An Extract of the Christian's Pattern, or, A Treatise on the Imitation of Christ

Author: Thomas a Kempis

1847 Lane and Tippett for the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York), 3 1/8 x 5 inches tall brown embossed cloth hardcover, gilt design and lettering to front cover, gilt design to spine, 196 pp. Moderate soiling/staining, rubbing and edgewear to covers, with a bit of chipping to the spine caps, and along the top of the exterior hinge on the rear cover. Very slight bumping to tips. Slight staining to page edges. Slight to moderate foxing to title page and prelims, and very light, mostly marginal foxing sporadically within. Otherwise, a very good copy of this rare mid-nineteenth century American Methodist issue. OCLC (No. 43578861) locates only one copy at institutions worldwide - at Drew University Library in Madison, New Jersey. 

A rare 1847 New York issue of John Wesley's 'extracts' from the fifteenth century devotional classic The Imitation of Christ. Anglican cleric and theologian John Wesley (1703-1791), who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield, founded Methodism, made a full translation from Latin to English in 1735 as one of this first published works. After the birth of the Methodist movement in 1738-39, Wesley produced this greatly abridged version, entitled An Extract of the Christian's Pattern, first printed in 1741 and reprinted dozens of times thereafter in mostly tiny, pocket-sized editions like this, most of which didn't survive heavy devotional use by adherents and are therefore uncommon today.

References: This edition not in Baker. Union catalogue, 2nd ed., 1991.