time have produced
essentially the same thing; it is the outgrowth of the fervent piety
which marked the lives of our fathers in the churches, and it has met
the tendencies of glowing Christianity among us ever since. It is an
encumbrance only where this kind of Christianity is not maintained; as
godly zeal declines, so sinks the estimation for class-meetings; just
as the appetite for food forsakes a sickly person, so the desire for
experience meetings declines in a sickly church. Persons who never did
attend class-meetings cannot be judged by them; their piety may deepen
or diminish, but other tests must be found for them. The class-meeting
is a Methodist gauge, and only here can it apply.

"Little Abe" was a class leader for many years, and there was no work
more heartily enjoyed by him than this. The members of his class who
survive him often talk of the grand times they had with the little man
in this way; it was often like heaven on earth. He was a very
successful leader, and always kept his members well together. If any
of them absented themselves he was soon on their track, hunting them up
and bringing them back to the fold.

"MY FATHER'S GOT PLENTY O' TIMBER."

His class was conducted in a neat little cottage near the chapel
belonging to one of the members, who week by week opened his doors for
the accommodation of Abe and his flock. Their meeting was held in a
comfortable room which served the family as kitchen and parlour; here
every Monday night the quaint old shepherd came to meet his sheep. The
big family table was pushed back against the window, the elbow-chair
was placed at the end for the leader, all the chairs and seats in the
house were brought into this room and ranged around as conveniently as
possible to accommodate the weekly visitors, and sometimes when this
was done there were more people than seats, and the big table had to be
drawn out again, and made use of as a resting-place for the homely
people who gathered there; or a long board would be brought down from
upstairs and its ends placed on two chairs, and thus an additional seat
was extemporized.

This very board had the misfortune to snap in two one night while a
brother was engaged in praying. He was a _powerful_ man in prayer; his
soul was inspired with zeal, and his body animated with strength, which
on this occasion he vented in a succession of heavy blows on this
devoted piece of timber, until suddenly it gave way with a