Early Methodists were persecuted and lived lives of hardship. Charles Wesley, who with his brother John started the Methodist movement, wanted to encourage his followers. He wanted them to be a singing, joyful people and not get discouraged and lose hope.Rick Warren is the evangelical celebrity pastor-leader of the Saddleback mega-church in California. His _Purpose-Driven_ series of books and seminars have done much to continue the ongoing merging of corporate business values and methods with the American protestant church.As they were studying chapter three in the book of Malachi, a group of women came across the verse that says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." They wondered what that statement meant about the character and nature of God.Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory was composed by George Henry Day in 1940. It's based on Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, and Luke 9:28-36.It may be that William Tyndale gave more to the English Reformation than any other Reformer, for without his translation of the New Testament into the clear English of his day, so that the common man could read and understand, such great preachers as John Colet, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and others could have preached until doomsday, yet there would have remained little understanding of the Scriptures.