The Story of Methodism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...are interchanged between the General Conferences of both bodies. It is often called "African Bethel Church," from the place of its origin. Some of its bishops have a record of struggle and achievement. Daniel A. Payne, at twelve an orphan-apprentice in Charleston, S. C.; at seventy, presiding over the Ecumenical Conference in London. Such a career, beginning in the disabilities of his race and ending at the fulness of personal and churchly attainment, merits in its widest sense the word heroic. For thirty-six years, the most eventful that his people have ever seen, he has been their bishop and foremost of their leaders. The like may be said of Bishops Shorter, Turner, Cain and Wayman. Of their nine bishops, one, the Rev. R. R. Dissney, resides at Chatham, Ontario. At its General Conference at Indianapolis, in May, 1888, one of its sessions was opened with exercises conducted by the Rev. Daniel Smith, a clergyman one hundred and two years old, the oldest effective preacher in the world. This movement was, in 1820, followed by another. The new Church gathered in New York a congregation at a house called the Zion Church. Dissatisfaction with Church government led to a schism, and the new body was called the African Zion Church. It has grown to have three hundred thousand members, with two thousand traveling, and as many local, preachers. RICHARD ALLEN. First Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It differs in nothing from the "Bethel," only in name, "Zion," neither does either of these differ from the parent Methodist Episcopal Church, unless that their Bishops are elected for four years only. Why do they not unite with each other and with the Mother Church? The color question is surely not in the way, for five hundred...