The
Liverpool Conference of 1896 therefore sanctioned the formation of
the "Wesley Guild." Its three grades of members include young people
already attached to the Church, with others not yet ripe for such
identification, and "older people young in heart," who all join in
guild friendship, and aid in forming this federation of the existing
societies interesting to young people.
By periodical meetings, weekly if possible, for devotional, social,
and literary purposes, a healthy common life and beneficent activity
are stimulated, and the rising generation is happily and usefully
drawn into relation with the older Church workers, whom it aids by
seeking out the young, lonely, and unattached, and bringing them into
the warm circle of youthful fellowship.
Such in brief is the programme of the Guild, which may yet greatly
enrich the Church with which it is connected.
We turn now to one of the most notable changes in Methodism during
the Queen's reign--the wonderful advance in the temperance movement.
Wesley himself was an ardent temperance reformer, but his preachers
were slow to follow him. A few prominent men strove long to induce
Conference to institute a temperance branch of our work, and finally
succeeded, their efforts having effected a great change in opinion.
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