Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/11



“Philosophers tell us that one dominant idea was the basal influence in the development in each of the ancient kingdoms of Egypt, Greece and Rome. The idea of life in Egypt, of physical perfection in Greece, and of law in Rome shaped their development and limited their achievements.”

Richard Allen’s idea of God’s teaching as to the brotherhood of all men is the basal idea of African Methodism. Its influence for more than one hundred years is traced in this book.

In doctrine, polity, ritual and authority of ordinations the African Methodist Episcopal Church is identical with the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Christmas Conference of 1784. The early Methodists of European descent in relation to those of African descent held to the human prejudice which once threatened the Church in the days when God made plain to Peter the common brotherhood of Jew and Gentile. Richard Allen would not dishonor his Creator by willingly accepting a