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STATEMENT OF CASH RECEIPTS, FROM 1865 TO 1881.

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The following-named persons are the bishops of the Church: James A. Shorter, Daniel A. Payne, A. W. Wayman, J. P. Campbell, John M. Brown, T. M. D. Ward, H. M. Turner, William F. Dickerson, and R. H. Cain.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church will remain through the years to come as the best proof of the Negro's ability to maintain himself in an advanced state of civilization. Commencing with nothing-save an unfaltering faith in God,-this Church has grown to magnificent proportions. Her name has gone to the ends of the earth. In the Ecumenical Council of the Methodists in London, 1881, its representatives made a splendid impression; and their addresses and papers took high rank.

This Church has taught the Negro how to govern and how to submit to government. It has kept its membership under the influence of wholesome discipline, and for its beneficent influence upon the morals of the race, it deserves the praise and thanks of mankind.'

'We have to thank the Rev. B. W. Arnett, B.D., the Financial Secretary, for the valuable statistics used in this chapter. He is an intelligent, energetic, and faithful minister of the Gospel, and a credit to his Church and race.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

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FOUNDING OF THE M. E. CHURCH OF AMERICA IN 1768. - NEGRO SERVANTS AND SLAVES AMONG THE FIRST CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ERECTION OF THE FIRST CHAPEL IN NEW YORK. THE REV. HARRY HOSIER THE FIRST NEGRO PREACHER IN THE M. E. CHURCH IN AMERICA. HIS REMARKABLE ELOQUENCE AS A PULPIT ORATOR. EARLY PROHIBITION AGAINST SLAVE- HOLDING IN THE M. E. CHURCH. STRENGTH OF THE CHURCHES AND SUNDAY-SCHOOLS OF THE COLORED MEMBERS IN THE M. E. CHURCH. THE REV. MARSHALL W. TAYLOR, D.D. HIS ANCESTORS. HIS EARLY LIFE AND STRUGGLES FOR AN EDUCATION, HE TEACHES SCHOOL IN KENTUCKY. HIS EXPERIENCES AS A TEACHER. IS ORDAINED TO THE GOSPEL MINISTRY AND BECOMES A PREACHER AND MISSIONARY TEACHER. HIS SETTLEMENT AS PASTOR IN INDIANA AND OHIO. -- IS GIVEN THE TITLE OF DOCTOR OF DIVINITY BY THE TENNESSEE COLLEGE. INFLUENCE AS A LEADER, AND HIS STANDING AS A PREACHER.

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HILLIP EMBURY, Barbara Heck, and Capt. Thomas Webb were the germ from which, in the good providence of God, has sprung the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The first chapel was erected upon leased ground on John Street, New York City, in 1768. The ground was purchased in 1770. Subscriptions were asked and received from all classes of people for the building, from the mayor of the city down to African female servants known only. by their Christian names. Here the Colored people became first identified with American Methodism. From this stock have. sprung all who have been subsequently connected with it. Meetings were held, prior to the erection of John Street Church, in the private residence of Mrs. Heck, and in a rigging-loft, sixty by eighteen feet, in William Street, which was rented in 1767. Here Capt. Webb and Mr. Embury preached thrice a week to large audiences. The original design to erect a chapel must be credited to Mrs. Heck, the foundress of American Methodism. Mr. Richard Owen, a convert of Robert Strawbridge, the founder of Methodism in Baltimore, was the first native Methodist preacher on the continent. The first American Annual Conference was held in Philadelphia, Pa., twenty-nine years after Mr. Wesley held his first conference in England, with ten members,

precisely the same number there were in his. They were Thos. Rankin, President; Richard Boardman, Joseph Pilmoor, Francis Asbury, Richard Wright, George Shadford, Thomas Webb, John King, Abraham Whiteworth, and Joseph Yearbry. It began Wednesday the 14th and closed Friday the 16th of July, 1773All the members were foreigners, and in the Revolution many of them were subject to unjust suspicions of sympathy with England, in consequence of this fact alone. The aggregate statistical returns for this conference showed 1,160, which was much less than Mr. Rankin supposed to be the strength of Methodism in America.

On the 2d of September, 1784, Rev. Thomas Coke, D.D., LL.D., a presbyter in the Church of England, was ordained by John Wesley, A.M., Superintendent or Bishop of the Methodist Societies in America. He was charged with a commission to organize them into an Episcopal Church, and to ordain Mr. Francis Asbury an Associate Bishop. He sailed for America at 10 o'clock A. M., September 18th, and landed at New York, Wednesday, November 3, 1784. Mr. Coke at once set out on a tour of observation, accompanied by Harry Hosier, Mr. Asbury's travelling servant, a Colored minister. Hosier was one of the notable characters of that day. He was the first American Negro preacher of the M. E. Church in the United States. In 1780 Mr. Asbury alluded to him as a companion, suitable to preach to the Colored people. Dr. Rush, allowing for his illiteracy-for he could not read—pronounced him the greatest orator in America. He was small in stature and very black; but he had eyes of remarkable brilliancy and keenness; and singular readiness and aptness of speech. He travelled extensively with Asbury, Coke, and Whiteworth. He afterward travelled through New England. He excelled all the whites in popularity as a preacher; sharing with them in their public services, not only in Colored but also in white congregations. When they were sick or otherwise disabled they could trust the pulpit to Harry without fear of unfavorably disappointing the people. Mr. Asbury acknowledges that the best way to obtain a large congregation was to announce that Harry would preach. The multitude preferred him to the Bishop himself. Though he withstood for years the temptations of extraordinary popularity, he fell, nevertheless, by the indulgent hospitalities which were lavished upon him. He became temporarily the victim of wine; but possessed

moral strength enough to recover himself. Self-abased and contrite, he started one evening down the neck below Southwark, Philadelphia, determined to remain till his backslidings were healed. Under a tree he wrestled in prayer into the watches of the night. Before the morning God restored to him the joys of His salvation. Thenceforward he continued faithful. He resumed his public labors. In the year 1810 he died in Philadelphia. "Making a good end," he was borne to the grave by a great procession of both Colored and white admirers, who buried him as a hero-one overcome, but finally victorious.

It is said that on one occasion, in Wilmington, Del., where Methodism was long unpopular, a number of the citizens, who did not ordinarily attend Methodist preaching, came together to hear Bishop Asbury. Old Asbury Chapel was, at that time, so full that they could not get in. They stood outside to hear the Bishop, as they supposed; but in reality they heard Harry. Before they left the place, they complimented the speaker by saying: "If all Methodist preachers could preach like the Bishop we should like to be constant hearers." Some one present replied: "That was not the Bishop, but his servant." This only raised the Bishop higher in their estimation, as their conclusion was, if such be the servant what must the master be? The truth was, that Harry was a more popular speaker than Asbury, or almost any one else in his day.'

So we find in the very inception of Methodism in the United States the Colored people were conspicuously represented in its membership, contributing both money, labor, and eloquence to its grand success.

The great founder of Methodism was an inveterate foe of human slavery, which he pronounced "the sum of all villainies," and in this particular the Methodist societies in their earliest times reflected his sentiments. The early preachers were especially hostile to slavery. In 1784 it was considered and declared to be contrary to the Golden Law of God, as well as every principle of the Revolution. They required every Methodist to execute and record, within twelve months after notice by the preacher, a legal instrument emancipating all slaves in his possession at specified ages. Any person who should not concur in this requirement had liberty to leave the Church within one year; otherwise the preacher was to exclude him. No person holding

1 Stevens's Hist. of M. E. Church, pp. 174, 175; also Lednum, p. 282.

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