Rating: ★★★★

Author: William Valentine Kelley (1843-1927) was an American Methodist preacher and author. He was a talented essayist and was editor of The Methodist Review from 1893 to 1919.

Kelley is an engaging writer with a florid, literary style. His breadth of subject matter is similar to literary preachers like Boreham, Gossip, or Stewart; but his content is less pointed.

Overview: A Pilgrim of the Infinite (1914) is a long essay on the subject of personality. Its overall argument, while rather philosophical, will ring a bell for readers of Mere Christianity or The God Who Is There; Kelley argues from human personality to the infinite.

Meat: Kelley argues convincingly that we have “eternity in our hearts”; the potential of human personality is boundless, and it can only be satisfied by an infinite God. Truly each of us is a “pilgrim of the infinite.”

Bones: Kelley’s style is sometimes over the top.