(8) Principles. The principles and polity of Methodism have borne the test of one hundred and fifty years, and no branch of Methodism has grown more rapidly than the M. E. Church South. She stands to-day for a pure and aggressive Chris tianity, and claims that her mission is to "SPread scriptural holiness over this land." W. F. B.
3. The African Methodist Episcopal Church.
(1) Historic Period. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest and largest or ganization among thc negroes. It has grown up in four distinct periods. The heroic period, be ginning in 1787 and continuing until 1816. The organic period, from 1816 to t868. The devel oping period, extending from 1868 to 1892, and from 1892 to two has been an expansion period, the borders of the church having extended to the uttermost parts of the earth.
The originating cause of the existence of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was the treatment of the negro members of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, fa., by the white members of the same in the years 1785, 1786 and 1787.
Richard Allen was a local preacher in the church, and his brethren were denied then- rights and were insulted. He organized a class of forty-two persons. This class continued under the care of SL George's Church for several years, but there was much friction between the class and church, which resulted in a call for a con vention of all persons and churches having griev ances because of ill-treatment received in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The convention was held in Philadelphia, April 9, 1816. The following persons were present : Richard Allen, Jacob Tapsico, Clayton Durham, James Champion and Thomas Webster, all of Philadelphia, Pa.; Daniel Coker, Richard Will iams, Henry Harding, Stephen Hill. Edward Williams and Nicholson Gilliard, of Baltimore, Md.; Peter Spencer, of Wilmington, Del.; Jacob Marsh, Edward Jackson, and William Andrews, of Attleboro, Pa., and Peter Cuff, of Salem, 1\1.(4 Growth and Statistics. Up to the present time thirty bishops have been elected and sixty eight annual conferences have been organized. Nearly all of these are found upon American soil, but this church also has active forces in Sierra Leone and Liberia, in the Transvaal and South Africa, conferences having been organized in those distant lands during the last ten years.
In the year 19oo there were 5,832 ministers in this connection, and $984.462.84 was devoted to their support, the average annual amount paid to each working pastor being only about $168.2o. The membership that year was 672,22o, there hav ing been a constant annual increase since the first organization, with only forty-two members, was effected in 1787. Beginning thus in the latter part of the eighteenth century, with only one church, they now have 5,63o churches, and the value of their church property is estimated at $10,310,993.
(3) Educational Work. The first school planted by the A. M. E. Church was in 1847, at Columbus, Ohio. The Rev. John M. Brown was the principal, and NIrs. Frances Allen-Watkins was the assistant principal. It was a manual labor or industrial school. It remained the only school of the church until 1863, when Bishops Daniel Payne and James A. Shorter and Dr. John G. Mitchell purchased Wilberforce University.
The following are the schools now under the control of the A. M. E. Church.
Wilberforce University and Payne Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio.
Kittrell College, Kittrell, N. C.
Western University, Quindaro, Kan.
Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga.
Payne University, Selma, Ala.
Allen University, Columbia, S. C.
Flegler High School, Marion, S. C.
Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Fla. Shorter University, North Little Rock, Ark. Campbell-Stringer College, Jackson, Miss. Turner N. and T. Institute, Shelbyville, Tenn. Wayman Instittrte, Harrodsburg, Ky.
Paul Quinn College, Waco, Texas.
Delhi Institute, Delhi, La.
Sissons High School, South McAlister, I. T.
Total amount of money raised for school pur poses during the last quadrennium was $2°8, 598.28.
There are twenty-eight students from South and West Africa, and South America, who are being educated and making preparations to return to their homes to begin the work of redeeming their race.
The work of educating the ministry of the Church has long had a special place in the hearts of the leaders. Bishop Daniel A. Payne labored very hard to develop this department of her educa tional system.