THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH ETC.                489

 But these distinctive features depend for their perma-
nence upon the right of the Church through its governing
body to exercise a real control, which will extend to a voice
in the selection of the trustees, and through them, as repre-
sentatives of the Church, to the control of the institution.
And this is not in any sense narrow or bigoted, but it is the
method which would be used by any body of men who de-
sired to accomplish certain definite results.
 The question has arisen as to what really constitutes
Church control of a college, and the idea has been advanced
that a college is owned and controlled by the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, South, when it is held and managed by trus-
tees who are themselves members of the Church. It has been
stated by some that a self-perpetuating board of trustees
of a college, who are all Methodists, is itself a governing
body of the Church, and that such a board is not the crea-
ture of any other governing body of the Church, but is a
coordinate governing body of the Church, constituted for the
purpose of carrying on its educational work.   But  this
position will not bear the test of comparison with the Church
polity and regular methods of doing her work. No college
is owned and controlled by the Church in the administration
of whose affairs the Church cannot have a voice through the
chosen representatives  of the Church.      The  Methodist
Church has her regular method of exercising her authority.
That method is always through the governing body-the
Quarterly, District, Annual, or General Conference. These
bodies represent the ministry and the membership of the
Church, and if the Church is to exercise control it is through
one of the other of these bodies; and no body of men, or
board or committee, can rightly claim to stand as representa-
tives of the Church unless they have received their authority
from one of these bodies of the Church, or hold themselves
ready to carry out the wishes of the Church, when clearly
and unequivocally set forth by the proper authorities in the
regular way. If this be true, how much less could any body




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911