Excerpt from History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ During a number of years past, there has been frequent expression of desire that a new history of the United Brethren Church should he written. The earlier work of Mr. Spayth traced the history with moderate fullness down to about the year 1825, and more cursorily to 1841. The sketch prepared by Ex-bishop Hanby, intended as a kind of supplement to Mr. Spavtli's writing, commencing at 1825, gave a rapid view down to 1850. The fuller history of Mr. Lawrence covered the ground again from the beginning, dosing with the year 1801, the date of the publication of the second volume. The lapse of more than a third of a century, through a period which has witnessed great development in tire progressive life of the Church, has greatly emphasized the need of a new work which should trace the history down to the present time. The desire for a new history first found official expression in a resolution adopted by the General Conference of 1889, authorizing the publisher and trustees of the Publishing House to secure its preparation. No one being found who was willing to take up what seemed a rather formidable responsibility, the quadrenuium passed without a beginning being made, and the General Conference of 1898 renewed the action of 1889. Under this authority, in May, 1894, the present writer was appointed to undertake the work. The task was accepted with a full sense of the responsibility involved, but with the hope that in due time it might be accomplished. He began early to make preparation for the work, collecting materials through extensive correspondence and from all other available sources. Other duties claiming a portion of his time, such as the care of a large congregation for nearly a year, and afterward of the Sunday-school literature of the Church, the writing itself proceeded with deliberation, a fact which the author trusts has resulted in advantage to the work. In the preparation of the history the author has availed himself of all accessible sources of information, making of some a quite free use. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.