7 JULY 1928, Page 24

For those who are interested in the history of religion,

Methodism, by Dr. W. Bardsley Brash (Methuen, 5s.), contributed to Dr. L. P. Jacks's excellent series of " The Faiths," will provide an account of that great movement admirably clear, sympathetic, and yet impartial. The five phases of John Wesley's life, at Epworth and Oxford, in Georgia and at Aldersgate, when the momentous change occurred, prepared and quickened by his intercourse with the Moravians, are passed in review. Then, of course, comes the stirring tale of the Revival, with Bristol and London as centres. Charles (even more than John) was an inspired hymnologist, and " the battle was won by speech and song, but chiefly by song." We may add that it was won, too, by wits. Dr. Brash does not tell the delicious story of Wesley's meeting Beau Nash in Bath, when Nash insolently blocked the pavement, saying, " I never make way for fools."

always do," rejoined Wesley, as he stepped into the road- way. There is a fine chapter on " Wesley and his Helpers," with a picture in it of the saintly Fletcher of Madeley, and the author describes and discusses the crisis of the separation of the Methodists from the Church of England, with a just appreciation of its inevitability • as soon as Wesley began ordaining ministers. The amazing growth of Methodism both in England and America is traced, and there is a useful appendix of the statistics of Methodism. A most compact and capable little book. * *