Excerpt from The Life of the Reverend Thomas Bowman Stephenson: Founder of the Children's Home and of the Wesley Deaconess Institute In telling of Dr. Stephenson's doings as a leader of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, I have remem bered that the book may be read by many who have little knowledge of our affairs, and I have inserted brief explanations for their benefit, though I have been conscious that these might well appear stale and unprofitable to readers who know the organiza tion and life of our Church as well as I do myself. I have not attempted to write the history of Eng land with regard to social reform, and especially with regard to children, during the last half-century. But I have felt that it needed to be written, and that when it is written, Dr. Stephenson will be seen not only to have rendered service of the highest value, but also to have contributed important and, indeed, vital ideas which have enriched the conceptions and enlarged the vision of the social workers of our day. 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.