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.