Volume 24 concludes John Wesley's Journal and Diaries and includes a complete index to the seven volumes of the series which cover Wesley's Journal and Diaries.

"Sound learning about and with John Wesley begins with this definitive edition of his Works. The exact texts and range of issues make this an indispensable tool for interested readers, scholars, and pastors." --Thomas A. Langford

This is the sixth volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the decade from 1776 to the end of 1786, it contains three full "Extracts" of Wesley's Journal (18-20) and the beginning of his last (21). These materials describe--in Wesley's own words--a crucial period that helps define the shape of Methodist theology and organization. The issues surrounding the manner of John Wesley's leadership and the authority of the Conference within Methodism furnish the framework for this period. Wesley begins working with new leaders such as Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury and makes several crucial decisions regarding Methodism in America, including the matter of ordination. He also faces several continuing points of contention in Great Britain that threaten to disrupt the progress of the revival, such as the problems associated with the building of preaching houses and "fixing" them on the Methodist plan. At the same time, he describes examples of strong local revivals that continue to appear throughout the connection and he fulfills his plans for a new chapel on City Road in London. Several crucial events in 1784 define the continuing nature of Methodist organization, especially the legal establishment of the Conference.

This is the fifth volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Work of John Wesley. Covering the decade from mid-1765 to the beginning of 1776, it contains four "Extracts" of Wesley's Journal (14-17) that document--in Wesley's own words--a significant period of growth and controversy in the Methodist movement. He describes in some detail the continuing spread of the revival into the farther reaches of the British Isles, the points of contention that threaten to disrupt the progress of the revival, his widening involvement in social issues such as the slave trade, the various attempts at union with the Church of England, and the spread of the Wesleyan movement to the American colonies.

This is the fourth volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the decade from early 1755 to the middle of 1765, it contains four "Extracts" from Wesley's Journal (10-13) that document--in Wesley's own words--a significant period of consolidation in the Wesleyan revival. He describes in vivid detail the growth of the Methodist movement, especially in the central portions of northern England as well as the spread into Ireland and Scotland.

This period contains several interesting controversies that help define the shape of Methodism and the nature of its relationship to the Church of England. Differences of opinion over the questions of lay preaching, ordination, sacraments, and doctrinal standards arise within the Methodist societies and represent the issues at the heart of a maturing organization that is stretching the limits of its self-conscious role within the Established Church. The doctrine of Christian perfection also provides the focus of another challenge to unity within the people called Methodists and increases the strain upon their relationship with the Church. The nature and manner of John Wesley's authority and leadership within the movement continues to be a controversial issue as the annual conferences become an important feature within the movement.

Features footnotes to quotations, key themes, and background information.

A critical presentation of the writings of John Wesley has long been needed, especially in view of the quickened interest in him and his ecumenical churchmanship. This edition is planned to consist of thirty-four volumes including all of Wesley's original or mainly original prose works--his letters, sermons, journals and diaries as well as his specifically doctrinal writings. The final volumes will contain a bibliography of the works of John and Charles Wesley and a General Index. The text for this edition represents Wesley's thought in its fullest and most deliberate expression. All substantive variant readings are noted in appendixes, and introductions and footnotes elucidate the text.

This volume, containing The Appeals to Men of Reason and Religion, is the first to be published. The aim of Wesley's Appeals was to correct current misconceptions of his movement. In the course of refuting attacks upon himself, Wesley also presented a positive statement of his theological and ecclesiastical position. Yet the attacks continued. This volume contains also his open letters replying to Edmund Gibson, Bishop of Exeter, and to William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.

This is the third volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the period from late 1743 through 1754, it contains four "Extracts" from Wesley's Journal (6-9) which document, in Wesley's own words, an important period of expansion and organization in the Wesleyan revival. He describes in vivid detail the spread of the Methodist movement in the north and west of England, as well as its beginnings in Ireland and Scotland. This period of growing social and political tension is marked also by Wesley's theological controversies with leading figures in the Established Church and his physical confrontations with riotous mobs in the countryside. His yearly schedule included extensive travel to visit the societies, and held the first conferences of Methodist preachers in England and Ireland to settle important matters of doctrine and discipline. He produced several key writings during that time, including three volumes of Sermons and two volumes of Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. His writings in medicine were matched by the opening of a free public dispensary, and he continued to develop other social programs in education, child care, and finance for the poor. Features footnotes to quotations, key themes, and background information.

This is the second volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the period from late 1783 to 1743, it documents--in Wesley's own words--the formative years of the Methodist revival in Great Britain. Previously unpublished material from Wesley's private diaries supplements the account in the published Journal of such key events as Wesley's first adventure in "field preaching," the growing breach between Wesley and the Moravians, the formation of the first Methodist Societies, the establishment of the New Room in Bristol and the Foundery in London, and the emergence of the "lay preachers" or "circuit riders."

Each volume in the series is rich with footnotes that identify quotations, provide references, trace key themes, and offer vital background information.

This is the fourth in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains 18 sermons that were published in the Arminian Magazine from 1789 to 1792. It also contains 19 sermons that were taken from Wesley's manuscripts.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

The Introduction to this edition discusses the nature of Wesley's Journal, places it in the context of autobiography as a genre, examines its construction, and discusses Wesley's frame of mind during its writings. One of the major functions of this scholarly edition is to reveal John Wesley "in the light of his involvement in the crowded forum of eighteenth century theological debate." Wesley's writings are saturated with references to Scripture, the Latin and Greek classics, the early Church Fathers, his theological predecessors, English poets and playwrights, and those "natural philosophers" exploring the wonder of God in creation.

This is the second in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains sermons 34-70 from Sermons on Several Occasions.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodist, first published in 1780, was the definitive collection of hymns to appear during the lifetime of John Wesley. As the culmination of a lengthy process of preparing a 'general hymn-book, ' he selected the 525 hymns presented here from more than fifty hymnbooks published during the preceding forty-three years. It was very distinctly Methodist in character. The arrangement of the hymns was carefully designed to reflect the Wesleyan concept of the way of salvation and the pattern of Christian experience.

The second volume of letters in The Works of John Wesley, this text spans the years 1740-1755.

"This is the second of the seven volumes devoted to Wesley's correspondence. It presents details about more than a thousand letters by three hundred persons, over four hundred being printed fully, and over three hundred by means of brief quotations, or by clues to their contents or purpose. Almost two-thirds of the published letters are from Wesley's own pen. Most of the remainder fill in the backround or outcome of his letters, though a number have been selected for some other special significance. More than one-fifth of the letters by Wesley are not available in Telford's edition. The great bulk of the letters as a whole are presented in a carefully verified text (often for the first time) from the original holographs or other primary sources. Footnotes to all Wesley's out-letters introduce his correspondents, elucidate references, and identify the sources of his frequent quotations. The in-letters are annotated much more lightly. The appendix (continued from the previous volume), lists all the known letters written or received by Wesley during the years 1740-55, along with details about the location of the text, whether in this volume or elsewhere." (from the Preface and Acknowledgements)

Two volumes of this edition of The Works of John Wesley present writings that describe and illumine the purpose and practice of the Methodist Societies, the particular ecclesiastical form in and through which Wesley's work and thought were embodied.

The present volume deals with the history, nature, and design of the Societies. This collection of material, though somewhat miscellaneous in nature, helps to recreate for the modern reader some sense of the goals of Wesley's Societies, as well as the structure and practices through which those goals were to be attained.

Some of the documents published here reflect the basic principles of the Methodist Societies. Others contain descriptions by Wesley of the kind of person he expected a Methodist to be. Many of the writings are, of necessity, controversial. The difficult question of the relation of the Methodist Societies to the Church of England emerges at several points. Some of Wesley's responses to attacks on the Methodist movement, which on occasion included actual persecution of individual Methodists, are included here, showing how Wesley appealed to reasonableness and a sense of justice in his critics and opponents.

Although many of the letters of John Wesley are of value as literature--especially as crisp statements of his views or desires with little attempt at embellishment--their major importance is as a revelation of him as a man and of the people and events of his day, especially those linked with the Methodist movement. They furnish us, in fact, with a portrait through seventy years that is both more revealing in detail and fuller in coverage than any other source.

The correspondence presented in this first of seven planned volumes of Wesley's Letters offers many intimate glimpses of the man during his early years which are available nowhere else: of his strong family ties, of his leaning upon his mother for theological and spiritual as well as moral guidance, of his bedazzlement by Mary Pendarves (later Mrs. Delany), of the noble experiment of the Holy Club at Oxford, of the struggle between spiritual ideals and worldly reality during his brief ministry in Georgia, and of the birth of the Methodist societies in London and Bristol.

This is the third in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains sermons 71-114 from Sermons on Several Occasions, as well as 6 additional sermons.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

This is the first in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. It contains a detailed introduction as well as sermons 1-33 of Sermons on Several Occasions.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

The Littlest Shamrock learns that God has a plan for us all. He learns that as a "shamrock" he stands for God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.