s a year. He once preached
forty-five sermons in thirty-one days, driving from five to
twenty-five miles a day. He is a natural presiding officer
and governs his conferences with an ease and quietness that
is astonishing.

He is an author. His first work was a book of twenty-five
sermons. The second a pamphlet, "Know, Do, and Be Happy."
The third, a history of the A. M. E. Zion Church (625
pages).

The fourth a pamphlet, "The True Church, the Real Sacrifice,
the Genuine Membership." His fifth, and most important, is,
"The Plan of the Apocalypse." He has in manuscript, a work
on the Millennium; also the material for a second book of
sermons, and is now writing an Autobiography.

Bishop Haygood of the M. E. Church South, who wrote the
introduction to the Book of Sermons, says: "Bishop Hood has
traveled the continent to and fro. His ability, his
eloquence, his zeal and usefulness, have commanded the
respect and confidence of the best people of both races."

As one of the members of the Ecumenical Conference that met
in London in 1881, Bishop Hood made a lasting impression.

These sermons speak for themselves. Their naturalness, their
clearness, their force and their general soundness of
doctrine, and wholesomeness of sentiment, commend them to
sensible and pious people. I have found them as useful as
interesting.

Those who still question whether the Negro in this country
is capable of education and "uplifting," will modify their
opinions when they read these sermons, or else will conclude
that their author is a very striking exception to what they
assume to be a general rule.

The subject of this article is one upon which much thought has been
spent, and yet, excepting the color of the skin and the texture of the
hair, the Negro has more the appearance of the white American than any
other race. A cultured colored woman, with gloves on her hands and a
veil on her face, is hard to distinguish from a cultured white woman a
little way off.

And the same is true of men when the complexion is not seen. We shall
take the position that the inherent possibility of the Negro is equal
to that of any race. Notwithstanding his environments are against him,
yet he has the inherent power to break through them, and will break
through them and reach the highest plane of Christian