536 



METHODISTS. 



spoke of that body as one which held a rela- 

 tion to the Church, South, that it held to no 

 other body ; it occupied the same field of ter- 

 ritory with it without rivalry. The communi- 

 cation from the Colored Methodist Episcopal 

 Church contained a request for aid in the erec- 

 tion of school-buildings. The church had pur- 

 chased sites for schools during the past year at 

 Jackson and Byhalia, Miss. The people were 

 willing and ready to contribute, but their finan- 

 cial circumstances did not permit them to give 

 much. They also needed mission-money, par- 

 ticularly for the building up of missions at such 

 places as New Orleans, La., Atlanta, Ga., and 

 Corinth, Miss. Fraternal answers were re- 

 turned to the letters of both churches. The 

 Conference approved a recommendation for the 

 organization of annual conferences in China 

 and Central Mexico during the ensuing four 

 years. A plan for church extension was adopt- 

 ed, and a Board of Church Extension organized, 

 which is to have its seat at Louisville, Ky., and 

 to obtain a charter from the State of Kentucky. 

 A new chapter on temperance was adopted, to 

 be inserted in the Discipline, the provisions of 

 which are as follow : 



Let all our preachers and members faithfully observe 

 our General Eule, which forbids "drunkenness or 

 drinking spirituous liquors, unless in cases of neces- 

 sity" m cases of drunkenness let the discipline be 

 administered as in case of immorality ; drunkenness 

 being a crime expressly forbidden in the word of God. 

 In cases of drinking, except in cases of necessity, let 

 the discipline be administered as in case of imprudent 

 or improper conduct ; let all our preachers and mem- 

 bers abstain from the manufacture or sale of intoxicat- 

 ing liquors to be used as a beverage, and if any shall 

 engage in such manufacture or sale, in such case pro- 

 ceed as in cases of imprudent and improper conduct. 



The Conference decided to elect five new 

 bishops, and Alpheus W. Wilson, Linus Parker, 

 Atticus G. Haygood, J. 0. Granberry, and B. 

 K. Hargrove were chosen to that office. Bishop 

 "Wilson was, at the time of his election, Mission- 

 ary Secretary to the Church ; Bishop Parker, 

 editor of the " New Orleans Christian Advo- 

 cate " ; Dr. Haygood, President of Emory Col- 

 lege; Bishop Granberry, a Professor in Van- 

 derbilt University ; and Bishop Hargrove had 

 filled several responsible positions in the church. 

 Dr. Haygood, believing that the circumstances 

 of Emory College demanded his continued 

 presence there, declined to be ordained bishop, 

 and the Conference determined to elect no other 

 person in his place. A resolution was adopted 



That the matter of changing the name of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church in America, be referred to the sev- 

 eral Annual Conferences by the bishops during the 

 ensuing four years, and that they report the result of 

 the vote to the General Conference of 1886 for ratifi- 

 cation. 



Action was taken in favor of the celebration, 

 in 1884, of the centenary of the formal organi- 

 zation of Methodism in America, which took 

 place in 1784, by participating in a conference 

 of Methodist bodies to be held in Baltimore, 

 Md., during that year, and by endeavoring to 



raise the sum of two million dollars, to be ap- 

 plied equally, save where donors shall give 

 special direction to their gifts, to the causes 

 of education, church extension, and foreign 

 missions ; and a committee, consisting of twelve 

 ministers, twelve laymen, and the bishops, was 

 appointed to take charge of the whole matter, 

 and report to the next General Conference. 



III. COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

 The statistical reports of this Church, made 

 to the General Conference in May, gave the 

 number of ministers as 1,749, and of members 

 as about 125,000. The increase in the number 

 of members during four years had been 18,917. 

 Report was also made of 1,450 Sunday-schools, 

 with 3,973 teachers and 42,254 scholars. 



The General Conference of the Colored Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church in America met in 

 Washington, D. 0., in May. Attention was 

 given to the enterprises for the benefit of the 

 members of the Church in the Southern States ; 

 to missions, from which favorable reports were 

 received ; to the interests of the Metropolitan 

 Church of the denomination in Washington, 

 and the payment of the debt upon it; and to 

 the affairs of the denominational organ, the 

 *' Christian Index," the entire control of which 

 was assumed, and its office of publication fixed 

 at Jackson, Tenn. 



A Convention of the Bishops of the Colored 

 and African Methodist Episcopal Churches was 

 called to meet in Baltimore, Md., April 26th, 

 to consider the subject of a union of the two 

 bodies. All of the bishops of the African 

 Methodist Episcopal Church were present, but 

 only one of the four bishops of the Colored 

 Methodist Episcopal Church. As a majority 

 of the bishops of the latter body could not at- 

 tend the Conference, the consideration of the 

 question of union was deferred. The bishops 

 of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 however, expressed themselves ready to meet 

 the bishops of the other body in council at any 

 time or place they might designate, to proceed 

 with the negotiations. 



In accordance with a resolution of the Gen- 

 eral Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, South, Bishop George F. Pierce, rep- 

 resenting the bishops of that body, and the 

 bishops of the Colored Methodist Episcopal 

 Church met at Atlanta, Ga., in August, as a 

 joint committee to take action for organizing an 

 institution of learning for the Colored Method- 

 ist Episcopal Church. The committee elected 

 a board of trustees composed of white and col- 

 ored men, and representing the two churches, 

 for the proposed institution, and decided that 

 it should be established at Augusta, Ga. The 

 board of trustees thus appointed met at Augusta 

 in October, and decided that the new school 

 should be called "Paine Institute," in honor 

 of the late Bishop Robert Paine, of the Method- 

 ist Episcopal Church, South. An offer to serve 

 as president of the institution was received 

 from the Rev. Morgan Callaway, D. D., Vice- 

 President of Emory College, Oxford, Ga., and 



