History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

successful preacher in the most important appointments of New York Conference, a staunch friend,
a perfect Christian gentleman; of extraordinary memory, intuitive discernment of character, rare
humor and profound modesty. It may be doubted whether Bangs' usefulness during these years was,
in any other respect, greater than in his success in recruiting the ministry with similar men.
In 1810 Samuel Luckey, then in his twentieth year, was called out by Henry Stead, his presiding
elder, to supply a vacancy on Montgomery Circuit, N.Y., which comprised between thirty and forty
appointments in schoolhouses, barns, cottages and workshops, requiring about three hundred miles
ride in four weeks, and almost daily preaching. In 1811 he was received by the New York
Conference, and sent to Ottawa, in Canada. He made his way as best he could to Montreal, and
thence fifty or sixty miles, through the French settlements, to his circuit. He was thus, in the very
outset, thrown upon the heroic tests of the early itinerancy. He carried with him a few text-books in
theology, and in the Latin and Greek languages, and there, in the wilds of the far North, began that
course of faithful public service, which has identified his name with the history of the Church for
more than half a century. As circuit preacher, presiding elder, principal of Genesee Wesleyan
Seminary, at Lima., N. Y., from 1832 to 1836; editor of the Book Concern from 1836 to 1840, regent
of the State University of New York for many years, chaplain to the charitable institutions of
Rochester, where he still survives, and preaches thrice every Sunday, he has done an amount of
public labor hardly surpassed by any of his contemporaries in the ministry. Self-educated, beyond
the average culture of his early ministerial associates, steadfastly devoted to his work of vigorous
heath even in old age, a successful preacher, a participant in many General Conferences, and in
almost every enterprise of his Church, he has contributed greatly to its prosperity, not only in the
state of New York, but throughout the country.
While Dr. Emory was in charge of the Union Station, Philadelphia, in 1814, he had a reluctant
agency in the events which gave rise to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. An unChristian
public opinion had always repelled and oppressed the free men of color, North as well as South.
With all its devotion to their religious welfare, Methodism had not dared to fully recognize their
Christian parity in its congregations, and thousands of it African members, gradually advancing
under its care in intellectual and moral improvement, justly felt the disabling and humiliating
disparagement. As early as 1787 some of them, in Philadelphia, convened to consider their
grievances. Withdrawing from the Church, they undertook to build a chapel for themselves, and
Bishop White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, ordained a colored preacher for them. Richard
Allen, once a southern slave, but self-redeemed, had become wealthy, and influential among his
people in Philadelphia, and, in 1793, erected for them a church on his own land, which was dedicated
by Asbury, and named Bethel. In 1799 Allen was ordained a deacon, as we have noticed, and in 1800
the General Conference made provision for the ordination of colored men in similar cases. Allen and
his brethren had entered in 1796 into an engagement, by a "charter," to remain under the disciplinary
regulations of the Church, and the jurisdiction of a white elder, appointed in the Philadelphia
Conference; but contentions soon arose respecting their relations to the Conference; an appeal was
made to the law, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania responded in favor of the Bethel Society.
They thus became independent. Emory in 1814 addressed to them a circular letter, announcing that
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the white preachers could no longer maintain pastoral responsibility for them. They called a general
convention of colored Methodists in April, 1816, to organize a denomination; and "taking into
consideration their grievances, and in order to secure their privileges and promote union among