In
recognition of the value of so important a department of the Church,
adequate representation at the quarterly meetings is now accorded to
the Sunday schools.
It is not in our day only that the pastoral oversight of the young
has been deemed worthy of attention; the duty has always been
enforced on ministers; but in 1878 there were first formed junior
Society classes, to prepare children for full membership. There are
now seventy-two thousand in such classes.
In 1896 we note a new effort to bring young people into the kingdom,
in the foundation of the "Wesley Guild," of which the President of
Conference is the head, with four vice-presidents, two being laymen.
The guild is "a union of the young people of a congregation. Its
keynote is comradeship, and its aim is to encourage the young people
of our Church in the highest aims of life." The story of its origin
may be briefly told.
The Rev. Charles H. Kelly introduced the subject in the London
Methodist Council, and then brought the matter before the Plymouth
Conference of 1895, dwelling on the desire existing to form a Wesley
Guild that should do for Britain what the Epworth League does for
American Methodism, and secure the best advantages not only of that
league, but of the Boys' Brigade, Bands of Hope, Christian Endeavour
and Mutual Improvement Societies, which it should federate.
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