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Rev. W. H. WITHROW, D.D., Editor Methodist Magazine, Toronto, Canada.

Rev. B. F. RAWLINS, D.D., Assistant Editor Western Christian Advocate, Cin-
cinnati, O.

Rev. JOHN WIER, D.D., Tokio Auglo-American College, Tokio, Japan.

Rev. D. H. WHEELER, LL.D., Meadville, Pa.

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Rev. C. W. GALLAGHER, D.D., President Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Kent's Hill, Me.

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W. W. W. Wilson, D.D., Port Chester, N. Y.

President W. F. WARREN, S.T.D., LL.D., Boston University, Boston, Mass.

Rev. 8. G. AYRES, Assistant Librarian Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J.

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JOSEPH HORNER, D.D., LL.D., Pittsburg, Pa.

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METHODIST REVIEW.

JANUARY, 1894.

ART. I.-DR. BYROM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF METHODISM.*

No one who wishes to study the picturesque details of the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century can afford to overlook the journal and letters of Dr. John Byrom, of Manchester, whose "Christians, awake, salute the happy morn," has been a treasure of the Church for so many years. His papers lay for a long time "scattered in unarranged confusion throughout the ancient and somewhat nondescript rooms" of the two family homes at Kersall and Quay Street, near Manchester, but happily proved, on careful inspection, to be in almost as perfect condition as when the writer left them ninety years before. The friend of Bishop Warburton and Dr. Bentley, of William Law and the Wesleys, thus stood revealed "in his habit as he lived." Few men could bear such unveiling better than John Byrom. His portrait as an undergraduate, our only authentic likeness, is a fitting preface to his journals, published by the Cheetham Society. As we look at this exquisite face we understand how a man so bright and intelligent, so pure-minded and even-tempered, won for himself hosts of friends who never wearied of his company.

Byrom belonged to an old Lancashire family. He was.born at Kersall Cell, Broughton, near Manchester, on February 29,

•The Bible opens with the genesis of the world. We begin a new volume of the Methodist Review with an account of some of the details in the genesis of Methodism, traced for 23 by the capable hand of Rev. John Telford, B.A.. of Guildford, England, a well-known specialist in Wesleyan history, author of a Sketch of the Life and Work of John Wesley, The Lafe of Charles Wesley, and of Sketches of London Methodism from Wesley's Day.—ED. 1-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. X.

1692, and studied at Chester under "that once eminent schoolmaster, Mr. Francis Harper." He became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1714, and, after studying medicine at Montpellier, returned to England in 1718 with his diploma. He soon abandoned the healing art for the profession of shorthand. He had married his cousin in February, 1721, and he maintained his family by teaching an ingenious system of shorthand which he had invented. The characters were singularly elegant, but could not be written rapidly enough to win conspicuous success. His house was near the "Old Church" in Manchester, where his family had been prosperous merchants and linen drapers; but much of his time was spent in London among his pupils, who formed a kind of society. Byrom was styled "grand master," and used to open the session with an address. He was so tall that he had difficulty in finding a horse high enough for him. He was once eclipsed by a gentleman from Worcestershire "almost a head taller than I; people talk to me as if I were grown a mere dwarf." The necessities of his position as a professor of shorthand led him to move freely in the literary and clerical circles of the metropolis. The Wesleys used his system and zealously pushed his interests among their friends, so that Byrom naturally spent a good deal of time in their company after their return from Georgia and during the early days of the evangelical revival. He never became a Methodist. He had learned on the Continent to study and admire the mystics, and could not understand John Wesley's verdict that these writers made good works appear "mean, flat, and insipid." Byrom was also a devoted disciple of William Law, and warmly championed his master in the controversy with John Wesley.

Byrom was eleven years older than the founder of Methodism. He was already a man of settled views and established reputation when the two brothers John and Charles Wesley were led by their friend Peter Böhler to see their own want of living faith. The older man, steeped in mysticism, was not able to understand the intensely practical zeal of the great field preachers and often judged them somewhat harshly; but we owe to his journal many pleasing glimpses of them and their friends in London. Byrom has a touch of the genius of the great diarist Pepys, and his pages often make old scenes live again for

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