It was the French novelist Anatole France who, when feeling tired, and discouraged, said, 'I never go into the country for a change of air and a holiday. I always go instead into the eighteenth century.' For an entirely different purpose, the great Welsh preacher, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, frequently borrowed France's words when speaking to his fellow Gospel preachers: 'Go to the eighteenth century! In other words read the stories of the great tides and movements of the Spirit experienced in that century. It is the most exhilarating experience, the finest tonic you will ever know. For a preacher it is absolutely invaluable ... There is nothing more important for preaching than the reading of Church history and biographies.' His own biographer, Iain Murray, says that for 'sheer stimulus and enjoyment there were no volumes which he prized more than Tadau Methodistaidd... the lives of the fathers of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. They were constantly in his hands.' Book jacket.

The Elect Methodists is the first full-length academic study of Calvinistic Methodism, a movement that emerged in the eighteenth century as an alternative to the better known Wesleyan grouping. While the branch of Methodism led by John Wesley has received significant historical attention, Calvinistic Methodism, especially in England, has not. The book charts the sources of the eighteenth-century Methodist revival in the context of Protestant evangelicalism emerging in continental Europe and colonial North America, and then proceeds to follow the fortunes in both England and Wales of the Calvinistic branch, to the establishing of formal denominations in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The evangelical, or Methodist, revival in the eighteenth century had a major impact on Welsh religion, society, and culture. One of its outcomes was the unprecedented growth of Nonconformity by the nineteenth century, which established a very clear difference between Wales and England in religious terms. Since the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist movement did not split from the Church to form a separate denomination until 1811, it existed in its early years solely as a collection of local society meetings. Focusing on those early societies in southwest Wales, this study examines the grass roots of the Methodist movement, identifying the features that led to its subsequent remarkable success. At the heart of the book lie the experiences of the men and women who were members of the societies, along with explorations of their social and economic background and the factors that attracted them to the Methodist cause.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

This comprehensive and compelling study charts the influence of Howell Harris on the development of early Methodism and examines the period from his conversion in 1735 to his secession from the main body of Methodism following a struggle with Rowland.