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INTRODUCTION

This book in every line has been dictated by experience. There are no mere theories in it. Every plan suggested has been tried successfully in some society of Christian Endeavor. It is given to the public in response to a very generally expressed desire for such a publication. For several years past many correspondents have suggested that among the growing Christian Endeavor Societies, with their hundreds of thousands of members, such a book had become well nigh a necessity. Most of the suggestions herein contained have appeared in the columns of The Golden Rule, but in the cumbrous files of a weekly newspaper they cannot readily be found, and the fact that they have thus appeared has created a demand for their publication in book form. The editor wishes to express his sincere thanks to the many friends who have contributed to these pages, whose names will be found in the index, and he regrets that it has seemed necessary to include so many of his own articles; but the fact that he has had occasion during the last ten years to write upon almost every phase of the work of the Christian Endeavor Society, while others have written only on special features of the organization, must be his excuse for including in this compilation so much of his own work. When the "familiar letters" have been reproduced he has deemed it best to retain their "familiar" correspondence style, thinking that in this informal form they would be quite as useful as if rewritten in more didactic style. Though this book deals largely with methods it is hoped that the earnest spiritual purpose underlying all these methods will not be overlooked. The editor fully realizes that methods and plans and organizations are of no avail without the informing and pervading presence of the Spirit of God, but that God has wonder- fully and graciously used these methods of the Christian Endeavor Society, the history of the movement makes plain, and the editor devoutly prays that this volume, which details and emphasizes these plans, may also be used for the further advancement of the Kingdom of God among the young people of this generation.

F. E. Clark

Boston, Oct. 1, 1890