proved the movement, and the two bodies united in erecting a suitable house of worship for the colored brethren. Until it was finished they continued to occupy jointly with the white brethren their house of worship as they had done previous to this action. The new house was paid for in large measure by the white members of the church and individuals in the community. As soon as it was completed the colored church moved into it with its organization all perfected, their pastor, Board of Deacons, committees of all sorts, and the whole machinery of church life went into action without a jar. Similar things occurred in all the States of the South.

Negro Missions of the Southern Baptists

Reports of the Baptist Home Mission Band, 1866, 1868. For several years the several Southern churches endeavored to carry on mission work among the negroes.

[1866, 1868]

A LARGE number of intelligent and pious missionaries have been employed [1866] to preach to the freedmen of the South. The colored people prefer white missionaries to those of their own color. This is owing in no small degree to the fact that white ministers are better qualified to instruct them, and this is what they need - good, sound, theological instruction. These people are greatly improving, and show signs of advance ment. . . A large amount of earnest and faithful labor has been spent upon these missions during the year [1868]. . . Thirty churches have been constituted by our missionaries, twenty-four meeting-houses commenced, eleven finished, and mostly for the benefit of these people. Six hundred and eleven have been baptized and many converted through the labors of the missionaries, but baptized by others whom they were assisting.

Negroes Need Religious Instruction

Ball, History of Clarke County, Alabama, p. 591. Report of Bethel (Alabama) Association in 1868. Southern Baptists. [1868]

WE are of the opinion that a large majority of the colored people do not really desire the instruction of any white man; and we are equally as strongly impressed with the opinion that

the cause of this opposition or indisposition to receiving such instruction is a manifestation of their great need for such instruction, and furnishes a strong reason why it should be given whenever any number of them can be prevailed upon to hear. . They are a lamentably ignorant people - so ignorant indeed as not even to know the value of proper instruction. .. But this indisposition on their part will be no vindication of our conduct, if we relax our efforts on that account to impart to them a knowledge of the gospel of Christ. When Paul and his co-laborers preached the gospel to the heathen, and they were indisposed to hear, and even persecuted them, they did not relax their efforts, and leave them to live and die in ignorance; but they labored on, until, under the blessing of God, wonders were wrought in reforming the world. . . "Let us not be weary" in this important work: "for we shall reap, if we faint not."

The colored man is ignorant, but this ignorance is not so much a fault as a misfortune - and while this ignorance is the greatest difficulty in the way of instructing him, yet instruction is the only thing that can remove it. As light is poured into the mind, ignorance will be dispelled, and the difficulty will be finally removed. Let every minister and intelligent layman do his whole duty in this matter, and we shall see good results in the end of our labors. But the colored man is not only ignorant, but he is superstitious and fanatical. The last traits of character are only the legitimate fruits of his ignorance. All ignorant people are superstitious and fanatical. Instruct them, and these evils will . . be modified.

And while we recognize the commission of the Lord Jesus to be as wide as the world, and would not utter a word against sending the gospel to the far off heathen, but rather urge it as a duty, yet we are of the opinion that our first duty is to give religious instruction to the ignorant and destitute at our doors and in our employ, and among whom we and our children are doomed to live and die.

The Southern Methodists and the Negroes

Annual Cyclopedia, 1865, p. 552; 1866, p. 490. (1) Extract from the Pastoral Letter of the Bishops, August 17, 1865. (2) Extracts from the Revised Discipline, 1866. In 1866 the Southern Methodist Church still had seventy-eight thousand negro members, having lost about three hundred thousand in 1865-1866. [1865-1866]

[1] IN the change from slaves to freedmen which has providentially befallen the negroes of the Southern States, our obligations to promote the spiritual welfare have not ceased. We are still debtor to them free, as before to them bond. Under the Divine blessing, our Church has done a great work for this people. Their moral training, and generally diffused knowledge of the cardinal truths of Christianity, and their ecclesiastical discipline have justly won the admiration of many. . . It has accomplished more; it has materially contributed to their subordination and inoffensive behavior through the late defenseless and exciting times, when prophecies were confident and opportunities frequent for domestic insurrection. And their safe though sudden passage from a state of bondage to liberty, a transition accompanied by no violence or tumult on their part, is largely due to these causes.

Though often reviled while prosecuting the evangelization of the colored people by those who claim to be their better friends, the Southern Methodists have persevered in it, with blessed results. We might have done more, but we should be thankful to the grace of God that we have not done less. . . Multitudes have been saved, who will be our crown of glory in "that day." And that the good effects of our religious teachings bestowed upon them in bondage will follow the race into their new condition, and help to prepare them for it, is matter of pleasing reflection for us. Our numerous membership among them of over two hundred and forty thousand, exclusive of the congregations and catechumens who receive instruction from our pastors and missionaries, has been much reduced by recent changes and casualties. If it be still further reduced, you need not be surprised. Defections, doubtless, will take place from their ranks to churches offering greater social inducements for

their adhesion. If they elect to leave us, let them go with the assurance that as heretofore we have been, so we will continue to be, their friends, and in every suitable way aid their moral development and religious welfare.

[2] Question. What shall be done to promote the interests of the colored people?

Answer 1. Let our colored members be organized as separate pastoral charges wherever they prefer it and their number may justify it.

Ans. 2. Let each pastoral charge of colored members have its own quarterly conferences composed of official members, as provided in the discipline.

Ans. 3. Let colored persons be licensed to preach, and ordain deacons and elders, according to the discipline, when, in the judgment of the conferences having jurisdiction in the case, they are deemed suitable persons for said office and orders in the ministry.

Ans. 4. The bishop may form a district of colored charges and appoint to it a colored presiding elder when, in his judgment, the religious interests of the colored people require it.

Ans. 5. When it is judged advisable by the college of bishops, an annual conference of colored persons may be organized, to be presided over by some one of our bishops.

Ans. 6. When two or more annual conferences shall be formed, let our bishops advise and assist them in organizing a separate conference jurisdiction for themselves, if they do so desire it, and the bishops deem it expedient, in accordance with the doctrines and discipline of our Church, and having the same relation to this general conference as the annual conferences have to each other.

Ans. 7. Let special attention be given to Sunday Schools among the colored people.

5.

WORK OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES
AMONG THE NEGROES

Why the Northern Churches Went South

Reports of the Freedmen's Aid Society, M. E. Church. The explanations given by various Northern churches are suggested in the following extracts. [1866, 1868, 1873]

[Bishop's Address, 1866] The emancipation of four millions of slaves has opened at our very door a wide field calling alike for missions and educational work.

It has devolved upon the Church a fearful responsibility. Religion and education alone can make freedom a blessing to them. The school must be planted by the side of the Church; the teacher must go along with the missionary. In no other way can our work reach its highest success among the Freedmen of the South. They claim this culture as immortal beings, at our hands. Without it their true position as members of society can never be attained. It is needful, that they may sustain proper domestic relations among themselves, and that their children may be saved from the blighting effects entailed by the system of slavery. It is indispensable to the highest and most permanent success of our mission work among them. And then, too, a consideration of vital importance to the Christian world, is the fact that from among themselves the ministers are to be raised up who shall conserve, carry forward, and make permanent the work of Christianizing and educating the

race. . .

As a suitable channel through which the benefactions of our Church to this object may best reach their design, the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church has been organized. It is designed to co-operate with our missionary work in the South, and, in fact, a supplement to that work. There are openings to hundreds of teachers at this moment. Hundreds of teachers are ready to go. The means to send them are only wanting..