348 - 30 60 93 126 Farewell 102 perance Association, 1, 33, 65, 98, Wineglasses turned Our Seventeenth Yearly Address by W. S. Allen, The Class-Meeting - 362 A Temperance Island No. I. Mary of Bethany 36 No. VII. Queen Vashti- 263 Feb. 64-200 2 5 1 THE LOCAL PREACHERS' MAGAZINE AND Christian Family Record. THE WESLEYAN METHODIST LOCAL PREACHERS' CHAPTER I.-PRELIMINARY. 1849. THE history of Methodist Local Preachers has yet to be written. Whenever that does take place the rise and progress of this Association must occupy a prominent position. Our business is not with the history of Local Preachers just now, but to give a brief account of the origin, the course, and the present state of the Local Preachers' Association. This Association arose out of an acknowledged want. This had arisen from time to time, local cases had existed, and local efforts had been put forth to meet them before this Association was established. At Bristol there was a local fund before 1849. The brethren there very wisely merged their society in the general one. The Methodist Association, as soon as it was formed in 1835, established a fund for Local Preachers. At the time of the amalgamation with the Wesleyan Reformers in 1857, there was in this fund £1,052 14s. 10d; but it was reserved for the next ten years for the benefit of Local Preachers only who were Local Preachers in connection with the Methodist Association. This fund, we believe, still keeps the position it occupied at the amalgamation. Its benefit to Local Preachers has been infinitesimal from the first, only a portion of the interest has been devoted to them, and it now has a capital of £1,589 13s. 7d., principally loaned out to Chapel Trustees. On June 5th, 1849, there appeared in a weekly paper a letter from a warm-hearted Local Preacher, suggesting an aggregate meeting of all the Local Preachers who could be brought together. No particular object was named, but it was to be a friendly gathering. Brethren engaged in the same work were to meet and look one another in the face, cheer and encourage each other in the prosecution of their labours, and seek together a richer baptism of the Holy Spirit's influence, to qualify for the more effective discharge of their duties as Local Preachers. JANUARY, 1881. B The next week, June 12th, five letters appeared in the same paper in response to the above letter, which we will call No. 1. No. 2 approves of a meeting, but suggests nothing definite. No. 3 suggests the starting of a LOCAL PREACHERS' MAGAZINE. One or two attempts had already been made to start a Local Preachers' Magazine, but neither of them lived three months. We may congratulate ourselves on having reached the mature age of thirty years. No. 4 is from a cautious brother, who asks, "Who is No. 1 ?" "Does his name appear in any of our popular subscription lists?" He hints very plainly that it is great presumption in such an unknown being to talk about calling all the Methodist Local Preachers together in one great aggregate meeting. Nos. 5 and 6 approve of the suggestion, and would like to see the meeting gathered. On June 19th a letter appears (No. 7). It is a sort of testimony from several brethren, whose names are attached to it, that No. 1 has a real existence, that they know him, that he is no myth, although his name does not appear in the popular subscription lists, yet it does appear on their circuit plan as an accredited Local Preacher. Letter No. 8, on this date, suggests caution, so that there were cautious men at this time who would not that we should commit ourselves to any person or any object without due consideration. Quite right, brother. The wise man hath said, "Ponder the path of thy feet." June 26th, No. 1 appears again. Now, indeed, shadowing forth an object which was afterwards embodied in "THE LOCAL PREACHERS' MUTUAL-AID ASSOCIATION." This letter is thoroughly characteristic of our brother's enthusiastic and sanguine nature. He calculates that there are 13,140 Local Preachers: they are each of them to subscribe 10s.; this would produce £6,070, which sum invested at 5 per cent. would yield £341. If each of these 13,140 Local Preachers gave one penny a week, the amount added to the £341 would make a total of £2,737 ; this would allow 10s. a week to 117 poor old brethren. But if the weekly subscription should be 2d. or 3d., the benefit would be incalculable. This sanguine brother at the end of his letter says, "The more I look at the matter, the more practicable it becomes." Those of us of cooler temperaments, looking back on these sanguine calculations of our brother, are likely to say, "How wild such expectations, to think of moving at once 13,000 persons to give 10s. and a penny a week!" Of course the thing was very unlikely, and every thinking man would say so. After all, it is to such apparently wild theorists that we owe most of our greatest discoveries and our material advances during the last hundred years. Therefore, although our brother's expectations were not reached, yet a start had been given, and the Association lives after having distributed to their sick and poor brethren, and for their interment when dead, the noble sum of £57,000. July 3rd, No. 10 inquires if, in addition to a sick and benevolent fund, |