1878. Volume II of III. Stevens was an American editor, historian and Methodist Episcopal clergyman. He suffered the trials of poverty and hard work in childhood and early on he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He began to preach when a mere youth, and before he was twenty-one years of age was regarded as a prodigy of eloquence. He opened the vein of American Methodistic history, and gave a long series of historical articles, which afterward appeared in the form of books, and, indeed, entered upon the investigations which produced his History of Methodism, one of the ablest and best-known works of its class. This volume covers from the Death of Whitefield to the Death of Wesley. In his preface Stevens writes: The present volume concludes the most important part of my task-The Life and Times of Wesley. It was promised in the preface to the first volume that this would should be the fullest Life and Times of the great Methodist Founder yet published; the reader must judge of the spirit and style with which the promise has been fulfilled; but I have hope that he will acquit it of presumption, so far as the extent of research and of details is concerned. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Volume 1 ISBN 0766196194, Volume 3 ISBN 0766196216.