bvious, because we also find Jacob Bishop, a Negro, the
pastor of the First Baptist church of Portsmouth, Virginia, for a few
years.[4] The church was a large and influential one, and the
predecessor of Bishop, Rev. Thomas Armistead, had served with
distinction as a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War.

To-day at all the general conferences of the M. E. and M. E.
South--both white--and of the A. M. E., A. M. E. Zion, and C. M. E.
denominations--all colored--fraternal delegations are exchanged with
all the courtesies bestowed by the two former on the two latter that
should prevail among brethren. A further concession is seen in the
fact of the elections of colored ministers of recognized scholarship
and fitness to important secretaryships and an editorship by the
powerful M. E. Church. Another illustration is the organization about
thirty years ago by the M. E. Church South of its colored membership
into the C. M. E. denomination and the liberal provision made by the
former connection for secondary education in the Payne Institute, at
Augusta, Georgia.

The Protestant Episcopal Church that forbade St. Thomas, Philadelphia,
and St. Phillips, New York, to aspire to membership in diocesan
conventions repealed this resolution after the breaking out of the
Civil War and delegates from these and other colored parishes
throughout the North and West, at least, find free admission.

Sixty years ago the application of so promising and talented a young
man as Alexander Crummell to be matriculated as a student in any of
the Episcopal divinity schools created a great shock in church
circles, and his rejection is set forth at length in Bishop
Wilberforce's History of American Episcopalianism; yet both at the New
York and Philadelphia theological seminaries numerous colored
clergymen, Episcopalian and others, now graduate with honor and
distinction.

To-day in the House of Bishops there are two colored prelates of
African descent, Rt. Rev. S. D. Ferguson, the Bishop of Africa, and
the Rt. Rev. James Theodore Holly, the Bishop of Hayti; the former a
native of South Carolina, the latter of the District of Columbia.
Their welcome to the pulpits of many of the most exclusive Episcopal
Churches and to the homes of their parishioners is in marked contrast
to the greeting of the Negro by the same communion only two
generations previously.

In the general assemblies of the Presbyterian Church to-day the
presence of colored com