Among White People
Grade of Schools.NumberTeachersStudents
Collegiate451958
Theological Seminary
Biblical Departments2540
Medical Departments
Dental Department
Legal Department2761
Industrial Departments
Academies16541,759
Totals.[[2]]201052,717
Total.
Grade of Schools.NumberTeachersStudents
Collegiate121464,048
Theological Seminary1471
Biblical Departments619198
Medical Departments21155
Dental Department1811
Legal Department31367
Industrial Departments12701,455
Academies281143,569
Totals.[[2]]413287,688

[2]. In these totals students and teachers are counted but once; and departments are not counted as separate institutions.

In twenty-two years the Freedmen’s Aid and Southern Education Society has expended in the work of Christian education in the South about $2,500,000.

The present value of the property owned by the Society in the South is over $1,500,000. This includes lands—some of which have increased in value—school buildings, furniture, and libraries. More than one hundred thousand colored students have been in the various schools, and a reasonable estimate is, that the preachers and teachers in public and private schools, from among this multitude, have had under their influence fully one million of the youth and adults of the South. No words can adequately express the far-reaching and glorious results already achieved, and yet to flow, from this ever-widening current of intellectual and moral power.

THE DUTY OF THE HOUR.

With the understanding that we are not cumbersome to the Church, what is the duty of the colored members therein? It is our indispensable duty to remain loyal, wise, and prudent. By saying that the colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church ought to remain loyal, does not necessarily carry with it a thought that there is a spirit of disloyalty brewing. What is intended is simply that each and every member thereof should know his and her obligations to the Church, her rules and regulations, and sacredly keep them, “not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake.” If the entire membership would be loyal and stay loyal, as well as appear loyal in the eyes of the world and of the Church, it must see to it that there is no just ground for such complaints against the race as have herein before been mentioned as found in Mr. Wright’s book. The charges he brought forward were, that the colored delegates to the General Conference of 1884 were “generally very ignorant representatives.” He said also: “It is said, by those who know and judge impartially, that to-day there are but few men in any of the Southern colored and mixed conferences who are fitted for their places, and that the colored members are still grossly immoral.” These are awfully serious charges, whether true or not. A great many people in these United States will probably form (or may have already) an opinion from that book of not only the race with which they anon come in contact in the busy scenes of every-day life, but of the colored membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church, members of the same Christian family, who are privileged to eat at the same Lord’s table. We know there are thousands of chances for even us to say, “It is not all on this side of the house;” but it makes but little, if anything, in our favor if others are no better than we. That the good brother overleaped the bounds of reason, not to say common sense, in his desperation to make out a case, is a foregone conclusion. What he says is, that “those who know and judge impartially,” say “that the colored members are still grossly immoral.” What a fearful charge is this against the bishops of our Church, that they have brought into the Church, directly or indirectly, under their very noses, three hundred thousand “grossly immoral” members! Thousands of these have received authority to preach the gospel and administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; none of whom have been less than two years under the almost personal training of the General Conference. Isn’t it horrible? Who believes it? But no one need be surprised at this tirade against the poor “black man,” for in his next paragraph above, at page 265, brother Wright, in speaking of the white ministers and agents sent South to teach the colored people, says: “The general impudence and lack of knowledge of the agents and ministers sent to the South have blocked up the way of the Church. The immoral character and the dishonest practices of some inflicted disgrace on the Church and cast a doubt on all.” All the white delegates were not as “learned” as the author of “Preachers and People in the Methodist Episcopal Church,” who were elected to attend the General Conference in 1884. It was not to have been expected that all the colored delegates would measure up to him. However far he may have missed the truth in this case, intentionally or otherwise, one of the best ways for the colored members in the Church to show that they are loyal and worthy is to elect no one as a delegate to the General Conference who is not qualified. By qualified we mean possessing natural and acquired ability, and the grace of God richly shed abroad in the heart. With the former he will be qualified to discharge the functions of his office with credit to himself, his race, and the Church. By the latter he will be “an epistle known and read of all men,” who will by it perceive that he is “neither common nor unclean,” but “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” As presiding elders, pastors, officers, and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, let us let our light shine by raising our standard higher. Let no one be recommended for license to preach by us in any quarterly-meeting, however far back in the woods it may be, who has not “gifts and grace.” As to our mode of worship, let it be after the manner of our excellent Discipline, and not after the style of Revolutionary days. Let our Sabbath-schools be brought up to a higher plane. Let the songs of thanksgiving and praise, accompanied by the Word of God and prayer, be of daily occurrence where it has been periodical. Let us see to it that, as a Church, the rules and regulations thereof are kept to the very letter. Let us, as a race, continue to improve morally, financially, intellectually, and spiritually, “having an eye single to the glory of God.” “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always, with all prayers and supplications in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance,” until the great and notable day of the Lord, when you shall appear before the great white throne, and hear the Captain of your salvation, to the question, “Who are these?” answer, “These are they which came up out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”