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The digital copies of these recordings are available for free at First Fruits website. place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits > Perhaps as at no other time in its 135 years of existence, the Free Methodist Church stands at a crossroad. Stability, tradition, order, reliability and comfortable forms mark one path. In contrast, a spirit of innovation, cultural change, lowered interest in history, growth orientation and creative energy beckon for radical change. No longer will shibboleths or stories of past days satisfy the cravings of younger Christians. Nor will they satisfy the curious of the contemporary culture that question the meaning of our existence and the purpose of our mission. In brief, the Free Methodist Church again seeks to define its soul, articulate its mission, respond to its origin and seek a fresh understanding of God's purpose for this day. At Hebron, David enjoyed the luxury of the men of Issachar who "understood the times and knew what Israel should do." We, too, look for those who understand the issues, clearly comprehend the alternatives and offer sound insight and advice. If leadership is defined as understanding the issues and consequences better than those around them, the author of this work, Dr. David L. McKenna, comes with pristine leadership credentials. His skills of analysis coupled with his understanding of the church commend him to this task. Ordained in the Michigan Conference (now Southern Michigan Conference) in 1952, McKenna felt the call of God to complete doctoral studies. With his academic background, serving on the faculties of Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, and burgeoning leadership skills, he became president of Spring Arbor College in 1961, where he served for seven years. Following that, he served Seattle Pacific University as president for 14 years. In 1982 McKenna's theological ability and leadership skills resulted in his selection as the fourth president of Asbury Theological Seminary. On his watch and under his leadership occurred the most outstanding growth in the institution's history. His further contributions include scores of articles and books produced by a variety of publishers. Seldom do unusual wisdom, superior intellect and a passionate love for the church reside in one person. All three flourish in David McKenna. His devotion to the task of "getting his hands around the amoeba of the Free Methodist Church" has provided a challenge worthy of his finest effort. Undaunted by unexpected physical difficulties and encouraged by his jubilant and faith-filled wife, Janet, McKenna has rendered a service to his church that will inform both its loyalists and critics for decades to come. A Future with a History: The Wesleyan Witness of the Free Methodist Church will inspire your heart, inform your mind and bring you to a clearer understanding of the exciting challenges at hand. John E. Van Valin, Publisher

The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website. > INTRODUCTION While this series of devotional comments on the chapters of the Bible was in course of serial publication the author received letters from hundreds of his readers (nearly two thousand), telling him that they were following the course of Bible reading and meditation. These letters came from every State of the United States except Nevada, from every Province of Canada, from Porto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Hawaii, Chile, Australia, France, Turkey, Germany, Holland, England, Finland, Syria, South Africa, China, and Japan. Those that hereafter may use the book will be interested to know of the wide circle that made up its constituency. Many of these letters came from husbands and wives who were reading the Bible through in this way together. In many cases the Bible chapters, with the comments upon them, were made the basis of family prayers. The series has been used in sick-rooms, and many shut-ins have found it useful. Sunday-school teachers have read it with their classes. Ministers have found in it subjects for talks and sermons. My readers have ranged from young children to an old lady of eighty-six and from missionaries to an army colonel. These comments have been translated into Spanish, and perhaps into other languages. The readers have used different languages and versions for the sake of adding to the interest. Many pleasant methods of using these meditations have come to me in these letters. One correspondent has a separate copy of the Scriptures which he calls "The Living Bible," and into this he has pasted the comment for each chapter, clipped from the paper, placing each beside the chapter to which it refers, fastening the clippings by one edge. Another has read with pen in hand, underscoring the principal verses. Another has chosen a verse from each chapter, copying the verse into a blank book and writing his own comment thereon. Another has read each chapter first, getting his own thought upon it, and afterwards reading my comment. Still another has read my comment first, then the chapter, and then has set himself to recalling my comment. Yet another has written in his Bible, as a chapter title, the heading given each comment. The use of these titles for recalling different chapters has been a valued feature with many. The thought of personality has proved most helpful to the majority of my readers-the pro- noun "my" used in the heading of each comment. "I make every paragraph a prayer," writes one friend. Thus the series of meditations has accomplished what I hoped it might accomplish: it has made the Scriptures "the Living Bible" in the experience of many readers. I think that perhaps the method of one of my correspondents will be likely to prove most helpful to the users of this book. It was his habit first to read the chapter for the day, considering carefully as he read what was the key-note of the chapter, the predominant thought, the most striking or central expression. With this in mind he would take up my comment and read it with care, noting the difference, if any, between his thought of the chapter and mine, and comparing the two where they differed. This process could hardly fail to fix in mind the thought of the chapter. The prayer element enters into most of these tiny meditations, and it is hoped that they will be read, as they certainly have been written, in the spirit of prayer. We are often ready enough to talk with God, but not often are we eager and patient to listen and hear what He would say to us. Let our communion with the Most High be genuine communion, our talking with our Father, and-wonder of wonders!-His talking with us. It is by means Of this true prayer that the Bible becomes a Jiving book, and we enter into the life which is life indeed. AMOS R. WELLS. Tremont Temple, Boston.

The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website. > TITLE PAGE World Wide Endeavor The Story of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor From the Beginning And In All Lands By Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D. President of the United Society of Christian Endeavor With Words of Greetings By REV. RUSSELL H. CONWELL, REV. THEODORE L. CUYLER, REV. M. RHODES, REV. DAVID J. REV. 8. 8. TYLER, REV. E. R. DILLE, REV. W. H. MCMILLAN, REV. J. K. MCLEAN, REV. J. F. COWAN, REV. CANON RICHARDSON, REV. F. 8. MEYER (London), REV. THEO. MONOD (Paris), COUNT BERNSTORFF (Berlin). Illustrated with Magnificent full-page half-tone Illustrations and a beautiful collection of other Fine Engravings SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION GILLESPIE & METZGAR, PUBLISHERS, PHILADELPHIA, PA. CHICAGO, ILL.

The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website. > PREFACE CHILDREN like to impersonate other people. They enjoy nothing better than to play that for the time being they are some one else. The little girl is mother of her doll. The boy is the big Indian, Massasoit or Samoset; and, if he can don an imita- tion suit of buckskin with fringes and feathers, the illusion is all the dearer to him. If not carried too far, and if it does not involve impersonations of unworthy characters, such play and pretending are a useful part of education. Why should not this natural element to which the child takes so readily be used in the religious train- ing of boys and girls? This book is an attempt, and the first of its kind, so far as I know, to teach the Bible stories as auto- biographies. The characters tell their own stories, and the child as he reads can easily imagine him- self to be telling the story of his own life, and will become as interested in it as in the story of Jack the Giant-Killer or the adventures of Cinderella. The book has been prepared especially with a view to the needs of mothers, Junior superintend- ents, Sunday-school teachers, and leaders of all kinds of children's meetings, and with the desire to enable all such leaders to make the many beauti- ful and touching Bible stories more vivid and graphic, and to impress them upon the child's mind as it could be done in no other way. It will be found that almost every phase of the Christian life is here illustrated by some character who tells his story in the first person. Courage, kindness, thankfulness, generosity, prayerfulness, love, modesty, filial affection, and scores of other topics are here made concrete and level with the child's comprehension. Any mother, teacher, or leader can by using these Bible autobiographies learn to chain the child's attention as closely as if telling a fairy story. To let a boy or girl impersonate a Bible character and tell his own story will furnish a pleasing variety in any Junior meeting or Sunday- school class. It will fix it in his memory, and will impress it upon the minds of the children as even the teacher could not do. If the story-teller can dress in costume, it will be still more effective. A very small amount of the costumer's skill will often be all that is necessary; a fez, a sash, anything unusual, would frequently answer every purpose; and, where nothing of the sort is provided, the imagination of the children will often supply all deficiencies. Helps to make the Bible stories lively and living are still all too rare, as parents and leaders of children's meetings have often complained, and the author offers this book to her fellow workers for the children, as she tells me, with the hope and prayer that it may make their difficult but exceed- ingly important task easier and more delightful. The use of the book in the home should not be forgotten. Children in the family circle like to tell stories as well as to listen to them. Then why not let the boy or girl who can read tell father and mother and brothers and sisters one of these stories as a regular Sunday-afternoon exercise or as an adjunct to Sunday family prayers? For a bed- time story no better one can be found than that of a Scripture character personified, who will teach some great truth for the child to try to practise the next day. A few Bible word-pictures have also been added, which may be used in much the same way as the autobiographical stories. FRANCIS E. CLARK.

The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website. > OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE THIRTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION HELD IN SAENGERFEST HALL AND TENT, CLEVEND, OHIO, JULY 11 - 15, 1894.