Book 9780461640397

The Methodist Review by J. F. Hurst presents an 1867 issue of the mid-19th-century Methodist Quarterly Review, offering doctrinal reflection, educational reform, ministry guidance, and international religious intelligence. It surveys Protestant missions (Chinese missions, Bible distribution, baptism statistics) and summaries of new scholarly works in church history, patristics, and doctrinal history, with notices of Caspari, Grundemann, Hefele, Hase, Nippold, Trench, Pusey, Cowles, Noyes, and others. It also includes notes on the interaction between science and faith (Lyell, Fleming, lake-dwellers debates) and topics on Essenes, antiquity, and pre-Adamic timelines, as well as broad international coverage from American, British, German, and French theological thought. A core essay, Practical Observations on Preaching (translated from M. Coquerel; editor’s note by J. F. Hurst), argues that there is an art to preaching that grows through deliberate practice and constructive critique, anchored in Scripture and expressed with authenticity. Other pieces compare pulpit eloquence with secular forms and defend a Pauline universalism of salvation. The overall aim is evangelical scholarship that meets scientific and philosophical challenges with honesty and pastoral seriousness.