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EPISCOPAL ADDRESS-
DELIVERED BY
BISHOP J. S. FLIPPER, D. D., LL. D.
TO THE
Twenty-Sixth General Conference
of the A. M. E. Church
May, Nineteen Twenty
St. Paul A. M. E. Church
Saint Louis, Missouri.
1920
A. M. E. Sunday School Union
Nashville, Tenn.
BISHOP J. S. FLIPPER. D. D., LL. D.
EPISCOPAL ADDRESS
===== delivered BY ,
BISHOP J. S. FLIPPER, D. D., LL. D.
TO THE
Twenty-Sixth General Conference
of the A. M. E. Church
May, Nineteen Twenty
St. Paul A. M. E. Church
Saint Louis, Missouri.
1920
A. M. E. Sunday School Union
Nashville, Tenn.
Topics Discussed
FOREWORD
1—Quadrennial Epicede
2—Historical Development
3—Our Episcopacy
4—Ministerial Preparedness
5—Bishops* Absolute Power in Appointments
6—Church Constitution
7—Supreme Court of African Methodism
8—Conference Claimants
9—Marriage
10—Divorce
11—University Propaganda
12—Organic Union
13—Equal Rights for Women in the Church, Ministry
Excepted
14—Mob Violence
15—Disfranchisement
16—Social Diseases
17—Democracy
18—Connectional Departments
(1) Missionary
(2) Book Concern and Christian Recorder
(3) Financial Department
(4) Church Extension Society
(5) A. M. E. Review
(6) Department of Education
(7) Southern Christian Recorder
(8) Sunday School Union
(9) Allen Christian Endeavor League
19—Labor Problem
20—Bishops and the General Conference
21—Prohibition
(5)
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Episcopal Address
22—Committee on Ministerial Inefficiency
23—Evangelism
24—Commission on After-War Problems.
25—Recommendations
BISHOPS OF THE A. M. E. CHURCH
1920
B. T. Tanner, D. D.
B. F. Lee, D. D.
Evans Tyree, D. D., M. D.
C> S. Smith, D. D., LL. D.
L. J. Coppin, D. D., LL. D.
H. B. Parks, D. D.
J. S. Flipper, D. D., LL. D.
J. A. Johnson, D. D.
W. H. Heard, D. D.
John Hurst, D. D.
W. D. Chappelle, D. D.
J. H. Jones, D. D.
J. M. Conner, D. D.
W. W. Beckett, D. D.
I. N. Ross. D. D.
Episcopal Address, 1920
To the Twenty-Sixth General Conference of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church.
Dear Fathers and Brethren: Grace, Mercy and Truth from
God, our Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord.
As followers of the Eternal God and Lord of hosts, elevated
to the position of Bishops or Chief Pastors of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, we tender for your careful and
deliberate thought and attention, this our Quadrennial Address.
We recognize in the beginning the righteous authority of the
Supreme Head of the Church—Our Creator and Redeemer, in
whom we "live and move and have our being." Through the
light manifested in his gracious truth; the guidance of his Holy
Spirit; the control of his omnipotent power, we are here present
today and show forth in our lives his loving-kindness, mercy and
abundant grace. The church has been sustained, guided and
blessed as never before through this quadrennium.
The solidarity of the church has been preserved, and especially'
the church of our choice and persuasion. Attacks have
been made upon the church in general, because of the world-wide
war. It was claimed by some that had the church been as in¬
fluential as it should have been, there would have been no war,
neither the great loss of life. The church does not and will not
plead guilty to this charge. The church holds the oracles of
God, which are as pure and holy today as ever; and the failure
lies not in the church, but the departure of nations and their
rulers from the teachings of the Holy Writ, which inevitably
brings confusion and disaster.
The church today is the guardian and keeper of the estab¬
lished doctrines of Christianity, which have served as a charf
(7)
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Episcopal Address
to guide nations collectively and individually through this earthly
wilderness of sin and woe; and wherever they have been strictly
adhered to, and become a light unto their path and a lamp unto
their feet, the highway of holiness has become the trodden
path where both nations and individuals have found the blessings
of God and the rewards that come to those who endure hardness
as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Man's failure to live up to the standard set by Almighty God
cannot lessen the influence of the church. While the influence of
the church is never lessened, yet it is not always fully exerted;
because like Cain, sin lies at the door, and God, notwithstanding
his anger waxes hot against the sinner, "his hand," as Isaiah
says, "is stretched out still."
The old, old truth that God has been offended because of man's
sin and transgression of his Holy law, and that man has no
power inherent in. himself to save himself, still stands out in
bold relief; and to come back to God and be in peace and fellow¬
ship with him, there must needs be first of all, a turning from
sin by godly sorrow for sin, better known as repentance toward
God; then faith in the efficacy of the atoning blood of Jesus
Christ; whereupon the love of God is shed abroad in the heart
by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us and
which constitutes being born again, or being born from above
and becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus. The old man
with his old deeds is crucified, quickened from death in tres¬
passes and sin, brought into newness of life; living not of, or
by self, but as expressed by St. Paul, "I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.) The African Methodist Episcopal
Church has established itself upon these truths and fully realizes
that other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid—
Jesus Christ.
Men may reason along other lines, and philosophize upon new
methods of salvation, and take to themselves the idea that such
doctrine has outlived its day and time; but the church heeds
none of these seductive ideas, neither will it permit this class to
Episcopal Address
9
spoil the church through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world. The church
will both rest and stand on the creed enunciated by St. Paul, "And
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory." (I Tim. 3:16.)
We as the accredited representatives of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, from the four cardinal points of the earth,
have assembled here in the strength and power of Jehovah, whose
glory covers the heavens, and whose praise fills the earth—with
our eyes upon the Sun of Righteousness, that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. We seek his guidance that in de¬
liberate and mature thought and consideration, we may enact
such legislation as will glorify God, lengthen the cords and
strengthen the stakes of our beloved Zion, and map out a more
progressive, wider, more intensive and extensive program for
both home and foreign missionary work.
We beseech the Immortal, Invisible and All Wise God to so
endow us with wisdom and foresight that we may lose sight of
personal gain, ambition and selfishness, and enter in that broad
altruistic spirit in prosecuting and furthering the work and
business of this General Conference that the highest interest of
the church and the glory of God may be safe-guarded by the
soundest and wisest legislation that the wisdom of this as¬
sembled body is capable of enacting into positive and statutory
law.
Quadrennial Epicede
OUR LAMENTED DEAD.
1''Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and
tfoeir works do follow them." (Rev. 14:13.)
ju^he life in this world is probationary; we dwell, but do not
abide here. We are on a journey passing through but one way
$nd at one time. Life here is timal; the scenes and things
awong which we labor and wait are temporal. Imperfection is
ouif condition, but we are traveling to a land of eternal light and
j,qy, a perfect state and place where God our Father, immortal,
invisible and unchangeable has prepared a home for the faithful,
au4 a place where no inhabitant shall say, "I am sick."
,, 1 Several of our brethren who were members of the last General
Conference and their wives have crossed the River of Death.
Wl|ile here on earth they labored in the Master's vineyard
were bright and shining lights, potent factors in the church,
wielding an influence for good. They preached a gospel of sal¬
vation and their delivery of the Word of God turned many
i:rpm darkness to light; but they have finished their course, run
(heir race, kept the faith, and have won the crown of righteous¬
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give unto all
them that love his appearing.
lolft is our Christian duty before beginning the work that lies be¬
fore us in this Quadrennial Session to pause and make mention
of our departed brethren who have been our yoke-fellows in
the service and work of the Lord. They worshipped the same
God, preached the same gospel, were established upon the same
doctrine and have gone the same way that we shall pass; crossing
the same stream that we shall cross, and shall in the future,
accentuate their praise and that of the holy angels with our
praises of the true and living God.
Their voices will no more be lifted up to preach the name
of Jesus Christ; to sing the happy songs of Zion; to help us
(10)
Episcopal Address
11
in framing legislation for the church. Therefore we should
hold them in revered memory for the good that they have done;
for the trials they bore; for the hardships they endured that
the African Methodist Episcopal Church might wax stronger
and stronger in the uplift of humanity and the glory of God.
The church should throw its arms of love and mercy, prayer,
and sustenance around those they loved so well who yet are, jrij
our midst, that they may know that the religion of the
Jesus Christ, as preached and professed by the church is nq>t,£
theory but a living, practical, vital force, that feels each oth^rfs
care; and that in the final consummation of all things, we ijjiay,
meet around the throne of God and make heaven vocal with
hallelujahs to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Hply,
Ghost.
Those who have fallen asleep are as follows:
Mrs. D. H. Butler, 1916.
Rev. G. W. Porter, D. D., 1916.
Rev. F. E. Fleming, 1916.
Rev. M. J. James.
Rev. J. O. Iverson, D. D., October 22, 1917.
Rev. A. K. Wood, D. D., 1918.
Rev. J. Frank Mc Donald, D. D., November, 1918.
Rev. H. H. Johnson, D. D., 1918.
Rev. W. A. Pierce, D. D., 1918.
Mrs. Amanda 1. Flipper, December 24, 1918.
Rev. Wm. Singleton, 1918.
Prof. Hal. M. Taylor, 1919.
Rev. Alpheus P. Luckie, Georgetown, Demerara, 1919.
Rev. John T. Jenifer, D. D., March 1919.
Bishop Cornelius T. Shaffer, D. D., March 1919.
Rev. A. S. Bailey, D. D., 1919.
Rev. A. J. Kershaw.
Rev. John H. Dickerson.
Rev. H. G. Knight, 1920.
Rev. John M. Palmer, D. D.
Historical Development
History, in its shortest definition, is a record of events, but
history is more than a record of events; it is the record not only
of events, but the influence of events upon the people and their
civilization. In this light only can we see what really and truly
may be called historical development.
That eventful day upon which Richard Allen and his few faith¬
ful follower arose from their knees in St. George's Methodist
Episcopal Church in the city of Philadelphia and said, "We will
trouble you no more," marked an epoch in the spiritual freedom
of the Negro that has reverberated around the world, and
touched the civilization of mankind as no other event has in the
history of the Negro Race. It stamped indelibly upon the
human brain, the manhood and womanhood of the Negro and his
determination to serve—to worship God as a creature of God,
without let or hinderance because of. his color, race or condition.
This act which thrilled the bosom of Richard Allen and his band
of courageous adherents,, born out of necessity and environments,
resulted in the organization of a separate and distinct denomina¬
tion known as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. This
act gave birth to an event which became at once historical. Its
development began by reason of its inherent qualities, and the ob¬
jective obstacles that were thrown in their way intensified these
qualities to the extent that they became a dynamic force that
widened and extended their operations and influence wherever
the Negro heard its ministers proclaiming the Fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of man.
Development is the result of law, force and life; this is evi¬
dent in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. God works
by a continuity of law in the physical and spiritual worlds.
Raw is a rule of action, and God everywhere in his worlcs has
shown that in every action there was a rule that governed the
creation, shaping the activity of everything in his1 universe.
(12)
Episcopal Address
13
Force is the power which he manifested in his operation in the
growth or development from the beginning of things to their
maturity. Life the vitality, the intangible essence, the incompre¬
hensible entity that lies within and moves to action the body or
organic substance that holds this life. If these facts are true
in the lower order of animals in the animal kingdom, then they
must be true and real in the higher order of animal creation,
endowed with reason and intelligence who compose the spiritual
body—the church, the pillar and ground of truth.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, composed of such
human beings in whom there is law, force, and li fe—all of which
are within, constitute a body that must of necessity, because of
such salient elements, go through a process of development; and
since the development must come through the inherent forces
housed in human beings, and since human beings are not only the
objects and subjects, but makers and authors of history—the
great movements both secular and spiritual which they establish
and foster must be historical. Thus we lay claim to the historical
development of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The word "history" is of Greek origin, "Historeo" which
means to learn by inquiry, to inquire of, question, to narrate
what one has learned. And since Allen and the fathers learned
by inquiry into God's Word that God made of one blood all
nations to dwell upon the face of the earth, and that God is no
respecter of persons, and began to narrate these facts—these
things form the very root of the word "history," give validity,
truth and reality to the historical development of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. Thus we stand firmly on the very
radical definition of the word—upon a foundation of our
history as a church, that the storms of opposition and the floods
of destruction cannot move or undermine.
The work accomplished, the standard set during each decade
of the development of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
the spiritual power exerted upon thousands of human beings,
the financial strides, the educational progress, the missionary
movements, the larger program for racial development—all are
events that history must record and give the African Methodist
14
Episcopal Address
Episcopal church the foremost position- in religious leadership
for the race; the originator and guardian of every propaganda
for the rights, privileges and immunities of those who have so
long been deprived of that which is guaranteed by the Constitu¬
tion of the United States and the States thereof.
It becomes our highest privilege and indispensable duty to so
mobilize our Christian forces that our development may increase
with the march of Christian civilization and the growth of suc¬
ceeding ages, and thus render our achievements along all lines
of moral, religious, financial and physical development the more
historical that posterity may meditate with delight upon the work
accomplished by their progenitors.
Our Episcopacy
There is now and have been differences of opinion as to the
Episcopacy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; this
should not be. Any individual uniting with a Christian body
or organization does so upon the expressed belief in its doctrines,
rules, laws and regulations. As such he is to foster, uphold,
sustain and defend those doctrines, rules, laws and regulations,
or he is not in good and regular standing in the church.
These questions confront us: "Is the Bishopric as acknowl¬
edged and sustained by the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
Presbyterial or Prelatical?" "Are the rights of the Bishopric
conferred by election or ordination?" "Is the Bishopric a divine
right, or did it arise out of the necessity of church government?"
It would take too much time and space to argue the synonymy
of "Presbyter" and "Bishop," and to quote the authority of the
early church Fathers; but suffice it to say that it is the con¬
sensus of opinion that they were one and the same so far as
Ecclesiastical order is concerned, but the differentiation grew
out of the functions attatched to each. The Presbyters had the
right to ordain and though the time came that the Bishop was
the ruling or presiding presbyter, the right of ordination was
never left wholly in the hands of the Bishop, but he was assisted
by the other presbyters or elders.
The Bishopric did not belong to the Apostolic age, but to the
sub-Apostolic age. The apostles were never known as Bishops,
notwithstanding the claims by some church organizations, and
upon this claim they have attempted to establish an uninterrupted
line of ordination known as "Apostolic Succession or Historic
Episcopate," and all others not in line with this belief are not
considered a part of the true church, and all ministers ordained
otherwise are not true ministers and have no right to officiate in
the sacred ordinances of the church.
(15)
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Episcopal Address
The Bishopric of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is
not, and cannot be prelatical without subscribing to the belief
of Apostolic Succession, which she most positively affirms can¬
not be accepted as true or biblical. She would acknowledge like¬
wise three orders in the ministry and that each was divine, set
forth and established by the Lord Jesus Christ in the organization
of the church upon earth.
The preacher who passes his examination and is elected to the
Deaconate or Eldership in the African Methodist Episcopal
Church cannot, and does not exercise the rights of either upon
the adoption of the report of the committee by the Annual
Conference, because the Annual Conference recognizes both as
an order, and he must await his ordination before he can officiate
in the sacred ordinances of the church. Here it is plain that the
church believes that rights are conferred by ordination and not
election to the Deaconate or Eldership. On the other hand the
church not recognizing three ecclesiastical orders, looks upon
the Bishopric as an office and rights are conferred by election
and not ordination to the Bishopric. If the Bishopric in the
African Methodist Episcopal Church were Prelatical the op¬
posite would be true, but since the African Methodist Episcopal
Church does not sustain the belief in Apostolic Succession, then
it follows that she accepts the other, which is Presbyterial;
and that it is divine because the Bishop is an Elder in ecclesiasti¬
cal order, and the Eldership being divine, makes the Bishopric
divine as to order but human as to function. Therefore the
Episcopacy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is both
divine and historical because the order of Elders or Presbyters
is both divine and historical.
The House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in
1886, laid down the following principles which the African
Methodist Episcopal Church does not, and cannot hold as
scriptural or historical:
FIRST—"That Bishops are by divine right a distinct
order in the Christian ministry, higher than Presbyters and
possess powers and authority not belonging to Presbyters as
such.
Episcopal Address
17
SECOND—That Bishops are the successors of the
Apostles and have as such the sole right to ordain to the
Christian ministry.
THIRD—That no ministry lacking such ordination is valid,
and that the ordinances of religion administered by any one not
thus ordained are unavailing as means of divine grace.
In opposition to these principles Jerome says:
"A Presbyter is the same as a Bishop, and before dissensions
were introduced in religion by the instigation of the devil and
it was among the people, T am of Paul, I am of Apollos and I
of Cephas,' churches were governed by a common council of
Presbyters, but because at that time they called the same persons
Bishops whom they called Presbyters, therefore the Apostles
speak of Bishops or Presbyters indifferently. Therefore as we
have shown Presbyters were the same as Bishops, but by degrees,
that the plants of dissension might be rooted up, all respon¬
sibility was transferred to one person; therefore, as Presbyters
know that it is by the custom of the church that they are to be
subject to him who is placed over them, so let the Bishops
know that they are above Presbyters rather by custom than by
divine appointment."
Field, in his treatise on the church in 1606 says: "The power
of ecclesiastical or sacred order, that is, the power and authority
to intermeddle with things pertaining to the service of God, is
equal and the same in all those whom we call Presbyters, only
for order sake and the preservation of peace there is a limitation
of the use and the exercise of the same; whereby it is most
evident that wherein a Bishop excelleth a Presbyter is not a
distinct power of order but an eminence and dignity only,
specially yielded to one above all the rest of the same rank for
order sake and to preserve the unity and peace of the church."
John Wesley, himself wrote in 1756, the following:
"As to my own judgment, I still believe the Episcopal form
of church government to be Scriptural and apostolical, I mean,
well agreeing with the practice and writings of the Apostles ;
but that it is prescribed in Scripture I do not believe. This
opinion which I once zealously espoused- I have been heartily
18
Episcopal Address
ashamed of ever since I read Bishop Stillingfleets' Irenicon. I
think that he has unanswerably proved that neither Christ nor
his Apostles prescribed any particular form of church govern¬
ment, and that the plea of divine right for diocesan episcopacy
was never heard of in the primitive church."
We could multiply authoritative statements on this subject,
but suffice it to say that the Episcopacy of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church is Presbyterial and is both scriptural, valid
and that those ordained by her Episcopacy are true ministers
and have the right and authority to administer in the sacred
ordinances of the Christian church.
Ministerial Preparedness
It is a fact of record, notwithstanding there were many in the
church in its early history who were opposed to education, that
the church was committed to the cause of Christian education
and especially her ministry.
The knowledge of God and his word is an evident requirement
in order to deliver his message to the people. God said to
Joshua, "The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein, for thou
shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good
success."
The book of Leviticus was the sacrificial curriculum of the
Priests and as they conformed strictly to God's direction the
people were blessed.
Malachi expresses very forcibly and succinctly ministerial
efficiency when he said, "The Priests' lips should keep
knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he
is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." God is not a God of
ignorance and he no longer winks at ignorance as he has in times
past.
Preparedness or efficiency is demanded more and more in the
governmental, industrial, commercial world and these are timal,
which must pass with the end of the world. How much more
then must the man of God be prepared who must deal with
eternal interests of immortal souls?
The perpetuation, expansion and growth of the church depend
upon a ministry fully prepared and ably equipped to meet the
issues of the day; instruct and hold the educated minds to the
pew, and lead them from height to height of the glory of God
and the fullness of the blessings that will come with the final
consummation of all things.
(19)
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Episcopal Address
The church has quibbled and halted too long on sectional
ideas and waiting for an agreement to abolish some of the
Theological Departments connected with our various colleges
and universities, and nothing substantial has been accomplished
toward a broad culture and training of ministers to fill the pulpits
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The struggle for
the mastery in the religious fields is on and there is "no man's
land" lying between the forces of the church and the world. It
is now the imperative duty of the church to arise and "go over
the top" and conquer the opposing forces and regardless of
section, establish two great Theological Seminaries in those
centers most easily accessible to the greatest number. Equip
them with the necessary outfit both as to men and material,
that will give to African Methodism, strong and well equipped
men, so that when people shall walk around our Zion and mark
her bulwarks, they will see that giants intellectually and
religiously guard the interest of the church, and that they are
such men as God will be pleased to work in and through
for his glory and the salvation of the souls of men.
In the establishment of these two Theological Seminaries
we do not plead for a discontinuance of those departments con¬
nected with some of our schools; let them remain, but make
the two strong centers for Biblical Research and the fullest and
best training possible for the minister who bears upon his heart
the necessity of preaching the gospel.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church cannot lead the
van of the racial, religious world with poorly prepared leaders ;
she must have the best. They must prove their sufficiency and
efficiency by their works. They must draw the people by the
power of the gospel which they preach, and to do these things,
their preparation must be such as to both command and demand
the respect and attention of the community in which they are
appointed to serve.
On to higher heights and greater mental, moral and spiritual
development must be the slogan of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Great minds occupy the pews today, and
greater minds will occupy them tomorrow; and the minds in the
Episcopal Address
21
pulpit must not only measure up to, but must at times tower above
the minds of the pew. Onward educationally, forward morally,
upward spiritually, until everywhere the African Methodist
Episcopal Church shall be known by the strength of its pulpit.
feishops' Absolute Power in Appointments
The Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
page 205, chapter seven, section third says, speaking of the duties
of the Presiding Bishops: "He shall preside in all the con¬
ferences, fix -in conjunction with the Presiding Elders, all the
appointments of the traveling preachers at the Annual Confer¬
ence." This has given rise in some quarters to the belief that
+he Bishop under no circumstances can make an appointment
without the recommendation of the Presiding Elders. The
Bishops are not, and cannot be above advice, but it should be
discretionary with the Bishops and not a law requiring them to
have the counsel of the Presiding Elders, for it is subversive
of the vested rights of the Bishopric and the fundamental law
of Methodism. It partially nullifies the second restrictive rule,
which says: "The General Conference shall not alter any rule of
government to the effect of doing away with the Episcopacy or
General Superintendency." This not only refers to the Episcopacy
or General Superintendency, per se, but every right, prerogative,
privilege, power and authority vested in this Episcopacy or
General Superintendency.
The basic law as to the Bishopric is the same in all branches
of ^Episcopal Methodism. The General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1792, declared that the Bishops,
and the Bishops alone should make the appointments. In after
years however, the question arose again in the form of trans¬
ferring the appointment of the Presiding Elders and preachers
to the Annual Conference, but a quietus was again Placed upon
such a method by adhering strictly to the vested rights of the
Bishopric, and Bishop McKendree delivered the following
opinion which stands today as the bulwark of Methodism
touching the Bishopric. Said he, "Take this prerogative from
the Bishops and there will remain with them no power by which
they can oversee the work, or officially manage the administra-
(22)
Episcopal Address
23
tion; therefore the General Conference must in justice, releasp
them from their responsibilities as Bishops; but such a change
in the government would deprive the General Conference of ah
important, perhaps an essential part of their authority, and puf
it out of their power to enforce and carry our system of rules
into effect. This will appear from the peculiar relation between
the Bishop and the General Conference, or the connection be;,
tween making our rules and enforcing them."
The Bishops are chosen by the General Conference and are
the repositories of executive power; are held responsible as
overseers of the whole charge. By calling upon them, the ad¬
ministration in every part of the work may be brought under
the inspection and control of the General Conference; but if
the power of superintending the work were taken from the
Bishops, they must be released from the responsibility. And if
they should be released there would be no person or persons
accountable to the General Conference for the administration,
and consequently the connection between making rules and en¬
forcing them would be dissolved.
The legislative body would then have no control over the
executive, no power to enforce their rules or law. The several
Annual Conferences are under control of the General Rules, en¬
forced by responsible superintendents so that if a preacher
should depart from the Discipline or doctrine of the church, it
is the Bishop's duty to correct, remove from office or bring
him to trial according to the discipline. Should an annual con¬
ference dissent from the doctrine or Discipline of the Church,
the Bishop should enter his protest and bring the case before
the ensuing General Conference; should the Bishop join with
the conference in such a departure, the next General Conference
will call him to an account for it and by this medium, the General
Conference takes cognizance of the acts of the Annual Confer¬
ences. So that while the Bishops serve as a center of union and
harmony among the conferences, they, that is, the Annual Con¬
ferences become responsible to, and are brought under the in¬
spection and control of the General Conference.
In this declaration is clearly shown the responsibility laid
upon the Bishopric; the serving as a connecting link between
24
Episcopal Address
the law-making body and those where the laws are to be executed
and enforced so that the administration o'f the affairs of the church
may be properly regulated and in veiw of the fact that the
Bishops are held accountable to the General Conference and they
must pass morally, religiously and officially before the Episcopal
Committee, they should have, as their vested rights declare, abso¬
lute power and authority in the making of appointments, and
should not be hampered by a second party who is not held
responsible by either the General Conference or the Episcopal
Committee. They should seek advice and counsel only when
necessary to the best interest of the church.
Church Constitution
Every organized body must of necessity have a constitution
expressing in terms a stable foundation as a basis or fundamental
Principle or principles that give life and zest to the organized
body. A constitution is a system of fundamental laws that
govern the organization, and in conformity to which all statutory
laws are enacted, said constitution begins and preserves the
solidarity of the whole and brings into harmonious relation the
several parts that are common to the whole.
The church as an organic body must have certain basic laws
or principles on which it is established and out of which must
arise the declarations of its faith and doctrine, that must claim
and demand the attention and fidelity of its devotees and ad¬
herents. The basic rules of Methodism in general form the
system of fundamental laws of every branch of Methodism, and
it is befitting that the African Methodist Episcopal Church
should set forth what she believes to be the constitution upon
which she rests as an organized body of Christian believers.
Since we have been in line with Methodism in general from
its beginning, we believe the constitution of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church should consist of: "The Articles of
Religion," "Catechism of Faith," "The General Rules," "The
Restrictive Rules." "The Composition of General and Annual
Conference and Rules Governing these Bodies." These rules, or
laws to be considered constitutional and all other rules or laws
statutory.
(25)
Supreme Court of African Methodism
The creation of a court known as the Supreme Court of
African Methodism apparently, may be considered an innova¬
tion both in our church and Methodism in general; but from
the broad viewpoint of the origin of the church and its develop¬
ment for now more than a hundred years, it is not an innovation
nor a departure from the work of the fathers, but the out¬
growth of what was inherent in the church when it was or¬
ganized and had basic or fundamental laws, notwithstanding its
necessity and utility may not have been observed or understood
by the fathers.
Wherever there are bastic laws, there is a constitution, and
wherever there is legislation there must be statutory laws, and the
existence of both will at some time face the situation of the
unconstitutionality of law and this will necessitate some tribunal
with the power and authority to pass upon it. All statutory law
should conform to the constitution of the church, but since men
are not perfect, they will, under stress of excitement and lack
of mature deliberation, pass laws that re-act in their exe¬
cution against the best interests of all concerned, and therefore,
there should exist some authorized judicial body to pass upon
the legality of such conference legislation, either to sustain or
declare unconstitutional, and for this purpose, if the African
Methodist Episcopal Church sets apart its constitution and it
has one, even if it does not define it, there should be a Supreme
Court of African Methodism, the composition of said court to
be left to the wise and judicious action of the General Conference.
Should the General Conference in its judgment see that such
a court would be unwise, then the Bishops should be given
veto power to check harmful and hasty legislation, provided
that a two-third vote of the General Conference shall be required
to override the veto of the Bishops.
(26)
Conference Claimants
Our Conference claimants, superannuated preachers widows
and orphans deserve our most serious consideration,
they should not be pleading for what belongs to them, but
every claim that they have upon the church should be a preferred
claim. Their work and hardships in the ministerial life for the
expansion and establishment of the church, give them a right
to expect the care and sustenance of the church in their
declining years.
The church can perform no greater service than to manifest
the real practical side of Christianity in thd support of those
who have spent the most active part of their lives in proclaiming
the Gospel, and gathering the financial means >by which the
church has been able to perpetuate its temporal existence, and
wield a mighty and forceful influence, educationally, morally and
religiously.
To protect and shield these veterans of the Cross is to glorify
God, broaden the influence of the church, strengthen the feeble
knees, and brighten the corner of aged heroes, whose feet have
trodden the path of tribulation, climbed the mountains of op¬
position and by faith wrought wonderful works in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
It should be one of , the chief aims of this General Conference
to plan wisely for the future care of our conference claimants.
To modify the present law will not be sufficient; nothing stable
can be wrought that depends on a contingency. Our present
law should remain, but an organized effort should be put in
operation for the raising of at least a Million Dollars to be in¬
creased from time to time and permanently invested, that the
interest accruing from this permanent fund > from year to year
may be sacredly set aside for the maintenance and support of
our conference claimants. And when this shall have been ac¬
complished, we can merge the present law into this permanent
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28
Episcopal Address
fund and obtain each year a greater revenue for this sacred
purpose.
The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Protestant Episcopal
Church have fully realized from their past experience and
wisdom, that they with their numerical strength and wealth
cannot meet the needs and wants of their claimants by a yearly
contribution from their churches; for like Pharaoh's dream,
they have seen there will be lean years and fat years of contri¬
bution, and upon such a contingency the church cannot care as
it should for its beneficiaries. If these powerful church organiza¬
tions have seen the futility of meeting these preferred claims
by only annual contributions .from their members, we as a
church should begin to examine our lack of ability to meet the
support and maintenance of our beneficiaries, stop and take stock,
and enter into a more vigorous and active program to raise a
fund that will bless the declining years of those who shall look
with hope to the church in an hour when help will be a blessing
both to the giver and the receiver.
As a rule we say that we have too many departments and General
Officers. Be this as it may, this General Conference, if it does
nothing else, should create a Bureau for Conference Claimants
with a Secretary, to invest a fund to be created by this General
Conference) the principal of which shall be a sacred treasure,
never to be touched only as it is increasd from year to year and
invested for all future generations for the superannuated
preachers, widows and orphans.
It is not our prerogative to say what form this needed legisla¬
tion shall take, but we recommend that annually each church of
a thousand members or more shall report to the Annual Confer¬
ence not less than Fifteen Dollars, or more as the church shall feel
the necessity of the object; each church of five hundred or more
members, Ten Dollars; each church of two hundred or more
members, Five Dollars; each church with less than two hundred
members, Three Dollars, and all missions, One Dollar. Each
Sunday School with more than three hundred pupils, Five Dol¬
lars; each Sunday School with more than one hundred pupils,
Three Dollars, and all Sunday Schools under one hundred pupils,
Episcopal Address
29
One Dollar. Each and every Eeague, One Dollar,. Each and
every minister of each Annual Conference, One Dollar. Two
per cent of the eight per cent of the Dollar Money given to the
Church Extension Society, and two per cent of the eight per cent
of the Dollar Money given to the Missionary Society; this how¬
ever to come out of the four per cent for home mission work
in each Annual Conference. ,
This plan is only a suggestion from which we hope this General
Conference can and will enact such legislation as will in the
future give the needed help to our conference beneficiaries.
The Secretary should not be paid out of this fund but from
the Financial Department. He should travel, preach and lecture
and stir the church to the importance of the task, lay these
claims before our wealthier members and solicit donations for
this permanent and sacred fund.
Marriage
Marriage is a divine institution and given to man because God
saw that it was not good for man to be alone. This institution
came into existence in the time of man's innocency. It is God's
method for the increase and perpetuity of the human race; for
he enjoined upon our first parents to multiply and replenish
the earth, and in this marriage is doubly beneficial. It not only
replenishes the earth, but makes heaven resplendent with that
number which no man could number.
The family, which is the unit of civilization, originates in
marriage; and in proportion to the sacred regard for marriage,
the civilization of man rises to a higher and more glorious
stage, enriching and ennobling the lives of all who are under
its holy and beneficent influence.
Marriage is regarded as a contract, but none have been able
to find the class to which it belongs. This is however the legal
side; but it is more, for marriage is the moral, legal and physical
union of one man and one woman, a relation that is honorable
among all men, sanctioned and bleesed of God, and should be
entered into after the most mature deliberation and forethought,
for each takes the other for better or for worse. This union en¬
dows each with the highest and most far-reaching benefits of
sex-knowledge, and the intent of the Almighty in the propaga¬
tion of offspring.-
The church, with God our Father, the Founder of this holy
institution of matrimony, must voice the purpose of God by its
sanction of this moral, legal and physical union; that the human
race may be increased, the foundation of the family laid; the
unit of civilization made strong—that in the component units that
make up civilization, the world may be blessed, God may be
glorified and in the end, the innumerable hosts of heaven may
magnify and laud the God who gave to man an institution, that
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Episcopal Address
3
when rightly regarded, he can find in it happiness here an
from it obtain a higher spiritual idea of the union of Christ an
his church.
Marriage can reach its sublimest and holiest object only whe
there is one moral standard for both men and women, and th:
the church should insist upon. It has the right to take this attitud
because the eternal God by his institution of it, gave it the sacrec
ness attached to it, and did not differentiate between the chastit
and morality of the sexes. Every interest of the human famil
demands the highest ideals in this union so necessary to Chri:
tian civilization. The church can take no neutral ground, bi
must stand where God stands, and uphold all the requiremenl
as laid down in the Holy Scriptures. The Church is the pilla
and ground of truth, and whatever of truth enshrines this hoi
institution of marriage must shine forth in its brightest ra)
wherever the church lifts up the banner of the lowly Nazarem
Divorce
Divorce, other than the regulation prescribed by God, is the
direct violation of his injunction: "What therefore God hath
joined together, let not man put asunder." The evil of divorce
enters into the dissolution of the most sacred ties that bind man
and woman together, not only for man's happiness but the
perpetuity of the human family, the development of society
and civilization. * Whatever strikes at the root of the unit of
human progress mars the fabric of human society, destroys the
culture, refinement and moral beauty of the marriage state.
Divorce threatens the well being of children, casts a gloom over
their young lives, and overshadows them with the clouds of ad¬
versity, that the passing years never fully disperse. It creates
in their young hearts hatred and distrust either as it effects the
mother or the father, and in this way to some extent nullifies
the commandment of God: "Honor thy father and thy mother that
thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee." This of itself is one of the saddest commentaries
that can be written upon divorce.
The evil of divorce is too prevalent today among the civilized
and Christian nations of the earth. It is working untold havoc
in the destruction of all that should be sacred, uplifting and
inspiring to those who have entered into the holy precincts of
that institution which God has designed for the blessings of
mankind, and stand out as the sublimest symbol of the union
between Christ and his church upon earth, and the beauty and
glory of the church in its triumphant state.
The church has this evil to combat not only among the laity,
but its ministry; and here the church should assume an un¬
changeable and determined attitude, declaring most positively,
especially among its ministry, that no divorce shall receive its
sanction, but that for which God himself hath said the bands
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Episcopal Address
33
of matrimony may be dissolved, no neutral ground should be
occupied. No minister should be allowed to officiate in the
pulpits of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who has two
living wives. The doors should be barred so closely that such
cannot enter, and opened wide enough to thrust into outer dark¬
ness the one who would dare to blacken the robe of the ministry
with such a crime against God and human society.
The church cannot look upon divorce other than God, who
has set forth the only cause for which it can be recognized. To
do so, is to dishonor God, discard his sacred Word, besmirch the
holiest institution upon earth and lower the only unerring light
that man possesses to guide him through this wilderness of
sin and woe.
The church must gather her forces against this mighty peril;
dethrone and destroy this monster of iniquity, and instill into the
minds and hearts of all human beings that God's law is to Jbe
honored, respected and become the supreme rule and guide for
the life and conduct especially of all Christian people who have
been turned from darkness into light, and have enlisted in the
army of the Lord who hath said: "Be ye holy, as I am holy."
University Propaganda
In presenting this University Propaganda, it has no reference
to the standardization of our Colleges and Universities, or the
strenghtening of their curricula or financial endownment. We
have looked upon a University as a place with a certain number
of Professors; a curriculum with a prescribed standard and an
endowment fund of so many dollars. This idea of a University
meets the needs and wants of the present age. A University
should embrace all these and more, especially as it relates to a
race that is everywhere spoken against, and has been and is now
striving for the full enjoyment of all rights, privileges and im¬
munities guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States
thereof.
A University must not be a designated place where only young
men and women receive instruction in the liberal arts and
sciences or where men are turned out to enter into the profes¬
sional walks of life. A University should have a spiritual
function and spiritual life adapted to the race or people who
sustain and* perpetuate it.
Ben Zion Mossinsohn of the Hebrew University at Jerusalem,
gives this definition: "A University bears in its name the idea of
a universal forum of expression for the soul, of a people." That
is, a University should be the place of all, where a people should
send forth to the world not only the best that enters into the
very life and existence of that people; but the wrongs and
grievances that hinder and retard the real and full development
of the life" and existence of that people—with the idea of re¬
moving every wrong and grievance, that that people may come
into their own and be wholly unhampered in the race of life,
so as to reach not only the highest standard of civilization but
enjoy in common with all other races the rights of said civiliza¬
tion. To do this, the African Methodist Episcopal Church
should found and begin a University Propaganda or Bureau of
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Episcopal Address
35
Research and Information—that is, set apart such a Bureau with
a competent head; enter into research for all information of
what the Negro has accomplished in the past; his relation to the
governments of that age; his contribution to their development;
what he has accomplished in this newer era of civilization; the
wrongs he suffers—and a strong appeal made to the reason of
civilized man to lift the handicaps that tie him down to certain
prescribed conditions.
To do this, there must be the establishment of a great printing
department by the church, where thousands of pamphlets can be
printed, containing the contents of this research, and distributed
to all libraries throughout the world, governors of all states, to
all church denominations and city officials everywhere that the
public mind may be more enlightened on the past and present of
the Negro, and thus awaken the public conscience, for it is
asleep. By this great universal forum, we can mould and shape
a more favorable sentiment for the Negro, and in the establish¬
ment of this University Propaganda we can build a race library
that will become a mecca for the literati of all races.
No sectionalism should enter into this setting apart a universal
forum of the expression of the soul of the Negro. Wilberforce
University, being not only the oldest of the schools of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church but of the race, should be the
designated place for this University Propaganda or Bureau of
Research and Universal Information.
Organic Union
When our Saviour said: "And other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring and. they shall hear my
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." He spoke
of the Gentiles and the Jews becoming one universal church with
Christ as the head, and this is the object of Christianity—to bring
all of the believers in God into one communion and fellowship.
In that memorable prayer in which he prayed: "Holy Father
keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me,
that they may be one as we are one," he did not refer to any
federation or simply oneness in aim and purpose, but one in all
that goes to make up the Christian church in membership; and
that holy union that characterized the Father and the Son. The
Father and the Son were one in person, one in belief, one in the
final consummation of all things; and since the Father and the
Son have never been divided in the methods and plans for the
redemption of the world, it is God's purpose that the church on
earth should not be separated into denominations. The church is
not built upon the diversity of the opinions of men, but upon the
one simple belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and other
foundations can no man lay than that which is laid—Jesus Christ.
If there is but one foundation and only one, then only one
church can be built on this foundation. It is as true as the
theorem in Geometry: "From a given point in a straight line one
perpendicular can be drawn and only one."
To fulfill the purpose of Christianity and meet the requirements
of God our Father, there should be but one church and organic
union opens the way for this one great movement launched by
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church and the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church of America.
This organic union will strengthen the spiritual, moral, intel¬
lectual and physical forces of the church whereby it can and
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Episcopal Address
37
will exert a greater influence in the salvation of man, and elimi¬
nate the rivalry and ambitious feeling of each separate organiza¬
tion.
The energy and power of the oneness of such a Christian
organic body will attract and hold the attention of human
governments as never before, and impress them more and more
with the potent influence of Christianity in shaping and moulding
human civilization.
The united resources of such an organic body will be more
beneficial to its own inherent interests, and the better Prepare it
to increase those resources from within and without; thereby
enriching the body with means for the establishment of greater
literary institutions and Theological Seminaries for the dis¬
semination of knowledge among the laity, and the efficiency of
an abler and stronger ministry to preach a gospel of power,
whereby the masses will be more largely touched and brought
into the one fold of both Christ and Methodism.
Organic union will enable this united body of Christian workers
to map out and prosecute a larger, more progressive and ag¬
gressive program of missionary work and endeavor both in home
and foreign fields. The heathen cannot fully understand how
we are Christians and yet in separate denominations, preaching
the same gospel. He feels that if we are Christians we are
brothers, and if we are brothers we should be one church, under
one name. Organic union then in the removal of these obstacles,
will give the church greater prestige and influence in foreign
missionary work.
Organic union however, cannot come in a few days or months;
it must come through the process of an educational campaign,
careful deliberation, mature consideration and prayful devotion
on the part of the Bishops, General Officers, leading ministers
and laymen of each church until it reaches every minister and
the humblest layman in each separate denomination.
We pray, as our Saviour prayed, that we may be one, as he
and his Father were one.
Equal Rights for Women in the Church, Min
istry Excepted
The progressive march of civilization is placing woman upon a
higher plane, both in the civil and national governments, thereby
recognizing her fitness and efficiency in dealing with the political
nature and management of said governments. The acumen dis¬
played by woman as she advances to these higher and greater
rights and privileges, bars the oft repeated phrase of "the weak¬
ness of woman." If the political powers have advanced to the
point of the discovery of her ability, and qualification to share with
man the weighty and intricate problems of the principles of
finance, economy, law and jurisprudence, it is equally befitting
that she should be on a parity with man in Ecclesiastical govern¬
ments, and should be coordinate with him in its rights, privileges
and immunities. Too long has woman been looked upon as
inferior to man because of sex, and restricted to certain limita¬
tions in Church and State. Her condition in heathen countries
has kept her in a servile and subordinate position, but Christian¬
ity, wherever it has prevailed and exercised its potency, has lifted
woman to her proper sphere, and made her a factor of no mean
influence in shaping and moulding the human race, and as a
mother, she has, and can manifest more love for the uplift and
betterment of her offspring than any other human being, and in
this element she shines with an unsurpassed brilliancy, which
should both command and demand the recognition of man in
every avenue of political or Ecclesiastical government.
Man has qualified woman's sphere of activity by his own "Ipse
dixit" and not by any expressed will or command of Almighty
God. When the Eternal God created our first parents, He said:
"Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
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Episcopal Address
39
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Here God
includes woman in the exercise of dominion, supreme authority
over all animals and the whole earth. Man here is used in the
generic sense, and this is evident, for after he says: "Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness," He also says: "Let them;
that is, both man and woman have dominion." If God, who
knows all things and sees all things from the beginning to the
end, can invest both man and woman with such supreme power
over the earth and all things therein, what reason can be, in the
absence of the expressed will or command of God, for limiting
the rights and activity of woman in the church ?
Woman enters the church upon all the conditions and obliga¬
tions of the man, and is subject to all the taxation required by
the law of the church, and in bearing these, with limitations, she
has the same right to say to the church, what the original thirteen
colonies of America said to King George of England, that "Taxa¬
tion without representation is tyranny," therefore we recommend
that this General Conference of the enlightened Twentieth
Century in body assembled, pass an act removing every word or
phrase that relates to sex, the ministry excepted, and that woman
be given the right to be Stewards, Trustees, Delegates to District
Conferences, Annual Conferences, Electoral Colleges and General
Conferences, with equal rights and privileges with man.
The right to sit in Annual and General Conferences involves
a constitutional question, and should this General Conference pass
said act, it shall be submitted to the ensuing Annual Conferences
of the entire connection for ratification or disapproval, and the
vote of each Annual Conference shall be forwarded to the
Secretary of the Bishops' Council immediately upon its adjourn¬
ment. The Secretary of the Bishops' Council shall then report
to the next General Conference and after the canvass of the vote,
if it is found that the said three-fourths of the Annual Confer¬
ences have ratified said act, the General Conference shall
immediately declare said act legal and operative.
Mob Violence
The various forms of governments that have existed and that
now exist in the world, have been constituted to safeguard both
personal and property rights of those who are its citizens or
subjects, certain fixed laws and statutes have been enacted to
adjust legally all differences, and punish all infractions of said
laws and statutes. The highest function that can be performed
by any government is the protection of life and property; this
gives stability to the government and security to its citizens or
subjects in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. The fact
that: "The powers that be are ordained of God," proves that man
needs constituted authority to order aright his dealings with his
fellowman. Nothing substantiates this more than that God him¬
self is our Sovereign Ruler, and exercises over all His Moral
government with moral laws, defining our duties to God and to
man. The subversion of municipal, civil, or national government
not only weakens its power, but also leaves its citizens defenseless,
and a prey to the wickedness and violence of those who stand in
defiance of law and order.
Mob violence is the most destructive agent that confronts the
civilization of man today, and wherever it holds ^way, it dis¬
honors the highest principles of justice, prostrates law in the dust
of humiliation, decries every exalted vestige of jurisprudence,
decimates the security and sanctity of the Courts of legal
procedure, swathes in shame and disgrace the holiest attributes
of righteousness and sweeps hellward the intent and purpose of
the Almighty in the betterment and elevation of the human family,
and robes in blackest darkness the injunction to "Love one
another as I have loved you." Hideous and heinous to the
vigintillionth degree is mob violence, that knows no restraint, no
reason, and in fire and blood destroys life and property with
impunity.
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Episcopal Address
41
The Bishops, Ministers and Laity of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church have never, and neither can, nor will condone
crime in any person of any race or color, and they register most
pronouncedly their condemnation of the forcible violation of the
chastity of womanhood of every race. But at the same time, the
African Methodist Episcopal Church equally marshals every
fiber of its Christian manhood, and all its moral and intellectual
strength, against the burning, mutilating, or lynching of any
human being of any race by mob violence. It stands positively,
manfully, determinedly, unconquerably, fixedly and decisively for
law and order, and the prosecution of .all criminals according to
the statutory law as enacted by the legislative bodies of every-
state. We protest in the name of God and the laudable principles
of justice against any and every act of mob violence as a punish¬
ment for crime, and appeal to the Christian conscience of this
country to rise to the exalted plane of liberty, justice, right, and
the elements that constitute stable and established government,
and protect every citizen, regardless of race, color or previous
condition of servitude, in every right, privilege and immunity
guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America
and the states thereof.
Disfranchisement
Disfranchisement is the withdrawal, either by force or legal
enactments, of the right to vote in election. Such a procedure
deprives a citizen of the privilege of sharing in the choice of those
who shall exercise authority in either municipal, civil or national
governments, and the passage of laws by which a citizen shall be
governed or punished. Such discrimination sanctioned by law
is a crime whose enormity is indescribable in the most inelegant
expressions possible in the English language. It transcends the
bounds of satanic ruffianism, and paints the cheeks of justice so
cadaverously, that a microscopic observation would fail to
recognize any trace or suspicion of its having entered into the
appearance of the slightest shade or tint of any form of
established government. It is a crime against personal liberty,
it sanctions the right of the preferred class over that of the
common people, it recognizes the superiority of one race, because
of color, over that of others who are not of a similar color. It
overturns and abrogates the truth; "That God made of one blood
all nations to dwell upon the face of earth." Such a condition
will breed discontent, injustice and danger to the peace and
harmony of good government.
Disfranchisement is due to the baneful doctrine of States Rights
and the indifference of the national government to enforce the
amendments to the Constitution of the United States, thereby
making a part of its citizens subservient to laws based upon
prejudice, especially in the Southern Section of our country,
where white is supreme and black is the badge of "the hewer of
wood and drawer of water."
No citizen can protect his life and property without the
elective franchise, and this accounts for much of the oppression
and suppression of the Negro in this supposed "Land of the free
and the home of the brave." This government can never be free,
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Episcopal Address
43
with a portion of its citizens enfranchised and a portion dis¬
franchised; it can never be a great world power, as long as it
takes a larger number of votes to elect across the Mason and
Dixon line, than it does on the lower side, and yet the disfran¬
chised are counted in the basis of representation.
As dark as the picture is, and as horrible as the situation
appears, the Negro, if he will place every boy in school at the
age of six and keep him there until his majority, can and will wipe
every disfranchisement law from the statute books of every
Southern State. Then let every Negro lift his voice for a pro¬
gressive and aggressive campaign of education, and strike the
blow that will make him free, measuring up to every requirement
that makes a man "a man for a 'that and a' that."
Social Diseases
Prudery, most frequently a co-adjutor with ignorance, has
long darkened the mind and poisoned the conscience of humanity
against the consideration and prevention of social disease, there-
by undermining the moral foundation of society, and leaving in
its wake ruined lives, shattered physical wrecks and subjects for
insane asylums; but constant and aggressive agitation by some of
the most determined and enlightened minds of the Medical
Fraternity, has succeeded in relegating prudery to its deserved
haunts, and bringing to the forefront the awakened intelligence
and moral consciousness of the nation, until the Congress of the
United States passed a law creating the Inter-Department Social
Hygiene Board, and establishing a Division of Social Diseases in
the Public Health Service, appropriating more than a Million
Dollars to be divided pro rata among the states, provided they pass
a law requiring the reporting of all social diseases. Forty-four
of the forty-five states have enacted such a law, or a State Board
of Health regulations having the effect of law. This makes prog¬
ress in the betterment and salvation of the individuals who com¬
pose bur social fabric and bespeaks for our civilization more
sound minds in more sound bodies, strengthening mentally,
physically and morally not only the present generation, but our
posterity.
No one thing more than the drafting of the young men of our
nation for the World-Wide War, revealed the alarming condition
due to social diseases, and to be physically fit for the hardships
of this titantic struggle, it was clearly demonstrated that social
disease would have to be eliminated. In this a greater impetus
has been given to preventive prophylaxis, than curative therapeu¬
tics, in order that the health of the individuals of the nation may
be safeguarded and the sanctity of marriage preserved, thereby
giving offsprings with healthful and sound beginnings, so as to
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Episcopal Address
45
produce both men and women of physical and mental and moral
fitness. It is one of the highest functions of government, in the
words of another, that the liberty of none can be paramount to
the interest of the general community. Any one who so con¬
ducts himself as to»become a menace to the public health has
reached the point where his individual liberty cannot count, there¬
fore the infectiousness of social diseases must be stamped out in
the individual, in order to secure and perpetuate the public health
of society. It is Dr. Exner of medical prominence, who says:
"That the greatest evil to society results from the shattered ideals,
lowered standards, sensualized minds and perverted practices
which are brought into home life and society." To safeguard the
home and society from these basic evils, we must not only abolish
this disease, but we must not minimize, so far as possible, the
vice that spreads it.
Dr. Bowers, another medical expert says that the problem has
never been solved, and that it has never been attacked, for the
reason that it has always been confused with a moral issue, and
ridding the world of social diseases is not a moral problem, but a
practical problem in sanitation, and that social diseases can oe
stamped out as any other plague.
If the civil and national governments, sustained by the medical
fraternity have discovered the alarming inroad of social diseases
upon our social fabric, the Church, as no other organization, be¬
cause of its moral and spiritual teachings, should be aroused to
the greatest and most strenuous endeavor, to aid in all the
preventive measures to protect the health not only of the young
men and women who come under its immediate influence, but go
out into the highways and hedges and help to save those who
have wandered from the path of rectitude, and bring them into
the moral path of righteousness, moulding and establishing a
more permanent Christian, as well as human society.
Social diseases not only involve a problem of practical sanita¬
tion, but a moral issue as well, for they have their origin in the
violation of the moral law of God, given for the regulation of
the life and conduct of every moral creature, subject to the mora
government which the Almighty Sovereign exercises over every
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Episcopal Address
creature that lives and moves and has his being in God. The
Church being the repository of God's moral law, must face the
problem of social disease, both as a practical hygienic and moral
issue.
Technically speaking, a man or a woman can be moral without
the religion of Jesus Christ, but none can have the religion of
Jesus Christ without being moral, therefore "Be ye holy as I am
holy," must with no uncertain sound be the ever present slogan
of the Christian Church, until holiness of life shall permeate our
social fabric and social purity shall be dominant in Church and
State and each succeeding generation shall fully and wholly live
up to the moral and spiritual law of God, our Father and Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer.
Democracy
Amid the strife, upheavals, carnage of war and other disastrous
calamities, nothing has loomed up so largely and conspicuously
as the spirit of Democracy, and yet in its practical results, nothing
has been so misrepresented and caricatured as this same spirit of
Democracy. Dike Pharaoh's Egyptian years of plenty and
famine, it has produced fat ears for the more favored race and
lean ears for the more unfavored, giving us a condition the
opposite of that for which the World-wide War was fought and
militarism has been conquered.
The freedom and self-determination of all races, was the
burden of the appeal to arms, but the signing of the Armistice has
brought almost everything of a destructive force, and not that
of the constructive principles of Democracy. Even Bolshevism
has invaded not only our country, but the very clime where armies
met in mortal combat to insure the peace and tranquillity of tho
world.
In comparing Bolshevism and Democracy, General Stefanik
has said that "Bolshevism is the negation of Democracy.
Bolshevism speaks, shouts, howls; Democracy thinks, teaches,
convinces. Bolshevism awakens the lowest instincts and desires;
Democracy appeals to honor and conscience. Bolshevism steals
the neighbor's furcoat; Democracy weaves an overcoat for all,
even the poorest. Bolshevism gives to the people the torch and
the dagger; Democracy, the hammer and the plough. Bolshevism
throws its opponents in the sea, pulls them out of prison to beat
them to death; Democracy ascertains evil to cure it, eventually
punishes to correct it. Bolshevism sells souls for profits, and
forms parties of bandits and sectionaries; Democracy gives
advantage to all in accordance with right. Bolshevism means de¬
cay, misery, hunger; Democracy creates and is the foundation of
normal life and well-being. Bolshevism is the blinding light of
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48
Episcopal Address
a rocket; Democracy, the glowing beam of salvation. Bolshevism
is the enemy of mankind, and we have to fight it. In this com¬
parison our country falls far short of this glowing beam of salva¬
tion.
Abraham Lincoln described Democracy as a government of the
people, by the people and for the people, and it may be reasonably
and justly added, without regard to race or color or previous
condition of servitude. Democracy, to be real and unadulterated,
must give protection to life and property, equal justice in the
courts, equal and the same accommodation on public carriers, the
right to exercise the elective franchise and participate in the hold¬
ing of office, and assist in the shaping of the government that
lays the burden of taxation upon all citizens of every race, and
special privileges to none.
Although our country has preached and magnified Democracy
to the nth degree, she is the most derelict in practicing its right¬
eous principles toward the Negro. When she went to the aid of
France, England, Belgium and Italy upon the blood-soaked fields
of battle, once made famous by some of the greatest Generals
and armies of the world, the Negro was drafted to fight for, de¬
fend and bear "Old Glory" along side the flags of the older
nation, whose glory has gilded the pages of past history with
illustrious achievements and amid rapid fire guns, bombs,
grenades, deathdealing gas, zeppelins, aeroplanes and submarines.
This same Negro, as a soldier, measured up to the military
standard and discipline, fought, bled and died in some of the most
hotly contested battles of the World-wide War, assisting in
breaking the Hindenburg line, and yet, upon the demobilization
of the American Expeditionary Forces who have returned to
their native land, Democracy closes the door of opportunity, and
stands silently by, while lynchings, mob violence and riots tell
him in no unmistakable terms, that he is not included in the free¬
dom and self-determination of races.
The Charlotte North Carolina News said: "It is the marvel of
the South, as it ought to be the admiration of the whole United
States, that when the colored man in the hard stages of the war
through which we are beginning to pass, is being put to the test,
Episcopal Address
49
he is measuring up to the full valuation of a citizen and a
patriot. There has been nothing wanting about him; in every
activity to which the mind of the country has been directed since
it was committeed by its great President, the Negro has fulfilled
his obligation."
The Touisville Courier Journal said: "It is not necessary to go
farther than Tatin-America to look for samples of capable Negro
officers; there is no doubt about the courage of American
Negroes as soldiers; there will be no doubt about the Negro candi¬
dates who have won commissions in the Officers' Reserve Camp
at Des Moines. Officered by men of their own race, the Negroes
will experience an increase of pride. The Atlanta Constitution
said: "And if these things are taken into full consideration, and
the proper spirit of tolerance and the proper decorum is mani¬
fested by both whites and Negroes, each race deporting itself
according to the principles of reason, justice and moderation,
Camp Gordon will turn out a complement of as fine colored
troops as ever stood in uniform, and of which the South and the
entire nation will be proud."
The Thomasville Times Enterprise said: "They are paying a
debt, the world debt, with their blood. They are equal in military
service, and the day is coming when they will work themselves
into a position to demand and receive equal suffrage. When they
do, the Negro problem will then have been settled."
Mrs. J. D. Hammonds of Georgia said: "The foremost races
at last approach, as races the world of spirit, vision is coming to
just opening eyes, a vision of human oneness, of human brother¬
hood, of World-wide obligation. We could not see it before, we
know what we did, all the old foundations of human life are
being tested, that only the unshakable may remain. Justice and
opportunity for all, that is the new world cry. Our ears are
catching it, its answer stirs deeper in our souls, some new thing
in us yearns for it, for those who have it not."
Prof. Branson of the University of North Carolina said: "The
Negro problem will be settled upon no plane lower than the Ten
Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount."
These expressions have the ring of true Democracy, and the
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Negro will accept of no solution other than the broadest, sanest,
most reasonable and world-wide racial definition and practice,
that is possible of the principles of Democracy.
Det us not be discouraged, let us not be despondent, let us not
weaken in our conflict for justice and right, let us quit ourselves
like men. The blood of the Negro of this country and the blood
of the Negro soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice upon
the battlefields, where Vicingetorix, Ariovistus, Charlemagne,
Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, Marshall Ney, Blucher,
Hindenburg, Ludendorf, Foch and Pershing led their forces,
either to victory or defeat, will continue to cry in the ears of tl:e
Ford of Sabbaoth, until the oppressed and suppressed everywhere
will yet enjoy the fruits of pure Democracy, or God will call the
nations of the earth into the valley of decision, and there render
judgment upon all the evils of the world, and then His peace will
rule in the hearts of the children of men.
Connectional Department
MISSIONARY.
The Missionary propaganda of the world is waging a greater
warfare than ever among the nations of the earth. We, as a
Christian Church, are engaged in our greatest missionary effort,
because we are surrounded by greater missionary civilization.
The work of Christian Missions has apparently seized every
land. Notwithstanding the Great World War that has existed
for the last four years, the Missionary spirit has been growing,
and the life of the Church has been quickened along these lines.
This is as it should be, the work of Missions should engage thi
earnest efforts of all, this method of evangelization seems to have
reached, in a large measure, the accomplishments of much good,
and therefore should be expanded on a larger and more
comprehensive plan.
Despite the growing demands and grave responsibilities which
it has assumed, the work of the Missionary Department is in¬
creasing and growing toward a fuller realization of its ideals along
the line of Missionary endeavor. This hopeful state is being
attained because the Church is manifesting a more active Chris¬
tian spirit toward the development of Missionary work, both at
home and abroad. Our missionary work began with the or¬
ganization of the Church in 1816, and as the Church grows in
religious fervor and Christian activity, so must our interest in
Mission work grow and spread to greater achievements.
Leaving the last General Conference in 1916, with a balance
of $5,654.32, the Missionary Department has shown wonderful
growth during the past four years, this department has collected
for the sacred cause of missions, more than $225,000. To say
that it is an essential success, is speaking lightly of the work, be¬
cause it has assisted the whole Church in a very substantial
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Episcopal Address
measure, in the work of the home field as well as the foreign
field. If this department were conducted as it should be, namely,
all the funds collected for Missions sent to this department and
placed into one treasury, instead of so many, the department
would become a powerful influence for good in the Church; this
can only be done by united action, love and esteem for all phases
of Missionary work.
Throughout the South, the preacher has met with a response
from his people that is astonishing because of conditions, and yet
the entire Church has responded nobly to the cause of the
Missionary department. The Church is learning more and more
how to do Mission work, and to be Missionaries in the true sense
of sending the Gospel to foreign fields. However, we need
earnestly to study the cause of Missions and the methods of
accomplishing the most successful results.
BOOK CONCERN AND CHRISTIAN RECORDER.
The Book Concern is one of the oldest institutions of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church, and should be cherished
as one of the landmarks of the Church. In 1916, Dr. J. I. Lowe
resigned as Manager, and the Bishops of the First, Second and
Third Districts nominated Dr. R. R. Wright, jr., Editor of the
Christian Recorder, which was confirmed by the Publication
Board, according to the discipline. Dr. R. R. Wright, jr.,
assumed the offices of both Editor and Manager, as he had
previously done from 1909 to 1912. During the three and a half
years the indebtedness has been paid off entirely, including the
bonds issued by Bishop Embry in 1894 and 1895, and notes made
by Dr. Collett and others, and for the first time in nearly thirty
years, Bishop Johnson, Bishop Coppin, the Handy Estate,
Theodore Gould, the Murphy Parker Bindery and others have
been cleared of debt from the Book Concern.
The business of the Book Concern for the four years, 1912-
1916, was $53,161.24; the business for the four years, 1916-1920,
will amount to approximately $120,000.00, having already passed
the $100,000 mark.
The Christian Recorder had four thousand readers at the
last General Conference, it now has nine thousand; the number
Episcopal Address
53
of employees has been doubled and all taxes paid, for the first
time in thirty years. The employees are given accident insurance
to the amount of over Ten Thousand Dollars.
During the quadrennium a linotype machine has been paid for,
the same is true of a Whitlock Press and Dexter Folder, an
automatic Feeder and an electric mailing machine. The capacity
of the business has already doubled on account of these improve¬
ments.
The premises, 631 Pine Street, are too small for the bulk o"
the business, and should be enlarged. The credit of the Book
Concern is practically without limit among the paper and book
houses with which it deals, showing a business acumen worthy of
commendation.
FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT
One of the special features of African Methodism is the policy
by which it seeks to operate many of its activities under one
general plan, with all parts functioning alike in the development
of one great system that heads up in one central office. This is
particularly exemplified in our present financial scheme, as
centered in the Financial Department with headquarters at
Washington, D. C. This department is in a great measure to the
African Methodist Episcopal Church what the Treasury Depart¬
ment is to the United States Government. While every dollar of
our general fund does not pass through this office, it is, however,
the Connectional clearing house through which the entire general
fund is reported as a matter of record.
It is interesting to note the several stages through which we
have passed in building on the foundation so wisely laid by the
fathers.
In 1844 a plan was adopted under which each preacher having
a charge, was required to raise Two Cents a month from each
member, for a general fund, half of which was to be applied to the
relief of distressed itinerant and superannuated preachers, and
for Bishops' salaries, the other half to be used to create a fund
or capital for carrying on the Book Concern.
The General Conference of 1868 provided that each preacher
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Episcopal Address
should collect One Dollar from or for each member annually,
Twenty-five Cents of which was to be sent to Wilberforce Uni¬
versity, Twenty-five Cents to the Book Concern, and Fifty Cents
to be carried to the Annual Conference and turned over to the
Finance Committee. This was the beginning of our present
Dollar Money System.
In 1872 the Financial Department was organized as such, and
the Rev. J. H. W. Burley was elected as Financial Secretary.
The Dollar Money provided for under the law of 1868 was made
a general fund, under the control of a general Financial Board,
and it has remained this way, subject to some slight changes,
principally as to the manner and ratio of distribution.
The report of Financial Secretary Burley for the first quadren-
nium 1872-1876 showed a total of $95,554.11, and this was con¬
sidered a very fine showing. The report of Financial Secretary
Hawkins for the Quadrennium just ending 1916-1920, shows
that we have raised during the last four years over $1,000,000.00
Dollar Money. This is indeed progress, but we are just beginning
to awaken to a proper sense of our responsibilities and possibil¬
ities.
In the light of these figures, it is safe to say that our present
system of collecting a general fund from our people, meets their
approval, and we must continue to educate the people up to the
idea of supporting this system, till our reports will show a hundred
per cent collection or the full Dolllar from or for each and every
member. When we reach this point, we will be able to take care
of all of our general interests out of this fund alone.
THE CHURCH EXTENSION SOCIETY.
Church Extension is the establishing of business methods, for
the housing and caring for the religious home of a society, to meet
and perpetuate its- own usefulness to the community; it is the
helping hand of the ministry, whose commission is to "Go into
all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
The late World War taught us a lesson of value to those en¬
gaged in utilizing man power, for the more effectual management
of the forces engaged in the War movement: the mammoth gun
Episcopal Address
55
for bombardment; the machine guns with their rapid fire to take
the place of the scarcity of men force; but aside from these, a
most efficient arm of the command was the Engineer Corps, to
prepare the way for the fighting troops.
The Church Extension Society is the Engineer Corps for the
Army of Jesus Christ, if the world is to be taken for Him. This.
Society has proven beyond all peradventure its usefulness. It
started in 1892 without a dollar in the treasury, to secure the
relief necessary to save embarrassed churches, whose failure was
inevitable, unless more efficient methods could be obtained with¬
out burdening the Connection with extra collections to save the
situation. The African Methodist Episcopal Church therefore
organized a trust company, made up of ministers and laymen,
whose loyalty and liberality have laid on the altar for Christ from
1892 to 1916, $517,582.38. The Church Extension Society has
aided during the quadrennium 293 churches, with an aggregate
outlay of $80,242.93. Verily, Church Extension is a settled busi¬
ness proposition with the Connection and with careful business
integrity on the part of the administration, as well as its creditors.
It may live to see greater results accruing to our beloved Zion
and its kindred departments.
The utility of the Church Extension is made apparent by the
fact, that funds are provided for the need of embarrassed
churches, without resorting to banks and loan companies.
A. M. E. REVIEW.
The A. M. E. Review, which is now entering upon the thirty-
seventh year of its continuous publication, is edited by Dr. R. C.
Ransom and published at the A. M. E. Sunday School Union at
Nashville, Tenn. It is the oldest Magazine published by colored
people in the United States. Its place is unique, its field is broad,
dealing with religion, letters, science, art, ethics, and government,
with frank expression on current public questions. The files of
the Review are an archive, containing a body of literature which
represents the highest thought, the best and noblest strivings of
the Church and Race. The Review represents the contribution of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church to stimulate, enlighten,
56
Episcopal Address
and inspire the spirit of a people, while furnishing a medium of
expression for its highest ideal in everything that relates to
literature and life.
The magazine has more than twenty-six hundred subscribers
scattered throughout the United States, the West Indies, South
America, West and South Africa. With proper appreciation on
the part of our ministers and members, it should have at least
ten thousand subscribers. Apart from the work of our schools
and colleges, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is per¬
forming no higher service, than by maintaining a literary magazine
to publish and preserve the best that our thinkers and scholars
are doing to combat error and injustice, and to establish truth and
righteousness.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
In all things pertaining to perpetuity and progress, education
is foremost and fundamental. The African Methodist Episcopal
Church has, during its entire existence, distinguished itself by
reason of the large allowance it has granted education in the pro¬
gram of its development. Almost at the birdi of the Church
itself, the founders were stressing.in no small way the necesshy
of denominational education. The leadership of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church among the people of our race is
more directly traceable to its system of education than any other
feature entering into its composition and structure.
History bears ample and indisputable testimony to the fact,
that no government, secular or Ecclesiastical has long survived
the corroding and crumbling influences, rife in the land, un¬
adorned by the glory and grandeur of the school. To our schools
we owe much; it is difficult to overstress their importance, they
have poured into the main current of our Church the mighty re¬
sources of their strength and power. The establishment of the
Depaitment of Education proved conclusively the far-sighted and
far-reaching wisdom of the fathers.
Many of the greatest leaders of the race are graduates of the
schools of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; distinguished
and powerful ministers in the pulpit, accredited Chaplains and
Lieutenants in the Army; successful physicians and business men;
Episcopal Address
57
scholars and statesmen have received their strongest impulse and
inspiration from the colleges and universities fostered and main¬
tained by the money and judgment of our great connection.
We cannot lessen our desire to promote the welfare of Educa¬
tion in our Church. The whole world is re-making itself, and in
so doing, it emphasizes as never before, the need of learning,
broad and deep. At no time in all history has Education been
given a larger hearing. States everywhere are passing compulsory
school laws, and books are being furnished to each public school
pupil free of cost. We cannot lag behind, our program for
Education must be enlarged, better facilities and higher efficiency
must be guaranteed; if we are fearless and fair to our educational
needs, generations in the future will call us blessed.
The Church should make special arrangements for the highest
intellectual and industrial Education, in order that its schools
should not suffer for competent and efficient teachers. The
presidents and trustees should place increasing emphasis upon
character and scholarship; they should insist upon Christianity
largely expressed in the dogmas and doctrine of our Church. We
must increase and modernize our dormitories, equip our recitation
rooms with the necessary apparatus, we must beautify our school
grounds and fill the school days of our children with charm and
fascination.
The large sums of money being raised in the various educa¬
tional districts, together with the magnificent buildings that
adorn the campuses of our schools, indicate a great awakening in
the general Church as it also expresses the fact that the Bishops
are endowed with a glorious vision.
It is for you, the chosen representatives of the sovereign peo¬
ple, to weave into fundamental law of the church, enactments
that will forever safeguard the life and service of the department
of Education.
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN RECORDER.
This weekly journal takes its place with the best Church papers
of the race. It is the second in age of its kind in the African Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church and has grown from a stage of almost
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Hpise opal Address
ihsignificance, to the height of indispensability, on the part of
its readers. It carries a full line of fresh Church and Race news,
such as encouraging inspiration, and fills the minds of the readers
with friendly emulation, that results in stimulating the pastors
who may be afflicted with lethargy and indecision, to imitate the
examples set by those about whom they read, which tells how
they succeeded in the management of the church. It serves to
promulgate the exchange of methods of successful pastors. The
editorials have been in strict accord with the current news, and
with regard for the advancement of the Church and Race, the
topics have been attractive and the arguments logical and help¬
ful.
The Church has realized the importance and value of this
paper, and by the persistent efforts of its Editor-Manager, it
has grown quite popular in every section where the African
Methodist Episcopal Church has been established. It is not
sectional in its dealings nor editorials, neither is it partial in the
treatment of the ministers or laity, from a ministerial viewpoint.
Men of every rank, from the exhorter to the Bishop, can have a
hearing through the columns of this paper, regardless of the
section of the Church or country from which the article is sent.
This paper serves purely the functions of a Church paper, and has
not missed a single issue since the present Editor has been in
charge.
The financial support has not been commensurate with its
needs, so far as that coming from the general Church, the
Manager has to pay for the operation of it from the moneys
collected for subscriptions, almost alone, with the exception of
a very limited amount from cheap advertisements. No all
originally printed newspaper can exist upon its subscription
money alone, it is the advertisements that pay for the publica¬
tion of newpapers, and a Church paper cannot consistently carry
sufficient advertisements to make it self-supporting. The matter
printed in the Church papers is printed free of cost to the
writers, who send communications every week for publication.
If these communications were sent to a secular paper, the writers
would have to pay large sums for insertion of same. The South-
Bpiscopal Address
59
em Recorder has no Book Concern or any other publishing house
at its command, in order to help out with expenses. In view of
this fact the Southern Recorder should be subsidized to the fuil
extent of its needs, that it may operate without undue imped¬
iments.
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.
The Sunday School Union has had phenomenal success during
the quadrennium just ended. Under the efficient and painstaking
management of Sec. Ira T. Bryant, this Department has weathered
many a stormy gale, kept up its reputation for clear-cut business
methods and steadily advanced in the quality of its literature and
the character of the general work done. The past four years
were strenuous and trying years for this institution, and yet in
spite of conditions which the war made almost intolerable—lack
of labor and the high cost of all materials incident to the publica¬
tion of its literature—it has maintained its place and prestige as
one of the most excellent business institutions of the church and
race.
One would think that such handicaps as the lessened profits on
literature would in a large measure reduce to a mere minimum
any healthy additions by way of working material, and yet by
shrewd management and generalship on the part of the Secretary,
new machinery has been installed and new literature introduced
for the benefit of the Schools. The cooperation of all of our
Sunday Schools would make possible still greater strides in this
direction, and more and more would this Department be able to
make improvements such as may be demanded of it.
Another feature which has been added and which has given
impetus to the Sunday School work has been the Teacher Train¬
ing Department. A simple and yet quite a liberal course has been
mapped out for teachers. The work is arranged for study by
correspondence and a regular class is kept busy at the Union
building all the time. Certificates bearing the seal of the Inter¬
national Association and the signatures of the officials are given
when the studies are completed. A large number of Sunday
School workers all over the Connection have availed themselves
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Episcopal Address
of this opportunity to become trained teachers and have either
completed the work or are pursuing it. The Secretary announces
that further improvements in this work are to be expected and
presented from time to time.
The able corps of editors who do service on the literature have
given excellent accounts of themselves, with the result that there
is an evidence of quality not to be discounted. The Secretary is
to be congratulated upon his ability to acquire such talent and
bring it into the life of the boys and girls of the church.
We would suggest with emphasis that in all of our Annual Con¬
ferences more attention be given to the work of the Sunday
School. If the minister can be impressed with the importance of
the work, there is no cause to doubt that he in turn will pass the
inspiration along and cause an awakening where it is most needed.
When the young people are lost to the church, the deficit cannot
be determined in dollars and cents. It is the loss of lives which
should in all ways be directed into channels to strengthen our
Zion. The Sunday School seeks to save lives and thereby give
permanency and stability to the work and Mission of the Church.
This is indeed the child age. Social workers and civic
organizations have come to see and realize that young life must be
conserved. Just as Pharaoh in the case of the Israelites thought
it to his advantage to impede the increasing life of the Hebrews
by wholesale destruction of male infants, just so have the
modern thinkers and students of life in all of its phases come to
realize that it is absolutely essential that this young life should be
saved and trained. We begin at the wrong end when we wait
to direct adult life to higher altitudes. If boys and girls are
preserved with their physical, mental and spiritual powers, there
need be no fear for adult usefulness. The boy makes the man;
the girl makes the woman. The old woman was right when she
answered a query by stating that we should begin to train a man
fifty years before he is born. The Sunday School stands for this
very idea—the development of all that is God-like, all that is
spiritual in every life, from the beginning.
Hooking over this vast assembly of brethren, gathered for the
purpose of doing appropriate work for the Church, we are struck
with awe when we study the personnel of this august body—men
Episcopal jiddress
61
with varied talents, fitted for the varied duties of a great Church.
Here we have brain and intellect and spiritual power. Here we
have the concentrated thought of the church in mighty con¬
course assembled, and we congratulate ourselves upon the
excellent array of manhood. But, if we should for a moment allow
our imagination to carry us back 35, 40 or 50 years, what would
this mighty organization be but a kindergarten filled with chatter¬
ing boys and girls—children and young people. Look ahead the
same number of years and picture another meeting of this kind—
who, present now, will be present then? Who will shape the
destiny of the church as we today are trying to do ? There can be
but one answer—the boys and girls of today—those whom we
have left at home, will be assembled somewhere striving to
perpetuate the work so nobly begun and fostered by their fore¬
fathers. We would suggest that in all of our Annual Confer¬
ences more time be given to the work of the Sunday School, so
that the ministers may see the great importance of looking after
the young life.
May we not speak here the sentiment of every one when we
say that from now on we shall make the work of the boy and the
girl our work ? That we shall get behind it and so open the doors
and throw out adequate inducements necessary to save to the
church and the race the lives entrusted to our care ? Encourage¬
ment, unlimited, given our Sunday School work is our prayer, and
to this end shall we ever hope and bend our efforts.
ALLEN CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR LEAGUE.
The Allen Christian Endeavor League, the Young People's
Department of the Church, has become a vital force and has
demonstrated the possibilities of the young life as a potent factor
in the growth and development of our beloved Bethel. Starting
twenty years ago, it has not grown rapidly, because it has not met
the encouragement of the ministry, but notwithstanding, it is
today a fixture in the Church, and more and more, are we seeing
its importance, for it is a training school for church workers.
The General Secretary, Julian C. Caldwell, has done yeoman
service in pushing the League, and today we have 4615 Leagues,
with a membership of over 150,000. Literature of all kinds has
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been published and the young life is stronger because of its
publication.
The League stands for the confession of Christ, service for
Christ, fellowship in Christ, and loyalty to Christ's Church; it
emphasizes the study of the Bible, prayer and consecration.
The jLeague believes like Wesley—"At it, and all at it, and
always at it." It-finds a task for each, the least as well as the
greatest, for the youngest and most diffident, as well as for the
few natural born leaders.
The League is thoroughly evangelical, defining evangelical as
a personal faith in the divine, human person and atoning work of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as the only and sufficient
source of salvation.
The demand for the League began with the recognition of the
possibilities and powers of the young people. There are, however,
other considerations, among which the loss of the young from
the church deserves attention. Thousands of them slip their
cables and drift away from the Church every year, seventy-five
per cent of the young men of the country are outside of the
Church.
Among the many causes contributing to the deplorable state of
things, is the lack of home training. The family altar and the
open Bible in the home have almost been discarded, and sad to'
say, the Church has not fully awakened to its duty concerning
the young people. The Church must remember that the young
people are not merely to be saved, but are saved to serve, hence
they are to be trained and developed.
The League has aided the Church in solving the great problem
of assigning to every man his work, and of inspiring every pro¬
fessing Christian to fulfill the task for which he is best adapted.
It has opened to the young, congenial spheres of activity that have
proven more fascinating and satisfying than worldly pleasures,
besides furnishing an avenue for the development of their
spiritual life. It has proven a training school for the young,
where they have been trained in the spirit of testimony and of
aggressive, consecrated service.
Labor Problem
One of the most intricate, and as yet unsolved problem, is that
of the Labor Problem, and yet solvable when approached and con¬
sidered by reasonable and unprejudiced minds. The social
distinction between capital and labor, adds in many instances to
the difficulty of the solution. According to the Bulletin of the
International Reform Bureau, the following facts are set forth
as to the wants of both employer and employee. The employer
wants industrial peace, impovement in quality and quanity of
production, reduction in the cost of production, higher efficiency
on the part of the employee, attentiveness and interest of the
worker in his work and in his fellows. The employee wants
higher wages, better personal relations, good working conditions,
a square deal, steady work. These requirements are reasonable
and demands which employer and employee alike could meet, and
through trust, patient continuance and cooperation, such a state
or condition could be attained by both employer and employee—
the Golden Rule: " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them," is the only real and safe solution,
not only of the Labor Problem, but all problems. To follow this
divine rule, all labor would be entitled to a living wage whereby
life may be sustained, and a sufficiency for sickness, disability
and old age; and capital would receive a just compensation for
its outlay of money, and a fair surplus on all money invested in
industrial plants.
Otto H. Kahn in an address delivered before the Carnegie
Institute on Capital and Labor, said: "The employer's attitude
should not be one of patronizing or grudging concession, but
frank and willing recognition of the dignity of the status of the
worker, and of the consideration due to him in his feelings and
viewpoints. Everything possible must be done to infuse interest
and conscious purpose into his work, and to diminish the sense
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Episcopal Address
of drudgery and monotony of his daily task. The closest possible
contact must be maintained between employer and employee; the
worker's living conditions must be made dignified and attractive
to himself and family, the worker must receive a wage which
not only permits him to keep soul and body together, but to lay
something by to take care of his wife and children, to have his
share of the cdmforts, joys and recreations of life, and to be en¬
couraged in the practice and obtain the rewards of thrift. Labor
on the other hand, must realize that high wages can only be
maintained if high production is maintained, the restriction of
production is a sinister and harmful fallacy, most of all in its
effect on labor."
The condition that obtains because of the Labor Problem,
effects possibly the Negro more seriously than any other race
variety, and for this reason, as well as the fact that the majority
of the members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church be¬
long to the laboring class, the church should be much concerned
as to the solution of a problem so vital to the interest of those
who form the greater part of its communion. The better the
working condition of the Negro, the higher wages, the open door
of opportunity to labor, all tend to better prepare him to con¬
tribute more liberally to the financial enterprises of the Church,
and besides, the Church should lift its voice in behalf of more
skilled labor among Negroes, for since the beginning of the
Nineteenth Century, machinery has played and is playing a more
important part in labor, and this of itself has brought about a
new relationship in the employment of labor. There must be a
new adjustment to present conditions in industrial centers, and
this can only be done by rising to the standard of requirement
which inventions have created in the labor world. The Twentieth
Century industrial plant cannot be manned by men not vet
advanced from the Eighteenth Century method of industry,
therefore we believe it is the dutv of the General Conference of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, because it has. in almost
every instance, taken the initiative in the cause of the Negro Race
to appoint a Labor Commission, consisting of three Bishops, three
.Elders and three prominent labor leaders, whose duty shall be
Episcopal Address
65
to collect data and facts as to labor conditions in general, and that
of Negro labor in particular, also a list of industrial plants, em¬
ploying Negro labor and those who do not, and seek through
every and all honorable means, a wider door of opportunity for
Negro laborers, and such an adjustment and relation as will give
them equal wages for equal work.
Bishops and the General Conference
The Bishops in times past, in using their godly judgment in
adjusting the work of Episcopal Districts upon the demise of the
presiding Bishop, have been subjects of criticism and question
has often been asked, Are the Bishops greater than the General
Conference? The thoughtful mind in considering this question,
would readily answer in the negative, for there is no power or
authority in the Church greater than the General Conference; it is
the court of last resort, it has both self-determining and creative
power.
In the interim of the General Conference, there must be some
place where power and authority reside, and this, to the one
versed in Methodist law, is in the Bishops, the chief pastors of
the church, for the power to superintend with the corresponding
responsibility for the care and safety of the Church, carries with
it the right and authority to direct and adjust every and all parts
of the Church work that is without effective superintendency; but
this however, is questioned, and yet a broad and liberal inter¬
pretation of the second restrictive rule, will give the Bishops un¬
limited authority in the adjustment of any Episcopal District in
the interim of the General Conference.
Since this broad and liberal interpretation has not been given
and received the approval of the General Conference, the question
arises as to its approval by the General Conference, and there¬
fore there should be a method by which the Bishops could exercise
their godly judgment in the adjustment of an Episcopal District
upon the demise of the presiding Bishop, without being subjected
to criticism, and that, too, for action which they deem to be for
the best interest of the Church.
It is the contention that the Episcopal Districts are fixed by
the act of the General Conference, and the General Conference
being the supreme authority of the Church, the Bishops as crea-
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67
tures of the General Conference, upon the death of a Bishop where
an Episcopal District consists of two or more States, have no right
or authority technically to separate the said district and assign
two or more Bishops to superintend the work thereof until the
ensuing General Conference, but that the Episcopal District
should remain intact as fixed by the preceding General Confer¬
ence. This contention in fact and in law is right, unless we
accept the broad and liberal interpretation of the second restric¬
tive rule, as yet not announced and unapproved by any General
Conference, Barring this interpretation, the General Conference in
its interim is still supreme, and any act in the assignment of two
Bishops to an Episcopal District upon the death of its presiding
Bishop, would be tantamount to the division of that district, and
thus become violative of the act of the General Conference
establishing said district.
What would be the right of an Episcopal District thus
separated by the godly judgment of the Bishops, for its effective
superintendency during the interim of the General Conference?
They could appeal to the ensuing General Conference from the
act or godly judgment of the Bishops, and this appeal would
serve as a "supersedeas" or stay of proceedings upon said act
and godly judgment of the Bishops, and this would leave the
Episcopal District in "statu quo" as fixed by the preceding
General Conference, forcing the Bishops to let the Episcopal
District remain as fixed by the General Conference, and assign
only one Bishop to the district. This would make the work of
that Bishop who already had the oversight of an Episcopal Dis¬
trict, too laborious, the work would suffer for want of proper
supeiVF'on, therefore, both to avoid criticism upon the Bishops
in the exercise of their godly judgment, and for the good of the
Church, a proviso should be placed in the discipline, giving the
Bishops the right and authority to divide an Episcopal District of
two or more states, upon the death of the presiding Bishop, and
so partition the superintendency thereof, as not to be a burden
upon any one Bishop who already had an assignment to an
Episcopal District by the General Conference.
The ministry and laity of the Church are not disloyal to the
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Church, neither to their Bishops, but the increased and increasing
intelligence of both the ministry and laity of the African Meth¬
odist Episcopal Church, will not suffer them to sit idly by and
see their rights taken from them, either because of expediency or
necessity in the face of law, we recommend that this General
Conference make adequate provision for such contingencies
arising in the interim of the General Conference.
Prohibition
Ever since sin entered into the world, there have been two
contending forces, the one for righteousness, the other for evil.
The influence of the one has been for the uplift and progress of
humanity, in the greatness of which God is glorified and His Com¬
mandments, laws and statutes are exemplified in the march of
Christian civilization The influence of the other has been the
demoralization of those of the human family who have allied
themselves with the evil, the enthronement of the powers of
darkness, by whose acts righteousness has been trampled upon by
unhallowed feet. But the day star of hope for the most brilliant
illumination of right and truth has arisen upon our land, with
God's ever increasing Gospel of grace in the hearts of the chil¬
dren of men, transforming and renewing the minds thereof, and
thus planting deeper and deeper, not only intellectually, but
spiritually this Gospel of grace, which enlightens the heart,
strengthens the conscience, arouses the will and energizes the
emotions, until the cause of Prohibition is regnant throughout our
land and country.
God set His disapproval upon intemperance in the curse of
Noah upon his grandson Canaan. Solomon, the wise man, out of
his abundant experience in his proverbs, asked: "Who hath woe ?
Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions ? Who hath babbling ?
Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed
wine," and then impresses the injunction: "Look not thou upon
the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when
it moveth itself aright. At last it biteth like a serpent, and
stingeth like an adder."
Isaiah in his prophecy concerning Ephraim said: "But they also
have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out ot
the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong
drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way
through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judg¬
ment."
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Many other quotations could be cited to show the Divine dis¬
approval of strong drink which manifests the Divine sanction of
prohibition, and whatever God disapproves, man should shun,
and whatever He approves, man should follow, for therein lieth
the blessings of God, the spiritual, moral, and physical well-being
of man. We have no better example on the pages of Holy Writ
than that of the Rechabites recorded by the prophet Jeremiah,
who had been commanded by Jonadab not to drink wine, and when
Ihe Lord spake to Jeremiah and said unto him: "Go into the house
of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them unto the
house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine ,
to drink." He obeyed the voice of God and brought them into the
chamber of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, and set before them pots
full of wine and cups, and said unto them: "Drink ye wine," but
the Rechabites, true to their teaching, said: "We will drink no
wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us,
saying: "Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for¬
ever." And because of this noble and high family characteristic,
God through the prophet Jeremiah said unto them: ''Because you
have obeyed the commandments of Jonadab your father, and kept
all of his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath com¬
manded you; therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand
before me forever."
Such high moral family training is the only method that can
and will make for real prohibition. The family is the unit of
both Church and State and must be trained and instructed in the
evil of strong drink, and with the family as the basis, the national
government can sustain and enforce its prohibition laws, check
the forces of evil and make our country truly "The home of the
brave and land of the free."
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, a branch of the
Church militant must ever in accordance with divine teachings
and holy Commandments, preach, practice and enforce prohibi¬
tion, blessing her communicants and adding her quota of
influence to the highest and noblest Christian civilization.
Committee on Ministerial Inefficiency
A call to preach is also a call for preparation, but many of our
ministers, unlike Timothy, neglect to stir up the gift of God with¬
in them and become a burden by their own inefficiency. In this
unprepared state they abuse the Church, Bishop, Presiding
Elders, fellow ministers and people, not knowing that their failure
is due to the fact that they have not studied the word of God and
other helps that will enable them to become useful and powerful
ministers of the Word of truth. On the other hand, some are
afflicted with abusive loquacity to such an extent that churches
refuse to receive them as pastors, and the Bishops and Presiding
Elders are puzzled to know where to give them an assignment, and
in the event that they are left without an appointment, they
threaten suits against the Bishops, Presiding Elders and the
Church. This unpleasant condition makes it the imperative duty of
the General Conference to pass such an act that will relieve both
Bishop and Presiding Elder of such an embarssassing situation.
The need of the church is a committee for each Annual Conference
on Ministerial Inefficiency, to whom the Bishops and Presiding
Elders can refer all cases of mental,-financial and physical delin¬
quency and abusive loquacity, and said committee shall have the
right to call said ministers before them, and upon proper examina¬
tion, shall recommend to the Annual Conference their location,
or a place among the supernumeraries. The approval of said
recommendation shall fix the status of this class of our ministry.
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Evangelis
The word, "Evangelism" in the original Greek is from
"Euanggelio," meaning to address or announce good tidings, in
our dictionaries, the doctrine and preaching of evangelical
principles, instruction in the Gospel. From whatever angle we
may consider it, the purpose of evangelism is the saving of the
souls of men by preaching the facts of the Gospel as recorded in
the sacred Scriptures. The ministry of Jesus Christ by reason of
the call to the ministry, hath only one chief thing to do, and that
is to preach and preach with authority, that Jesus Christ came
into the world to die to save sinners, and that there is no other
name given under heaven whereby men can be saved, except the
name of Jesus. This preaching God has'promised to accompany
with his Holy Spirit, and that is shall not return unto Him void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it.
Jesus Christ, through Evangelism, brought man to a knowl¬
edge of redemptive truth, the Apostles and their successors have
developed and expanded the Church by evangelism, and that which
is yet to save the world is the preaching of the good tidings of
the Gospel.
Methodism is "religion in earnest," "religion on fire," and he
who would be an iceburg in the pulpit, is not fitted for the
ministry of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The
destiny of men is too great and awful to hang upon ministerial
indifference or coldness, in the place that should radiate the
warmth of the Gospel message, fired by the live coal from God's
Holy altar. We would not undervalue the power and work of
special evangelists, but we do claim and that rightly that each
minister called to God's service should dwell so near the eternal
throne of God, that through him and by him should come that
promised power from on high, that men will hear and humble
themselves before the throne of grace, whence shall come that
love that is poured into the hearts of men by the power of the
Holy Ghost which is given unto us. There must be in the hearts
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73
of the ministers, a passion for the souls of men, and as this
passion rises in its intensity through the power and influence of
the Holy Spirit of the living God, men will bow with broken
hearts and contrite spirits until they shall fully realize the new
birth, and rejoice that their names are written in the Lamb's book
of life.
African Methodism needs an awakening on evangelism, and it
is our hearts' desire and most devout wish, that the General Con¬
ference will provide for a quadrennial evangelical movement, to
begin at some stated time upon the adjournment of the General
Conference, and that it continue during the entire quadrennium,
and that each minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
become an evangelical flaming torch, lighted from heaven's burn¬
ing and holy altar, scattering live coals from between the wings
of the Seraphim, who stand on either side of heaven's throne of
unexcelled Beatific whiteness, in their antiphonal chant, crying,
"Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full
of his glory."
The world must be saved, the African Methodist Episcopal
Church must do its part, and it can only be done by the preaching
of a forceful, burning, heavenly lighted evangelism. No self-
dignified, theological, hermeneutical, hair-splitting Gospel accord¬
ing to sophmoric methods, will save the world, but a plain declara¬
tion: "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." No
■doubting of the canonical Scriptures by appealing only to the
intellectual side of man, can bring men to a knowledge of Jesus
Christ, but divested of all formalities, all worldly philosophy, all
vain deceit, all personal and selfish aggrandizement; let the min¬
isters of God and the African Methodist Episcopal Church stand
forth as Paul, and solemnly declare to mankind everywhere, "I
am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified."
Commission on After-War Problems
Your Bishops during their Mid-Winter Council, convened at
Tampa, Fla., Feb. 13-16, 1919, deemed it advisable to appoint a
Commission on After-War Problems, and the following persons
were designated to constitute the Commission:
Bishops C. S. Smith, C. T. Shaffer, J. S. Flipper, J. A. Johnson,.
W. H. Heard, Rev. R. R. Wright, Jr., Prof. J. R. Hawkins and
Prof. A. S. Jackson.
The Commission was organized by the election of Bishop C. S.¬
Smith, chairman; Prof. J. R. Hawkins, Secretary.
WORK AND SCOPE OF THE COMMISSION.
I. The Commission shall deal with all After-War Problems
affecting the religious, moral, educational and economic interests
of the members and adherents of the A. M. E. Church in
particular, and of the race in general.
2 No forecast of the detailed work of the Commission can be
made, inasmuch as that must be governed by the character and
magnitude of each problem as it may arise.
3. The initial work of the Commission will be in the nature of"
a scout, to be on the alert for any movement that may threaten.
the well-being of our people.
4. To keep in touch with similar Commissions of other
organizations by correspondence and through the use of such
other means as may be feasible.
5 Where emergency may preclude the possibility of deferring
the reference of any matter to the Council, en baric, it shall be re¬
ferred to each member individually for review and approval.
6. It is recommended that when it is necessary for the Com¬
mission to meet collectively, the expense of traveling and'
entertainment shall be borne by the Financial Department. It is
also recommended that the expense of stationery, postage, type¬
writing, printing, etc., shall be likewise provided for.
7. The problem of overshadowing importance confronting us
at,present is the welfare of our boys, now overseas, on their return
to their homes. The revival of the Kuklux Klan in Georgia, Ten—
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75
nessee, and in communities of other Southern States, is not only
deplorable, but points to the possibility of violent race conflict in
the near future. Touching this matter, we submit certain
correspondence that has been placed before us with the view of
soliciting your consideration and approval.
8. That the Commission shall collect and record data as to the
contributions made to the conduct of the war by the A. M. E-
Church and become reasonably competent as a bureau of informa¬
tion on such subject.
OPERATIONS.
The Commission has issued, in the aggregate, 20,000 copies of
printed matter, representing four district publications, the total
number of pages being forty-eight, making a grand total of nine
hundred sixty thousand printed pages, which has been distributed,
in a direct manner, through well established channels. Not a
single page has been sent at random.
Aside from the Presiding Elders and the Annual Conferences,
the channel of distribution has been through the mails. By the
later method, we have reached the President of the United States
and his Cabinet; the members of Congress (435); Bishops
of all denominations (271) ; Governors of States (48) ; Attorney
Generals of States (48) ; editors of daily newspapers (1646) ;
editors of weekly newspapers (2167) ; editors of religious news¬
papers (450) ; secular Universities and Colleges (500) ; religious
Universities and Colleges (810) ; theological Seminaries (95).
Grand total 6,470.
Its memorial to the Congress of the United States was
introduced in both the Senate and the House, and was printed in
the Congressional Record of September 13, 1919, being the first
time that a document emanating fronj the African Methodist
Episcopal Church was printed as a part of the official proceedings
of Congress.
No other organization of colored people in this country, secular
or religious, has ever undertaken a propaganda with such direct
and far-reaching methods as that of your Commission.
It seems to us that it is advisable to continue this or a similar
Commission during the next quadrennium.
Recommendations
FIRST—That the Women's Missionary Societies remain in¬
tact; the one to be known as the Woman's Home Missionary
Society and the other as the Woman's Foreign Missionary Socjety
That the Mite Missionary Society shall hereafter be known as the
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, operating in foreign fields
exclusively and that the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary
Society shall be known as the Woman's Home Missionary
Society; both operating under the supervision of the Parent
Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the A. M. E. Church.
SECOND—That discretionary power be given the Bishops in
making appointments for more than five years. That they may
call for the advice of Bishops' Council and failing to do so for
cause, they shall confer with two Bishops of the adjoining two
districts.
THIRD—That three Bishops be elected.
FOURTH—That each station and circuit raise One Dollar
or more for the American Bible Society, said amount to be
brought to the Annual Conference, like all other funds.
FIFTH—That West Africa be placed under the Missionary
Department and that a Bishop be detailed from time to time to
visit that field.
SIXTH—That Ways and Means be devised to have a Drive
of Five Million Dollars to cover a term of five years.
SEVENTH—That a Course in Missions be established at
Payne Theological Seminary.
EIGHTH—That General Conference devise means whereby
the statistics of the Church may be gathered and compiled.
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77
NINTH—That the Western Christian Recorder be revived and
an Cditor elected.
TENTH—That power be given the Bishops to select an
official accountant to overhaul once a year, or as often as possible,,
the books of our various departments, alsG all of our schools.
As your Chief Pastors, we felicitate the Church both upon its
prosperity and progress during the past quadrennium; great have
been our achievements spiritually, financially and educationally,
and to the All Wise God Our Heavenly Father, we ascribe praise
and glory for His providential care and blessings upon our labors.
We have passed through much that has been discouraging,
because of the distress, bloodshed, confusion and carnage brought
on by the World-wide War and the unsettled condition of our
people, especially in the South; and yet amid the unrest and dark
clouds of adversity that hung over us, the Church marched
steadily on with a firm faith in God and a grim determination to
accomplish greater results for humanity and the spread of the
Gospel, that contained the word of God, which is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Our reliance upon such a strong and mighty weapon has
given us the victory over many oppositions and opened up
opportunities for the advancement and progress of the Church
in avenues where the wisdom of man would have failed.
In view of our accomplishments and the trust reposed in us as
the legislative body of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
we, as your Chief Pastors, call upon you to deliberate calqily,
legislate wisely, for our Church founded by the fathers upon the
Fatherhood of God, the Redemption of Jesus Christ and the
Brotherhood of man.
Our General Conferences are characterized more and more by
greater wisdom and experience on the part of those who constitute
the highest tribunal of the Church, and more is expected along
the lines of constructive legislation than ever in the history of the
Church, besides the wide-spread diffusion of knowledge among
the laity demand that saner and more interpretative laws be:
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Episcopal Address
passed for the good of the Church spiritually, financially and
intellectually.
We bid you to rise to the heights of great things, wise con¬
sideration, thoughtful action, prudent foresight, mighty deeds,
masterful deliberations, and connectional concentration of devout
minds and wills, that a more resplendent star of hope may guide
the Church amid the trials, turmoils and upheavals of human
ambition, calming troubled souls, subduing passions, thereby
meriting the recognition of both the Christian and secular worlds,
and the blessings of our Heavenly Father, who inhabiteth eternity.