF BISHOP ISAAC LANE.

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transactions. With my personal assistance, we used a layman and got along very well with the minutes and the work of keeping the journal. This was a large Conference; and although asked to raise three hundred and eighty dollars for the support of the bishop, they reported only fifty-seven dollars. When we called the attention of the brethren to the importance and necessity of raising the small amount asked for the support of the bishops of the Church, the brethren seemed to have been surprised to know that they would be expected to bring money for the bishops instead of the bishops sending money to them.

My Third Annual Conference.

        The Louisiana Annual Conference, which convened in Homer, La., was the third Annual Conference I was called upon to hold. En route to Minden I stopped over in Marshall, Tex., where I preached to an audience of white and colored people. They heard me gladly and gave me twenty dollars to help in carrying forward the work in which I was engaged. This made seventy-seven dollars that I had received in the way of salary during the year. At Homer we held the Conference under many difficulties. Our work was not organized, the people had not been trained, and there was apparent everywhere a want of unification of purpose and a concert of action on the part of the workers. As a result during the year the brethren had not accomplished

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what they might have done under more favorable conditions. Of the three hundred and eighty dollars that the Conference was assessed, they had raised only eighty dollars. I explained the system of finance we were inaugurating, and the brethren promised to do better another year. Let it be said to their credit that they lived up to their new resolutions.

        With the adjournment of this Conference my first year as a bishop came to a close. I had worked hard during the year and had but little financial help. On my salary the Church had paid me only one hundred and sixty dollars and fifteen cents during the year, and my expenses necessarily carried me far into debt. My family was large and dependent, and my responsibilities were many. In order to make my episcopal tour I had borrowed two hundred dollars. My note was about to fall due, and something must be done to enable me to meet it. My wife and children had a crop of cotton. This I sold, and with the money I paid the debt and took up the note. I then worked hard to replace this money. I cut wood and hauled it to town and sold it, making enough money thereby to buy such things as clothing and other provisions that were needed by my family. This was a hard year for me and one that I shall never forget. The labor, deprivations, and hardships I endured were enough to bring tears to my eyes. The young ministers of our Church, even those serving missions to-day, do not know our

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suffering during those early pioneer days of our Church.

        In the early spring of 1874 I was called to Texas on business for the Church, and after attending to the work I attempted to return home. The high waters prevented my returning; and a white brother, learning of my condition, gave me enough money to pay my fare to Louisville, Ky., where Bishop Miles had called us to our annual meeting. The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was in session in Louisville at this time, and it was very necessary for us to meet in that city. I reached Louisville at night and took a carriage for the home of Bishop W.H. Miles. He was out of the city, but his wife provided for me the best she could. The next morning Bishop Miles and the other bishops of our Church reached the city. We had a short session and then adjourned in order to visit the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Conference gladly heard our message and renewed their assurances of interest, sympathy, and good will. The next day we had our annual meeting. The bishops made their reports, which showed steady progress and improvement. We laid off the work for the next year the best we could and discussed many of the perplexing questions and problems that were still before the Church.

        Our General Conference was soon to meet, and there were the usual things to be done prior to the

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meeting of this body. The message had to be written, the recommendations had to be agreed upon, and general direction given to the advancement of every interest of the Church. I had entertained the hopes of getting some money at this meeting, but all my hopes soon vanished when it became evident that there was not a cent available for such purposes. During the year I had received far less than my expenses incurred in traveling over the connection. The bishops agreed to my preaching en route home, and by taking up collections I thus became able to pay my fare home. This I did, arriving home after an absence of six or eight weeks. Finding my wife sick and despondent, I gave such comfort and help as I could; and I began at once to make preparation for the care of my family during my absence in attendance upon the General Conference and the Annual Conferences that were soon to be upon me. This I did to the best of my ability. I cut and hauled to town wood for sale and did such other job work as I could get to do and at the same time helped in every way I could with my crop.

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CHAPTER XIII.

THE THIRD GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA

        THE General Conference that convened in Louisville, Ky., in August, 1874, was the third General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. At this time the country was passing through a great financial crisis. On account of the long drought, crops had failed, money was scarce, and there was much suffering among the people. In spite of these untoward conditions, the General Conference was well attended. The brethren soon got down to business. Although there was to be no election of bishops, the interest in the general work of the Church was not wanting. The report of the bishops showed much improvement in our organization. There were reported fifteen Annual Conferences, with a membership of six hundred and seven traveling preachers and seventy-five thousand communicants. Like the rest of us, the Senior Bishop, William H. Miles, was impressed with the importance and necessity of a better-prepared ministry as the one outstanding, crying need of the hour. This one idea grew upon this great and good man until finally he threw himself into the movement of founding a great central school, with a number of smaller and more elementary schools that were to

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serve as feeders. It became the one burning and all-absorbing question upon his mind and heart. He had laid his plans before the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, just a few weeks before and had been given some encouragement from the bishops, general officers, and delegates. One member of the Memphis Conference gave one hundred dollars, while others gave smaller amounts. The other bishops of the Church joined the Senior Bishop in this work, the General Conference indorsed the movement, and upward of sixteen thousand dollars was raised for this purpose. Later on Bishop Miles traveled far and near, urging the importance of this work and making appeals in its behalf. I remember many of his terse, trenchant sayings. Being a man of unusual ability, he swayed his audiences by his convincing logic and his matchless eloquence in his appeals. It is said that no man could sit under the sound of his voice without being thoroughly moved. The General Conference took steps to carry out the plans of its great leader. It adopted the Central University as the name of the proposed school and decided upon Louisville, Ky., as the site. It appointed Bishop W.H. Miles as its Agent and urged the ministers throughout the connection to take a collection for the college, sending the same at once to the Agent. It called upon our people and friends of the race everywhere to assist in this great and laudable enterprise.

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        While the establishing of a system of schools was the one outstanding question, there were other matters that received the attention of the Conference. The salary of the Senior Bishop was placed at one thousand dollars per year and his traveling expenses, while the salaries of the other bishops were placed at seven hundred and fifty dollars per year and their traveling expenses. These amounts were prorated among the various Annual Conferences and were regarded in a way as assessments. While this money was never raised, the action of the General Conference made clear a plan that some day was to be operative in the Church.

        The Rev. E.B. Martin was the efficient Secretary of this Conference and as such rendered signal service to the Church. He afterwards became editor of the Christian Index and pastor of Center Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, at Louisville, Ky. Martin's short and brilliant career in the Church came to a sudden close because of family troubles that he could not control and of conduct involving his moral character.

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CHAPTER XIV.

THE PERIOD FROM 1874 TO 1880, INCLUDING THE FOURTH GENERAL CONFERENCE.

        I REGARD the period from 1874 to 1880 as one of great transition. Everything was still in motion. There was nothing that had become fixed and definite in form or mode. Every Church movement was being tried and every plan inaugurated tested. It is not surprising that many of these plans failed. It is rather astonishing that so many of them succeeded. We were feeling very keenly the encroachments that the other Churches were making upon us. They constantly referred to us as a Southern Church, a rebel Church, and the like, and those names were very distasteful to our people.

        As early as 1866 the African Methodist Episcopal Church, through their bishops, urged our uniting with them, claiming that there was no room in this country for another independent organization. A memorial in the form of a petition was sent to the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, during their General Conference that convened in New Orleans, La. At once we made it known that we preferred a separate organization of our own, regularly established and organized after our own ideas and notions. The bishops and General Conference of the Southern Church readily agreed with us, and the petition was most respectfully returned

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with regrets that the present conditions would not justify the granting of the petition as it had been presented.

        During this extraordinary period there were many overtures made for organic union between our Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; but no plan or basis of union was ever worked out and submitted on which we could agree, and this division has continued all these years.

        Our Publication House up to this time had not proved a paying proposition. There was constantly a deficit in the publishing of the Christian Index, and now something had to be done to save it to the Church. It had been moved from Memphis to Louisville, and from Louisville to Memphis again, and the deficit continued. What was to be done was still the question.

        Our educational movement had proved to be more of a failure than our publishing department. Fifty thousand dollars was needed to establish the connectional school, and it was necessary to have ten thousand dollars at once to save to the connection the property already purchased by Bishop Miles. This money could not be raised; and Bishop Miles, disappointed and greatly disheartened, decided to abandon the educational work and leave the field for others to cultivate. This was in 1878.

        The period from 1874 to 1880 was not only a

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period of great trial to the Church, when her plans and policy were being tested; but it was also a period of much hard work, many disappointments, and hardships for her bishops. Demands for their services were constantly made, and the money necessary to cover their expense in traveling over the railroad from one point to another was not available. As we have already recorded, our salaries were small, and rarely did any of the bishops receive more than six hundred dollars per year in the way of salary. In 1875 I received two hundred and seventy dollars, and the next year I was paid the handsome salary of three hundred and eighty dollars! The territory over which I traveled entailed much traveling; and had I not been energetic and ambitious for my family, we should have suffering during those days.

        In the fall of 1877 I held the Georgia Conference. Among the other discussions provoking much thought were the requirements of a person who desires to become a member of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The next year (1878) the General Conference met in Jackson, Tenn., and I requested the bishops to pass upon a form that might be used throughout the connection by ministers in receiving members into the Church. This form as drafted by me was adopted by the bishops and the General Conference; and, without any change, it has been used ever since. It is as follows and can be found in our Book of Discipline

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on page 257: "To this question, asked by the minister, the candidate must answer in the affirmative: 'Do you solemnly, in the presence of God and this congregation, ratify and confirm the promise and vow of repentance, faith, and obedience contained in the baptismal covenant?' "

        This General Conference did much constructive work in the way of legislation and is regarded as one of the best we have ever held.

        It was at this General Conference that it became very apparent to all that unless something was done our beautiful Israel Metropolitan Church, in Washington, D C., would be lost to the connection because of financial conditions that had developed. The local Church was unable to take care of the large debt that was hanging over the Church property, and we were notified that unless something was done at once the Church property would be lost to the connection. In order to give the necessary relief, the Conference levied an assessment of ten cents per member upon the whole Church, and I was elected as the Special Agent and Treasurer of this fund. We raised enough money to "tide" the property over, but the original debt was not reduced to any appreciable extent. That debt has continued to exist all these years and has been a decided drawback to the building up of our Church work at the seat of our national government, where we should have not only a representative church edifice, but a large, representative congregation of worshipers.

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        The General Conference of 1882 enacted much important legislation. The Church work began to take on the departmental form, and the machinery had to be adjusted to meet the demands of the times. The Church manifested considerable interest in the founding and establishing of her educational institutions, and new leaders were being developed for the advancement of the interests of the kingdom of Christ. The failure on the part of the Church in establishing the schools at Louisville, Ky., and Sardis, Miss., had dampened the educational ardor of the leaders, but in no way discouraged the people or lessened the desire of both leaders and people for schools of their own. So as early as 18/8 there was a movement inaugurated in the Tennessee Conference for the establishing of a school of high grade at Jackson. Rev. D.L. Jackson, of Alabama, Revs. C.H. Lee, J.H. Ridley, Sandy Rivers, Berry Smith, J.K. Daniel, and others were leaders in this movement. In 1879 Bishop Lane came to the assistance of the Church, and the movement began to take on a tangible form which eventually led to the founding of Lane College. A similar movement began in Georgia under the leadership of Bishop L.H. Holsey and resulted in the founding, in 1883, of Paine College.

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CHAPTER XV.

MY WORK FOLLOWING THE FIFTH AND SIXTH GENERAL CONFERENCES.

        THE fifth General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America convened in Augusta, Ga., May 4, 1882, and transacted some very important business. Among the most striking pieces of constructive legislation done by the General Conference was the one requiring all ministers, both local and traveling, to subscribe for the Christian Index, the official organ of the Church. This law has relieved the Church of the continued embarrassment in the publishing of the connectional organ. Its wisdom is recognized in that this law has never been repealed and is in vogue to-day. The Publication House was moved from Louisville, Ky., to Jackson, Tenn., where it has remained ever since 1882.

        During the General Conference of 1886, in laying off the plan of episcopal visitation, I was assigned to the Western field of labor again. My first Annual Conference met at Mountain Fork, Ind. Ter., August 19, 1886. On my way to this Conference I stopped at Clarksville, Red River County, Tex., and then went on to Shawneetown. I had been advised to spend the night in the home of Brother Mitchell Shaw, one of our preachers. I went there and was received by him and his wife. Mrs. Shaw was an Indian and did not know anything of the

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manners and customs of the States' people. Crude and coarse, there was a complete want of all social intercourse and pleasantries, and for that reason I did not care to stay. Brother Shaw was living after the most primitive manner, and I decided that it would be pleasanter for me to be traveling along during the night than to stay there in the hut of Brother Shaw under the existing conditions. With my pony, I set out on this long and perilous trip. It was during this night that I had the saddest experience of my life. In fact, at one time I gave up all hopes of living to see the next morning. I had never traveled through that country before and did not know the paths (for there were no roads) nor the directions. I was soon lost in the woods, in the thickets and heavy undergrowths, and wandered about until about midnight, when I came to a man's house out in the lonesome forest, far removed from the roadside or any other house. It was the hut of an Indian. He and his wife heard my call and came out to the fence almost nude. Their very sight was frightful to me. I tried to tell them where I wanted to go, and in reply they gave me signs with their heads which were as meaningless to me as they were amusing. In fact, I could not understand them, and all I said was meaningless to them. I now saw that all efforts on my part to make myse