Lessons of Infinite Advantage: William Taylor's California Experiences

In Lessons of Infinite Advantage, William Taylor (1821-1902) tells 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, Taylor was commissioned as a missionary to California at the beginning of the Gold Rush. 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 more than a century. The substantial journal chronicles five of Taylor's seven enterprising years (1849-1856) in San Francisco, Sacramento, San José, and the surrounding area, offering a first person account of contemporary events written in Taylor's fine, narrative style. Readers can trance the genesis of Taylor's approach to self-supporting missions, including the development of his thinking on fundraising 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.