C URRENT LITE RAT URE.
JOHN WESLEY.
The Life of John Wesley. By C. T. Winchester. (Macmillan and Co. 6s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Winchester, who professes English Litera- ture in the Wesleyan University in the States, thinks that most of Wesley's biographers have written as "Methodists for Methodists." On this side of the Atlantic they are more or less hampered by the question not so much of Wesley's relation to the Church of England as of the relation of the community called by his name. Professor Winchester, writing as a layman, has a great oppor- tunity, and avails himself of it. He is neither a worshipper nor an iconoclast. He recognises the greatness of the man, but he is not blind to his faults, to the confusions which, for a time at least, obscured his theology, and to his curious weakness in the most important relation of private life. As regards politics Wesley always had an open mind. His views on the American question, for instance, changed with a rapidity which would have been suspicious in a politician. But whether he was consistent or not, Wesley was conspicuously honest. There never was a less self-seeking man.
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