Excerpt from One Hundred Years of Methodism in Galesburg, Illinois, 1847-1947 The First Methodist Church of Galesburg, Illinois is happy to present the historical materials in this volume to its membership and friends. Much time and effort, on the part of many people, has been expended to assemble a series of articles, presented in chronological order, unfold ing the development of the church since its birth in 1847. There is, of course, a brief review of the Wesley family and the arrival of the first Methodist workers in the American colonies. On the surface, it will appear that what is herein presented has to do, primarily, with the temporal development of this Society, listing its struggles and victories and noting some of its leadership. Such procedure is only natural as it is the manner in which we are accustomed to write history. As you read the pages, however, you must bear in mind that back of every new building enterprise, every new department organized, every effort for increased attendance and every campaign for funds, is a deep seated spiritual urge upon which the very life of the Society has depended and continues to depend. John Wesley organized Societies in England, wrote volumes, in the form of pamphlets, about every conceivable need of the people, organized a group to carry the message to the new America, and did much else which had to do with the temporal, but it was all undergirded by the Heart Warming experience he received at the Aldersgate Street meeting in England. 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.