ELIZA ASBURY
Her cottage and her son
By David J.A. Hallam. Brewin Books. 98 pages. £8.95
ISBN 1 85858 235 0
The impact of a godly mother on a child cannot be over-estimated. It is worthwhile, therefore, to trace the childhood influences upon those who have been significantly used by God in the past.
Francis Asbury, called the 'Wesley of America', has been the subject of at least eight biographies. As John Wesley's first bishop in the New World, Asbury (1745-1816) rode more than 250,000 miles, preaching and establishing Methodist societies. By the time of his death, 44 years after he first left his home village in 1771, the Methodist membership had grown from 550 to at least a quarter of a million, with 700 ordained preachers.