institution, which may be said to have become the crowning glory of the Church.

At the General Conference of 1896 an important amendment was made to the Constitution of the Missionary Society, with the view of preventing, as far as possible, the incurring of debts for the current work of the society. It was offered by the Senior Missionary Secretary, A. B. Leonard, as follows:

"The General Committee shall not appropriate more for a given year than the total income of the society for the year immediately preceding." (Journal of General Conference 1896, page 304.)

THE MISSIONARY BISHOPRIC.

It was in connection with the society's first mission in Liberia, which was established in 1833, that the question of a Missionary Episcopate first arose. The feebleness of that enterprise, its great distance from the Methodist center, and its climate, which was supposed to be almost certainly fatal to white men, were the reasons alleged for the election of a Negro Missionary Bishop for Africa. Bishop Scott, who visited that field in 1852, urged a closer connection with the mission, by more frequent visitations from home; but the counsels of the semi-political party in the General Conference of 1856 prevailed, and the Liberia Conference was permitted to elect a candidate, who should appear in New York for episcopal ordination. Accordingly, in 1858, Francis Burns, and in 1866 his successor, John W, Roberts, were constituted Missionary Bishops for Africa.

In 1884, a vacancy having occurred, the General Conference elected William Taylor as Missionary Bishop of Africa.

The event of his election was a memorable one. No small tempest lay on the Conference as to the policy to be pursued. No Negro delegate could be found who would accept the office, and it was not at all attractive to white men. At length, after a number of nominations and declinations had been made, the name of that intrepid pioneer evangelist, William Taylor, was mentioned. The effect was electric. Not a Negro would go to Africa; but here was a white man who was ready to go to the ends of the earth on the shortest possible notice. As a located elder his status was that of a layman, and he sat as lay

delegate from South India. But he was none the less a Methodist minister, and might be made a Methodist bishop. This was presently and joyfully done, whereby the Church soon came into more vital relations with its work on "The Dark Continent."

At the session of 1888 there were calls from the missionary conferences for a resident Episcopacy, both in Europe and Asia. Africa had all the Episcopacy she needed, in the person of her heroic William Taylor. At the previous session this measure had failed, and the same fate was again accorded to it. On this account the India delegations fell back on the idea of a Missionary Episcopate, and James M. Thoburn, who for thirty years had rendered successful service as missionary in India, was, on their nomination, elected as Missionary Bishop for India and Malaysia.

The Church now had two classes of bishops, a state of things from which confusion might well be expected to arise. On account of the wonderful success of the missions in India during the eight following years, the questions naturally growing out of the Missionary Bishopric were not made prominent. But at the session of the General Conference of 1896, at Cleveland, the subject received much attention, and an important change was made in the Disciplinary Chapter on Missionary Bishops.

The chapter in question opens with the statement, "A Missionary Bishop is a Bishop," etc. There were some at Cleveland who seemed to have read it, "A Missionary Bishop is a missionary," etc. But the final action of the Conference on that occasion secured the recognition of the full episcopal rank of the Missionary Bishops, and at the same time provided for a quadrennial official visit of a general superintendent, to whom, at such times, the Missionary Bishop should be a coadjutor. This will appear in the following quotations from paragraph 181 of the Discipline of 1896:

"A Missionary Bishop is not subordinate to the general superintendents; but is co-ordinate with them in authority in the field to which he is appointed." . . . "Arrangements shall be made so that once in every quadrennium, and not oftener, unless a serious emergency arise, every mission over which a Missionary Bishop has jurisdiction shall be administered conjointly by the general superintendents and the Missionary Bishop. In case of a difference

of judgment the existing status shall continue, unless overruled by the general superintendents, who shall have power to decide finally."

Thus the Missionary Bishopric, once in every quadrennium, is subordinate to the general superintendency. But for the remainder of the time, the Missionary Bishop is, like the general superintendents, subordinate only to the General Conference.

At the same session, in view of the requests for a full resident Episcopate by delegates from Japan, China, and Mexico, a report was introduced from the Committee on Episcopacy, permitting episcopal residences abroad. This action had already been decided by the Judiciary Committee to be constitutional; but as the subject, in its final form, did not appear until a late period in the session, no favorable action was possible at that time. The above fact is of value as showing the trend of opinion on this important question, which looks to the unification of the episcopate, and thus to the more perfect unification of the Church and her world-wide system of missions.

The action of the General Conference of 1896 in placing Bishop Taylor on the non-effective list was followed by the election of Rev. J. C. Hartzell, D. D., as his successor. To him Bishop Taylor made over all the various missionary funds and properties held by him in Africa and elsewhere, and straightway took ship for South Africa, to visit once more that attractive Kaffirland, in which, many years before, some of his most successful evangelistic work had been performed.

A request for an additional Missionary Bishop for India was urged at the Conference of 1896; but it was not granted. Thoburn for India and Malaysia, and Hartzell for Africa, comprise the entire missionary episcopate of the Church, the field. traversed by each of them being larger than the United States.

THE

CHAPTER VIII.

CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH.

HE relation of the General Conference to the subject of slavery has already been considered. It now remains to treat of the status and work of the Church in the south resulting from the Civil War.

According to the Plan of Separation conditionally adopted by the memorable Conference of 1844, annual conferences in border states were to make choice of their positions on either the northern or southern side of the proposed boundary. But, even before the war, it was discovered to be a very difficult matter to separate masses of Christians according to their opinions, and at the same time to follow geographical lines. Border conferences and border Churches contained members with opposite preferences, and no small contention arose over the effort to carry the Plan of Separation into effect.

Border Methodism was never a unit on the subject of slavery, nor on the division of the Church; nor yet on the division of the nation. It will be remembered that it was the Baltimore Conference delegation in the General Conference of 1844 which furnished the leader of the attack on Bishop Andrew. It was observed that when a man in a slave state came to regard slavery from a strictly Christian standpoint, he came to be the most determined foe of the "peculiar institution." Besides, the Plan of Separation was acted upon by the southern section of the Church without waiting for the result of the vote of the annual conferences thereon; and when this result showed the failure of the plan in the northern conferences, there was still further room for dispute. Thus there was never a very definite Methodist dividing line between the two sections of the disrupted body, a state of things which invited confusion, and made it possible for even good men to cross the indefinite frontier without any sense of wrong.

The Church from its beginning had found slavery to be a prolific source of trouble; nor did the troubles all disappear

when slavery disappeared. The war itself had its religious side, and thereby still other roots of bitterness were planted, from which appeared a plentiful crop.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH ENTERS THE

SOUTH.

How did the Methodist Episcopal Church re-enter the south?

It entered through the doors only partly closed by the Plan of Separation, and through those which were swung wide open by the fortunes of war.

The presence of northern men with guns in their hands was bad enough; but southern Christians could endure this affliction as one of the inevitable calamities which make up so large a proportion of human history. They could defend their religion in battle, while their fathers and mothers and wives and children prayed for them at home and in the sanctuary. But when northern religion, as well as northern politics, came down upon them, it was too much for certain kinds of flesh and blood to bear.

As the tides of war swept over the states in rebellion, large numbers of church edifices were deserted by their pastors, who had laid down the crosier to take up the sword. These unused houses of worship were found convenient for hospital use, first for one army, and then for the other, as the varying fortunes of the great conflict ebbed and flowed. Other Churches, whose ministers were past the military age, were held as Confederate "high-places," where sacrifices to the pro-slavery god of battles were constantly on the altar.

With the capture of New Orleans and its contiguous territory, General Butler observed that the prayers of the southern clergy were very effectual in rousing and sustaining the spirit of rebellion; and, instead of leaving the case to be prayed out by the two classes of suppliants south and north, he undertook, in a measure, to settle the question himself. Accordingly, on each Lord's-day, Union soldiers were sent to prevent rebellious preaching and praying in the places of southern worship. But his authority fell short of the supposed requirement in the case; for when the time for imploring the Divine blessing on the