Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-02-13
LIFE AND LAB0RS
OF BISHOP GRANT
A Biographical Sketch of the Notable
coIored Minister


and labors of Bishop Abraham Grant
d. D., OF the African Methodist Epis-
copal church, delivered Sunday morn
ing by Rev II Franklin Bray. pas
tor OF Tanner chapel A. NJ F. church
of this city:
Abraham Grant was born in an
Ox-cart in Lake City. Florida, Au-
gust 25th, 1873 Died. in Kansas
City, Kansas. Sunday. January %, at
1915 a. m. The mother Ga slave)
had been sold. and being heavy with
child was not compelled as others.
TO walk 10 the plantation of her own
er but was placed in an oX-cart,
and when midway between the plan
Jation of her former and future home
she gave birth TO a man child and
named him Abraham. Thus like the
Saviour whom he preached so effec-
lively. Abraham Grant could boast
of the humblest birth.
Bishop Grant was great in his
goodness, his earnestness and SIM
plicity He came from the thral
dom of American slavery, walking
from a Florida plantation to the
highest position within the province
of man TO give in the church of God;
the Bishopric. Mans greatness is
not TO be measured by the position
TO which he has attained. but by his
service TO humanity. There are men
who are great only because of the
position they hold. In the Hall OF
Fame there are comparatively few
presidents of the United States al
though that is the first and highest
m
this is found in the fact that where
the office makes the man, the man
is sure TO die soon; only those men
live TO posterity who make their Of
flee; and make il a power for use
fulness. Such presidents have been
Abraham Lincoln, George Washing
ton and Theodore Roosevelt. Such
bishops have been Richard Allen.
William Paul Quinn. Daniel Alex
ander Payne and others. And now
among them we must write Abraham
Grant
The secret of Bishop Grants power
lay first, in a definite experience of
Christs saving grace. He had pass
ed out of death into life and he
knew it. Secondly Bishop Grant be-
lieved in the divine authority of the
scriptures The Bible was to him
the verse of God, and he made it
resound as such in the conversion of
men; Thirdly he was baptized with
the Holy Spirit. and knew that he
was. IL was to him as definite an
experience as his conversion; Fourth
~. he was a man of prayer. He be-
lieved in a living and unfettered God,
and Filthy. Bishop Grant believed
in work, in ceaseless effort, i'm wise
provision, in the power Of organiza-
ton, OF publicity. II is generally
conceded that Bishop Grant received
more people into the church by con-
version than all the other bishops
combined. He was an evangelist of
the Dwight L. Moody type and died
at the same age. He was the nine
teenth bishop of the A. NJ. E. church.
Since his elevation to the Episcopacy
in 1883 sixteen others have been
elected and cOnsecrated. There are
now Is living members of the House
of Bishops.
During the war Abraham was sold
at Columbus, Georgia, for six thou
sand dollars, Confederate money At
ter the war, however, he returned to
Florida. where he entered one of the
missionary schools, at the same time
clerking in a store of his former
owner Later he became steward in
Lake City hotel. and still later in a
hotel in Jacksonville. While at the
latter place. he attended night school
at Goodman Institute. one of the
night schools conducted by the NJ. f.
church which was just starting in
that city His usefulness was soon
demonstrated and he was chosen as
a class leader and steward. April
3rd. 1873. he was licensed TO preach,
and in December of the same year
he was ordained deacon. and March
4, 1876. he was ordained elder. just
a little over twelve years from the
time he was TO receive the Ordina-
ton as bishop. While in Jacksonville
he was appointed inspector of Gus
toms. he was also appointed by Gov
ernor Stearnes of Florida. county
commissioner OF Duval county. Mean
time he was rapidly rising in the |
church In 1878 he transferred to
Texas and was appointed pastor at
San Antonio. where his remains were
buried last Sunday. He was also
pastor at Austin. Texas. and later |
became presiding elder. He was one |
of the founders of Paul Quinn college |
at Waco, Texas, and later became |
president of the board of trustees. |
He was elected TO the bishopric in |
May. 1883. at Indianapolis. Indiana. |
Not yet forty years of age at his |
election he is numbered among the |
youngest men ever elected II that |
high office. He served as bishop /
over the ninth Episcopal district. the |
SIXTH, the first, the fourth and the /
fifth. and everywhere he has been. |
he has been universally popular. He |
has served as president Of the board
Of trustees of Wilberf"rce University |
at Wilberforce. Ohio. Western Uni
Kansas City, Kansas. also
OF the publication board. the financial
board and the church eNtersiol ocard.
He was member of the EcumcEical
of Methodism waioh met
in Washington in 1851. re II ade 4
trip to West Africa in 1874 and pre-
sided over TIE West African con-
ferences at Frse:D-L, Sierra Leone.
and Monrovia Liberia. He was also
n member of the Ecumeniral con-
ference meetin: in Toronto tins year
i