to both classes in one congregation, as our practice has been.
The gospel is the same for all men, and to enjoy its privileges in
common, promotes good will."

We read so far and stopped. That language has the marks of the gospel
of Jesus Christ all over it. "All ye are brethren." So says the
gospel, and this report says the same. But how would it do to take
the language above quoted into a Southern white Methodist Conference
now! Just let the above report, without comment and without
explanation, be introduced to-day into such a Conference, and what an
explosion would follow!

It is too bad to quote the rest of the report, because it mars
somewhat the beauty of what goes before; but here it is: "That when
the galleries or other sittings are insufficient, we consider it the
duty of our brethren and friends to provide the necessary
accommodations that none may make such a neglect a plea for absenting
themselves from public worship." "_Galleries or other sittings._"
There is the fly in the ointment. Of course, at communion, the master
class was served first and the slave class afterward.

The Church of Christ is His body. But does Christ allow His followers
to decide that distinctions shall be made at His table on account of
the hue of the skin? When a Temple is erected in which Christ's
disciples are to meet for worship, is there anything in the gospel
that warrants a division of seats so that here superiors shall sit
and there inferiors? Where is the word that warrants it? and what is
the analysis that will find it in the spirit of the gospel? All honor
to the slave-holders who furnished the means of the gospel to the
slaves. All honor to the men and women who pointed the sin-burdened
negroes to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We
have no doubt but that as Dr. Edwards says, "Multiplied thousands
upon thousands of the sons of Ham will rise up in judgment to bless
the faithful men of the South for their long-continued labors in
teaching the benighted negro the way of life." We have no doubt of
it; but in the resurrection will the whites put in an appearance
first and the blacks second? In the day of judgment will the whites
lead and the blacks follow? Will there be galleries with hard seats
in Heaven for negroes and ground floors easy of access with soft
seats for Caucasians? Will the great chorus of Heaven be divided into
two parts, a white division and a black division? And will the
Halleluja