THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF THE
Rev. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.,
Founder of the Methodists.
By the Rev. LUKE TYERMAN,
AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE OF REV. SAMUEL WESLEY.”
THREE STEEL PORTRAITS.
Complete in Three Vols., Crown 8vo, Cloth, $7.50; Half Calf, $13.50.
The “Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley,” by Tyerman, is, if we may judge of the whole from the first volume, the most satisfactory exhibit of that good and great man with which I am acquainted. It is impartial and exhaustive. It gives all the known facts, and, in difficult questions, leaves the reader to form his own opinions. The portrait, therefore, is full, round, and lifelike. With all his rare and, in many respects, unrivaled excellences, Mr. Wesley was a man with like passions with other men. The work reminds one of the “Life and Epistles of St Paul,” by Conybeare & Howson. It will, I doubt not, have a wide circulation. It merits it.—Rev. Levi Scott, D.D., Bishop M. E. Church.
I have examined the volume carefully, and consider it vastly superior to any biography of Mr. Wesley which has heretofore appeared.—Rev. M. Simpson, D.D., Bishop M. E. Church.
I have read the volume with pleasure and profit. It is by far the best work that has as yet been written on that subject. I trust it will have an extensive circulation.—Rev. E. R. Ames, D.D., Bishop M. E. Church.
I prize the volume very highly indeed, for the sake of the author and the subject.—Rev. E. S. Janes, D.D., Bishop M. E. Church.
My conviction is that it is by far the most exhaustive and trustworthy life of Wesley extant. The plan of the work, by the division into years, is convenient and happy; and, although no pretensions are made to a finished literary style, and the writing is rather careless than complete, it is both racy and readable. In Mr. Tyerman’s desire for scrupulous impartiality he has sometimes, by a not uncommon mental process, landed on the other side of it. There are some details which might have been well omitted; there are some expressions of opinion which I deem to be hasty and mistaken; and it is, at best, a dubious wisdom to have rescued so many foul pamphlets of the former time from the chandler’s basket. But, with these small drawbacks, the work is a monument of industry and painstaking, and a faithful portrait of a man in whom the strongest light has failed to discover any but small impurities—like thin clouds which just relieve the eye of the beholder, and through which, hardly dimmed by their shadows, we see the sun in his strength.—Rev. W. Morley Punshon.
An indispensable standard of Methodist literature, and you confer an important favor upon the denomination by its publication.—Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D.
I am fully convinced that it far excels any other biography of the founder of Methodism. The candor of the author, his critical and correct taste, his laborious research, which has been rewarded with the discovery of much unpublished matter, his shunning of fulsome adulation, and yet ardent sympathy with his subject and profound appreciation of the mission of the son of the Epworth rector, conspire to place his work in the front rank of ecclesiastical biography.—Rev. J. F. Hurst, D.D., Drew Theological Seminary.
Mr. Tyerman’s work was fairly called for, both by the fact that no life of Wesley had been published for forty years, and because Southey’s, the only one tolerably written as a literary performance, is the production of a writer who was not himself a member of the Society, who in few points of character resembled the subject of his memoir, and possessed no sources of information which were not already before the world. Mr. Tyerman is a Wesleyan minister, and his materials, both printed and in manuscript, have been accumulating for seventeen years. He has made most diligent use of them; and his history, in regard to its facts, is incomparably more full than any that preceded it.—Saturday Review, London.
The time had fairly come for a new and original life of Wesley, embodying, as such a work must, a history of the forming period of Methodism.... The changes wrought by the lapse of time have prepared the way for fuller, fairer, and more appreciative examination and statement of the subject, and it is well that the execution of that task has devolved upon one so competent. Mr. Tyerman is thoroughly a Wesleyan, and yet he is able to discuss the subject taken in hand with judicial calmness. A ripe scholar—having made Methodist history a specialty—and a practiced writer, he possessed peculiar fitness for that kind of work, and viewing his subject from so great a distance of time, and in the softened light of a hundred years ago, he was better situated than any of his predecessors in the same field to see the subject in its true relations and circumstances. He has been charged with injustice to the good name of Wesley, but to us it seems quite otherwise. Time and its changes have removed the halo in which it was once encircled and its real character hidden. Some of this false glory having passed away, its unreality is recognized; but as all true greatness appears greatest when set in the clearest light, so nowhere else are the character and the works of Wesley shown to so great advantage as in these pages. We have read the work with real pleasure, and we trust it will meet with a large sale, and be widely read by both Methodists and others.—N. Y. Christian Advocate.
Full of interest as this work will be for Wesleyans, it will also prove most truly so for the philosophic observer of religious movements.—Westminster Review, London.
Mr. Tyerman is master of much valuable material that no early biographer or critic has made use of.—Examiner, London.
The life is one of intense and varied interest. Not a page can we open without our attention being riveted. There is no doubt that this will be recognized henceforth as the standard life of the great preacher, and we are thankful that such a book has been written by one fully capable of understanding and describing its religious influences.—Christian Work.
A most interesting and real picture of John Wesley as he was, of the times in which he lived, and of the remarkable movements and scenes in which he bore so prominent a part. There is much in this volume to interest Christians of all denominations.—Lutheran Observer.
The writer is in every way fitted to the task. Himself a Wesleyan minister, and in full sympathy with the life and work of the subject of his memoir, it was to him a labor of love and delight. He also enjoyed better facilities than any of his predecessors for the prosecution of the work. His materials, both written and printed, had been accumulating for nearly twenty years, and he has availed himself of them with no common degree of diligence and skill. His work is not only admirable from a literary point of view, but, in regard to its facts, is so full and in every way authenticated with such painstaking scrutiny as to be incomparably superior to any of the former biographies of Wesley. It is not a work for Methodists alone, nor one in which the religious world only will be interested. John Wesley was no ordinary man. Intellectually far above the average standing of the ministry, of naturally broad and liberal views, still further enlarged by education and experience with the world, he excited a wider and more lasting influence upon the religious thought of England and America than any other man of his time. His name will always be held in grateful remembrance by all who honor worth and sincerity, and who see in a life devoted to the advancement of the highest interest of mankind—to the elevation and enlightenment of the poor, the lowly, and degraded—something that demands admiration, without regard to the dividing lines of the sects.—N. Y. Evening Post.
Its author eschews irrelevant controversy and unprofitable speculations, and confines himself to the facts and incidents in the eventful life of the great preacher, and to his views, sentiments, doctrines, and herculean labors. It is a work which not only Methodists will desire to read, but which will be eagerly sought for by all who can appreciate and admire the self-sacrifice and unswerving devotion of one of the most earnest, fearless, and successful defenders of the faith whose name has passed into modern history.—Albany Evening Journal.
For those who wish to know every fact that can be known of Wesley’s life, this biography will probably supersede all others.—Athenæum, London.
The preparation of this biography has evidently been a labor of love with Mr. Tyerman, but he has to a commendable degree avoided the besetting sin of biographers—excessive eulogy—and his work is such a record of Wesley’s life as not only Methodists but the public at large will be willing to accept without reservation. Few men have lived in modern times who have better deserved attention at the hands of the historian than Wesley, for the religious reform movement of which he was the head was the most important that has ever taken place.—Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.
Mr. Tyerman’s book is by for the most valuable life of Wesley. Its thoroughness, frankness, fearlessness, simplicity; bold, yet self-distrusting discrimination; its loving, yet not blind appreciation of the subject; its patient, painstaking, one would think exhaustive, collection of data and weighing of evidence; its gathering into a focus all the scattered rays of information about Wesley and his work; all this makes one profoundly grateful to Mr. Tyerman. The leading minds of other denominations will welcome this as distinctly the best life of Wesley ever issued; and Methodists will recognize the gracious wisdom of Providence in setting Mr. Tyerman apart for this work.—City Road Magazine, London.
Mr. Tyerman has compiled a biography that an examination of the first volume convinces us is infinitely the best yet published, and that promises to be accepted as the standard one. It is very circumstantial, and very calmly and justly appreciative, the greatest care being manifested to present the whole truth and to abstain from any thing like mere eulogy of his subject. Many hitherto unpublished letters of Wesley are given, and in other directions the work has unusual interest.—Philadelphia Inquirer.
Seventeen years of patient labor, the careful study of an immense mass of unpublished original manuscript letters and documents, fidelity to his subject, with an impartiality of judgment that is frequently seen in his strictures upon Wesley’s language and actions, and an enthusiastic love for the venerated man, are among the author’s qualifications for his work. So far as possible he has followed the plan which has made Dr. Hanna’s life of Thomas Chalmers a model of biography. Wesley, for the most part, is here his own biographer. The author, with skill, and in a lucid style, has arranged the facts and shaped the story, without regard to the philosophy of it.... We have been fascinated over his interesting pages, not only with his photographic views of his hero, but with his equally faithful representations of Whitefield and the compeers of these two great ministers of Christ.—Christian Intelligencer, N. Y.
An extremely able and interesting life of John Wesley. It is complete and accurate, written in an agreeable style, full of those reminiscences illustrative of slight traits of character which form the great charm of a biography; a striking and faithful picture of a remarkable man.—English Independent.
The best biography of the great leader of modern active Christianity.—Freeman.
Mr. Tyerman, as his last, and we think his best biographer, has produced a record highly honorable to his subject, fresh and lively in style, copious in information, discriminating and candid in its tone, and worthy of a first rank as a biographical history of early Methodism.—Methodist New Connexion Magazine.
The verdict of his numerous readers will be that he has admirably succeeded; henceforth his production will be pre-eminently the Life of Wesley, and we question whether it will ever be superseded or rivaled by any subsequent biography, certainly not for the amplitude of its information or the impartiality or faithfulness with which facts are given. So fully and vividly is the spiritual and moral condition of the country during Wesley’s lifetime depicted in these pages, that the reader finds the work a most excellent general religious history of the nation for the period, and for this purpose it will have great value as a book of reference.—Methodist Quarterly, London.
Mr. Tyerman especially deserves well of the general public, because his Methodist reverence for the subject of his narrative does not induce him to keep back or cover up any thing. An honest and thorough biography, dealing with naked facts, and chiefly leaving the reader to his own impressions, is a rare thing in religious history; but this, in the main, Mr. Tyerman has given.—Chicago Evening Journal.
Mr. Tyerman has earned a debt of gratitude from his readers by the faithful, painstaking light which he throws on the man and his time, and it may fairly be said that this, the fifth life of Wesley which has been published, is the first which presents him to us both justly and fully.—Christian Register.
There are few biographies more minute, careful, and impartial than “Tyerman’s Wesley.” There is no influence nor incident which in any way had to do with the great preacher’s character and opinions that Mr. Tyerman does not describe with faithful sincerity. The work is not alone a life of Wesley—every relative and friend and disciple is given such generous mention that it seems a perfect nest of biographies, and it is at the same time a profuse and thorough history of the foundation and first forty years of Methodism.... He is at no pains to hide John Wesley’s faults and foibles: he gives us a definite picture of the man exactly as he was.... There could not be a more accurate record of Wesley’s noble life and unselfish labors, of his innumerable publications and most important sermons. The literature of Methodism has no more judicious and valuable work than this.—N. Y. Tribune.
He is not an eulogist, but a biographer, and he gives us Wesley as he lived, and hence his work is entitled to the high praise that is due to impartiality. No one desires to read of an ideal Wesley, but to have the real man reproduced, and Mr. Tyerman has reproduced his hero.—Boston Traveller.
There is a conscientious honesty in the portraiture of his hero which wins our regard for the author too.—Christian Standard.
We regard this as an invaluable contribution to Church history.... We believe the author has given us a history worthy of confidence, as he has certainly given it in a pleasing style.—Methodist Protestant, Baltimore.
The style is pleasant, easy, and intelligible.—Boston Journal.
Mr. Tyerman’s work will henceforth be regarded as the standard life of Wesley.—Evangelical Magazine.
No novel can excel this work for sustained interest.—Central Advocate.
This is the most complete, and will doubtless prove the most satisfactory biography of Wesley yet written. It is the result of diligent research and much painstaking, extending through twenty of the best years of a man’s life. Mr. Tyerman, the biographer, has been living amid favorable circumstances to do this, which has been to him a work of love. He writes con amore, yet free from the blinding influence of prejudice. It is to be expected that he would have his own predilections, and if he did not have them his work would not be worthy of public notice; but the severest criticism will fail, we think, to detect any miscoloring of essential facts, however it may estimate personal opinion of the man or events in his life.... The book is more than a valuable, almost indispensable, accession to the literature of the Methodist Church; it is a part of the theological treasures of the age.—College Courant.
It deserves the praise, not only of being the fullest biography of Wesley, but also of being eminently painstaking, veracious, and trustworthy.—Edinburgh Review.
It is full, fair, and written with an enthusiasm that the reader can hardly help sharing, as he is brought by the force of the author into close acquaintance with one of the remarkable religious leaders of the world.... One can not arise from a perusal of this book without feeling an increased admiration for the noble, courageous, patient saint; and the devout reader will be moved with a heartfelt gratitude to God for the life and example of such a man. The book should be read not only by all Methodists, but by every one who is interested either in accounts of moral heroism and greatness of soul, or who would trace the rise of a great form of religious thought and its development through the magnetic enthusiasm of a gifted and unselfish nature.—Louisville Courier Journal.
The best way to make a biography interesting is to permit its hero, as far as possible, to tell his own story. This plan has been adopted by Mr. Tyerman with notable success, and has resulted in the production of a work alike instructive and entertaining.—Brooklyn Union.
... It is as interesting as a novel, and as refreshing as a kindling sermon. To those who do not sympathize with Methodism, but who are interested in the career and experience of an eminent religious genius and reformer, the book presents strong attractions.—Boston Globe.
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