As noted in a former chapter the need of some kind of periodical literature, owned by the Church and representing its principles, was recognized in the very beginning of its history. At the second session of the Genesee Conference this matter was freely discussed, but, on account of the financial demand it would make upon the infant Church, and also because of other considerations, nothing definite was done.

At the second session of the same Conference the matter was also under discussion, and a committee of two preachers and two laymen was appointed with a view to cooperating with a like committee of the Illinois Conference in an effort to start a weekly denominational paper. Nothing came of the appointment of this first committee, however. Other resolutions were passed from time to time on the subject, but none of the resolutions and efforts toward the starting of a denominational organ took definite shape until the meeting of the General Conference in Buffalo, New York, in 1866.

That body had the subject under consideration, and finally decided that at least $5,000 would be required as a financial basis for starting such an enterprise. The Rev. Levi Wood, of the Genesee Conference, was appointed to raise the required amount; and it was further understood that, if he succeeded in this undertaking, he was to become the editor of the publication when started, with salary not to exceed $1,000 a year.

Mr. Wood gave himself to his appointed task with all the earnestness at his command. Two thousand copies of the Report of the Committee on Publications as adopted by the General Conference were printed in tract form and sent to the preachers, and they were urged to cooperate in the enterprise. Then Mr. Wood gave three months during the winter of 1866-1867 to traveling in the interest of the movement, during which he visited most of the circuits in the Genesee Conference, traveling much of the time on foot, and presenting the matter to all concerned, in the way of a personal canvass. Owing, however, to the small-ness of the new denomination, the comparative poverty of most of its members, and to the somewhat divided sentiment with regard to the starting of a denominational organ at that time, his efforts were not successful, and reluctantly he abandoned the project of raising the $5,000.

Having failed in the matter to which the General Conference appointed him, he finally determined to undertake the starting of a Church paper on his own responsibility; and, to this effort on his part, the Free Methodist, the present official organ of the denomination, owes its origin.

Agreeably with his purpose Mr. Wood issued a circular in which it was proposed that, if he could secure 2,500 subscriptions at $2.50 a year each, he would issue an eight-page weekly, each page to contain five columns, seventeen inches long, and all to be filled with contributions and selections from the best writers available. Numerous responses were made to the circular, and a good deal of interest was manifested in the contemplated enterprise in various parts of the denomination. still, the subscription list fell far short of the number required. Thus the matter remained until after the autumn Conferences of 1867. At their respective sessions these Conferences gave the matter their consideration, and, upon certain specified conditions, pledged the contemplated periodical their hearty support.

Mr. Wood, being thus encouraged, proceeded to the publication of the paper. Instead, however, of having 2,500 subscriptions at $2.50 a year, he had to begin with but 500 subscriptions at $2.00 a year. The first regular number of the paper was issued January 9, 1868. Of course, a sample number had been issued some time previous, and was used largely for canvassing purposes. At the end of the first year he put the price of the periodical at $1.75 a year, at which it remained so long as he continued to publish it.

Mr. Wood's ownership and publication of the Free Methodist continued for but two years and nine months. During this time he lived at North Chili, New York, and published the paper at Rochester, ten miles east of North Chili. being a man of family, and without any considerable means, he must have groaned and prayed under the burdens which the starting and continued publication of the paper imposed upon him to a degree that Free Methodists of the present day can hardly conceive.

Finding himself unable to keep the enterprise financially alive, when the General Conference met in Aurora, Illinois, in 1870, Mr. Wood tendered the paper to that body. The General Conference accepted it, and at a forenoon sitting made certain provisional arrangements for its publication, and elected the Rev. Epenetus Owen Editor. At an afternoon sitting the same day Mr. Owen resigned.

When the emergency occasioned by this turn of events arose Mr. Joseph Mackey, a business man and lay delegate from New York City, "volunteered to take the paper and publish it in the interest of the Church, he to assume the responsibility for the debt then resting upon it." The proposal was readily accepted by the General Conference, Mr. Mackey at once became owner of the Free Methodist, and it was removed to New York City, from which place its weekly issues were sent forth so long as Mr. Mackey was its proprietor.

Mr. Mackey issued the first number of the paper under his proprietorship November 10, 1870. It appeared in an entirely new form, and its general make-up was considerably different from what it had formerly been. Its subscription price was fixed at $2.50 in the city, and $2.00 a year outside. The larger price to city subscribers was charged because the postal laws at that time required a one-cent stamp affixed to every copy in cities where the paper was delivered at the home or office of the subscriber. The present motto, "Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set," now appeared for the first, having been suggested by the Rev. W. B. Rose, then in Mr. Mackey's employ.

After conducting the enterprise a little over one year and finding it a losing investment, Mr. Mackey was compelled to seek relief from the heavy financial burden, which must in some measure have interfered with his other business, by offering it for sale.

Negotiations were finally perfected by which the Rev. Lewis Bailey, a District Chairman of the Illinois Conference, became its owner. Mr. Mackey received but a trifling sum for the mailing list, the only requirement made of Mr. Bailey being that be should collect, so far as possible, $600 due on delinquent subscriptions, and pay the same over to Mr. Mackey. It is understood that the most of this was never collected. Although Mr. Mackey had the paper in his possession but a short time, yet he tided it over an emergency in its history which might otherwise have resulted in its complete failure. Writing of this event the Rev. W. B. Rose has well said, "Certainly the Church owes Joseph Mackey a debt of gratitude for the noble way in which he shouldered the burden of this responsibility at a most critical period in the history of the paper."

The Free Methodist having been purchased by Mr. Bailey, who lived in the West, it was now removed to Aurora, Illinois, and the subscription price was fixed uniformly at $2.00 per year. Mr. Bailey found, as did those who had tried it before him, that the paper was not a paying investment. His ideal had been to have it, as a religious paper, free from all advertisements. But when confronted by a serious shortage in receipts from subscriptions, he was sensible and practical enough to admit a sufficient number of select, paid advertisements to keep the enterprise from financial failure, and thus preserve himself from the necessity of becoming bankrupt.

Mr. Bailey's editorship of the paper was eminently satisfactory to his constituents, and could he have endured the strain upon his somewhat frail body, he would doubt-less have made the venture a successful one. But after only two short years the strain upon his mind and body caused a breakdown of his physical powers, and soon "the weary wheels of life stood still." His death was widely and sincerely mourned, for all who knew him felt that he was a noble man of God. He was not only one in the pulpit, but there was a spiritual charm and fascination about his preaching that was unusual, and such as drew his hearers quickly into closest sympathy with him and with the truth he preached. To a goodly extent the same could be said with reference to his work as an editorial writer.

For eight months after his death his widow, Mrs. Mary E. Bailey, continued to conduct the paper. She procured the Rev. Levi Wood, founder and first Editor and proprietor of the Free Methodist, to write the editorials, and it was regularly published for her by the Rev. John A. Murray.

Early in the summer of 1874 D. P. Baker and T. '3. Arnold, ministers of the Illinois Conference, entered into partnership and purchased the paper from Mrs. Bailey. They began their administration August 12, 1874. Mr. Arnold has written of this venture as follows:

We gave our note to Sister Bailey for $1,500; $500 was for type and material, $1,000 for the "good-will" of the paper. The subscription list at this time was 3,200, the unpaid subscriptions just balancing the indebtedness to subscribers. The paper had never yet paid expenses, there having been a loss under the Bailey administration of about $1,000. This was made good by the $1,000 paid for the "good-will" of the paper.

It seemed like a bold move for inexperienced persons to assume the responsibility, without financial backing, of an enterprise which had never yet paid running expenses; but we had figured as best we could the saving that could be effected by moving the enterprise to Sycamore, Illinois, where my brothers were running a printing office, and where we could have our own work done quite cheaply; where rents were low, and living expenses could be reduced to a minimum; and we thought that by the help of God we could carry the enterprise through.

The paper had been issued as a seven-column folio, on a 25 x 38 sheet. We enlarged it to an 8-column folio, and used a 26 x 40 sheet. This increase in size added much to the expense, but we felt that at the subscription price of $2.00 a larger sheet should be given. Accordingly we took the risk of making it pay expenses. The most scrupulous economy was exercised In every way. We could not afford the expense of an office boy; so I swept the office, built the fires, corrected the mailing list, kept the books, purchased supplies, paid the hands, wrote editorial and business notes, and run the mailing machine on mailing days. My office hours were from six in the morning until ten at night.

In the spring of 1880 the printing establishment was removed from Sycamore to 212 Washington Street, Chicago, where it occupied the first floor and the basement. About a year later, finding their quarters too limited, they rented the third floor of the same building, with entrance on Franklin Street, and the address being 108-110 Franklin Street. In 1882 they again enlarged the size of the paper to a six-column quarto, printed on a 32 x 44 sheet.

At the General Conference in Burlington, Iowa, held in October of that year, Messrs. Baker and Arnold dissolved partnership, Mr. Baker retiring. The subject of a denominational publishing House was prominently discussed at this Conference. The Committee on Publications, to which it had been referred, after lengthy deliberation, reported adversely regarding the starting of such an enterprise, but also recommended the acceptance of a proposition from Mr. Arnold that the General Conference elect the Editor of the Free Methodist for the coming quadrennium, whose salary should be paid by the publisher. The Conference adopted the report. The Rev. Joseph Travis, an Englishman, well known throughout the connection, small in stature and of frail body, but of giant intellect, and withal one of the most able and spiritual of preachers, was chosen as the denominational Editor. This arrangement shifted responsibility for the literary character of the paper from the publisher to the Church. Mr. Travis filled the position of Editor with credit to himself and to the denomination for four years, and probably would have held it indefinitely had it not been for a decision, at the end of his term of office, for the Church to assume the entire control of the paper.

This decision was reached at the General Conference held at Coopersville, Michigan, in October, 18S6. The Committee on Publications, after much deliberation on the subject, reported in favor of starting a strictly denominational paper; also that this be done by purchasing the Free Methodist from Mr. Arnold, provided it could be done on satisfactory terms. The Conference adopted this report. When the proposal was made known to him Mr. Arnold offered to sell the mailing list, type, printing house furniture, "good-will" of the business, and the office furniture and fixtures for the sum of $10,000. A committee was then appointed to confer with Mr. Arnold and, from his books and the mailing list, ascertain the state of the business, the total number of subscriptions, the amount owing to subscribers for which the paper must be sent until the end of the term for which they had paid, the amount due the business from delinquent subscribers, the estimated value of type on hand, and of all other printing house supplies, as well as the value of the furniture and fixtures of the various offices connected with the business, and then to report back to the Conference with appropriate recommendations.

After devoting several days to the thorough accomplishment of their task, this committee reported that they considered $8,000 a fair amount to be paid for the business. After considerable discussion, in which as delegate, Mr. Arnold participated, the report of the committee was adopted; whereupon Mr. Arnold arose and publicly accepted the Church's offer.

Thus the ownership and entire control of the Free Methodist passed from private hands to the Church itself. Great credit is certainly due to all those noble men associated with the management of the denominational organ during those years in which its publication was made possible only by their rigid economy and self-denial accompanied by almost superhuman labor and endurance. Most of them have long since gone to their reward on high; but, whether they are living or dead, the Free Methodist is a living monument to their self-sacrificing and heroic efforts to give the Free Methodist Church a periodical worthy of its high calling and destiny.

Probably no one living will ever know of the hard struggles and sacrifices, the grievous disappointments, the sore anxieties and heartaches, the travailing pangs in fact, through which the Free Methodist was brought to its birth. Levi Wood, its founder, was indeed a great man. He was great in body, great in intellect, great in soul. He was great as a preacher and as a writer. He was a deep and original thinker. He was of a sluggish or phlegmatic temperament, but on great occasions, and especially when under the unction and power of the Spirit, it seemed that his preaching would raise the very dead. Great audiences would be swayed on such occasions as the trees of a forest are swayed by a hurricane. On ordinary occasions, however, the depth and slowness of his thought and the length of his sermons detracted somewhat from the public estimate of him as a preacher. Still, even then, those who had the patience to pray and listen were always sure of being treated to an instructive and masterly discussion of whatever subject he had in hand. Mr. Wood was one of the early makers of Free Methodism, and one who did much more for the cause than he ever received credit for-much more than was ever duly appreciated by the generation in which he lived. He finished his work and went home to God from Bradford, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1904.

The General Conference at which the Church assumed control of the Free Methodist elected the Rev. B T Roberts, already elected by that body to another term in the General Superintendency as denominational Editor. Doubtless the extra burden of trying to fill two such responsible offices, besides editing his own monthly publication, the Earliest Christian had much to do with hastening his death, which did not occur, however, until 1893, between two and three years after his term of editorship had expired.

The clear, forcible, practical and spiritual editorials and editorial notes with which he filled the pages for which he wrote will probably never be excelled, if equaled, by any of his successors. They gave to the Church paper a standing it had never had before, and which commanded not only the loyal support of Free Methodists in general, but the respectful attention of many outside the bounds of Free Methodism.

As one result of this, however, the subscription list of the Free Methodist constantly increased, while that of his own publication as steadily declined. This was because those who had formerly been subscribers to the Earnest Christian took that magazine chiefly for the benefit of his editorials, and now that they could read after his pen in the Free Methodist every week, and felt able to take but the one periodical, subscribed for the weekly paper, and let their subscription to the magazine lapse. In this way the subscription list of the Earnest Christian was reduced from one that yielded a handsome profit to one that little more than paid expenses of publication and circulation.

At this session of the General Conference the Rev. T. B. Arnold was elected Publishing Agent of the denomination, and by this election became the first Publishing Agent of the Free Methodist as the denominational organ. Mr. Arnold summoned as bookkeeper the Rev. S. K. J. Chesbrough, pastor at Jamestown, New York, within the Genesee Conference. At the annual meeting of the Executive Committee in 1888 Mr. Arnold resigned as Publishing Agent, and Mr. Chesbrough was chosen by the Executive Committee to fill the vacancy, which position he continued to hold, by General Conference reelection from time to time, for about nineteen years, and which he ever filled with credit to himself and with both credit and profit to the denomination.

The General Conference of 1890 elected the Rev. Burton R. Jones, originally from New York State, but who had labored for many years in the ministry of the Michigan and Ohio Conferences, serving much of the time as District Chairman, to the Editorship of the Church paper. He served efficiently during the next quadrennium, and at the General Conference of 1894 was made General Superintendent. During his Editorship the paper was still published at 105 Franklin Street, Chicago.

The General Conference of 1894 was held in Greenville, Illinois, at which time Wilson T. Hogue, president of Greenville College, and who since the death of General Superintendent Roberts, had been supplying the vacancy made by his decease, under appointment of the Executive Committee, was chosen to succeed Mr. Jones in the Editorship of the Free Methodist - a position which he continued to hold by being reelected in 1898, for eight years and eight months.

The General Conference at Greenville also took measures for the purchase of the First Free Methodist Church building, 14-16 North May Street, Chicago, a substantial brick structure built but four or five years, but which was seriously embarrassed by debt, for Publishing House purposes. This was done in order to save the property to the Free Methodist denomination, and also because it could be made to answer the purpose of a Publishing House for some years at much less cost than the building of a new structure would involve.

A communication from Selden Beckwith, a well-to-do layman of Utica, New York, had been laid before the Executive Committee at its regular meeting in the autumn of 1892, in which he proposed to give $8,000 in 1893 toward the starting of a denominational Publishing House. This proposition had been accepted, and the amount had been carried among the resources of the denomination for the purpose mentioned in the donation; and this made a fine nucleus for a denominational Publishing House fund, when, in 1894, the General Conference decided to establish such an institution in Chicago. Prior to making the donation for the Publishing House, Mr. Beckwith had given $500.00 toward the purchase price of the Free Methodist. He also gave $500 to the foreign missionary work about the same time. He certainly proved himself to be a friend indeed to the cause - especially to the publishing interests of the Church-by being a very helpful friend in time of pressing need.

The interior of the First Church was reconstructed, so as to adapt it to Publishing House purposes at a cost of several thousand dollars. A call was made and continued in the Church paper for some time for funds to complete the payment for the building and for its reconstruction, and enough was realized to place the enterprise on a safe financial basis. Then, by the conservative management of Mr. Chesbrough as Publishing Agent, and under the wise direction of the Executive Committee, the publishing interests began to increase in prosperity, and in due time the Publishing House property was out of debt, without any bill against it ever having been presented a second time for payment, and with most of the bills having been discounted for payment within thirty days. The Publishing House thus provided accommodated the business of the denomination for fifteen years.

In remodeling it for the purpose for which it was bought an audience room about half the size of the original one was left on the second floor, and a contract was made between the First Church society and the Publishing House corporation to the effect that the Society should have the auditorium as their place of worship in consideration of a deferred payment of $4,000.00, this amount to be paid to the society at any time when they might desire to vacate the room and go elsewhere. They continued to use it for Church purposes for thirteen or fourteen years. When they decided to vacate, the amount was paid over to the Society. They finally united with what had been known as the Second Church, an offshoot from the First Church, and in their union they took the name of the Central Free Methodist Church of Chicago.

After using it for ten or twelve years the Publishing House constructed from the First Church was well-nigh outgrown by the business, and the acquisition of more ample quarters began to be talked about as a near necessity. Finally the General Conference of 1907 took action favorable toward securing an eligible site, and building in the City of Chicago. The details were left to the Executive Committee. After due consideration the Executive Committee decided to purchase a lot 100 x 100 feet on the corner of Washington Boulevard and South May Street, for $20,000. A Building Committee was elected. M. B. Miller and Wilson T. Hogue were made a committee to get an architect's plan for the new Publishing House and submit the same for the approval of the Building Committee. The Building Committee was instructed to proceed with the erection of the building as soon as the plan was approved. The building was supposed to be erected at a cost of about $40, 000.

The plan finally adopted was for a three-story and basement building, 50 x 100 feet, of pressed, tan-colored brick, to be finished in first-class material, and up-to-date in all its appointments. As will be seen from the foregoing dimensions, only one-half of the ground was occupied by the new plant. On the other half was a large, old-fashioned dwelling-house, which was rented for a moderate price. The lot occupied by the dwelling-house was reserved for an addition to the Publishing House whenever it might be deemed advisable to install presses, bindery and stock-room. The whole property as it now stands cost $69,161.14. It is practically free from debt with quite a surplus to its credit.

It was thought by some that great difficulty would be experienced in financing the Publishing House enterprise when it was finally decided to build, and a strong argument was put up against the undertaking on this ground. The Executive Committee, however, appointed M. B. Miller and Wilson T. Hogue to devise a plan for financing the project. The plan was prepared, submitted and approved; whereupon the same gentlemen were appointed to put the plan into execution. Soon after operations were begun Mr. Hogue was stricken with illness that disabled him for over two years, and the work of putting the plan of financing the enterprise into final execution devolved upon Mr. Miller alone. Great credit is due him for the wisdom, energy, faithfulness and success with which he applied himself to the task until the building was completed and paid for. Moreover, great credit is due the people of the Free Methodist Church for the readiness with which they cooperated with the plan of financing the work.

The Publishing House is certainly an asset of great value to the Church, and its appearance among the many fine buildings of Chicago is also creditable to the denomination. It was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on October 14, 1909, Bishop Pearce making the principal address. The publishing business began a new era of prosperity at that time, which still continues.

In 1896 the Executive Committee, recognizing that the growth of the business was making it too hard for Mr. Chesbrough, as Publishing Agent, elected the Rev. W. B. Rose of the New York Conference, as Assistant Publishing Agent. The election was confirmed and renewed by the General Conference of 1898, and again renewed by the General Conference of 1903, so that Mr. Rose served as Assistant Publishing Agent nearly eleven years. In 1907 he was elected to succeed Mr. Chesbrough as Publishing Agent, the latter declining, because of advanced age, to be a candidate for reelection. Mr. Rose has served this office and is still serving with great faithfulness. At the same General Conference at which Mr. Rose was chosen Publishing Agent the Rev. C. W. Stevens, of Saratoga Springs, New York, was elected as Assistant Publishing Agent. He filled the position creditably until about the middle of April, 1913, when, on account of poor health, he resigned. He was a most genial man, and one who filled his position well. To the present time no successor has been elected.

The Church has always been singularly favored in the character and efficiency of the men who have had charge of her publishing interests. They have been men of the utmost probity of character, and also wise, conservative, faithful to their trust, and men of the most devout and consistent piety.

The first Sunday-school paper published in the denomination was Little Crumbs, which was edited and published by the Rev. F. J. Ewell, of the Genesee Conference. This paper was started in 1869, and was issued at Rochester, New York. Later it was issued from Vineland, New Jersey. In 1875 it was sold to Baker and Arnold, owners and publishers of the Free Methodist. The same year Baker and Arnold began the publication of a Sunday-school paper called The Pearl, the first in series which they contemplated publishing in time. The Lily appeared in 1876, and Pure Words and Kind Ways in 1882. In the autumn of this year Mr. Arnold became sole proprietor of the publishing business. Some little time before Baker and Arnold dissolved partnership a little paper called Sunshine was purchased by these publishers into which Kind Ways was merged. All these papers were edited by T. B. Arnold until 1885. Then Maggie Ewell was employed to edit them until the close of 1887, when Mrs. Tressa R. Arnold assumed their editorship, a relation which she continued to hold until 1897.

To the foregoing list of papers was added in 1888, to provide for the fifth Sunday in the month, another paper called Golden Treasures. It was edited by Mrs. Arnold. The Infant Class, with John Harden, Editor, appeared in 1886. From 1890 to the close of 1897 Mrs. Emma L. Hogue was its Editor, after which Mrs. Arnold edited it until the time of its purchase, with the other Sunday-school papers, by the Church.

About the close of 1896 the four Sunday-school papers published by Mr. Arnold were purchased by the Free Methodist Publishing House; and their publication by the Church was begun April 1, 1897. The names chosen for these papers under the new arrangement were: Our Young Folks, Youth's Temperance Evangel, Rose of Sharon and Lily of the Valley. (These monthlies were finally combined into a weekly publication called the Light and Life Evangel, January 1,1912.) Mrs. Emma L. Hogue edited these by contract with the Publishing Agent, until the Executive Committee meeting of 1898, as authorized by the General Conference of that year, proceeded to elect an official Editor, and chose the Rev. W. B. Olmstead to the position.

Some time subsequent to the purchase of the four papers mentioned above the Sunday-school Quarterlies, comprising a series of six or seven publications, together with the Inductive Lesson Leaf, and the little paper called Sunshine, were also transferred to the Free Methodist Publishing House, and Wilson T. Hogue, Editor of the Free Methodist, assumed their editorship, which he continued to hold until an Editor of the Sunday-school Literature was elected in 1898, as stated above. Mr. Olmstead, who was the first Editor of the Sunday-school Literature, was reelected to the same office by the General Conference of 1903, and was again reelected in 1907. On this latter occasion, however, he resigned the position at the same sitting of the Conference by which he was elected, and the Rev. David S. Warner, present incumbent of the position, was elected to fill the vacancy.

In 1896, Wilson T. Hogue, editor of the Free Methodist, conferred with Mr. Chesbrough, the Publishing Agent, and B. Winget, Missionary Secretary, as to the propriety and advisability of starting a monthly Missionary Supplement to the Free Methodist with a view of its ultimately being made a separate missionary periodical. Mr. Hogue had and expressed a twofold object in this. First, he could not give the Missionary Secretary and others who desired to represent the cause more than about half the space they needed in the Free Methodist, and this would relieve that embarrassment. Second he felt pretty well assured that unless something of this kind were done, there would soon be a move to start a missionary paper in another quarter and under private auspices. Mr. Chesbrough and Mr. Winget concurred in the suggestion, it being understood that Mr. Hogue would edit the Missionary Supplement free of charge; and so the suggestion as to a missionary paper began to materialize.

In October of that year the Executive Committee, at its annual meeting, recommended the Missionary Secretary to call a meeting of the women specially interested in the foreign missionary work, with a view to considering the matter of publishing a periodical exclusively devoted to missionary interests. Such a meeting was held, and action favorable to the proposed enterprise was taken. It was decided to begin the new publication in January, 1898. The name finally adopted for the new paper was Missionary Tidings. Mrs. Mary Weems Chapman was chosen as Editor, but was succeeded in January, 1899, by Mrs. Emma Hillmon Haviland. Mrs. Haviland held the position but one year, and then was succeeded by Mrs. Emma Sellew Roberts, who continued very ably to fill the position for about eight and one-half years or until the General Conference of 1907. At that time Mrs. Tressa R. Arnold was elected Editor by the General Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, which met at the same time and place. Mrs. Arnold was reelected in 1911, and is still filling the position with credit.

The Publishing House purchased Arnold's Practical Commentary on the Sunday-school Lessons, an annual volume, in January, 1903. The editorial charge of this publication from that time until 1907 was in the hands of the Rev. W. B. Olmstead, and since the latter date the Rev. David S. Warner has been its Editor. Its purchase was a decidedly advantageous venture.

The purchase of the Sunday-school Literature as a whole from T. B. Arnold was a profitable investment for the denomination. Considering the fact that all the Sunday-school periodicals, comprising some ten or twelve publications, had been brought through the non-paying period by the founder of our Sunday-school literature, the price paid for it by the Church was not more than was due to Mr. Arnold's years of effort and sacrifice that the business might be brought to a paying basis; and it could not reasonably be expected that he should part with it just when it was prospectively a source of large and annually increasing revenue without liberal compensation for his years of struggle when it would scarcely pay expenses, and for the loss of the publications as an advertising medium for his own publishing business

True, the Church had given him its indorsement and patronage, without which he could not have achieved the success he did. But even though that was the case, he was certainly deserving not only of much credit for having served the denomination so many years with Sunday-school Literature such as the Church could approve and finally take off from his hands without making any material changes in its character, but also of liberal compensation for his efforts. Especially did this become more and more apparent as, from the beginning, it was discovered that the publications were not only enabling the Church to meet its obligations on the purchase price regularly, but besides this were yielding very substantial dividends.

Since January 1, 1897, the Publishing House has done a constantly increasing business in the publication of books and pamphlets, and also in the sale of such publications put out by other publishers.