Best Selling Books by William Taylor

William Taylor (1821-1902) was a Methodist minister specializing in "street preaching" in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., when the Methodist church sent him to California as a missionary evangelist in 1849. He remained in the West for seven years, going on to become one of the church''s most tireless worldwide evangelists. He later conducted crusades in Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa. In 1884 he was named Missionary Bishop for Africa and he focused his energies on missionary activities on that continent. Taylor spent his last years in California, the site of his first mission. California life illustrated (1858) expands on his reminiscences in Seven years'' street preaching in San Francisco (1857). He describes his voyage to California and gives details of family life, social life, politics and church history in San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. He comments at length on California agriculture and mineral resources and offers a chapter on mining camp life. After founding the Powell Street church, Taylor explains, he undertook a mission to sailors in San Francisco which left him so burdened by debt that he returned east to publish books and conduct revivals in the hope of putting his finances in order.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1860.

Stott''s diary reveals a soldier who was also a scholar in camp and on the march, one who took every available moment to read theology, philosophy, great literary works, and a few novels. He also had a playful side, slyly exposing a dry wit and a sense of humor that can sneak up on the reader.

In this book, William Taylor tells in his own words the story of a foundational episode in his life. Following his trial ministry as a Methodist circuit rider in his home state of Virginia and his service of pastorates in the historic North Baltimore Conference, William Taylor (1821-1902) was commissioned as a missionary to California at the beginning of the Gold Rush Era. His subsequent "seven years of street preaching in San Francisco" set the stage for a half-century missionary career during which Taylor championed self-supporting missions to every populated continent, funded by the publication of his widely-read books. Despite his prolific writing, none of Taylor''s publications reveal the personal dimensions of his struggles or the day-by-day development of his missionary perspective. This early chapter in Taylor''s career emerges for the first time with the publication of his journal, privately held by family members for over a century. The substantial journal chronicles five of Taylor''s seven enterprising years (1849-1856) in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, and the surrounding area, while offering a rich, first-person account of contemporary events written in Taylor''s fine, narrative style. With this journal, readers may trace the genesis of Taylor''s approach to self-supporting missions, including the development of his thinking on fund raising and his skepticism toward the possibility of a Christian use of money. A scholarly introduction, footnotes, and appendixes, together with several images, set Taylor''s California experiences in historical context, while clarifying and explaining the journal''s rhetoric, holiness doctrine, missionary strategies, and oblique references.

Titan: Exploring an Earthlike World presents the most comprehensive description in book form of what is currently known about Titan, the largest satellite of the planet Saturn and arguably the most intriguing and mysterious world in the Solar System. Because of its resemblance to our own planet, Titan is often described as a “frozen primitive Earth” and is therefore of wide interest to scientists and educated laypersons from a wide range of backgrounds. The book aims to cater to all of these by using nontechnical language wherever possible, while maintaining a high standard of scientific rigor.The book is a fully revised and extensively updated edition of Titan: The Earthlike Moon, which was published in 1999, before the Cassini and Huygens missions arrived to orbit Saturn and land on Titan. As investigators on these missions, the authors use the latest results to present the most recent revelations and latest surprises about an exciting new world.