CHAPTER XI THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1884, 207 CHAPTER XII THE PROBLEM, 230 CHAPTER XIII THEORY AND PRACTICE—A GENERAL 259 DISCUSSION, CHAPTER XIV WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE? 292 CHAPTER XV UNION OF COLORED METHODISTS, 309 --------------------- ILLUSTRATIONS. ---------- REV. L. M. HAGOOD, M.D., _Frontispiece._ MORGAN COLLEGE, FOR COLORED STUDENTS, 48 NEW ORLEANS UNIVERSITY, MAIN BUILDING, 96 BENNETT SEMINARY, GREENSBORO, N.C., 144 REV. A. E. P. ALBERT, D.D., 192 MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, NASHVILLE, 240 TENN., ART DEPARTMENT OF CLAFLIN UNIVERSITY, 288 GAMMON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, LIBRARY 312 BUILDING, ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION. ---------- It is a difficult matter to write of a battle while it is still raging. The combatants are not usually the best judges of the merits of their cases. Prejudice, education, preconceived notions of the right or wrong in the case, prevent the mind from weighing the arguments with equity. There are principles lying at the foundation of ethics which will not be denied by Christians. They come with the authority of a “Thus saith the Lord.” However distasteful these truths may be to the natural man, the obligation to receive them still remains. The Lord quoted certain proverbs which were authorities among the Jews, which they had observed as rules for their action towards others. One was “Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.” Christ gives another, and with divine authority: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” Such teachings were not palatable in that day, any more than in the present. Human nature was no more ready to receive and practice such truths then than now. But the obligation existed then, and still survives. Then, too, the Savior taught another lesson equally unpalatable to the Jew. The man who fell among thieves was left by priest and Levite to suffer, but was delivered by the Samaritan, who was considered an enemy. “Who is my neighbor?” was the question that brought out this answer from Jesus with its illustration; viz., that every one needing help is a neighbor. The two great precepts of the same Teacher