The digital copies of this book are available for free at First Fruits website.

place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruits

PREFACE

Carlyle says there arc in the British Museum enormous folios, many of which have been printed, but never edited, except As you edit wagon loads of broken bricks and dry mortar simply by tumbling up the wagon, To attempt to edit the account of the proceedings of the Seventh Annual Conference of the Societies of Christian Endeavor is an undertaking your Secretary finds almost an impossibility.

I would that all could have been present at this, the greatest and grandest of all the national meetings ever held under the au- spices of our Society. While this, of course, could not be, we realize that to the prayers for the convention’s success sent up by many of those who were prevented by various reasons from being in attendance, a great share of the blessings which attended the meetings was due. It is therefore the object of this printed report to attempt to compensate, in a small degree, those who were absent, for their loss, by presenting to them an account, (brief and faulty though it be) of all that was done at Chicago.

May it yield to all a blessing and may the perusal of its page furnish to all its readers a small portion at least of the inspiration and encouragement our delegates received, and may a more thorough study of its contents tend to make God’s presence as near and real to all as it was to those who were present at the convention in Chicago.

GEORGE M. WARD.

General Secretary.