u:
Quadrennial Address
OF THE
Bishops of the Colored Methodis
Episcopal Church
Read Before the General Conference at Its Four
teenth Session, Which Met May 2,1918.
at Chicago III
tr
QUADRENNIAL ADDRESS
OF THE
BISHOPS OF THE COLORED METHODIST
EPISCOPAL CHURCH
READ BEFORE THE GENERAL CONFERENCE AT ITS FOURTEENTH
SESSION, WHICH MET MAT 2, 1018. AT CHICAGO, ILL.
FOR THE SAKE OF HISTORY
The first General Conference of the Colored Methodist Epis¬
copal Church met in Jackson, Tenn., in December, 1870. At a
called session in 1873 Bishop Miles wrote the first episcopal ad¬
dress. From 1873 to 1914 all the episcopal addresses were writ¬
ten by Bishop L. H. Holsey. Bishop R. S. Williams wrote the
address of 1914, and this present one was written by Bishop C.
H. Phillips.
BISHOPS' DIRECTORY DURING GENERAL
CONFERENCE
Bishop L. H. Holsey, D.D.—Mrs. W. M. Middlebrook, 4743
Evans Avenue.
Bishop Isaac Lane, D.D., LL.D.—Mrs. Bessie Allen, 3600
Prairie Avenue.
Bishop R. S. Williams, D.D.—Mrs. B. Turner, 5308/^ Dear¬
born Street.
Bishop E. Cottrell, D.D.—Mrs. C. Marcus, 4/148 Wabash
Avenue.
Bishop C. H. Phillips, A.M., M.D., D.D., LL.D.—Mrs. M.
Snell, 3566 Prairie Avenue.
Bishop M. F. Jamison, D.D.—Mrs. J. A. Winters, 4744 Wa¬
bash Avenue.
Bishop R. A. Carter, A.M., D.D.—Mrs. L. Jones, 4209 St.
Lawrence Avenue.
Bishop N. C. Cleaves, D.D.—Mrs. G. Chase, 5126 Wabash
Avenue.
Episcopal Address
Dear Fathers and Brethren:
The revolution of years and the vicissitudes of time have
brought us to the Fourteenth Quadrennial General Conference of
our Church.
Your chief pastors felicitate you on your election to this the
most august body in Methodism and extend to you their most
cordial greetings and brotherly salutation. Grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God."
We are Methodists, regular descendants of John Wesley and
the progenitors of American Methodism.
We have entered into all the traditions and inheritances which
they bequeathed to us. We share with them the joy and unlimited
fellowship of love which they found in our Lord Jesus Christ
and hold firmly to the doctrines and standards which they propa¬
gated, always endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace.
Once more we salute you and pray that this session of our
General Conference may be the most harmonious, the most con¬
servative, and yet the most constructive we have held since the
organization of our Church.
Memorial Tribute
It is with a sense of deep regret and profound sorrow that we
formally at this time announce to you the death of one of our
colleagues since our last General Conference.
He served the Church as pastor, presiding elder, Epworth
League secretary, and bishop. His episcopal career may be
divided into three parts. He was in the active service two years,
passive two years, and, having been retired by the General Con¬
ference in May, 1914, and having died in September, 1915, was
a year and four months in a retired relation to the Church.
He died the death of the righteous, and the righteous die in
ecstasy and joy. We merely call your attention to his death,
recommending that you memorialize his life and labors in a
manner that will be befitting for one who wrought in his sphere.
And now, with profound reverence and unquestioned submission
1* [3]
to the will of God our Father, we call his name—George Wesley
Steward.
Besides him, though not so distinguished, but no less efficient
and faithful, have died a few of our much-esteemed brethren
who were with us four years ago.
In your memorial exercises you will speak their names, extol
their virtues and graces, and animate us to cherish anew their
memories for the excellent qualities which they possessed, the
sterling manhood which they exhibited, and the consecrated
lives which they lived.
Death is the universal inheritance of man. Who can escape it?
But we who adhere to the Christian faith have hope, and hope is
the attribute of immortality. It enables us to cling to Christ as
the vine clings to the tree and as surely points to God as the star
led the wise men of the East to the manger in Bethlehem where
the world's Redeemer was born. Our brethren were blessed with
this hope and patiently awaited the coming of their Lord.
The City of Chicago
It is significant and somewhat incidental that our General
Conference should meet this year in the city of Chicago. Situ¬
ated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, whose crested
waves and beautiful blue waters are of sufficient depth to accom¬
modate the entrances and clearances of our largest American
and foreign vessels, its live stock and grain markets, its matchless
railroad facilities, the largest in the world, its banks, churches,
educational and charitable institutions, its public parks, extended
boulevards, notable buildings, and multitudinous manufactures
contribute toward making Chicago one of the most attractive as
well as one of the largest commercial centers in the world. It
lends an enchantment to our people that is not peculiar to any
other city.
Here they have rights, liberties, opportunities, and advantages
that are denied them elsewhere. Here is their Mecca; here their
objective haven. Bishop Nicholson, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, who has studied the migration of the Negro to Chicago
from the South, made a survey of that section of the city around
South Park in January, 1916, and found that twenty per cent of
the population were Negroes. In May, 1917, this population had
increased to fifty per cent of the whole. But in December, 1917?
the Negro population around this same section had increased to
eighty per cent.
This not only gives us some idea of the migration of our peo¬
ple to Chicago alone, but some impression of the magnitude of
the social and economic problems such a movement has neces¬
sarily generated. Whatever may be said to the contrary, the
fact remains unchallenged that nothing lies so close to the heart
of the Negro as his religious worship.
£4}
The Church is, beyond cavil, the center and source of all that is
most intellectual and aesthetic in his life. Fortunately for Chica¬
go, Negro Churches prosper here; and these Churches are of
invaluable benefit in diminishing crime among our people arid in
stimulating them to seek favorable environments and to lead
lives of unselfish, altruistic service.
Our Church, founded here a few years ago with a handful of
people, has now a very large and growing membership and must
always be distinguished as being the first congregation north of
Mason and Dixon's line to entertain a General Conference of
the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Migration Movement
During the quadrennium there has been a most remarkable
spontaneous exodus of our people from the South to different
parts of the North. No phase of our social condition is more
characteristic of the nomadic life of our people than the sponta¬
neity of this movement. Indeed, its outstanding feature has been
its spontaneousness. Without any special organization, without
any recognized leadership, they have migrated in large numbers.
The movement sprang from the people and by the people.
Whatever it lacked in unity and system it was more than counter¬
balanced by its vitality and admirable purposes. Unprecedented
industrial opportunities, superior facilities for the education of
their children, better wages, and larger channels for personal,
civil, and political freedom offered at the North more than at
the South are some of the causes that led to the exodus and gave
it a momentum and impulse sufficient to put some three or four
hundred thousand of our folks across Mason and Dixon's line.
Many of our Churches at the South have been considerably re¬
duced in membership and some circuits entirely depleted. Two
problems have grown out of this situation: (i) How best to main¬
tain, conserve, and keep the Church at the South up to its normal
standard; (2) how to organize our members at the North into
Churches and how to finance and foster them after their organi¬
zation. We recommend that you study these questions and make
ample provisions for the further development and extension of
our Church at the North.
Our Methodism
"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their
children, and their children another generation" that the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1870, led by Miles,
Vanderhost, Bebee, Holsey, and Lane, and later by their sons
who have entered into their labors, is a part of that Church which
Solomon saw coming "out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the
merchant."
[ 5 ]
Our Methodism is rich in inheritance, spiritual in revelation,
and simple in faith and doctrine. Indeed, our faith and doctrine
in which we have been nourished are the distinguishing attributes
of our great Church.
We have never been afflicted with higher critics, heretical
teachers, or hair-splitting Biblical exegetists. We have never
tried to interpret the Scriptures in the light of the new criticism
nor to follow in the wake of those who have done so; but we have
adhered to the teachings of the fathers and preserved our Meth¬
odism from adulteration up to this very day. The Church as a
training ground for usefulness, the school in which we learn to
think and plan, the fount of altruistic endeavor and feeling, the
center of human interest, is perhaps the most potent-influence in
the life of our people in expanding and developing that which is
best in them, all of which find expression in our magnificent
church buildings, our schools and colleges, the purchasing of
homes, the patient attitude we manifest toward our State and
national governments when maltreated, the beautiful fealty we
exhibit to1 the national flag even when it does not protect us, and
the consecration of our lives to God and his service.
Our Church and the War
The countries of Europe are in the throes of a war the most
destructive and bloody in all the history of mankind. When our
Lord said, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn
to him the other also," he doubtless discouraged self-defense as
it had reference to men in their personal relations. But there is
nothing in his life or teaching to discourage a nation in its ambi¬
tion to protect its citizens from "pirates on the sea or from an
enemy invasion by land."
A view of this kind is in perfect harmony with the principles
of Christianity and in complete accord with the policies of mod¬
ern civilization. By a chain of circumstances our country has
been drawn into this world imbroglio. The Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church has given thousands of her best young men to
the government for service in this war that democracy might be
safe; that German feudalism and German imperialism might per¬
ish forever; and that the laws, traditions, standards of life, and
inherent love of liberty which characterize our Anglo-Saxon civi¬
lization might dominate the world. Those of our Church and
race who enlisted as privates and officers and who have gone to
the front to fight and, if necessary, to die for their country and its
flag are as courageous, patriotic, and fearless as any soldiers who
ever shouldered a musket or faced shot and shell on a field of
battle.
In far-away France, with fear all gone, with thoughts for the
welfare of their country more than for themselves moving them
to action and to sacrifice, they have been heard to sing:
[6]
"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on."
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church indorses President
Wilson in his actions in declaring war against Germany, in his
patriotic and wise policies in conducting the interests of this
nation at home and abroad, and in all his plans to encourage and
assist the Allies in their prosecution of the war.
The task is great, but God is greater; and our faith in him
leads us to anticipate a favorable termination of the war so far
as America and the Allies are concerned.
The Church and Prohibition
One of the encouraging signs of the times is the rapid growth
of the temperance reform in these United States. There is no
question of the fact that the manufacture, sale, and transporta¬
tion of alcoholic liquors is to be prohibited and finally outlawed in
all this country.
It is a further fact that alcohol is one of the worst foes of our
race and is too often the prolific source of many of the crimes
perpetrated by our criminal class. It is the duty of the Church
to strike this foe whenever and wherever it can. In December,
1917, both branches of Congress—the Senate by a vote of 47 to
8 and the House by a vote of 282 to 128—adopted a prohibition
amendment to the Constitution and made provision for the pro¬
posed amendment to be offered to all the States for ratification
or rejection within the next seven years. As this amendment is
to be one of our most spectacular issues for the next seven years,
we take pleasure in reading to you the text in full:
"Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article
the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors
within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof
from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, for beverage purposes, is hereby prohibited.
"Sec. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have con¬
current power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
"Sec. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have
been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legisla¬
tures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within
seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States
by the Congress."
Your duty or the duty of the Church in a reform so vital and
far-reaching is too apparent for comment. Our Church has al¬
ways taken high ground on the question of temperance. It has
stood for total abstinence for the individual and prohibition for
the States. We suggest, therefore, that you sound the tocsin of
r 71
war in favor of the amendment and leave no doubt as to the part
our Church should play in the coming conflict.
Some Laws That Should Be Repealed
The perpetuity of our Church and civilization itself rests upon
law. Laws are made to protect society, to coerce and restrain
the bad, to promote good government, and to facilitate the oper¬
ative machinery of both Church and State.
Laws crystallized in the form of statutes reach the people
through their leaders and by them should be enforced. The
leaders, by reason of their relation to laws, are in position to
observe their operation, to advise whether they be wise or other¬
wise, or whether their execution would add anything to the ef¬
fectiveness of good government. No law should be enacted or
allowed to stand unrepealed that could be construed as reflecting
upon the intelligence of its lawmakers or upon the moral integrity
of its leaders.
We recommend to your godly judgment and most thoughtful
consideration the repeal of some laws which we judge immaterial
and which do not tend to ornate the pages of our book of Dis¬
cipline.
1. Contiguous Territory.—This law gives the bishops authority
to divide the Church into districts. "They shall divide the entire
Church into districts according to the number of active bishops.
Each district shall comprise the contiguous territory." Dividing
the Church into districts by the bishops has proved a wise ar¬
rangement, and we seek no change from that principle. But to
enjoin the bishops to make the Conferences over which they pre¬
side contiguous or parallel does not always conduce to the har¬
mony, convenience, development, or best interests of the work.
We recommend that the words "each district shall comprise the
contiguous territory" be eliminated. Then in dividing the Church
into districts the bishops will be at liberty to adhere to the contig¬
uous territory idea when they deem it advisable or put some of
the strong Conferences with the weak ones when conditions war¬
rant it.
2. Choosing Their Own Work.—The law which says, "The
bishops shall choose their own work, but by districts," is unob¬
jectionable. We refer to it merely to let you know that it has
always up to this time worked without serious friction.
3. Automatic Retirement.—At the St. Louis General Confer¬
ence the bishops made this deliverance: "We think this General
Conference should enact a law by which the bishops in the future
would be retired automatically at a certain age." In concurrence
with this recommendation the General Conference enacted a law
which says: "Any bishop elected since 1873 shall be automatically
retired at the General Conference nearest his seventieth birthday."
A study of the recommendation of the bishops and the law which
[ 8 ]
the General Conference enacted will reveal a wide difference be¬
tween the two. The bishops advised that the law operate "in the
future," Jiaving no reference to the bishops elected by previous
General Conferences nor to those even who were elected at St.
Louis. But the law sweeps back and involves all the bishops but
one, though at the time of their election life tenure of the episco¬
pal office was presupposed and unquestionably understood and
acknowledged by the Conferences electing them. The bishops,
by study and by a more intuitive insight into' all the phases of" the
retirement question, have come to the conviction that at this time
of our Church life and development it is no more necessary to
find a time when bishops should be retired than it is necessary to
find a time when traveling preachers should be superannuated.
The moral, intellectual, and spiritual qualifications of a bishop,
his temperament and general bearing, his administrative fitness
and executive acumen, his manner of handling men and making
appointments, the kind of heart which he possesses, and his phys¬
ical ability to perform the functions of his office are some of the
elements which should determine when it is time to> retire him.
When a General Conference composed of good men—God¬
fearing men; men without passion, prejudice, or malice; men who
have no personal ends to gratify, but whose only aim and ambi¬
tion are to serve God and do what is best for the Church—should
find a bishop lacking in the attributes mentioned and believing that
his retirement would conserve the interests of the Church better
than his active participation in its affairs, a large number of the
best men throughout the Church so concurring, it could retire
him at any age—at fifty as well as at seventy.
In view of these things we reverse our position of four years
ago and ask you to repeal the law for the automatic retirement
of bishops, the best interests of the Church and the primitive
functions of the episcopal office requiring it.
4. Treasurer of Church Money.—We have a law which reads:
"No bishop shall be treasurer or custodian of any educational or
general Church moneys." It is as much impossible to keep money
out of the hands of a bishop as it is to keep food out of his
mouth. All organized bodies have the prerogative of electing any
individual they may desire as a treasurer. If that individual is
faithless in the handling of funds, without regard to personality,
let the treasurer be dealt with according to the offense. The
appearance of this law is ugly. We therefore most respectfully
ask for its repeal.
5. Donations to Bishops.—The St. Louis General Conference
enacted a law after this wise: "A bishop shall not raise or cause
to be raised, collect or cause to be collected, or receive any public
donation from any Annual Conference or Conferences in the Col¬
ored Methodist Episcopal Church." This law has an avaricious
tinge on the one hand and a suspicious aspect on the other. The
19 ]
bishops do not favor a law that supposes them guilty of avarice
and filthy lucre and that puts them in the light of seeking dona¬
tions at the Annual Conferences. In the legitimate discharge of
their duties at District and Annual Conferences, as well as at the
various charges visited by them throughout the Connection, the
bishops must necessarily incur some personal expenses that should
be paid by the bodies visited. These are no donations and should
not be so construed. Furthermore, it is the unanimous opinion of
the bishops that no public collections should be raised for them
during the sessions of their Conferences. But if a visiting bishop
be present, the presiding bishop would, of course, act according
to the dictates of his conscience. This law is obsolete. , It is
more reflective than useful. Consequently we recommend its
repeal.
6. Change Every Four Years.—We have a law which is sup¬
posed to define the number of years the bishops should remain in
their districts, and it reads as follows: "They shall change their
districts at least every four years." The common view in the
Church is that if the bishops change every four years that would
mean rotation. But this is not the view entertained by the fram-
ers of Methodism. With them rotation meant to rotate, and ro¬
tate means "to revolve around," "to turn around like a wheel."
The meaning is clear. It means that the bishops should change
their fields of labor, give the Church the opportunity to be bene¬
fited by their different gifts and talents, and to regard the whole
Church as their parish. But to limit a bishop to a district four
years is more diocesan than rotative. While this is the correct
view of rotation, our Church in recent years has never rigidly
adhered to this policy. It is absolutely more necessary for our
bishops to remain longer in the presidency of Conferences than
it is for white bishops to remain in theirs. We very often must
do the work of bishops, missionary and Church extension secre¬
taries, finance and build churches, form' new missions, expand
the Church in general, and perform many other tasks not peculiar
to them. Had we rotated as the spirit of the law required, we
should have fewer Conferences, fewer members, fewer Churches,
and a smaller number of schools. Bishops laboring in mission
Conferences, in some of the large Conferences, and where new
missionary activities are in operation should have a longer stay
than our law allows where there are no good reasons why they
should be removed. Repeal this law, and that will bring us back
to the rotary system, back to the days when the bishops on their
own several and joint responsibility arranged the Conferences
among themselves as they thought would best conduce to the
general good of the entire Connection and changed as the exi¬
gencies of the work indicated.
7. Court of Appeals.—In our Discipline are regulations govern¬
ing what is known as a "Ministerial Court of Appeals." This in-
[10]
stitution is designed to act as a kind of intermediary court be¬
tween an Annual Conference where a minister has been tried and
expelled and the General Conference, which finally adjusts all
cases of ministerial appeals.
This court has never been used since its enactment, and there
is nothing to indicate that it ever will be. We have all the laws
necessary for the trial and expulsion of preachers, and appeals
in cases of expulsion.
We recommend, therefore, the abrogation of this court.
8. Six Years for Presiding Elders.—Our last General Confer¬
ence enacted this law: "No one shall be appointed presiding elder
more than six years in succession, nor shall he be reappointed
until he has served otherwise at least two years; provided this law
does not refer to missionaries and other workers in mission fields."
This law needs some modification. Granting the bishops authority
to appoint men as presiding elders in succession six years should
have applied to the same district for that length of time and not
to the office. To say that men may be used six years in succes¬
sion as presiding elders, but may not after that period be used
again till they have served otherwise for at least two years, is not
only discriminating against good and worthy men, but it is at
variance with our itinerant system, very seriously restricts the
appointing power of the bishops, and infringes upon the preroga¬
tives of the third Restrictive Rule. Dr. J. M. Buckley, in his
"Constitutional and Parliamentary History of the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church," says: "Unless the bishop presiding in the Annual
Conferences possessed the authority to fix the appointments of
pastors and district superintendents, the superintendency could
not be complete, and neither pastors nor Churches could be con¬
strained, the former to proceed to the Churches assigned to them
and the latter to receive the appointees."
There is no place in our Church economy where the bishops
should be permitted to exercise greater freedom and larger lati¬
tude than in making the appointments of the preachers. Our
traveling ministers are members—yea, servants—of the Confer¬
ences, and none of them should be disbarred from any place in
our Church system by legislative enactment. That portion of the
law which requires a minister to serve two years in the pastorate
before he is reeligible for the office of presiding elder should be
repealed, and the law should be interpreted as meaning that no
preacher shall be appointed to the same district for a longer term
than six years. But after excepting such a district which he has
served for six years, he is as much available for any appointment,
at the discretion of the presiding bishop, as any other preacher in
the Conference.
[ii]
Relation of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to
Other Churches and Church Movements
1. It is gratifying for us to state that the relation of our Church
to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, continues cordial, fra¬
ternal, and cooperative. The contributions which this Church has
made toward the permanent establishment and development of
the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church must not be considered
merely in dollars and cents, but rather in its moral, physical, and
spiritual aspects. In a cooperative sense, through Paine College,
which it supports, and Lane College and other schools of the
Church to which it gives some financial aid, the Methodist Epis¬
copal Church, South, has done much for the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church in preparing young men for the ministry, young
women for teachers in our schools, and Christian mothers for
our homes. If organic union between the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and the Methodist Episcopal Church should be
consummated, and we sincerely hope that it may be, we trust that
the compact shall be entirely satisfactory to both Churches and
that the Negro in the Methodist Episcopal Church shall be given
such a place and standing in the reorganized Church that could
appeal with special emphasis to the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church, should the same relation be offered it for its acceptance
or rejection.
2. The African Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Churches.—The Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church is identical in doctrine and faith with our sister Churches,
though different from them in polity and some other nonessentials.
While there are no negotiations at present between us looking to¬
ward organic union, there is, however, the spirit of cooperation,
of brotherly love and Christian fellowship, of mutual understand¬
ing and a closer fellowship, that seem to augur a larger future
and brighter prospect for the three Methodisms.
3. The Federal Council.—The Federal Council of the Churches
of Christ, a body representing thirty leading Protestant denomi¬
nations, with a membership of eighteen million and a constituency
of nearly half the population of the United States, is a powerful
and useful organization.
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church is a member of this
Council, enjoys its spirit of unity and fellowship, indorses its
aims and purposes, and desires to affiliate with it in a more tangi¬
ble and satisfactory manner.
We recommend that the General Conference provide arrange¬
ments for our Church to share its part of the financial and other
responsibilities of the Council.
4. The Ecumenical Conference.—The fourth Ecumenical Con¬
ference met in Toronto in 1911. The fifth will be held in Austra¬
lia in 1921. The Toronto Conference created a commission to
keep alive Methodist questions, issues, and interests during the
[12]
decade; "to gather and exchange information concerning the con¬
dition, progress, and problems of the various Methodist Churches;
to promote closer fellowship and cooperation between them; to
further great moral causes affecting the peace and welfare of our
respective countries; and to make arrangements for the next Con¬
ference." The American Commission is composed of representa¬
tives from all the Methodist bodies, is directed by them, and its
financial obligations are based according to the number of dele¬
gates each Church furnishes to the Ecumenical Conference.
To sustain this Commission it costs the Colored Methodist
Episcopal Church only thirty-two dollars a year on a basis of its
nine delegates, and this has been paid each year since 1915. We
recommend that the General Conference continue its relation to
the Commission and make arrangements for the Ecumenical Con¬
ference of 1921.
Superannuated Preachers
The time has come when the Colored Methodist Episcopal
Church should consider wrays and means for providing for her
superannuated preachers. It was Moses who said: "Thou shalt
not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." The great
prophet did not want his people to muzzle the ox while working,
for what he ate would not be missed; besides, to muzzle him
would be an act of cruelty to a dumb animal. If God was solicit¬
ous for the ox, is he not more so for man, whom he has made in
his own image?
Paul, both in his letter to the Church at Corinth and in his first
letter to Timothy, quoted Moses. He taught that the laborer was
worthy of his hire; that the Church should provide for the main¬
tenance of every minister and his family as well as of all those
who ministered in holy places. Our superannuated preachers
deserve well of the Church. They have given the palmiest days
of their manhood for its welfare. They have labored all the day
long in joy, in tears, and in sorrow for its weal, and in their old
age should not be forced to beg for bread. A short time be¬
fore the death of Fanny Crosby, our blind hymn writer, Rev.
Dr. Joseph B. Hingeley, Secretary of Conference Claimants of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, invited her to write a song that
would arouse interest in and inspire enthusiasm for the cause
which he represented. Instead of a song she wrote a poem. It
is so beautiful in sentiment that we give it a place in this address:
"There is a work of love and duty
That devolves upon us all;
There is a tender, pleasant message,
And its tones like music fall:
'Help our weary veteran preachers,
Scatter roses o'er their way ;
Rally round them, hasten quickly—
Not to-morrow, but to-day.'
[13]
From the well of deep affection
Now their hearts with gladness fill;
Do not wait their names to honor
Till the pulse of life is still.
Break the box of alabaster,
Pour its oil upon them now ;
Make their dwelling bright and happy,
Wreathe in smiles each furrowed brow.
They have borne the royal standard
Of our Master and our Lord;
From the time of early manhood
They have preached his holy Word.
But their strength has lost its vigor
And their cheek its youthful glow ;
For the frost of age has touched them,
And their locks are white as snow.
Watchmen, on the walls of Zion,
Though their feet no more will stand,
From the top of Pisgah's mountain
Faith beholds the promised land.
Soon triumphant, like an army
Marching through the realms above,
They will shout the grand old story,
Robed in white and crowned with love."
We advise that you inaugurate some feasible plan the Church
can operate in the interest of its superannuated preachers.
The General Board
It is the consensus of opinion among the bishops that the
General Board as now formed is no longer adaptable for the
execution of those ends for which it was originally designed.
It cannot meet the demands of our expansive and progressive
Church. It is cumbersome in its operation, and the results ob¬
tained, saying nothing of its economic defects, do not justify its
continuance as our controlling body during the interim of our
quadrennial sessions. There is no necessity for a General Board
to review the work of the different boards. It is a waste of time,
men, and money. After forty-eight years, surely the Church has
men with all the necessary qualifications to conduct its various
interests as members of different boards without having their
work reviewed by a General Board. In the light of this under¬
standing we ask for its abolition and for the creation of such
other boards as may be found necessary to manage the various
departments of the Church.
[14]
Publishing Interests and Financial Secretary
Since the organization of our Church our publishing and finan¬
cial interests have been combined. The time is expedient for the
divorcing of these two departments. The Publishing House, with
its vast interests and possibilities, should stand alone. Its advan¬
tages and disadvantages, its patronage and nonpatronage duly
considered, it has done well. It should start now on a new mission
—the mission to make money—and all that obtains above its oper¬
ating expenses should be given to help create a fund for our su¬
perannuated preachers. We advise the separating of our Pub¬
lishing House from the moneys accruing from our financial plan
and the creation of the office of Financial Secretary.
Locating the Publishing House
The Connection needs a representative home. Our plant at
Jackson, Tenn., reflects upon rather than represents our great
Church. The last General Conference appointed a commission
to select a site for the Publishing House. But for.some reasons
the results have not been satisfactory. We recommend that the
General Conference itself locate the Publishing House and then
proceed as early as possible to erect a publishing plant that will
do credit to the race and to our Church.
Four Boards Necessary
We believe four Boards, operating entirely and distinctly from
each other, composed of a certain number of wise, thoughtful,
and conservative men, with one or two bishops on each Board,
can successfully operate all our Church machinery.
By way of suggestion, these Boards could be formed as follows:
(i) Publishing Interests and Sunday School Board, (2) Finan¬
cial Board, (3) Missionary and Church Extension under one
Board, and (4) Education and Epworth League under another.
Each Board should defray the traveling expenses of its members,
and each Secretary should receive his salary from the department
which he represents.
Sunday School Secretary
The bishops opine that the creation of a Sunday School De¬
partment would prove a very wise piece of legislation at this
time. We recommend its creation and then the election of one
of the able men of the Church to be its Secretary. The Sunday
School Secretary should not only look after the literature of that
department, but should become general proof reader of all our
book and job work publications.
[15]
Department of Education
Methodism was practically born in a college. Her founder
was a man of large sympathies, extensive learning, wide informa¬
tion, and keen insight. Its ideal is an educated, consecrated min¬
istry. Church leaders should be prepared very largely in Church
schools; and Methodist schools should not only raise the standard
of the ministry, but should give to the world Christian scholars
to serve in all the departments of religion, science, and politics.
This department, created four years ago, has already demonstrat¬
ed its utility. It has given our schools a prominence they never
had before, standardized them, increased their cash receipts and
appropriations, and otherwise added to their growing usefulness
and outstanding position in the Church and world.
We suggest that the General Conference take whatever steps
are necessary to increase its efficiency and enlarge its potentiality.
The Epworth League
This society for our young people was never intended to be a
financial asset in the Church, but a spiritual department for the
training of the young for service in God's kingdom. And yet it
is possible to mobilize this force for raising money to help in the
extension and other activities of the Church.
This department deserves more attention in our charges, dis¬
tricts, and Annual Conferences, and a larger place in our hearts
and prayers.
Church Extension Society
This society was first organized and put into operation at the
Little Rock General Conference in 1890. It was discontinued at
the General Conference of 1894, but was brought back into serv¬
ice again eight years later, at the Nashville General Conference
of 1902. It has become now one of the stable institutions of the
Church, but needs to adhere more rigidly to a loan feature if it
is to build a fund for loan purposes to help needy Churches.
These Churches should pay the interest on the loans as well as
the loans themselves, and that would keep a steady flow of money
into the treasury of the society. The Church should spend a few
years in building up such a fund, hold it sacredly for a loan pur¬
pose, and in a few years we would have a Church Extension
Society both in name and in reality.
Missionary Society
This is the oldest society in the Church and, in all probability,
will live as long as the Church itself. A Church with no Mis¬
sionary Society cannot be the Church of the future. Our Lord
has told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The
Church must rise and obey this command and through her mis-
[l«3
sionary heralds keep the camp fires of Christianity burning until
the "mountains and the hills shall break forth before them into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." This
department has wrought well and deserves your continued sup¬
port and encouragement.
Financial Plan
Our Financial Plan, installed four years ago, has brought a
larger revenue to the Church than any of its predecessors. Un¬
der its provisions, however, eighty-four per cent of the moneys
raised in each Conference is sent to the Publishing House, and
only sixteen per cent is retained. Of this sixteen per cent, ten
per cent is appropriated for widows, orphans, and superannuated
preachers and six per cent for a contingent fund. This should be
altered. The Conferences should have a larger per cent of the
money for local disbursement.
If our general funds were raised to one dollar per member
and the preachers' characters were no longer involved in its collec¬
tion, but should be placed on their merits instead, thus furnishing
a stimulus both for our ministry and people to increase their col¬
lections year by year; if seventy per cent of this dollar money
be sent to the Financial Secretary for general purposes, the same
to be proportioned according to your legislation, and the thirty
per cent be left in the Conferences for Conference claimants and
contingent disbursement, we should have a financial plan that
would give us a larger revenue, more satisfactory results than
any we have had .before, and would conserve our purposes for
years to come.
Our Women
Our women furnish an example of consecration, zeal, and effi¬
ciency without parallel in any period of the Church. Their mis¬
sionary efforts have been mobilized and localized for enterprises
in charges, districts, and Annual Conferences; but in a connec-
tional sense their value has been negligible.
However, it id fair to say that the fault was not with them.
They have never been organized by the Church for a larger initia¬
tive. Their best energies have been localized, and the sphere of
their activity has been in the Annual Conferences.
An open door and opportunities more vast would challenge
their best endeavors, really give them a larger vision of their
worth to the Church, enlarged views of their invaluable relation
to all its multiplex interests, and a proper conception of their own
latent possibilities. The bishops believe that a General Woman s
Missionary Society embracing the Connection would furnish the
open door and vaster opportunities for the exercise of their va¬
ried gifts and talents. They could raise money independent of
men, turn it into connectional channels, and help in all the for¬
ward movements of the Church.
[17]
Our Schools and a Theological Seminary
The schools of our Church during this quadrennium have had
a most remarkable triumph in spiritual fervor, in the increase of
student matriculation, in the liquidating of old chronic debts, and
in raising large sums of money for better equipment. Hundreds
of our young people attend State schools for technical and voca¬
tional training. While it is not the function of Church schools
to rival the States in this sort of education, yet it is the duty of
the Church to increase its facilities in that direction and impress
the necessity of a deep religious life upon students and a sincere
loyalty to Methodist ideals. The year 1917 reached high-water
mark in raising money for education and missions. Many thou¬
sands of dollars were raised for these purposes.
- feut one of our most urgent needs as a Church is a theological
seminary, where our young men can prepare for the Christian
ministry. Such an institution should be connectional and draw
its support from every Conference in the Church. A school of
this kind would invite and appeal to young men to enter the min¬
istry, give prestige to the denomination, and reflect credit upon
our common Methodism. All of our institutions of learning are
very largely Conference enterprises. We should have at least one
school to stand out above all the rest and in every particular re¬
spond to the claims of a connectional school.
This seminary could occupy such a position. Then we should
consecrate to it our best energies, our time, and connectional
moneys, and make it a place of great attraction for young men
and a veritable Mecca on commencement occasions.
Semicentennial Celebration
The year 1920 should be made the most unique and glorious
in all the history of" our Methodism. Our denomination will then
be fifty years old. It should mark a turning point in the life of
the Church, inspire it with a new faith and vision, enrich it with
a larger initiative, and endow it with a better courage to under¬
take more difficult tasks for the spreading of Christ's kingdom
and for measuring up to its unprecedented opportunities.
The progress we have made should be a challenge for better
service and larger achievements. We advise that the Church
celebrate its semicentennial and make a heroic effort to raise
fifty thousand dollars, independent of our general funds, for
missionary and Church extension activities and beseech our
Father in heaven for fifty thousand additions to the Church.
We stand face to face with the challenge of this great oppor¬
tunity and unusual responsibility. We should bring into action
every material, all our educational, religious, moral, physical, and
evangelistic forces for the consummation of these ends. If we
have no evangelists, let the General Conference create the office,
[18]
and the Conferences will appoint the men, send them out with
their prayers, and, with the assistance of our long line of trav¬
eling preachers, we will labor to bring hundreds—yea, thousands
—of souls into the kingdom of Christ.
In 1916 our Church reported 3,072 preachers, 3,196 Churches,
and 240,798 communicants. The statistics for 1917 give us 3,285
Churches, 3,402 preachers, and 251,560 communicants. Let us
pray that this* celebration may carry our membership beyond the
300,000 mark and usher in a new birth of consecration on the
part of the Church to all of its ideals and fundamental principles.
Such a celebration could not come at a more auspicious era.
The world war which is being waged to preserve those ancient
Anglo-Saxon liberties that have always been dear to English-
speaking people will open the door for the advancement of liberty
among men for a more constructive progress, a progress that, in
the world reconstruction and transformation, the fundamental
principle should be: "No man is so great or so powerful as to
be able to evade the liberty of any other man, however humble
or however weak."
New feelings, new hopes, new ambitions, and new aspirations
that have long been forming and that lie deep in the hearts of
our people, all struggling for expression, will find a new door of
opportunity opening to them—a door of a larger democracy, a
larger liberty and justice, and higher evidences and instrumental¬
ities of civilization and Christianity which should not encourage
any social system built on prejudice and caste.
Our Church must be ready to perform its part in the world
reconstruction and to give the gospel on a larger scale to those
who may wait upon our ministry.
The year 1920, therefore, will be big with responsibilities and
opportunities undreamed of in any epoch of our Church life.
Looking back across the turbulent sea over which we have
sailed and counting the milestones which mark our path through
a road narrow, steep, and rough, that led us sometimes to the
"brink of dangerous precipices and by the side of impassable
morasses/' we will take courage and look to the future with
an assurance that our efforts will not be in vain, but will rather
be rewarded with the product of our own successful activity.
When Charles George Gordon was in the Sudan, it is said, a
white handkerchief was laid before the door of his tent for half
an hour every morning to indicate that he was observing a season
of prayer and that no message could be delivered nor could any
person be seen until this handkerchief, was removed. It was a
sign that the great Gordon was alone with God. It was prayer
time with him. The signs we will display before the doors of
our homes and the doors of our churches will find expression in
our consecration to the execution of this celebration, in our ear¬
nest seeking after God in prayer, in the spiritual momentum we
[19]
put into this movement, in our success in drawing near unto God
that he may draw near unto us, and in the possession of a large
faith to turn that which may seem impossible into the real and at
the same time inspire hope for victory. These attributes will not
only energize and revitalize the Church with a vital fellowship
with Christ, imparting to it an original initiative that will have its
source in God, who makes the clouds his chariots and marks his
pathway in the whirlwind and in the storm, but, under the influ¬
ence of the Holy Spirit, will add thousands of souls to the Church
and bring hundreds of dollars into her coffers.
Then the world will know it was prayer time with the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Final Word
Dear brethren, "stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye
have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our
Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope
through- grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every
good word and work."
L. H. Holsey,
Isaac Lane (retired),
R. S. Williams,
E. Cottrell,'
C. H. Phillips,
M. F. Jamison,
R. A. Carter,
N. C. Cleaves.
[20]
. .