618                      A. M. E. REVIEW.

                          BISHOP PAYNE.
  "Methodism is rich in its biography. Men great in girth of heart and
brain; men of vision and achievement; men whose sympathies and Christly
love embrace the rich and the poor, the neighbor near at hand and the
neighbor far away, and whose heart passion warms alike toward the bond
and the free; men whose greatness spells goodness; scholarly men, men of
results and holy men have been from the beginning numbered among the
people called Methodists.  Statesmen, soldiers, seers, poets, philanthro-
pists; men of letters, diplomats, merchants, farmers, laborers have been
in our Methodist host.
  "Methodism is also rich in her clergy. In the preaching of the Word she
has fed the hungry thousands within her pale and the overflow went to
the unnumbered thousands without. The spiritual fervor, the intense
devotion and heavenly benediction of the humble Methodist preacher have
been his credentials that have admitted him into the hut of the peasant
and the palace of the king. Such parchments have given him an entre into
the Cathedrals as well as into the open field.
  "There are those without our fold who have thought, and likely there are
those of to-day who think, that our clergy has been and is too much composed
of men who are illy prepared for the great commission. Let us admit that
here and there have gotten into our ranks men who are mentally, and, in
some instances, morally, unfit for the holy office. That is true of any popular
movement, but our men are not to be measured by worldly standards
Whom God calls he qualifies. Thus explains the success, the marvellous
success, of some of the early Methodist preachers in declaring the truth.
They were God-called, spiritually led and therefore successful in their work."
  Dr. Jones, the eloquent and scholarly editor of the South Western Chris-
tian Advocate, begins a timely and forceful tribute to the renowned Bishop
Simpson with the above quoted words. To all of which I say Amen! and
add that one of the richest biographies of Methodism is that of Daniel
Alexander Payne, Fifth Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.




			

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

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 2

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  02
Date:  10/1911