Excerpt from The Brethren's Encyclopedia: Containing the United Counsels and Conclusions of the Brethren, at Their Annual Meetings Beloved brethren IN the lord - It is with the deepest feelings Of gratitude to God, who has been pleased in mercy to spare my unprofitable life, and to enable me, though under severe afflictions, to pass this work through the press thus far. It is also with feelings of deep humility and self' abasement, when I consider the object I had in view originally, namely, to put into the hands of my brethren of the present generation those words of peace and union which had been concluded upon by our beloved brethren of past generations under their own trials and difficulties, for our present and future benefit and instruction; and, on the other hand, perceive my imper fections and shortcomings in a great many ways. It was but a very humble task to be merely the interpreter. Of' sayings of old, and I must confess my aim was a little higher; that is to say, to furnish my dearly beloved brethren, in the Encyclo pedia, a handbook to be consulted on any point or question that: might occur to any conscientious brother in his private life, or to any church in her dealings with individual mem bers, though it had not been presented or decided at a Yearly Council hitherto; but continued ill health prevented much, scrutiny and revision, and so there was left out much which had been intended for insertion, and some few things may have slipped in which ought to have been left out, and for these things he earnestly pleads for indulgence and pardon of the dear reader. 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.