Or, A Colored Man's Reply to Bishop Foster. I7
Lord's Triumph, but unity. Not unity on the color line, but on
the Gospel line. The standard of the Methodist Episcopal
Church has been too high for her to consent to take back all
that she has claimed. The church cannot, therefore, afford to
surrender her principles since nothing has been produced that
justifies such surrender. No one would likely decide from the
past history of the church that she could adhere to the unreason¬
able demands or conditions of union and disunion as advocated
by Bishop Foster.
If she is to-day what she has been in the past, then it is not
in her to consent to trample upon or disregard the rights and
privileges of any of her constituency. The love of change in the
church from the good old way seems to have been a prominent
characteristic of the author of "Union of Episcopal Methodisms"
for the last twenty years. It looks very much like, that historical
facts are disregarded and not considered important to direct the
church in her future, concerning doctrines, polity, membership
and recognition. The age in which they occurred and the
circumstances which gave them birth, is regarded as a thing of
the past, therefore, not important nor necessary to determine
the present conditions. It seems that the rapid growth of the
church demands change of principles to suit those who are
quite desirous of being the leaders in organizing a Methodist
Church with all races, the Negro excepted. The old founda¬
tions, to their minds, have become subverted, therefore the
church needs new laws and forms of government that shall
forever exclude the colored man. The church will, no doubt,
find it necessary to pause awhile before she will allow herself to
be moved from her well-founded principles or admit any funda¬
mental changes as to the rights and privileges of any of her
members. Those who propose changes to the extent of separa-
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