In South Carolina. 255 



which prompt this course, at the same time the representatives of 

 the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

 cannot allow the occasion to pass without expressing, as they now 

 take pleasure in doing, the respect and affection universally felt for 

 the venerable Bishop, the honor in which his past services are held, 

 and the luster which his spotless character lias shed on Southern 

 Methodism. They devoutly pray that the evening of his life may 

 be serene — full of the consolations of that gospel he has preached 

 for more than a half century — bright with the unspeakable hope of 

 eternal life through Jesus Christ. 



Resolved, furthermore, That Bishop Andrew be, and he is hereby, 

 released, according to his request, from active participation in the 

 responsibilities of the episcopal office. At the same time the Gen- 

 eral Conference beg that he will, as far as his health and circum- 

 stances allow, give to his colleagues and the Church at large the 

 benefits of his experience and counsels, and highly appreciated vis- 

 its to the Annual Conferences. 



Whenever his strength allowed he continued to visit 

 Annual and District Conferences; and his farewell 

 words, delivered with patriarchal tenderness, were apt 

 to insist upon these points: maintain spiritual re- 

 ligion, love one another, and keep united. From his 

 dying-bed he sent a farewell message to his colleagues 

 in the episcopal office. To the ministry of the Church 

 at large his parting words were: "Live right, main- 

 tain the discipline of the Church, meet me in heaven." 

 Again: "Write; tell the preachers to remember the 

 Sunday-schools; feed my lambs." Then, after a part- 

 ing valediction to the whole Church, he closed his 

 eyes, and his spirit joined the innumerable company 

 of the redeemed in the city of God. He died at Mo- 

 bile, Alabama, March 2, 1871, in the fifty-ninth year 

 of his ministry, and seventy-seventh of his age. As 

 a preacher, Bishop Andre w was eloquent and power- 

 ful. Some of the most effective sermons ever preached 

 in the Carolinas and Georgia were preached by him 

 at camp-meetings, where an audience of thousands 



