THE CLASS LEADER'S ASSISTANT. CONTAINING UPWARDS OF 470 VIEWS OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, BY JOHN BATE, AUTHOR OF CYCLOPÆDIA OF ILLUSTRATIONS OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTHS;' LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., PATERNOSTER ROW; SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER ROW; ALSO AT 6, SUTTON STREET, COMMERCIAL ROAD. PREFACE. THE following work has been prepared to supply a place which the author considered of too essential importance in the welfare of Methodism to remain any longer vacant. Due prominence has been given to certain views of Christ and His religion, with an aim to meet the wants of the age in its tendency to formalism, lukewarmness, and worldliness; while the chief phases of Christian experience, as brought out in Methodist Class Meetings, have been constantly kept in view. There has been more attention paid to the thought and spirit than the style; to write suggestively, rather than elaborately. In the choice of hymns for the end of each chapter, Wesley has been purposely avoided, except in one or two cases; not because anything better could be found, but because it was thought that Wesley's hymns were in the hands of every Leader, and something new to them may add more interest to the book, and, meanwhile, furnish additional sacred poetry to what they already have. The arrangement of the book into chapters and meetings is more for variety and form than as a necessary part of its order. As there are on an average forty class meetings held in a year (deducting for monthly prayer meetings), the work has been divided into forty chapters or meetings, with from ten to twelve pieces in each chapter or meeting, as that may be taken as the average number of members |