Beams Of Light On Early Methodism In America

An account of the Methodist Church in antebellum America, most of the material comes from the personal records of Ezekiel Cooper, an itinerant preacher active in the latter part of the 18th century. It uses the personal experiences of Cooper, as recorded in his letters and personal diaries, to describe the status and activities of the Methodist Church in New Jersey, Baltimore, Annapolis, Alexandria (Virginia), Charleston (South Carolina), Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Delaware. Events described include various denominational conferences and public reactions to church activities such as revivals. Also includes a chapter on the printing of Methodist books and an addendum on the Methodist Church's opposition to slavery.

THIS work was written for the purpose of giving the student of the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church facts concerning her early years that are essential to a clear understanding of them. These facts have been gathered from the documents, letters, tracts, and diary of that venerable man of God, Rev. Ezekiel Cooper, and after his decease transmitted to his nephew and heir at law, the honored Rev. Ignatius T. Cooper, D.D., late of Camden, Delaware, who held them until April, 1884, when he was called to join his uncle in the courts above, leaving the papers hereof spoken in the hands of his son, Ezekiel W. Cooper, M.D., also of Camden, who now holds them in possession.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1887 Edition.

Beams of Light on Early Methodism in America - Chiefly Drawn from the Diary, Letters, Manuscripts, Documents and... is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1887. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

Early American Methodists commonly described their religious lives as great wars with sin and claimed they wrestled with God and Satan who assaulted them in terrible ways. Carefully examining a range of sources, including sermons, letters, autobiographies, journals, and hymns, Jeffrey Williams explores this violent aspect of American religious life and thought. Williams exposes Methodism's insistence that warfare was an inevitable part of Christian life and necessary for any person who sought God's redemption. He reveals a complex relationship between religion and violence, showing how violent expression helped to provide context and meaning to Methodist thought and practice, even as Methodist religious life was shaped by both peaceful and violent social action.

English-born Francis Asbury was one of the most important religious leaders in American history. Asbury single-handedly guided the creation of the American Methodist church, which became the largest Protestant denomination in nineteenth-century America, and laid the foundation of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements that flourish today. John Wigger has written the definitive biography of Asbury and, by extension, a revealing interpretation of the early years of the Methodist movement in America. Asbury emerges here as not merely an influential religious leader, but a fascinating character, who lived an extraordinary life. His cultural sensitivity was matched only by his ability to organize. His life of prayer and voluntary poverty were legendary, as was his generosity to the poor. He had a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary people, and he met with thousands of them as he crisscrossed the nation, riding more than one hundred and thirty thousand miles between his arrival in America in 1771 and his death in 1816. Indeed Wigger notes that Asbury was more recognized face-to-face than any other American of his day, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.