Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/35



Soon after the recommencing of the building, another difficulty arose. A man, named William Lambert, who had been a member of Zion Church, and was one of those who went away to join the Asbury Church, (a kind of self-conceited man, who was anxious to become a preacher, but was thought not qualified for that office,) having been recommended by William Miller to Bishop Allen, in Philadelphia, (possibly in order to get rid of him,) he went on and attached himself to the Bethel Church, in that city, and having obtained license from the Bishop, as a kind of Missionary Preacher, he returned to New-York, and being denied the use of the Pulpit in the Asbury Church, he determined to raise a church or congregation for Bishop Allen's connexion; in order, therefore, to accomplish his purpose, he obtained a school-house in Mott Street, and with the assistance of George White, a member and ordained Deacon of our Church, it was fitted up for a church. It was afterward understood that about this time there were considerable communications made, in a private