Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 The 37th Fennley Lecture 
 
 THE 
 
 REVIVAL OF RELIGION 
 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 IN THE 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 JOHN S. SIMON 
 
 THIRD THOUSAND 
 
 lonfcon 
 ROBERT CULLEY 
 
 a CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 r- 
 
 ro 
 I. RELIGION* 1 
 
 II. THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND ... 44 
 
 III. THE MORAL CONDITION or ENGLAND ... 74 
 
 IV. THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ENGLAND. . . 96 
 V. THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES 124 
 
 VI. THE DAWN or THE REVIVAL IN WALES. . .132 
 
 VII. THE DAWN OK THE REVIVAL IN ENGLAND . . 150 
 
 VIII. THE REVIVAL IN ENGLAND 200 
 
 IX. SOME RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL . . 273 
 
 2000010
 
 THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION 
 IN ENGLAND IN THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 I 
 Religion 
 
 CHAELES KINGSLEY, in his Village Sermons, 
 affirms that the Bible says hardly any- 
 thing about religion; that it never praises 
 religious people. It talks of God, and tells us not to 
 be religious, but to be godly. He points out that it 
 speaks of ' a religious man only once, and of religion 
 only twice, except where it speaks of the Jews' religion 
 to condemn it, and shows what an empty, blind, useless 
 thing it was.' 1 Kingsley's statement has that touch 
 of exaggeration in it which attracts attention; but 
 there can be no doubt that the distinction he indicates 
 exists, and it is essential that we should remember it. 
 Especially must it be borne in mind when dealing 
 with the subject of the ' Eevival of Religion.' We 
 must determine from the outset whether we are to 
 1 p. 13. 
 
 B
 
 2 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 use the word 'religion' in & superficial or a profound 
 sense. If we employ it in the former, then we may 
 be led into mere descriptions of advance in the elabora- 
 tion of creeds and the ceremonies of worship ; if in the 
 latter, we must go down into the hidden deep of man's 
 moral and spiritual nature and watch those revolutions 
 of thought and feeling which result in a new life 
 brought into loving accord with the perfect will of 
 God. It is in its deeper sense that we use the word 
 when speaking of ' The Kevival of Religion in England 
 in the Eighteenth Century.' 
 
 The student of the development of the Christian 
 religion is aware that, in the teaching of Christ and 
 His Apostles, we see the triumph of the spiritual over 
 the ecclesiastical and ceremonial view of religion. 
 The triumph cannot be understood without some 
 knowledge of the struggle, and the record of the 
 struggle is to be found in the Old Testament. In 
 that book we see the elaborating of a system of 
 ceremonial worship which, finally, became a burden 
 that crushed the spiritual instincts of the Jewish 
 people. In watching the tragedy, it is a relief to find 
 that the tyranny of mere religiousness was assailed by 
 men who knew that the direct service of God in their 
 spirit was something altogether different from service 
 through an intermediary priest at an altar or in a 
 Temple. It is not necessary to dwell at any length 
 on such familiar illustrations of the fact as Samuel's 
 words to Saul, 'Hath the Lord as great delight in
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 3 
 
 burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice 
 of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, 
 and to hearken than the fat of rams ' (1 Sam. xv. 22) ; 
 or the statement in the Book of Proverbs, ' To do 
 justice and judgement is more acceptable to the Lord 
 than sacrifice ' (Prov. xxi. 3) ; or the assurance of the 
 Psalmist, ' The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a 
 broken and a contrite heart, God, Thou wilt not 
 despise' (Ps. li 17). There are two passages, however, 
 in Jeremiah which bring a ceremonial and a spiritual 
 religion into sharp contrast, and which throw a stream 
 of light upon the great controversy which was closed 
 by Christ's emphatic words to the woman of Samaria. 
 Let us pause for a few moments to consider Jeremiah's 
 significant statements. 
 
 Jeremiah, speaking in the name of God, says : ' I 
 spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in 
 the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, 
 concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices : but this 
 thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and 
 I will be your God, and ye shall be My people : and 
 walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, 
 that it may be well with you ' (vii. 22, 23). In this 
 passage we think it is clear that Jeremiah teaches the 
 great truth that, in the original intention of God, the 
 religious life of man was to be ethical and spiritual, and 
 that the system of sacrifices was to be subordinate to 
 the regnant idea. Sacrifices only served their purpose 
 when they assisted to educate men into a life of
 
 4 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 obedience. The supreme object of ceremony and 
 teaching was to create in worshippers and disciples a 
 heart that loved God, a heart that absolutely submitted 
 to His will. Unfortunately, they failed to accomplish 
 their purpose. Jeremiah, in the chapter from which 
 we have quoted, depicts the failure of the ceremonial 
 system. He was directed to stand in the gate of the 
 Lord's house, and to confront the crowds that flocked 
 to the Temple. He stops the way of those who were 
 streaming towards the altars with words that must have 
 startled them. He cried: 'Thus saith the Lord of 
 Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your 
 doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 
 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the 
 Lord are these. For if ye throughly amend your 
 ways and your doings ; if ye throughly execute judge- 
 ment between a man and his neighbour ; if ye oppress 
 not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and 
 shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk 
 after other gods to your own hurt : then will I cause 
 you to dwell in this place, in the land I gave to 
 your fathers, from of old even for evermore ' ( vers. 
 3-7). There you have the ethical note; not a word 
 of sacrifices, or of the benefits arising from the per- 
 formance of a correct ceremonialism. The subject of 
 sacrifices comes into view, but it kindles the prophet's 
 indignation. He has watched the men burning incense 
 to Baal ; he has seen the children gathering wood, the 
 fathers kindling the fire, the women kneading the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 5 
 
 dough, the making of the cakes to the queen of heaven, 
 the pouring out of drink-offerings to other gods. And 
 now these idolaters come into the Temple, thinking 
 that the Holy One of Israel may as well be re- 
 membered, and that no harm will be done if they 
 also give something to Him. ' No,' cries the prophet, 
 'He can do without your sacrifices. The time is 
 coming when He will sweep the Temple and all 
 its altars away. They are merely instruments with 
 which He has sought to teach you the obedience you 
 have failed to learn. They have become a hindrance 
 to you. As the house in Shiloh has been destroyed, 
 so will He do to this house that is called by His 
 name. Everything shall vanish that blinds your eyes 
 to the fact that obedience is the gift and sacrifice with 
 which God is well pleased.' 
 
 In the estimation of Jeremiah, obedience to the will 
 of God occupies the supreme place in the religious life. 
 We may well ask him how this habit of obedience is 
 to be formed. We get his answer. In the thirty-first 
 chapter of his prophecy there is a declaration of the 
 profoundest meaning. He says: 'Behold, the days 
 come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant 
 with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah : 
 not according to the covenant that I made with their 
 fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to 
 bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My 
 covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto 
 them, saith the Lord. But this is the covenant that
 
 6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 I will make with the house of Israel after those days, 
 saith the Lord: I will put My law in their inward 
 parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will 
 be their God, and they shall be My people ; and they 
 shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and 
 every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for 
 they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto 
 the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive 
 their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more ' 
 (vers. 31-34). 
 
 Dean Plumptre, in commenting on the words ' they 
 shall teach no more every man his neighbour/ says 
 
 We trace in that hope for the future the profound sense 
 of failure which oppressed the mind of the prophet, as it 
 has oppressed the minds of many true teachers since. What 
 good had come of all the machinery of ritual and of teach- 
 ing which the law of Israel had provided so abundantly ? 
 Those repeated exhortations on the part of preachers and 
 prophets that men should ' know the Lord,' what did they 
 present but the dreary monotony as of an ' old worm-eaten 
 homily ' ? To know Him as indeed He is, required nothing 
 less than a special revelation of His presence to each man's 
 heart and spirit ; and that revelation was now, for his com- 
 fort, promised for all who were willing to receive it as the 
 special gift of the near or distant future which opened to 
 hia view in bis vision of the restored Israel. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews, that epistle in 
 which the kingdom which cannot be shaken comes 
 into view, we see that the 'New Covenant' takes its 
 place among permanent facts. There, as in Jeremiah's
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 7 
 
 prophecy, we find ' the machinery of ritual and of the 
 teaching of the law/ having fulfilled their purpose, 
 wax old and vanish. The verdict of the later writers 
 of the Old Testament is endorsed by the Evangelists 
 and Apostles the 'machinery' had failed to make 
 men know God, had failed to make them obey Him. 
 In the day of Christ a new method is to be employed. 
 Reliance is to be no longer placed on ceremony and 
 homily. The experience of the forgiveness of sins is 
 to lead to the knowledge of God, and the knowledge 
 of God is to lead to perfect obedience to the divine will. 
 The knowledge of the forgiveness of sins is the 
 resonant note of the Church of the New Covenant, 
 and that note was sounded by the men who heralded 
 and conducted the Evangelical Revival. Mr. Glad- 
 stone, in the remarkable article he contributed to the 
 British Quarterly Review of July, 1879, emphasizes this 
 fact. He describes the ' Evangelical Movement ' of the 
 eighteenth century as ' a strong, systematic, outspoken, 
 and determined reaction against the prevailing standards 
 both of life and preaching.' He says 
 
 It aimed at bringing back, on a large Bcale, and by 
 an aggressive movement, the Cross, and all that the Cross 
 essentially implies, both into the teaching of the clergy and 
 into the lives as well of the clergy as the laity. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was right. 'The bringing back of 
 the Cross ! ' That is the secret of the success of the 
 Church of the New Covenant. The secret lay hidden,
 
 8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 through dismal ages, in the teaching of Jeremiah, in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in the letters and 
 work of St. Paul; it was discovered at last by the 
 men who stirred the conscience of England in the 
 eighteenth century, when myriads of sorrowing people 
 were led into the joyous experience of the forgiveness 
 of sins. 
 
 When we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, and con- 
 sider the descriptions contained therein of the Jewish 
 and Gentile Pentecosts, we wonder that the Church 
 should have so completely forgotten that the 'forgiveness 
 of sins ' preludes the deep experiences of the Christian 
 life. The Gentile Pentecost occurred in Caesarea, in 
 the house of Cornelius. St. Peter was the missioner. 
 When he returned to Jerusalem he gave an account 
 to them ' of the circumcision ' of the incidents connected 
 with his preaching to the Gentiles. Describing the 
 effects of his preaching, he said, ' As I began to speak 
 the Holy Ghost fell on them, even as on us at the 
 beginning.' What was he speaking about when the 
 power of the Spirit of God descended on his audience ? 
 We have the words he was uttering: 'To Him bear 
 all the prophets witness, that through His name, who- 
 soever believeth on Him shall receive remission of 
 sins ' (Acts x. 43). Some of those who listened to St. 
 Peter's ' apology ' must have been moved as the voice 
 of memory spoke of a similar experience, especially 
 when he went on to say, ' If then God gave unto them 
 the like gift as He did also unto us, when we believed
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 9 
 
 on the Lord Jesus, who was I, that I could withstand 
 God?' (Acts xi. 15-18). Criticism was hushed by 
 the recollection of the supreme hour when they also 
 received their baptism of fire. 
 
 The revisers of the New Testament have laid us 
 under a great obligation by the change they have 
 introduced into a sentence spoken by St. Peter to the 
 Caesarean critics. The A. V. says : ' Forasmuch, then, 
 as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, 
 who believed on the Lord Jesus,' but the E.V. tells 
 us that the gift came 'when' they believed on the 
 Lord Jesus. The change leads us to mark the time 
 and the reason of the descent of the Spirit. The gift 
 came in consequence of their believing ' on ' the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. That is, it came when those who were 
 gathered together in the upper room believed on Christ 
 for the remission of their sins. 
 
 * The remission of sins ' : that is the trumpet-note 
 that sounds clearly through the morning air of every 
 great revival There is no true revival in which that 
 note is not predominant. When the 'joyful news of 
 sins forgiven ' is published and believed, then follows 
 the renewal of the heart by the might of the Spirit 
 of God. Upon the new heart the new law is written, 
 the law which gathers up all commandments into 
 one: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, soul, mind, and strength ; and thy neighbour 
 as thyself.' 
 
 It has been abundantly demonstrated that the
 
 io The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 way into the new life lies through the keen and full 
 apprehension of the fact of the forgiveness of our sins. 
 We shall be met at this point by some who will 
 ask us to account for the ineffectiveness of Churches 
 which give prominence in their formularies to the 
 doctrine of forgiveness. Every church that uses the 
 Apostles' Creed has proclaimed through the centuries, 
 not only by the lips of its priests, but also of its 
 people, that it believes in the forgiveness of sins. 
 Why then has not the Church always been in a 
 state of revival ? 
 
 The answer to the question we have suggested is 
 not difficult to give. The words ' I believe ' may be 
 used in a great variety of meanings; may be uttered 
 with an extraordinary difference of emphasis. In the 
 Apostolic age belief was a mighty force of mind, heart, 
 and spirit that led a man into immediate contact with 
 God, and that contact filled him with a divine life. 
 But the subsequent history of the Church has shown 
 that men have emptied the word ' believe ' of its force. 
 It has come to pass that men say that they believe 
 who scarcely exercise their mind when pronouncing 
 their creed. A man may say, ' I believe in God the 
 Father Almighty,' and may be a practical atheist. 
 If we were to accuse him of atheism, he would be 
 indignant. He does, in a kind of a way, believe in 
 God, but he is BO insulated by worldliness that he is 
 cut off from the divine Presence. He may, spell-like, 
 use the shibboleths of his creed, but their use never
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 1 1 
 
 brings to him a single gleam of the light and glory of 
 the Eternal God. 
 
 The ineffectiveness of the act of believing is not 
 the only reason why Churches which possess correct 
 formularies concerning the forgiveness of sins fail to 
 reform the world. It is a melancholy fact that the 
 Church has obscured, by its teaching, the doctrine of 
 pardon ; a doctrine which, in the life of Christ, is set 
 before us with beautiful simplicity. In the words 
 and actions of our Lord we have a revelation of the 
 movements of the divine Mind, the love of the divine 
 Heart. It is intensely interesting to watch Christ 
 as He deals with sorrowful sinners. How swift is 
 the relief He gives them! We do not now speak 
 of the cleansing of the leper, or the raising of the 
 dead ; we speak of the gracious celerity with which 
 He lifted the burden of sin from the conscience of 
 a weeping woman or a palsied man. 'Thy sins are 
 forgiven thee ! ' What a wealth of love and beauty 
 and power lies in each word of that sentence ! When 
 it is spoken we can see the eager and astonished look, 
 and then the answering joy in the eyes of those who 
 listen to the words, ' Go in peace.' Such a revelation 
 of the methods of the divine forgiveness ought not to 
 have been misread. Why have we had such wearisome 
 discussions on the possibility of the assurance of the 
 pardon of sin ? Why have we wasted so much time 
 tn doubting the reality of ' instantaneous conversions ' ? 
 Our discussions have run along lines fatally afflicted
 
 12 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 with modernity; they have not led us up to the 
 methods of Christ. With thankfulness we say that a 
 change is impending. One of the healthiest signs of the 
 times is the tendency to make direct appeals to Jesus 
 Christ on all questions that concern the salvation of 
 men. The successors of the evangelists who brought 
 back the Cross and planted it in the churches of 
 England welcome that appeal. We do not fear Christ's 
 decision on the question of the forgiveness of sins. 
 Let us consult Him. He must speak the last word 
 in the controversy that has dragged its slow length 
 along the dark centuries. We shall have to hear that 
 word soon. Why should we not hear it now ? 
 
 When we turn from the Master to His Apostles we 
 pass from noonday to twilight. But the dimmer light 
 comes from the sun; and in it we see facts con- 
 cerning the great doctrine of the forgiveness of sins 
 which harmonize with those which are revealed in the 
 life of our Lord. We have dwelt upon the teaching of 
 the Apostles concerning the gift of the Spirit. We 
 have seen that in Apostolic days, when a man believed 
 on the name of Christ for the remission of sins, he 
 received the Holy Ghost. Belief was an individual 
 act, the contact of a man's own soul with his Saviour, 
 and, as a result of belief, there was a direct communica- 
 tion of the Spirit's influences to him without the inter- 
 vention or permission of an apostle. When the apostle 
 had preached, his work was done. He had spoken 
 words whereby the man might be saved. Then he
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 13 
 
 stood aside, and the believer, exercising faith in the 
 crucified Christ, realized the great experience of for- 
 giveness. 
 
 If the simplicity of the doctrine of forgiveness, as 
 it appears in the life of Christ and His Apostles, had 
 been preserved, then the constant experience of pardon 
 would have energized the Church throughout the ages. 
 But it is a melancholy fact that the stream of pure 
 teaching concerning the forgiveness of sins was dis- 
 turbed soon after it flowed from its source; and it is 
 to be regretted that the disturbance arose from the 
 misuse of words which the Master Himself had spoken. 
 
 Those words are to be found in Matt. xvi. 19, 
 Matt, xviii. 18, and John xx. 23. In Matt. xvi. 19, 
 Christ, in addressing St. Peter after his famous declara- 
 tion of faith, says : ' I will give unto thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatso- 
 ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' 
 In Matt, xviii. 18, in speaking to His disciples, Christ 
 uses practically the same words He addressed to 
 St. Peter : ' Verily I say unto you, What things soever 
 ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and 
 what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven.' In John xx. 23, after His resur- 
 rection, speaking again to His disciples, He says : 
 ' Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto 
 them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.' 
 We have now before us the three passages which havo
 
 14 The Revival of Religion In England 
 
 been employed by certain sections of the Church to mar 
 the simplicity and effectiveness of the great doctrine 
 of pardon. 
 
 The words of the Lord Jesus to St. Peter have been 
 used to build up the astounding claims of the Church 
 of Home to a supremacy over all other sections of 
 the Christian Church. On this point it is enough to 
 say that whatever may be the meaning of the ' keys ' 
 and 'binding' and 'loosing,' it is certain that the 
 power ' to bind and loose ' belongs to the other 
 disciples as much as to St. Peter. We may, therefore, 
 concentrate our attention on the second passage from 
 St. Matthew. If we look at it in its connexion we see 
 what Christ means. He is dealing with a sin which 
 has been committed against a man by a ' brother ' 
 that is, a fellow Christian. In such a case these 
 directions are given : ' Go, shew him his fault between 
 thee and him alone ; if he hear thee, tliou hast gained 
 thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee 
 one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses 
 or three every word may be established. And if he 
 refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church : and if he 
 refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee 
 as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto 
 you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall 
 be bound in heaven : and what things soever ye shall 
 loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I 
 say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth 
 as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 15 
 
 done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For 
 where two or three are gathered together in My name, 
 there am I in the midst of them ' (vers. 15-20). 
 
 Only a person prejudiced in favour of some theory 
 of the necessity of priestly absolution can have 
 sufficient ingenuity to pervert the simple meaning of 
 these words. They evidently refer to the misunder- 
 standings and quarrels which arise among Christian 
 people. Immediately after the twentieth verse comes 
 the question of St. Peter : ' Lord, how oft shall my 
 brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? ' Let us 
 remember Christ's answer, and the parable of the two 
 servants that follows. How does that parable end ? 
 'His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the 
 tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. So 
 shall also My heavenly Father do unto you, if ye 
 forgive not every one his brother from your hearts' 
 (vers. 34, 35). The directions, which have been so 
 misapplied, concern the manner in which we are to 
 treat offences against ourselves. ' Every one ' has 
 not only the right, but is bound to exercise the right, 
 of forgiving his brother. This right is possessed not 
 only by the individual, but by the church, or the 
 'congregation,' as the word stands in the margin of 
 the RV. Not only so. The right is also possessed 
 by two or three persons who have gathered together in 
 Christ's name. It is impossible to discern in these 
 plain words concerning the settlement of private 
 disputes any warrant for the doctrine that a 'priest*
 
 1 6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 possesses the exclusive authority to absolve people 
 from sins committed not only against each other, but 
 against God. 
 
 When we turn to the incident recorded in St. John's 
 Gospel, we find ourselves unable to detect the presence 
 of the absolying priest. Look at the circumstances. 
 The company to which the risen Saviour revealed 
 Himself was an assembly of His disciples. It was 
 not made up exclusively of apostles. Indeed, Thomas 
 was absent, and did not receive, as an apostle, the 
 power to forgive sins, if that power was conferred by 
 the words of Christ on this occasion. To the assembled 
 disciples, having breathed on them, the Saviour said : 
 ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye 
 forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; whose soever 
 sins ye retain, they are retained.' It is clear that 
 these words run along the lines of the declaration in 
 St. Matthew. Whatever may be their meaning, they 
 were not spoken to a small section of the Church, 
 but to the Church in full assembly. 
 
 We have seen that the great change which comes 
 to a man, and which we call his salvation, is preceded 
 by the act of divine pardon. That act is accompanied 
 by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit 
 conveys the intelligence of forgiveness to the penitent 
 soul, and, as a consequence, the love of God is shed 
 abroad in the heart. The love of God being shed 
 abroad, creates the new life in the soul ; and, from that 
 moment, the man who has believed in Christ and has
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 17 
 
 been filled with the love of God enters upon the 
 experience of salvation. The supreme worker in this 
 great change is God, and He acts directly upon the 
 individual by the sole agency of His Holy Spirit. 
 Looking through the records of the Apostolic age, the 
 teaching and the facts reported are all consistent with 
 this simple but profound theory of the process of 
 salvation. 
 
 It would have been well if the Church had never 
 confused the teaching on the subjects of conversion 
 and salvation. But, unfortunately, such confusion 
 has occurred, and it persists. We have seen that the 
 doctrine of forgiveness has been misstated and perverted. 
 The same melancholy fate has befallen the doctrines 
 which concern the beginning, the maintenance, and 
 the perfecting of the life of God in the soul of man. 
 
 No one who has read the history of the Apostolic 
 and sub-Apostolic age will fall into the delusion that, 
 in those periods, the Christian Church presented a 
 picture of perfection. The Pauline epistles guard us 
 against that mistake, and the facts recited by such 
 writers as Harnack and von Dobschiitz still further save 
 us from error. But, notwithstanding the spots and 
 wrinkles which disfigure the Early Church, one thing 
 is certain. Up to the middle of the second century 
 we do not find any teaching concerning the sacraments 
 such as we now hear from the Roman Catholic Church 
 and from the lips of High Anglicans. 
 
 Baptism in the Ancient Church was a sign that 
 

 
 1 8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 in the estimation of the person who administered it, 
 its subject was already a believer. It was a rite which 
 set forth, as in a picture, the death and burial of the 
 old self and the rising of the new self to the divine 
 and Christian life. It was not to regenerate a man 
 that he was baptized ; he was baptized because he was 
 regenerated. There can be no doubt that, under the 
 solemn circumstances of the baptismal service, there 
 came upon the believing candidate a special effusion 
 of the Holy Spirit's influences. But that was because, 
 during the administration of the rite, he exercised a 
 larger faith in Christ, and claimed the blessings sym- 
 bolized by the sacrament. We do not find, in the 
 first and second centuries, that the Church held that 
 unconscious infants are changed into the reconciled 
 children of God by sprinkling. It was only after the 
 Church set up priests, who yearned to possess the 
 magical powers of pagan rivals, that a doctrine was 
 introduced which has blinded the minds of Christian 
 people to the manner in which God, by the agency of 
 the Spirit, regenerates the heart of a believing man. 
 
 The first error compelled a second. The compara- 
 tively modern doctrine of ' Baptismal Regeneration ' is 
 now accompanied by extraordinary teaching concerning 
 the life-giving and life-sustaining power of the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. It is one of the most distressing 
 facts in Church history that the simple acts of breaking 
 bread and drinking wine in remembrance of the death 
 of Christ should have been so used as to lose their
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 19 
 
 primitive and beautiful significance. Indeed, such has 
 been the fatal perverseness of the ecclesiastical mind 
 that these simple acts have become barriers in the way 
 of a sinner's approach to Christ. It is with sadness 
 that we think of the black clouds of superstition that 
 have curtained the sacred feast. It is with bitter shame 
 that we remember the persecutions that have assailed 
 and destroyed conscientious Christian people who have 
 affirmed that spiritual view of the Eucharist which was 
 in the mind of its first Administrator, and which was 
 held by those who, in the early days of the Church, 
 trod in His steps. 
 
 Let us be just to the Ancient Church. Whatever 
 may have been its intellectual and moral defects, it 
 was not under the dominion of the priest ; it was not 
 the teacher of sacerdotal doctrines. It is fortunate for 
 us that in The Teaching of the Twelve, so strangely 
 discovered in the library of the Jerusalem Monastery 
 of the Most Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople, a 
 record has been preserved concerning the Eucharist 
 which shows that, in its celebration, there was no taint 
 of the doctrine which has done so much to obscure the 
 means whereby God effects the salvation of men. 
 Originally, the Eucharistic service was an act of 
 worship, and, especially, it was a thanksgiving service 
 that followed the evening meal. It was celebrated 
 with simplicity, and with brief prayers and ascriptions 
 of praise to God. If we search The Teaching of the 
 Twelve, the oldest Church manual we possess, we do
 
 20 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 not find any mention of a sacrificing priest, of the 
 change of the elements, of the imparting of spiritual 
 life by the mere taking of the bread and wine. There 
 can be no doubt that, in those early assemblies, when 
 the Church met with one accord in one place and 
 celebrated its lovefeast and its Eucharistic service, 
 there were longing eyes that wistfully looked for the 
 Lord, loving lips that whispered, ' What think ye, that 
 He will not come to the feast ? ' Nor was the ' real 
 presence ' denied them. Assisted by the symbols and 
 the circumstances of the sacrament, by an individual 
 act of faith the spiritual worshippers found that the 
 Saviour was with them ; as surely with them as He 
 was with His faithful disciples on that memorable 
 evening when He showed them His hands and His 
 side. They were glad because they saw the Lord. 
 The vision of the risen Christ, obscured by the dust 
 of the day's toil and the mist of the world's con- 
 fusion, glowed in the temple of their spirit. There 
 they worshipped Him ; they feasted on Him in their 
 hearts. Refreshed by the personal communion which 
 had come to them by the exercise of faith, they rose to 
 face the night and the daybreak ; they responded to 
 the challenge of the world with a renewed courage 
 and with an assurance of victory. The Saviour, whom 
 they had seen in the supper-room, went with them 
 into the street, into the home, into their work. In 
 times of persecution He accompanied them into the 
 place ' where there was a garden ' ; He stood by
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 21 
 
 them on the 'hill' when they were stretched upon 
 a cross. 
 
 When we look upon those days, and then think of 
 the dreary wanderings of the Church in intermediate 
 years, we feel an aching of the heart because of the 
 unutterable miseries that men have brought upon 
 themselves and others by deserting the plain pathways 
 in which the early Christians walked with their Lord. 
 
 It is not difficult to see how the perversion and 
 corruption of the doctrines concerning forgiveness and 
 the manner in which the new spiritual life is created 
 and sustained have told upon the fortunes of Christianity. 
 They have brought back the priest into the Church; 
 they have produced a mechanical theory of salvation ; 
 they have created a condition of religious thought 
 and ceremony such as was denounced by the most 
 spiritual prophets and abolished by the coming of 
 Christ. So long as the human priest stands in the 
 way of the Cross, so long as the Church believes 
 that salvation can only come through him and his 
 actions, so long is it impossible to secure a great 
 revival of religion. 
 
 Dean Stanley, in his Christian Institutions, gives 
 us a glimpse of a better time. Speaking of absolution, 
 he says 
 
 As the misinterpretation of the texts on which the 
 theory of Episcopal or Presbyterian absolution rests will die 
 out before a sound understanding of the biblical records, BO 
 also the theory and practice itself, though with occasional
 
 22 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 recrudescences, will probably die out with the advance of 
 civilization. The true power of the clergy will not be 
 diminished but strengthened by the loss of this fictitious 
 attribute. ... In proportion as England has become, and 
 in proportion as it will yet become, a truly free and truly 
 educated people, able of itself to bind what ought to be 
 bound, and to loose what ought to be loosed, in that pro- 
 portion will the belief in priestly absolution vanish, just as 
 the belief in wizards and necromancers has vanished before 
 the advance of science. 1 
 
 We agree with his conclusion 
 
 The belief in the magical offices of a sacerdotal caste 
 will vanish before the growth of manly Christian inde- 
 pendence and generous Christian sympathy. 
 
 The forgiveness of sins is not only the gateway 
 through which we pass into the new life, it is the 
 means whereby we attain to a knowledge of the law 
 of the Lord. In Jeremiah's description of the effect 
 of the New Covenant it is predicted that, in those 
 days which he saw in vision, the law of the Lord 
 would be written on the heart. The writer of the 
 Kpistle to the Hebrews adopts the same view. He 
 quotes Jeremiah's words : ' This is the covenant that I 
 will make with them after those days, saith the Lord ; 
 I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart 
 also will I write them ' (viii. 10). It is impossible for 
 us to sever this assurance from the words that close 
 and complete the prophecy : ' For I will be merciful to 
 their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no 
 
 1 pp. 184, 185.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 23 
 
 more.' The light which most perfectly illumines the 
 Christian conscience is that which springs up during 
 the wonderful experiences that bring to us a knowledge 
 of the pardon of our sins. 
 
 A knowledge of the law is not the only result 
 that follows forgiveness. The prophet shows that 
 through pardon comes a knowledge of the Lord. ' They 
 shall not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every 
 man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : For all shall 
 kuow Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For 
 I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins 
 will I remember no more.' 
 
 Newman has said that ' self-knowledge is the root 
 of all real religious knowledge.' That is one side of a 
 great fact ; the other is that a knowledge of God is the 
 root of all real self-knowledge. Let us take Newman's 
 line for a moment. When we come to a knowledge of 
 ourselves as sinners, we are driven to know the God 
 against whom we have sinned. In Him is the remedy 
 for our desperate plight. Gazing into the face of 
 Jesus Christ we see 'the knowledge of the glory of 
 the Lord.' Truth and grace are there. Truth that 
 sets up its rigid standard and casts us down by its 
 condemnations ; grace that reveals the undeserved 
 loving-kindness of our Father, and breaks our heart 
 by its gentle reproach. A knowledge of our sinful 
 self drives us to know God, and when we know Him 
 we are sure that He will forgive our sins. 
 
 But that is not all. Self-knowledge is acquired by
 
 24 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 painful and disappointing processes. Still, at every 
 revelation of our weakness, defect, and sin we are urged 
 to a more complete knowledge of God. We have made 
 up our mind that He is our sole remedy against our- 
 selves. We explore the mystery of His power and 
 His love, and find, at every step, something that 
 compels us to be holy, something that shows us how 
 that holiness may be attained through Him. 
 
 If it is true that the knowledge of God and of His 
 laws comes to us most effectually as the result of the 
 remission of our sins, then we shall note with anxiety 
 the pathway taken by the Church at the close of the 
 Apostolic age. 
 
 When the light first falls on the Church we see 
 where the teachers of the Christian religion stood. In 
 the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles we have 
 definite descriptions of the doctrines taught by the 
 first preachers of the gospel. The burden of their 
 teaching was ' the joyful news of sins forgiven.' 
 Where that gospel glowed in the heart, its reception 
 was followed by a great transformation, and the believer 
 entered into a new life a life in which shone two 
 great lights : a knowledge of God, and a knowledge of 
 His law. 
 
 If we take up the books that give us the clearest 
 view of the condition of the Church immediately 
 after the Apostolic age had closed, we detect a 
 change in method. We insist upon the fact that a 
 knowledge of the forgiveness of sins leads directly
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 25 
 
 to the highest morality. But when we read The 
 Teaching of the Twelve, and search its pages, it is 
 difficult to find the gospel preacher in it ; at any rate 
 it is difficult to discover that aspect of the gospel 
 which is turned towards us in the Pentecostal scenes 
 of the Acts of the Apostles. All candidates for 
 baptism have to be instructed in the way of life and 
 the way of death. Studying the teaching concerning 
 the 'two ways,' we find in it an admirable code 
 of Christian ethics ; but where is there any insistence 
 upon the central fact that a man must be born again 
 before he can see the kingdom of God? It may be 
 said that only those who had experienced the 'New 
 Birth' were admitted as catechumens. But on the 
 face of the document this does not appear. What is 
 clear is that in a book which professes to record the 
 'Teaching of the Twelve,' the doctrine of the New 
 Birth is not placed in the position of supreme pro- 
 minence. It is so placed in the Gospel of St. 
 John, and in the Acts and in the Epistles. But the 
 Teaching is 'as moonlight unto sunlight.' The book 
 reaches the level of the Epistle of St. James, but 
 it does not lead us to the heights from which we 
 discern the cross and the throne of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In two books, somewhat recently published, we 
 gain an insight into the condition of the Christian 
 Church in the sub- Apostolic age. The impression that 
 is produced by reading them is that, unless the defects 
 of their authors prevented them from seeing that whicTi
 
 26 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 we are anxious to see, the supreme work of the Early 
 Church, the preaching of the gospel, soon gave way to 
 the ethical instruction of persons who were attracted 
 to Christ by considerations other than an impassioned 
 desire for the pardon of their sins. Professor Ernst 
 von Dobschiitz, in his Christian Life in the Primitive 
 Church, sets himself to describe the moral education 
 of the Church. It is true that he speaks of Christianity 
 entering into the world and ' gathering churches round 
 the gospel of God's forgiving grace ' ; but he bends his 
 whole strength to depict the condition of the morals 
 of the Church, and to describe the methods by which 
 the system of morals was inculcated. When we turn 
 to Harnack's Expansion of Christianity a similar 
 scene is presented. We know Harnack's limitations ; 
 but there is no denying his immense learning and his 
 unweariable powers of research. What does he say 
 about the doctrines preached by the Early Church ? 
 Summarizing the mission-preaching to pagans, the 
 type of which he thinks he finds in 1 Cor. xii. 2, 
 and 1 Thess. i. 9, 10, he says 
 
 Here we have the mission-preaching to pagans in a 
 nutshell. The ' living and true God ' is the first and 
 final thing ; the second is Jesus, the Son of God, the Judge, 
 who secures us against the wrath to come, and is therefore 
 * Jesus the Lord.' To the living God, who is now made 
 known, we owe faith and devoted service ; to God's Son as 
 Lord, our due is faith and hope. The contents of this 
 brief message -objective and subjective, positive and 
 negative are inexhaustible. Yet the messnge itself is
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 27 
 
 thoroughly compact and complete. It is objective and 
 positive as the message of the only God, who is spiritual, 
 omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, the Creator of heaven 
 and earth, the Lord and Father of men, and the great 
 disposer of human history ; furthermore, it is the message 
 which tells of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came from 
 heaven, made known the Father, died for sins, rose, sent 
 the Spirit hither, and from His seat at God's right hand 
 will return for the judgement ; finally, it is the message of 
 salvation brought by Jesus the Saviour, that is, freedom 
 from the tyranny of demons, sin, and death, together with 
 the gift of life eternal. Then it is objective and negative, 
 inasmuch as it announces the vanity of all other gods, and 
 forms a protest against idols of gold and silver and wood, 
 as well as against blind fate and atheism. Finally, it is 
 subjective, as it declares the uselessness of all sacrifice, all 
 temples, and all worship of man's devising, and opposes to 
 these the worship of God in spirit and in truth, assurance 
 of faith, holiness and self-control, love and brotherliness, 
 and, lastly, the solid certainty of the resurrection and of 
 life eternal, implying the futility of a present life which 
 lies exposed to future judgement. l 
 
 Although Harnack may be wrong in resting his 
 description of the mission-preaching to heathens upon 
 the passages he quotes from St. Paul, there can be no 
 doubt that, in process of time, the preaching of the 
 Church did assume the aspect he has depicted. 
 
 Not only did the evangelical note sound more 
 faintly as the years passed, but the motive of the 
 etliical teaching seems to have become less predomi- 
 nantly Christian. At the present time we are stirred 
 
 > Vol. i. pp. 108-110.
 
 28 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 to right conduct, not only by the voice of conscience, 
 which urges us to obey the commands of law, but 
 especially by a passionate desire to imitate our Lord. 
 The ' imitation of Christ ' is a phrase that is hallowed 
 by sacred association. We owe an infinite debt of 
 gratitude to Thomas a Kempis for reviving the idea. 
 But it is undeniable that through many ages of 
 Church history the possibility of such imitation was 
 undiscerned. We cannot indicate the moment when 
 the Church lost sight of the example of its Lord 
 and began to cultivate morals by obeying a verbal 
 ethical standard; but there can be no doubt that its 
 gaze was diverted, and that, as a consequence, immense 
 moral loss ensued. Harnack, in his Expansion of 
 CJiristianity, writes words which should bo seriously 
 pondered. He says 
 
 To ' imitate ' or * be like * Christ did not occupy the 
 place one would expect among the ethical counsels of the 
 age. Jesus had spoken of imitating God, and bidden men 
 follow Himself, whilst the relationship of pupil and teacher 
 readily suggested the formula of imitation. But whenever 
 He was recognized as Messiah, as the Son of God, as 
 Saviour and as Judge, the ideas of imitation and likeness 
 had to give way, although the Apostles still continued to 
 urge both in their epistles, and to hold up the mind, the 
 labours, and the sufferings of Jesus as an example. In the 
 Early Church the imitation of Christ never became a formal 
 principle of ethics (to use a modern phrase) except for the 
 virtuoso in religion, the ecclesiastic, the teacher, the ascetic, 
 or the martyr ; it played quite a subordinate part in the 
 ethical teaching of the Church. The injunction to be like
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 29 
 
 Christ, in the strict sense of the term, also occurred with 
 comparative rarity. Still, it is interesting to collect and 
 examine the passages relative to this point ; they show that 
 whilst a parallel was fully drawn between the life of Christ 
 and the career and conduct of distinguished Christians, 
 Buch as the emperors, the Early Church did not go to the 
 length of drawing up general regulations with regard to 
 the imitation of Christ. For one thing, the Christology 
 stood in the way, involving not imitation, but obedience ; 
 for another thing, the actual details of imitation seemed 
 too severe. Those who made the attempt were always 
 classed as Christians of a higher order (though even at 
 this early period they were warned against presumption), 
 so that the Catholic theory of 'evangelic counsels' has 
 quite a primitive root. 1 
 
 The student of the history of the Early Church, 
 in trying to discover the points of departure from 
 Apostolic teaching and experience, has no difficulty in 
 detecting the difference between the first and the 
 second methods of teaching ethics. Christ summed 
 up all commandments into the great command, and 
 showed that the love of God was the energizing force 
 which enabled a man to keep the law. The Apostle 
 Paul, continuing the teaching of his Master, declares 
 that love is the fulfilling of the law, and that, when a 
 man loves Christ and lives to be like Him, when he 
 is consumed with a passion to be as He was in this 
 world, then he walks according to the perfect law of 
 liberty. If the mind that was in Christ is in us, 
 then every Christian virtue is secured, then every 
 1 Vol. i. p. 107.
 
 30 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Christian work is done. It is pitiful to watch the 
 change that came over the experience of the Church 
 when morals were catechetically taught. We see the 
 creeping of the ice-sheet over the garden of the Lord, 
 the garden of the Lord that was once beautiful with 
 the flowers and fruits of a simple, loving Christian life. 
 Under the ice-sheets that spread over some parts of 
 the arctic regions, our explorers find the fossilized 
 flowers that once opened their beauty in the warmth of 
 the summer sun. Those flowers tell of nourishing soil 
 and quickening air. They are relics of a lost paradise. 
 When we note the frigid moralities of the post- Apostolic 
 Church, and compare them with the graces that sprang 
 up under the influence of the love of God in the 
 church of the Philippians, we can only attribute the 
 difference to the absence of atmosphere, and the veiling 
 of the radiance of the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 In tracing the processes by which ' godliness ' was 
 hardened into 'religion,' we must enter upon another 
 line of thought. In the glimpses we get of the 
 Church in its earliest stages, we find a fact that 
 much impresses us. Harnack shows that the spread 
 of Christianity, at the first, was not so much the 
 result of Apostolic preaching as of the work of those 
 who occupied a subordinate and, in some senses, an 
 unofficial position in the Church. As to the Apostles, 
 only one stands out in the New Testament as a 
 great missionary, and he was not of the original 
 twelve. St. Peter confined his work principally to
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 31 
 
 the Jews within the borders of his own country. St. 
 John went further, and probably was the Bishop of 
 Ephesus. The missionary labours of the other Apostles 
 are only known to us through the uncertain legends 
 of the Church. St. Paul is the great missionary ; he 
 is the man of whom we instinctively think when we 
 imagine the activities and the successes of the Christian 
 Church in the remotest times. 
 
 We must turn aside from the original Apostles if 
 we are to discover the agents in the missionary work 
 of the Early Church. We must think of other 
 ' apostles ' those workers who existed in the Church 
 after 70 A.D. and up to the middle of the second century. 
 These men were not the successors of 'the twelve,' 
 they were in the line of the ' other seventy also/ who 
 were sent out, two by two, as travelling evangelists 
 and missionaries. They preached the gospel from 
 place to place. They were itinerant preachers, who 
 had no fixed church, but went from town to town, 
 calling men to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. 
 Harnack says: 'They were not permanent, elected 
 officials of an individual church, but, primarily, inde- 
 pendent teachers, who ascribed their calling to a 
 divine command or charism.' The Teaching of the 
 Twelve contains interesting directions concerning these 
 wandering preachers. They were to be received 'as 
 the Lord,' but were only permitted to remain a day or 
 two in the Christian congregations which they visited. 
 This was a measure of protection. It was thought that
 
 32 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 a true apostle would be so full of zeal to preach the 
 gospel to the unconverted that he would not be able 
 to settle down for a lengthy period in one place. The 
 apostle was maintained by the church during his stay. 
 If he asked for money, that was a sign that he was a 
 false apostle. He received hospitality for two or three 
 days ; if he remained longer, ho had to work for his 
 living. If he refused, he was declared to be a 
 ' Christ-trafficker,' Le. one who makes merchandise of 
 his Christian profession, or uses the name of Christ for 
 selfish ends. 
 
 In close connexion with the apostles stand the 
 prophets. The distinction between an apostle and a 
 prophet, in respect of their sphere of action, seems to 
 be that the apostle was a missionary to the heathen, 
 and must not settle down in any church ; the prophet 
 was an instructor and comforter of converts, and, in 
 some cases, he was allowed to settle in a particular 
 congregation. As a rule, however, the prophets seem 
 to have belonged to the whole Church, and they 
 itinerated from place to place. They were specially 
 illuminated men, who possessed a gift of expounding 
 the deeper sense of the Scriptures, and of rousing the 
 consciences and stirring the hearts of their hearers. If 
 their addresses proved spiritually effective, then they 
 possessed the chief sign of the true prophet So far 
 as we know, this was the only proof demanded of them 
 as a warrant for their title and work. They were 
 maintained by the church to which they ministered.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 33 
 
 They must be poor. If any sign of avarice were 
 detected in them, that showed they were false prophets. 
 
 In addition to the apostles and prophets, the 
 itinerant preachers of the Early Church, there were 
 the teachers. Some think that the teachers of the 
 IHdacho were members of the congregation who 
 possessed the gift of instructive speech ; others, that 
 these men had a distinct office, and that, in general, 
 their work was to go about among the churches and 
 to minister edification, and support the spiritual life 
 of Christian people in various localities. Upon the 
 whole, it is probable that a teacher in the Early 
 Church was a man who was conscious of his own 
 gift and exercised it in public. He was not an elected 
 officer of the church ; the church had to decide whether 
 it would hear him. The genuineness of teachers, as 
 of apostles and prophets, was a matter for the con- 
 sideration and decision of the churches. The teachers 
 had a claim to be maintained by the church; but it 
 does not appear that they were forbidden to earn 
 money in other ways. 
 
 The apostles, prophets, and teachers were the 
 gospel ministers who occupied the highest positions in 
 the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic Church. But, in 
 addition, we find that other church officials are 
 mentioned, such as bishops, presbyters, and deacons. 
 We have seen that the highest order of Christian 
 preachers were, in the main, itinerant preachers. But 
 we readily admit that a ministry that is exclusively 
 
 D
 
 34 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 itinerant, some members of which only remain a day 
 or two in a particular locality, can never provide an 
 effective form of government for a large and ever- 
 increasing Church. It was necessary, therefore, that in 
 the individual churches there should be congregational 
 officers who would not only teach, but also govern, 
 and be principally responsible for the administration of 
 the affairs of the church. The difficulty was solved by 
 the creation of the offices of presbyter, or bishop, and 
 deacon. In the Didache we find that they were elected 
 or appointed by the people of the church they governed. 
 They derived their authority, not directly from the 
 Holy Spirit, as the apostles and prophets, but through 
 the medium of the church. They were to be worthy 
 of the Lord, meek and unselfish, truthful and of good 
 report, and to be honoured like the prophets and 
 teachers. 
 
 Dr. Schaff says that the bishops and deacons of 
 the Didache are evidently the same with those men- 
 tioned in the Acts and the Pauline epistles. He thinks 
 that the bishops were the regular teachers and rulers 
 who had the spiritual care of the flock ; the deacons 
 were the helpers who attended to the temporalities of 
 the church, especially having the care of the poor and 
 the sick. He also affirms that the bishops of the 
 Didacht are identical with the presbyters. It was 
 not until a later period, probably sometime in the 
 second century, that bishops, priests, and deacons were 
 distinguished as three separate orders in the Church.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 35 
 
 There can be no doubt that the chief credit for the 
 spread of Christianity belongs to the itinerant apostles, 
 prophets, and teachers. But, in addition, we must 
 remember that in those early days the members of the 
 Church played an important part in influencing the 
 pagan populations by which they were surrounded. In 
 proportion to the spirituality, the morality, and the 
 evangelizing zeal of a church, was the effect its members 
 produced on their heathen neighbours. Harnack's 
 conclusion is probably right. He says 
 
 It was characteristic of this religion that every one who 
 seriously confessed the faith proved of service to its pro- 
 paganda. Christians are to let their light shine, that pagans 
 may see their good works and glorify the Father in heaven. 
 If this dominated all their life, and if they lived according 
 to the precepts of their religion, they could not be hidden 
 at all ; by their very mode of living they could not fail to 
 preach their faith plainly and audibly. . . . We cannot 
 hesitate to believe that the great mission of Christianity 
 was in reality accomplished by means of informal mission- 
 aries. Justin says so quite explicitly. What won him over 
 was the impression made by the moral life which he found 
 among Christians in general. . . . We may safely assume, 
 too, that really women did play a leading r&le in the spread 
 of this religion. But it is impossible to see in any one 
 class of people inside the Church the chief agents of the 
 Christian propaganda. l 
 
 In seeking for the causes which have influenced the 
 Church, and which have diverted it from its true work 
 of propagating the gospel, we cannot overlook the need 
 
 1 Ezpantion of Chrittianity, Tol. i. pp. 459-461.
 
 36 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 for organizing the Church which we have mentioned. 
 It is useless to deny the necessity and value of such 
 organization. Without it the results gathered together 
 by enthusiastic workers gradually disappear. The 
 necessity of organization arises out of the constitution 
 of human nature ; it is a law written in our members. 
 So long as the social instinct survives and persists, so 
 long will organization be imperative. The problem 
 which an evangelizing Church has to solve, is so to 
 organize itself as that organization shall be the helper, 
 not the hinderer, of evangelization. If organization 
 prevents genuine evangelization, then it must be made 
 to yield. Those who have followed the course of the 
 Church through the ages know that the difficulty that 
 always confronts an evangelizing Church arises from 
 the dominance of an organization that is unpliable and 
 imperious. In such cases, organization, instead of 
 being a servant, becomes a tyrant. This danger, arising 
 from an inflexible organization, was soon revealed in 
 the experiences of the Early Church. The apostles and 
 prophets, even the evangelists, disappeared. 
 
 Then [says Schaff] the bishops absorbed all the higher 
 offices and functions, and became in the estimation of the 
 Church the successors of the apostles ; while the presbyters 
 became priests, and the deacons Levites in the new Christian 
 Catholic hierarchy. 
 
 In considering the forces which diverted the Primi- 
 tive Church from its mission, it is impossible to over- 
 look the great change which took place in the fourth
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 37 
 
 century, when Constantino took the Church under his 
 patronage, and let loose upon it the influences of the 
 world. We shall content ourselves by quoting the 
 words of John Wesley on this subject. In his sermon 
 entitled ' Of the Former Times/ he says 
 
 I have been long convinced, from the whole tenor of 
 ancient history, that this very event, Constantino's calling 
 himself a Christian, and pouring that flood of wealth and 
 honour on the Christian Church, the clergy in particular, 
 was productive of more evil to the Church than all the 
 ten persecutions put together. From the time that power, 
 riches, and honour of all kinds were heaped upon the 
 Christians, vice of all kinds came in like a flood, both on the 
 clergy and laity. From the time that the Church and 
 State, the kingdoms of Christ and of the world, were so 
 strangely and unnaturally blended together, Christianity 
 and Heathenism were so thoroughly incorporated with 
 each other that they will hardly ever be divided till Christ 
 comes to reign upon earth. So that, instead of fancying 
 that the glory of the New Jerusalem covered the earth 
 at that period, we have terrible proof that it was then, 
 and has ever since been, covered with the smoke of the 
 bottomless pit. 1 
 
 These words are undoubtedly strong, but they come 
 from the pen of a man who was conversant with Church 
 history, and who was stung to the quick by the 
 spectacle of the secularizing of the Primitive Church, 
 and the abandonment by that Church of the mission it 
 had received from the lips of its Lord. 
 
 1 Worla, vol. ii. p. 1C4.
 
 38 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 It is undoubted that a great fact is represented by 
 the connexion of the Church and the State. A Church 
 co-terminous with the State is an ideal after which 
 many men of the highest Christian character have 
 striven ; but the attempt to realize that ideal has been 
 attended with dangers which have assailed the Church 
 as a moral, a spiritual, and an evangelizing force. The 
 world has been too much with the Church j and, as a 
 rule, the world has conquered. The warning that the 
 weapons of our warfare are not carnal has been 
 neglected, or has fallen on deaf ears. Those weapons 
 have been taken up to advance the supposed interests 
 of the Church, and the result has been that there are 
 pages of Church history that are covered with records 
 of the persecution of Christian people by Christian 
 people which justify the sneers of Gibbon, and which 
 have left indelible disgrace on those who instigated and 
 practised them. But that is not all. When the spirit 
 of the world pervades the Church, when it captures 
 and subdues its ministers, then the love of luxury, the 
 love of office, and the love of meddling with civil affairs, 
 threaten the existence of the evangelist. When all 
 seek their own, who has time or inclination to follow 
 the wandering souls of men ? In such times the 
 evangelist disappears, and his place is taken by the 
 ' priest/ who obtrudes himself, the sacraments, and the 
 Church into the position where the evangelist would 
 have put the living Saviour. 
 
 In searching for the causes which diverted the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 39 
 
 Primitive Church from its task, and led it to abandon 
 its mission, there is one other subject upon which we 
 must touch in closing our survey. There can be no 
 doubt that, after the age of the Twelve Apostles, the 
 manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the 
 Church and the world assumed another form. We do 
 not speak now of the extraordinary evidences which 
 He gave of His presence in the bestowment of gifts of 
 healing and of speaking with tongues. We do nob 
 know when these extraordinary gifts ceased. Wesley, 
 speaking on the subject in his sermon on 'The More 
 Excellent Way,' says 
 
 It docs not appear that these extraordinary gifts were 
 common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. 
 We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the 
 Emperor Constantino called himself a Christian. . . . From 
 that time they almost totally ceased ; very few instances 
 of the kind were found. The cause of this was not, as 
 has been vulgarly supposed, 'because there was no more 
 occasion for them,' because all the world was become 
 Christians. This is a miserable mistake ; not a twentieth 
 part of it was then nominally Christian. The real cause 
 was ' the love of many,' almost of all Christians, so called, 
 was 'waxed cold.' The Christians had no more of the 
 Spirit of Christ than the other Heathens. The Son of 
 Man, when He came to examine His Church, could hardly 
 find ' faith upon earth ' I This was the real cause why the 
 extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be 
 found in the Christian Church ; because the Christians 
 were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left. 1 
 
 1 Worlit, voL vii. pp. 26, 27.
 
 40 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Our concern now is not so much with the extra- 
 ordinary gifts that the Spirit bestowed on the churches, 
 as with the manifestations of His presence which light 
 up the story of the Acts of the Apostles with wonderful 
 radiance. We have seen that both in the Jewish and 
 the Gentile Pentecosts there was a remarkable display 
 of the Spirit's presence. It came in answer to prayer ; 
 it came at the moment when a living faith in Christ 
 as the ransomer from sin was exercised. We also 
 remember that interesting case which occurred at 
 Ephesus, when certain disciples of John the Baptist, 
 who had accepted the doctrine of repentance, but who 
 had not passed into the clear light of the teaching 
 which concerns the forgiveness of sins, told St. Paul 
 that they had never heard that when a man believes 
 he receives the Holy Ghost. They were bewildered 
 wanderers in the twilight ; but St. Paul brought them 
 into the sunshine of noon. Then, when they believed 
 in the Lord Jesus that is, when they believed in Him 
 as the Saviour from sin the Holy Spirit came upon 
 them as He came upon those who were assembled in 
 the upper room and in the house of Cornelius. We 
 hold that whatever may have been the intention of 
 God respecting 'extraordinary gifts,' the descent of 
 the Holy Spirit upon a man who believes in Christ 
 to the forgiveness of his sins was intended to be a 
 perpetual experience in the Church. 
 
 But, further, the manifestations of the Spirit were 
 not confined to the occasions when penitent sinners
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 41 
 
 confessed their sins and found pardon. There are 
 some, in the present day, who upbraid us because 
 we pray for the coming of the Spirit. They say that 
 the Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, and that 
 we need not implore Him to descend again. Perhaps 
 our phraseology may be imperfect, but we must be 
 careful lest we lose our hold of the fact that the gift 
 of the Spirit to individuals and to churches is repeated. 
 The Holy Spirit is present at all times in the Church 
 and the world, but it is not always that His light 
 glows before our eyes. It is in special moments that 
 He comes to us and thrills us with His touch. Let 
 us remember that, before the day of Pentecost, the 
 Psalmist had uttered that most pathetic prayer, ' Take 
 not Thy Holy Spirit from me.' Before the day of 
 Pentecost Christ had breathed on His disciples, and 
 had bestowed the Holy Spirit upon them. After the 
 day of Pentecost, when the Church welcomed St. Peter 
 and St. John, who had returned from the council, in 
 answer to prayer 'the place was shaken wherein they 
 were gathered together ; and they were all filled with 
 the Holy Ghost.' Other passages of Scripture teach 
 the fact that the Holy Spirit was not once for all given 
 on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 There can be no doubt that to individuals and to 
 churches, in answer to prayer, the Spirit was repeatedly 
 given. And when the Spirit was so given, the fainting 
 soul was revived ; the frightened church was quickened 
 ami spake the word with boldness; a change was effected
 
 42 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 which excited the astonishment of the bystanders ; a fire 
 fell from heaven which purified the church and caused 
 it to respond to the prophetic cry, 'Arise, shine, thy 
 light is come; the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
 thee.' 
 
 These occasions may be called times of revival. 
 The word 'revival' is old. The Psalmist pleads: 
 ' Wilt Thou not revive us again, that Thy people may 
 rejoice in Thee ? ' New life bringing a new joy 
 that is a fair description of a revival of religion. 
 In searching the history of the Church, after the 
 close of the Apostolic age and onward through gloomy 
 and dreary centuries, we fail to find that the doctrine 
 of the Holy Spirit was maintained in the form in 
 which it is presented to us in the New Testament. 
 Let us not do an injustice to the Church. In all 
 times some men and women, who have been the 
 bright particular stars of the firmament, have practised 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit, and have shone with 
 His light and beauty. But we contend that, in the 
 history of the Church, there have been centuries in 
 which the presence and work of the Holy Spirit 
 have only been officially recognized. During those 
 depressing and dangerous ages the gifts of the Spirit 
 have been unappropriated by the living faith of a 
 living Church. Indeed, they have been considered 
 the peculiar possession of a privileged religious caste. 
 When a revival of religion shakes the land, one of 
 the truths which is most quickly demonstrated is
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 43 
 
 that the Lord has poured out His Spirit as a free 
 gift 'upon all flesh.' The experiences of the day of 
 Pentecost repeat themselves, and the weary Church, 
 finding its lost youth, walks in the morning light of 
 Apostolic days.
 
 44 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 II 
 
 The Social Condition of England 
 
 THE Revival of Religion in England in the 
 eighteenth century was a national event. 
 The far-seeing historian gives it a prominent 
 place in his description of the reigns of the Georges, 
 because he perceives its profound influence on the 
 social, moral, and religious condition of the country. 
 The man who writes upon the eighteenth century 
 without a knowledge of the existence and work of 
 John Wesley is unfit for the task he has too pre- 
 cipitately taken in hand. 
 
 It is admitted that Wesley changed the spirit of 
 the age in which he lived. It is impossible to estimate 
 the magnitude of that change unless we form some 
 idea of the condition of England at the time when 
 the great evangelist did his revolutionary work. We 
 will try to give details from which that condition 
 may be judged. 
 
 Macaulay, in the famous third chapter of his 
 History, which contains his sketch of England in the 
 seventeenth century, affirms that, if the England of
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 45 
 
 1G85 could, by sonio magical process, bo set before 
 our eyes, 
 
 we should not know one landscape in a hundred, or 
 one building in ten thousand. The country gentleman 
 would not recognize his own fields. The inhabitant of 
 the town would not recognize his own street. Everything 
 has been changed but the great features of nature, and a 
 few massive and durable works of human art. Everything 
 would be strange to us. Many thousands of square miles 
 which are now rich corn-land and meadow, intersected by 
 green hedgerows, and dotted with villages and pleasant 
 country seats, would appear as moors overgrown with 
 furze, or fens abandoned to wild ducks. We should see 
 straggling huts built of wood and covered with thatch, 
 where we now see manufacturing towns and seaports 
 renowned to the farthest ends of the world. The capital 
 itself would shrink to dimensions not much exceeding 
 those of its present suburb on the south of the Thames. 1 
 
 Macaulay's vivid words come to our mind when 
 we try to imagine the condition of England in the 
 century which witnessed the work and the triumphs 
 of the Evangelical Eevival. With slight alteration 
 the description applies to the eighteenth century. 
 We are so accustomed to the England of to-day, with 
 its huge towns and its abounding population, that we 
 find it difficult to understand that it was not until 
 the nineteenth century that the aspect of the country 
 was strikingly transformed. The best authorities 
 agree that the population of England remained 
 stationary from the fourteenth to the seventeenth 
 
 1 Hittory, vol. i. p. 292, Cabinet ed.
 
 46 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 century; then came a time of rapid increase, which 
 began to manifest itself in the eighteenth century; 
 but, as we have suggested, the increase did not reach 
 an astonishing rate until the last century. Then the 
 big towns spread over the green fields and began to 
 swallow up the country. 
 
 England, at the close of Elizabeth's reign, only 
 contained two and a half millions of persons. In 
 the time of James II, the population, according to 
 Macaulay's estimate, was between five and five and a 
 half millions. But, in the seventeenth century, owing 
 to the growth of agriculture, and probably to the 
 increasing activity of the English in textile industries, 
 there was an extraordinary addition to the population 
 of the island. In his Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 
 Professor Thorold Eogers estimates the population of 
 England in 1772 as seven and a half, or, possibly, 
 eight millions. 1 It will be seen that, as compared 
 with our present numbers, the population of England 
 in the eighteenth century was small. 
 
 It may assist us to understand the condition of 
 the country in respect of population if we note that, 
 in 1700, London contained only about five hundred 
 and fifty thousand inhabitants. Fifty years later the 
 population had increased by not more than fifty 
 thousand. When John Wesley formed his Society in 
 the Foundery, he lived in a city that contained less 
 than six hundred thousand persons. 
 1 P. 477.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 47 
 
 The size of London in the eighteenth century im- 
 presses us by its comparative insignificance. But when 
 we turn to the country the contrast between the past and 
 the present is even more striking. If we begin in the 
 North we are instantly reminded of Macaulay's descrip- 
 tion of the sparsely populated land. Lancashire in the 
 seventeenth century was scantily peopled. It was one 
 of the poorest of the English counties. It took rank 
 with Cumberland. When the various counties were 
 assessed for ship-money in 1636, the two counties 
 stood nearly at the bottom of the list in respect of 
 opulence. As to the matter of population, in 1773 
 Liverpool contained 34,407 inhabitants, and Manchester 
 and Salford 27,246. The return for Bolton and Little 
 Bolton in the same year is 5,339; and for Bury, in 
 1772, 2,090. Yorkshire was sprinkled over with little 
 towns, and was one of the poorest counties. Even 
 Leeds, in 1775, only contained 17,121 persons. 
 
 Journeying from the sparsely populated North, and 
 passing through the Midlands, we find that England, 
 in the eighteenth century, was a country of small 
 towns and little villages, which were encompassed by 
 great stretches of waste and poorly cultivated land. 
 We pause for a moment at Birmingham. A note on 
 Westley's ' Plan ' of the town informs us that in 1700 
 it contained 15,082 inhabitants. After that date it 
 rapidly increased. In 1731 the population numbered 
 about 24,000 persons. 
 
 Leaving Birmingham and journeying into the West,
 
 48 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 we still feel that the England of the eighteenth century 
 was an unoccupied country. The only town that 
 arrests our attention is Bristol. In the middle of the 
 century its population was 33,000. In 1775 Bristol, 
 Clifton, and Bedminster contained at least 35,440 
 inhabitants. When we remember that, in the eigh- 
 teenth century, Bristol was the second city in the 
 kingdom, we may judge of the size of other towns. 
 
 In these days, when a Manchester man travels to 
 London in the morning, transacts business in the city, 
 and returns to his northern home in the evening ; when 
 England thrills, as in a moment, at the report of some 
 great event contained in the newspapers; when the 
 heart-throb of London is felt throughout the Empire, it 
 is difficult to understand the condition of isolation in 
 which the capital stood during the eighteenth century. 
 The problem does not only concern the relation of 
 London to the provinces. It is a singular fact that the 
 districts of London were divided from each other by 
 sharp lines. Sydney, in his England and the English 
 in the Eighteenth Century, says 
 
 Though the extent of the city was commensnrately 
 limited, the inhabitants of the various districts which it 
 comprised were not only almost totally unacquainted with 
 each other, but were quite distinct in their habits, manners, 
 and characteristics. Obviously, this common ignorance 
 originated in the complete lack of communication which 
 then existed, and which precluded one section of the com- 
 munity from paying frequent visits to the other section. 
 . . . Such a state of isolation tended to produce peculiarities.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 49 
 
 These peculiarities were never corrected, and the consequence 
 was that those resident in the districts situated to the west 
 of Temple Bar differed as much from the householders and 
 shopkeepers of Bishopsgate Without, Whitechapel, Stepney, 
 and the other localities which lay on the Essex side of the 
 City, as they now do from the peasantry of Brittany, or the 
 Western Pyrenees. 1 
 
 The fact of the isolation of the districts into which 
 London was divided in the eighteenth century has been 
 overlooked by those historians who have only been 
 conscious of the life, the thought, the acts, and the 
 manners of the people who lived west of Temple Bar. 
 The greatest discovery that the modern historian has 
 made is the discovery of the people of England. In 
 the eighteenth century, the leaders of the Church and 
 of the State seemed to be ignorant of the existence of 
 what we call 'the masses.' They little thought that, 
 in the next century, the crowds that moved before 
 their eyes as in a haze would emerge into sun-bright 
 clearness, holding in their hands the mastery of the 
 nation. 
 
 If the districts of London were isolated from each 
 other, what shall be said of the relation of the provinces to 
 the mother city ? Picturesque writers and imaginative 
 artists have done much to make the eighteenth century 
 fascinating and charming. Sketches of old coaching 
 days embellish the pages of daintily bound books, and 
 the exquisite scenes which are pictured elicit from the 
 1 Vol. i. p. 43. 
 
 E
 
 50 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 unwary enthusiast a passionate cry for ' the good old 
 times.' But hard facts interfere with artistic illusions. 
 Let any man read the descriptions of the adventures of 
 Arthur Young, as he plunged through the morasses 
 and quagmires which by courtesy were called roads, 
 in his attempts to ascertain the agricultural condition 
 of the counties of England, and he will sympathize 
 with the strong language which the testy traveller 
 so frequently employed. Not only was the state 
 of the roads abominable, but, even where they were 
 sufficiently sound to bear the passage of a stage-coach, 
 any attempt to travel from the provincial towns to 
 London was fraught with so much peril that only the 
 most urgent necessity induced men to undertake it. 
 Let us select one instance. At the present time the 
 journey from Liverpool to London is quickly and safely 
 accomplished in a few hours. Sydney tells us that, in 
 1753, intercourse between Liverpool and London, as 
 well as between that port and the interior of the 
 country, was very rare. In that year there was not a 
 single stage-coach that left Liverpool for any other 
 town than London. The journey to the metropolis 
 occupied four days, and this was considered very swift 
 travelling. 
 
 The old Lancashire and Cheshire stage-wagons, which 
 started from the Axe Inn, Aldermanbury, London, every 
 Monday and Thursday, were ten days on the road in summer 
 and eleven in winter. 1 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 19.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 51 
 
 It was not until April, 1774, that a stage-coach 
 began to run between Liverpool, Warrington, and 
 Manchester, and that only ran thrice a week. The 
 expresses now flash along the line from Liverpool to 
 Manchester every hour, and accomplish the journey in 
 forty-five minutes. The flight of the express and the 
 crawl of the stage-wagon mark the difference between 
 the eighteenth and the present century. 
 
 If London was an isolated city, if the provincial 
 towns were nearly cut off from communication with 
 each other and with the capital, what was the condition 
 of the villages ? Professor Eogers says 
 
 There is, I believe, no part of the "Western world in 
 which so little change was induced on the fortunes, on the 
 life, and on the habita of the people, as there has been in 
 rural England from the peaceful reign of Heury III to the 
 earlier years of George III. 1 
 
 What does that statement imply ? It implies that 
 the villages were so completely shut off from all inter- 
 course with the other parts of the country that, for 
 five centuries and a half, that is, for fifteen or sixteen 
 generations, there was no appreciable alteration in the 
 condition of the rustics of England. Rogers further 
 says 
 
 Changes of dynasty, civil wars, changes in religion, had 
 occurred without making a break, or leaving a memory, in 
 the routine of rural existence. 
 
 1 Six Ckntvrie$ of Work and Wage$, p. 86.
 
 52 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Now and again, in these days, we are sometimes 
 startled by reports of incidents in village life which 
 seem to indicate that for hundreds of years, in secluded 
 spots, time has stood still. At the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, the rural life of England proceeded 
 along the dull dead level on which it had moved since 
 the days of Henry III. 
 
 When we have sufficiently considered the indis- 
 putable fact of the isolation of the capital from the 
 towns, and of both from the villages and hamlets of 
 England in the eighteenth century, we shall begin to 
 perceive one element of the problem that was faced 
 and solved by the men who were the leaders in the 
 Revival which transformed and transfigured the face 
 of England. We watch with interest and wonder 
 John Wesley and his comrades pushing their way on 
 horseback over wild mountains, into valleys and dales 
 which were inaccessible to ordinary travellers. We 
 can understand why John Wesley so often records the 
 ' staring ' of the people who crowded round him. The 
 sight of a strange face in some of the towns and in 
 all of the villages of England in the eighteenth century, 
 excited amazement, and furnished a thrilling topic of 
 conversation at the ale-bench and the hearth- side. 
 
 At the present time, the social condition of the 
 people of England is attracting keen attention. 
 Abundant statistics are being gathered, and the 
 theorist and the practical man make use of them 
 according to the bent of their minds. In the eighteenth
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 53 
 
 century a few enlightened men studied the condition 
 of sections of the population, but it is difficult to dis- 
 cover any complete survey of the state of the people at 
 large. Professor Kogers, in his Six Centuries of Work 
 and Wages, has laid us under an enduring obligation, 
 and from the pages of his invaluable book it is possible 
 to get a glimpse of a fascinating subject. 
 
 Guided by Professor Kogers, we find that, judged 
 by the standard of wages, and comparing the wages 
 received with the cost of the necessaries of life, the 
 fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth century 
 were ' the golden age of the English labourer.' In the 
 sixteenth century his circumstances changed. Hard 
 times set in, and, with various fluctuations, con- 
 tinued. In the first half of the eighteenth century, 
 however, the agricultural labourer was better off than 
 he had been since the 'golden age.' The calculations 
 in Professor Eogers's book are carefully made, and 
 are reliable. In the eyes of a town mechanic, at the 
 present time, the wages paid to farm-labourers, even 
 in an ' age of gold,' would appear contemptible, but the 
 modern mechanic is often oblivious of the fact that 
 the amount of wage must be measured by its capacity 
 to meet absolutely necessary expenses. Cheap and 
 abundant food, a life lived in surroundings that con- 
 duce to health, the absence of temptations to spend 
 money on unnecessary things, all must be considered 
 when we are asked to decide the question of wage. 
 There can be little doubt that, at the present time,
 
 54 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 many agricultural labourers are in a better condition 
 than thousands of the artisans of our towns; in the 
 first half of the eighteenth century the superiority of 
 the position of the agricultural labourer in some parts 
 of the country is undeniable. The villages were left 
 To dumb forgetfulness a prey; 
 
 their inhabitants were afflicted with an apathy that 
 irritates a modern progressive; the cottages in which 
 the people herded defied every law of sanitary science ; 
 the men possessed the uninquiring mind of the serf; the 
 women drudged; most of the children were uneducated: 
 but, so far as food for the body is concerned, and so far 
 as a superficial happiness is concerned, 
 
 Sweet Anbnrn, loveliest village of the plain, 
 
 is not altogether a fanciful picture created by Gold- 
 smith's graceful pen. 
 
 Considerable information concerning the condition 
 of the working classes in the eighteenth century may 
 be gathered from Professor Eogers's pages. We will 
 content ourselves by noting a few facts that will cast 
 light upon the people among whom John Wesley and 
 his fellow evangelists did their principal work. It is 
 fortunate that Arthur Young does not content himself 
 with giving us information about the wages paid 
 for agricultural labour exclusively ; he also inserts 
 information concerning the price paid to other workers. 
 Professor Rogers, gathering this information together, 
 says that the highest wages were earned by colliers.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 55 
 
 At Newcastle they could get 15s. a week, and at 
 Wakefield 11.5. In iron and cutlery works the weekly 
 wages were 10s. at Rotherham and 13s. 6d. at Sheffield. 
 Workmen in porcelain at Liverpool, Burslem, and 
 Worcester received, respectively, 8s. lid., 9s. 6^., and 
 9s. The average weekly payment for spinning and 
 weaving was 8s. 7d. ; the lowest wages, out of seven 
 localities, being paid at Manchester for fustians, 7s. Id. ; 
 the highest at Wakefield for cloth, 10s. The average 
 wages of women in textile manufactures was 4s. 2^d. ; 
 of boys, 2s. ll\d. ; and of girls, 2s. 7d. The drugget- 
 weavers of Braintree earned about 9s. ; the wool-combers 
 12s. ; the Wilton carpet- weavers from 10s. to 12s. ; the 
 Gloucester pin-makers from 10s. to 12s. ; the woollen 
 manufacturers of Henningham, 7s.; the combers from 
 12s. to 14s. ; the steel-polishers of Woodstock from 
 15s. to 42s. ; the blanket-weavers of Witney from 10s. 
 to 12s. The best-paid workmen in textile fabrics were 
 the wool-combers, who earned on an average, wherever 
 they were, about 13s. a week ; the lowest, the say and 
 calamanco weavers of Lavenham, who were paid 5s. 9d 
 Comparing these wages with those paid in some 
 localities to the agricultural labourer, we are not sur- 
 prised to find evidence of the townward drift, which 
 has become so pronounced in our own time. The best- 
 paid agricultural labourers were those in Kent and 
 Middlesex, and they received a weekly wage of 11s. 4cZ. 
 The worst paid were those of Gloucestershire and Wilt- 
 shire ; they got 5s. 2^d. a week. Young tells us that,
 
 5 6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 taking all things together, the wages of the manufactur- 
 ing labourer were, on the average, Sd. a week beyond 
 those of the agricultural labourer. He incidentally 
 mentions that in the West of England the farm- 
 labourers were paid only 5s. and 6s. all the year round. 
 Turning from those whom we are accustomed to 
 call the 'working classes,' we must briefly refer to 
 the condition of the shopkeepers and the traders of 
 London and the provinces. Their position, judged by 
 the sketches which have survived in the pages of the 
 novelists of the period, differed greatly from that of the 
 tradesmen of the present day. In country towns, especi- 
 ally, their life was slow and comparatively uneventful. 
 Their goods were brought to them by stage-wagons that 
 crawled along the ill-kept roads, or were carried by 
 pack-horses, that plunged through the mud in which 
 they nearly foundered. The shops were small, ill- 
 lighted, and contained a scanty supply of goods. 
 Market-day brought some bustle into the country 
 towns ; but, at other times, the tradesman had leisure 
 to bask in the sunshine at the door of his shop, or to 
 gossip with his cronies at the ale-house table. It is 
 difficult to estimate the average income of ths eighteenth- 
 century shopkeeper, but one thing must be borne in 
 mind on the trading class fell, with crushing weight, 
 that great burden of taxation which was the result of 
 the prolonged campaigns that were fought on the 
 Continent. Those taxes made serious inroads on their 
 uncertain income, and extorted from them many a
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 57 
 
 groan. In 'London, trade was more briskly and profit- 
 ably done, but, even there, the citizen was only too 
 familiar with that dark figure of Care which still dogs 
 the footsteps of the man of commerce. 
 
 Above the labourers and the tradesmen, in social 
 rank, stood 'the upper classes.' They dwelt in a 
 region of their own. That region lay far from the 
 common tracks of men. Its line of demarcation was 
 sharply defined. We do not think that the aloofness 
 of the upper classes arose, in all cases, from any 
 conscious contempt for persons who were in an inferior 
 social position. It seemed rather the product of 
 indifference. East of Temple Bar was an unknown 
 country. With rare exceptions, the people who lived 
 there were uninteresting and not worth discovering. 
 And so the members of the ' upper classes ' lived 
 within the ring fence of 'good Society.' They 
 consorted together to talk politics and literature and 
 art in coffee-house and club; they cultivated luxury 
 and pleasure with an assiduity which, if the same 
 energy had been spent on nobler things, would have 
 raised England to a conspicuous height of moral 
 greatness ; they excited themselves over trifles, and 
 wasted in frivolity and dilettantism the golden oppor- 
 tunities God had given them for the service of man ; 
 and, all the time, millions of Englishmen lay around 
 them perishing of neglect. We keenly appreciate 
 the literary and artistic aspects of the eighteenth 
 century; we recognize the efforts of Addison and
 
 58 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Johnson to raise the moral tone of the literature and of 
 the cultured people of the day; but it is difficult to 
 restrain our impatience in the presence of the fatal 
 paralysis of sympathy which made it impossible for 
 the upper classes to imagine those reforms which, in a 
 brighter and more vitalized age, have changed the 
 condition of the people of England. Mr. Sydney has 
 gathered together, in liis England and the English in 
 the Eighteenth Century, a number of remarkable facts 
 relating to the condition of the upper classes in the 
 times of which he writes. We shrink from his 
 conclusion that ' nine-tenths of the English people of 
 quality in the eighteenth century were either knaves 
 or fools.' 1 It is difficult to resist the evidence he 
 produces ; but charity suggests a more lenient verdict. 
 It is unfortunate when the ' people of quality ' in a 
 country are devoid of a sense of responsibility ; when 
 they lack moral earnestness; when they are out of 
 touch with the rest of their countrymen ; when the 
 spectacle they exhibit to those who are eager to imitate 
 them is that of a luxurious race loving pleasure and 
 forgetting God. 
 
 When we turn from the contemplation of the 
 classes whose condition we have considered, we find 
 that we have not finished our investigation into the 
 condition of the people of England. The lower sections 
 of the working classes are always subject to varia- 
 tions of fortune which tend to make their lot hard 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 123.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 59 
 
 and cruel. Beneath them, in this country, there are 
 many thousands who have no claim to be considered 
 as workers : they live in the helplessness and 
 suffering that are the results of habitual poverty. 
 During the earlier years of the eighteenth century, 
 the condition of the country, as we have seen, was 
 prosperous; but after a time harvests failed, prices 
 rose, work was scarce, and thousands of the English 
 people were brought to the verge of starvation. In 
 London the existence of poverty was marked. Sydney 
 considers that much of this poverty was due to early 
 and improvident marriages, to unthrifty habits, and 
 to drunkenness ; but, on the other hand, he thinks 
 that a vast amount of it arose from the lack of 
 employment. Hundreds who were able and willing 
 to work could not find in London any means of 
 subsistence. 1 
 
 Dr. Wendeborn, a German minister who lived for 
 many years during the eighteenth century in London, 
 was much impressed by the spectacle of English 
 poverty. He says 
 
 There are in no country Buch large contributions raised 
 for the support of the poor as in England, yet there is 
 nowhere so great a number of them ; and their condition, 
 in comparison with the poor of other countries, appears 
 truly the most miserable. They never seem to be appre- 
 hensive, or to think of making any provision for a time 
 of want. In Germany and other northern countries of 
 
 > Vol. i. p. 66.
 
 60 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Europe, the poor keep always in mind that it is cold in 
 winter, and that no harvests or fruits can be reaped from 
 the earth while it is covered with snow. On this account 
 they consider in time the warmer clothing they will then 
 require, and lay up such a store of provisions as their 
 circumstances allow, in order to prepare themselves in the 
 best manner possible for the inclemency of that season. But, 
 in England, it seems as if the poor and necessitous never 
 looked forward, or would not trouble themselves to think 
 of what may happen to them in future. They neither 
 foresee the winter's cold, nor the scarcity of that season ; 
 and, therefore, when it arrives, are the most forlorn beings 
 imaginable. The lower classes of people have no disposi- 
 tion to be frugal or provident. When trade becomes dull 
 and employment scanty, they who maintained themselves by 
 their labour must either beg or obtain support for them- 
 selves and their families from the parish. In those counties 
 and towns where manufactures are carried on, there is for 
 this very reason the greatest number of poor ; for as soon 
 as any particular branch of them is on the decline, the 
 workmen who were employed in it are threatened with 
 want, and in danger of starving. 1 
 
 In another place, he says 
 
 In no other country are more poor to be seen than in 
 England, and in no city a greater number of beggars than 
 in London. A foreigner who hears of many millions 
 annually raised for the benefit of the poor . . . will find 
 himself unable to explain how it happens, that in his 
 walks he is, almost every hundred yards, disturbed by 
 the lamentations of unfortunate persons who demand his 
 charity. 3 
 
 1 A. View of England towardi the Clote of the Eighteenth Century, 
 Yol. i. p. 113. 
 1 Ibid., p. 384.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 61 
 
 In Professor Kogers's Six Centuries of Work and 
 Wages the question of poverty is exhaustively discussed. 
 "With much skill, insight, and knowledge, he states the 
 problem which still awaits solution. At the present 
 moment we are only concerned with it in its relation to 
 the eighteenth century. With the authority of a master 
 of his subject, Mr. Eogers declares that, with the 
 exception of about fifty years in the earlier part of the 
 eighteenth century, ' the wages of labour have been a 
 bare subsistence, constantly supplemented by the poor- 
 rate.' 1 In modern times a considerable amelioration 
 in the condition of some kinds of labour has been 
 effected, but there can be no doubt that Kogers's state- 
 ment is correct so far as concerns the condition of 
 labourers' wages during the second half of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the nation was callous 
 to the appeal made by the sufferings of the poor. 
 Much poverty was relieved by private benevolence, and 
 more by doles from the poor-rates. The annual expen- 
 diture in poor-rates is said to have trebled between the 
 close of the reign of Anne and the year 1750. The 
 sum raised astonished a foreigner like Dr. Wendeborn. 
 It amounted to, at least, three millions. He cries 
 
 The revenues of the kingdom of Denmark are six 
 millions of thalers, which answers to one million of pounds 
 sterling ; and those of Sweden amount hardly to a million 
 and a half, English money. With hah* of the provision of 
 
 p. 4.
 
 62 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the poor in England, therefore, whole realms, crowns, 
 armies, navies, and other expenses of the State are sup- 
 ported 1 How much matter is here for an arithmetician, 
 a financier, and a philosophic observer 1 l 
 
 Although Dr. Wendeborn does not 'presume' to 
 say that the funds for the poor were mismanaged and 
 misapplied, other writers have not exercised a similar 
 reticence. Dr. Franklin, for instance, roundly affirmed 
 that the enormous sum collected annually for the poor 
 in England ' increased their number as well as their 
 wretchedness.' 
 
 We have spoken of the extraordinary ignorance of 
 each other which, like a black dividing-line, separated 
 class from class in the England of the eighteenth 
 century. That line was strongly marked, and its 
 existence was constantly evidenced. If we wish to 
 understand how much the governing classes of a 
 country know of the conditions of those whom they 
 govern, we ought to inspect their criminal code. If 
 we find that it only contains measures of repression 
 and punishment, we may be sure that its framers know 
 little of the people whom they so shamefully mis- 
 govern. Let us apply this test to the England of the 
 eighteenth century. Every man who is acquainted 
 with the code then existing will be of Kogers's opinion, 
 that 
 
 the desperation which poverty and misery produce, 
 and the crime they suggest, were met by a code 
 
 1 A View of England, vol. i. p. 117.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 63 
 
 more sanguinary and brutal than any which a civilized 
 nation had ever heretofore devised, or a high-spirited 
 one submitted to. 1 
 
 Sir Samuel Romilly, in his Observations on a Late 
 Publication, intituled TJioughts on Executive Justice, 
 reviews the criminal law of England, and says 
 
 The first thing which strikes one is the melancholy 
 truth that among the variety of actions which men are 
 daily liable to commit, no less than one hundred and sixty 
 have been declared by Act of Parliament to be felonies 
 without benefit of clergy ; or, in other words, to be worthy 
 of instant death. * 
 
 Bomilly founds his statement on Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries; and, in a note, he draws attention to the fact 
 that, since the publication of those Commentaries, the 
 number of felonies had been considerably augmented 
 by the legislature. Sydney says 
 
 To steal a horse or a sheep ; to snatch property from 
 the hands of a man and run away with it ; to steal to 
 the amount of forty shillings in a dwelliug-house, or 
 privately to the value of five shillings in a shop ; to pick 
 a pocket of only twelve pence and a farthing ; these offences 
 all continued till the end of the eighteenth century to be 
 punishable with death. 3 
 
 Mr. John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the 
 Eighteenth Century, gives a list of the persons executed 
 in that city during the first half of the eighteenth 
 
 1 Six Centuriei of Work and Waget, p. 490. p. 6. 
 
 * England and the Englith, vol. ii. pp. 268, 269.
 
 64 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 century. The list is confessedly incomplete, but, so 
 far as we can judge by its details, executions for 
 murder were comparatively infrequent. Out of the 
 seventy-seven criminals whose cases and crimes are 
 cited, only eighteen suffered death for murder. The 
 rest were executed for offences which would now be 
 punished by imprisonment It is no wonder that the 
 number of executions in England was great. Lecky 
 tells us that, when Blackstone wrote, it was a very 
 ordinary occurrence for ten or twelve culprits to be 
 hung on a single occasion, and for forty or fifty to 
 be condemned at a single assize. In 1732 no less 
 than seventy persons received sentence of death at 
 the Old Bailey. In the same year eighteen persons 
 were hung in one day in the town of Cork. 1 
 
 Execution by hanging was not the only form of 
 punishment inflicted on criminals. The barbarities 
 inflicted on a man who waa found guilty of high 
 treason are too horrible to be described. It is enough 
 to say that, so late as 1746, eight persons were slowly 
 done to death by the hands of the executioner. If a 
 man refused to plead on a capital charge, then the law 
 directed that he was to be laid naked on his back, in a 
 dark room, and weights of stone or iron were to be 
 placed on his breast till he died. This hideous punish- 
 ment was inflicted in England in 1721 and in 1735. 
 A criminal was sentenced to the same fate in 1741, 
 but he escaped by at last consenting to plead. This 
 
 1 Hittory of England, vol. i. p. 505.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 65 
 
 disgraceful law was not repealed till^ 1771. It is 
 almost incredible that women who were found guilty 
 of murdering their husbands, or of tho other offences 
 comprised under the terms high or petit treason, were 
 publicly burnt, in accordance with a law which was 
 not abolished till 1790. It is true that in practice, 
 before the fire touched the body of the woman, the 
 executioner mercifully strangled the victim ; but some- 
 times, as in a case which occurred in 1726, the fire 
 interfered with the process of strangulation, and a 
 considerable time elapsed before the agonies of the 
 woman were ended. 
 
 It is painful to record these brutalities, but it is 
 impossible to understand the temper of the English 
 people in the eighteenth century unless we do so. An 
 utter callousness to the sufferings of criminals pre- 
 vailed. We may go further. Those sufferings were 
 a source of pleasurable excitement to the crowds that 
 witnessed them. When the death-carts rumbled along 
 the road from Newgate to Tyburn, the pavements were 
 crowded with spectators. From the windows of tha 
 houses, hosts of people looked out with admiration 
 upon the jaunty men who, with nosegays on their 
 breasts, journeyed on the solemn path that broke 
 away so suddenly into eternity. Let the wanderer 
 along the present Oxford Street imagine the scene. 
 Let him try to conceive the possibility of its repeti- 
 tion to-day. He will then be able to form some 
 idea of the immeasurable distance that divides us 
 
 I
 
 66 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 from the spirit and the customs of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 We ask in amazement if any voice was raised in 
 Church or State, against the brutal punishments con- 
 tained in the criminal code of England. The answer 
 is disappointing. The ascertained facts show that, so 
 far as the executions for felony are concerned, not 
 only was there an absence of protest, but such execu- 
 tions were approved by the most enlightened opinion 
 of the time. We have mentioned Sir Samuel Eomilly's 
 Observations. His little pamphlet was written in 
 answer to a publication intituled Thoughts on Execu- 
 tive Justice. In that publication the author declared 
 that the statutes concerning the punishment of crime 
 in England were such as no stranger could contem- 
 plate without imagining the English nation to be ' the 
 happiest people under the sun, or without admiring 
 the disposition of the whole, as well as the adapting of 
 every part to the public good.' So enamoured of our 
 'sanguinary' code was the author that he exhorted 
 judges to enforce the laws with the utmost rigour, 
 expressing the opinion that these laws approached as 
 near to perfection as any law could be expected to do 
 which emanated from ' the finite wisdom of humanity.' 
 It is strange that, according to Sir Samuel Eomilly, 
 some of the learned judges to whom the Thoughts on 
 Executive Justice was addressed seemed inclined to try 
 the terrible expedient which was recommended. With 
 shame we confess that the writer of this publication,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 67 
 
 which drew forth such a noble protest from Sir Samuel 
 Romilly, was a prominent clergyman of the Evangelical 
 party in the Church of England. 
 
 It was not until the second half of the nineteenth 
 century was well on its way that the English nation 
 woke up to the fact that the spectacle of a public 
 execution has a brutalizing effect upon those who 
 witness it What wonder, then, that in 1783, a year 
 when fifty-one persons were executed in London, Dr. 
 Johnson was found protesting against the proposed 
 abolition of the Tyburn processions ? Boswell relates 
 that one night, in March, 1783, at the Literary Club, 
 the subject of the discontinuance of these ghastly 
 parades was discussed. Dr. Johnson, speaking to Sir 
 William Scott, said 
 
 The age ia running mad after innovation, and all 
 the business of the world is to be done in a new way. 
 Men are to be hanged in a new way ; Tyburn itself is not 
 safe from the fury of innovation. 
 
 Some one present ventured to argue that such a step 
 would be a vast improvement. 
 
 No, air [thundered Johnson], it is not an improve- 
 ment. They object that the old method drew together a 
 number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw 
 spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don't 
 answer their purpose. The old method was most satis- 
 factory to all parties ; the public was gratified by a pro- 
 cession ; the criminal was supported by it ; why is all this 
 swept away ?
 
 68 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 When we consider the opinions of such a man 
 as Dr. Johnson, we do not wonder that the law held 
 on its sanguinary way unchecked by the protests of 
 judges and legislators. When the eighteenth century 
 was drawing to a close, a new spirit of philanthropy 
 made its presence felt in English society. To that 
 spirit Sir Samuel Eomilly made his appeal. By slow 
 degrees the Statute Book of England was cleansed 
 of its more glaring cruelties, and brought into harmony 
 with the ideas of pity and mercy which men had 
 learned from the new revelation of the forgiving love 
 of God. 
 
 It will be admitted that the condition of the prisons 
 of a country reveal its character. The people who are 
 careless of the way in which prisoners awaiting trial, 
 or serving their sentences, are treated, write a sentence 
 of condemnation against themselves. Judged by this 
 test, the England of the eighteenth century stands 
 condemned. It is impossible to exaggerate the loath- 
 someness of the dens in which men aud women were 
 then confined, or the abominations that were hidden 
 behind the sullen walls of our prisons. In 1729, 
 through the influence of General Oglethorpe, a com- 
 mission was obtained for investigating the condition of 
 the three London prisons for debtors. Beginning with 
 the Fleet, the commission discovered that it was 
 divided into two classes, known as the Common Side 
 and the Master's Side, Hie former contained three 
 wards, tenanted in all by ninety-three persons, many
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 69 
 
 of whom were compelled to lie upon the bare floor, 
 through inability to provide a bed for themselves; 
 in several rooms on the chapel stairs men and women, 
 sick and ill, lay on the floor without a rag to cover 
 them ; the warden, not satisfied with extracting large 
 sums of money, had locked them in filthy cells in 
 default of payment, had caused them to be manacled, 
 and when they died, had appropriated to his own use 
 any effects which they had possessed. 1 
 Sydney says 
 
 It would require more space than here can be afforded 
 to enumerate a tithe of the enormities that had been 
 practised in that foul den. Of the instruments of torture 
 which had been employed by the warden, it is enough to 
 say that when they were produced for the inspection of the 
 committee, they caused a thrill of horror to run through all 
 who were present. 
 
 As to the ' strong room ' in the prison, the follow- 
 ing description, taken from the Report of the Visiting 
 Committee, must suffice 
 
 This place is like a vault, like those in which the dead 
 are interred, and wherein the bodies of persons dying in 
 the said prison are usually deposited till the coroner's 
 inquest hath passed upon them ; it has no chimney nor 
 fireplace, nor any light but what comes over the door or 
 through a hole of about eight inches square. It is neither 
 paved nor boarded, and the rough bricks appear both on 
 the sides and top, being neither wainscoted nor plastered. 
 
 1 Sydney, England and the Englith, vol. ii. pp. 808, 809.
 
 70 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 What adds to the dampness and stench of the place is its 
 being built over the common sewer, and adjoining to the 
 sink, and where all the nastiness of the prison is cast. 
 
 Twenty years later the noxious fumes emitted by 
 Newgate prison attacked, and eventually killed, two 
 judges, the Lord Mayor, one alderman, and others to 
 the number of sixty persons and upwards, while sitting 
 in the Old Bailey Sessions House. Carlyle would 
 have considered this massacre as a broad suggestion 
 on the part of nature concerning the brotherhood 
 of man. 
 
 The work of General Oglethorpe casts a ray of light 
 on the condition of the London prisons. But both in 
 the metropolis and the provinces the state of the jails 
 continued for many years to be infamous. After a 
 considerable interval of time, John Howard, in Burke's 
 fine phrase, commenced his ' circumnavigation of 
 charity.' We have taken one illustration of prison 
 life in the eighteenth century from London. We 
 will take another from the West of England. In 
 1774, John Howard visited the Castle prison at 
 Gloucester, and found it in a wretched condition. 
 The floor of the main ward was so ruinous that it 
 could not be washed; the male and female felons 
 were herded together in a single day-room; a large 
 dunghill lay against the steps leading to the dormi- 
 tories, and the jailer, having no salary, made his 
 living out of the profits of the liquor sold to the 
 prisoners, and by taxing the debtors brought under
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 71 
 
 his charge. Howard noted that many prisoners died 
 there in the course of the year. Newgate prison, in 
 Bristol, was overcrowded with inmates, but was in a 
 better sanitary state than that of Gloucester, though 
 the 'dungeon' or night- room for male felons, often 
 densely crowded, was eighteen steps underground and 
 only seventeen feet in diameter. Howard's note is : 
 ' No bedding, nor straw.' In the yard the criminals of 
 all ages and both sexes mingled with the insolvent 
 debtors ; even the poorest of the latter class paying the 
 jailer, who had no salary, tenpence halfpenny a week 
 for the lodgings in which they were incarcerated by their 
 creditors. At the time of Howard's visit there were 
 thirty-eight felons and fifty-eight debtors in Newgate. 
 Bridewell was in a worse state than the jail, the 
 rooms being very dirty, and the air offensive from 
 open sewers. There was no bedding, no employment, 
 insufficient water, and the only food was two penny- 
 worth of bread per head daily. At Lawford'a Gate 
 Bridewell there was 
 
 a dark room, the dungeon, about twelve feet by seven, in 
 which the felons slept, except those who could afford to 
 pay for beds. The rooms were without chimneys, and yet 
 the inmates were never allowed to leave them. A prisoner 
 had no allowance for food, except where he was very poor, 
 when he had twopence a day. 1 
 
 Our knowledge of the condition of the prisons of 
 England does not arise exclusively from the revelation 
 
 1 Latiraer's AnncAt of BritM, pp. 40G, 407.
 
 72 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 of General Oglethorpe's commission and from the 
 reports of John Howard. In the eighteenth century 
 they were the scenes of the constant visits of the 
 Wesleys and of Whitefield, and from the pages of 
 their journals abundant materials for constructing the 
 repulsive picture of prison life in England during 
 the eighteenth century may be gleaned. Their work 
 was continued, under more favourable circumstances 
 at the beginning of the next century by Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Fry, whose self-denying labours at last produced some 
 impression upon the minds of those who were re- 
 sponsible for the treatment of debtors and criminals. 
 The comparative failure of the attempts made by 
 Oglethorpe and Howard to effect permanent reforms in 
 the jails of the country strengthens our conviction 
 that a condemnatory verdict must be cast against the 
 humanity of the ruling classes of England in the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 We have seen that, in the eighteenth century, 
 England was a country of isolated towns and lonely 
 villages. In addition, we have noted that, taking 
 London as an example, the towns were divided into 
 independent sections by the estrangement of class 
 from class, and by a striking lack of sympathy. It 
 is sympathy that knits a people together. Where 
 it is absent, national character suffers. Our moral 
 faults have no mercy on our social life. They 
 wound it at every point, and constantly threaten it 
 with destruction. If it had not been for the coming
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 73 
 
 of a day when Englishmen saw each other in a new 
 light, when, to their surprise, they discovered that they 
 were brethren, the history of this country would have 
 been a story of the withering of all social virtues, and 
 of the perishing of all that is most God-like in man.
 
 74 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 III 
 
 The Moral Condition of England 
 
 HAVING glanced at the social condition of 
 England, we will now consider the grave 
 subject of the state of morals in this 
 country in the eighteenth century. In the treat- 
 ment of this question care is necessary. A writer 
 who has to describe a national revival of religion is in 
 danger of blackening his shadows. That danger should 
 be seen and avoided. There is no need to deepen the 
 gloom in order to increase the intensity of the bright- 
 ness. All the facts should be kept steadily in view. 
 In the eighteenth century we can find many pictures 
 of pure domestic life. The figures of men and women, 
 radiant with the quiet light of a true saintliness, 
 pass before our eyes. The constant preaching of a 
 Christian morality in the churches produced decisive 
 effects on conscience and conduct. The praise of 
 virtue led to its practice in innumerable English 
 homes. These facts must not be overlooked. We 
 appreciate them fully, and their remembrance relieves 
 the darkness of the picture which candour compels us 
 to paint.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 75 
 
 Our inquiry concerns the general condition of 
 morals in England during the reigns of the Georges, 
 and especially in the period before the Great Eevival 
 had exerted its utmost force in this country. 
 
 The character of a people can be judged by its 
 amusements. The chief amusement of English Society 
 in the eighteenth century was provided by the theatre. 
 It is important to discover the estimate of theatrical 
 managers of that day concerning the taste of the people 
 for whom they catered. No men knew more accurately 
 the innermost mind of the play-going public. They 
 selected the things which would attract, and their 
 selection proceeded upon a profound knowledge of the 
 current thought and character of the people. There were 
 some managers who discerned the better side of human 
 nature, and appealed to it. They were convinced that 
 by pertinacity and genius they could make the stage 
 one of the great educational forces of the day. We 
 cannot withhold our admiration from these men, 
 neither can we deny them our compassion. In the 
 eighteenth century we greet with respect the figure of 
 David Garrick. With a superb courage, and with a 
 prodigal expenditure, he fought against the evils which 
 had dragged the stage through the mire. He succeeded 
 in cleansing it from some of its most startling evils. 
 It is undoubted that his example has been an inspira- 
 tion to some of our modern playwrights and managers. 
 But, as we have said, we pay him the meed of our 
 compassion. The battle was too hard, and gradually
 
 76 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 it broke him down. He rescued a plot from the desert, 
 and made it bright with blossoms ; but round his tiny 
 garden the rank weeds grew. When a little plot of 
 cultivated ground lies in a weedy wilderness, we know 
 its doom. 
 
 In speaking of the condition of the English theatre 
 in the eighteenth century, we will not forget Garrick 
 and those who shared with him the arduous toils of 
 the Shakespearean revival. We think that it is 
 scarcely fair to judge the stage by the testimonies of 
 those who have a violent prejudice against theatrical 
 performances. We therefore select our witnesses 
 from the ranks of those who do not suffer from this 
 defect. Lecky, who regrets the opposition of religious 
 people to the theatre, admits that, in the eighteenth 
 century, although English play-writers borrowed very 
 largely from the French, the English stage was far 
 inferior to that of France in decorum, modesty, and 
 morality. 1 No one can deny that Lecky delivers his 
 verdict with remarkable self-restraint. Let us listen 
 to a man who lived in the eighteenth century, and 
 who was himself a writer of plays. Addison, in the 
 Spectator of 1712, confesses that it was one of the most 
 unaccountable things in that age, that the lewdness of 
 the theatre should be so much complained of, so well 
 exposed, and so little redressed. 
 
 As matters stand at present [he says] multitudes are 
 shut out from this noble diversion by reason of those 
 
 1 Hiitory of England, vol. i. p. 540.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 77 
 
 abuses and corruptions that accompany it. A father is 
 often afraid that his daughter should be ruined by those 
 entertainments which were invented for the accomplish- 
 ment and refining of human nature. . . . The accomplished 
 gentleman upon the English stage is the person that is 
 familiar with other men's wives and indifferent to his own, 
 as the fine woman is generally a composition of spright- 
 liness and falsehood. 
 
 It may be said that Addison wrote before Garrick'a 
 attempt to purify the stage. That is so ; but Garrick's 
 success may be easily exaggerated. Speaking of the 
 year 1782, Sydney says 
 
 With regard to the character of the plays, this much 
 only needs be said, that, although Garrick and others 
 worked hard during the second half of the century to 
 eliminate the coarse, obscene, and scandalous elements 
 which entered only too largely into the composition of 
 many of them, the state of the stage was very far from 
 satisfactory, even in the closing decades of the century, 
 although, by that time, the stream of public opinion was 
 being fairly directed against the coarseness by which it had 
 been so long disfigured. 1 
 
 Dr. Wendebora, -whose love of theatrical per- 
 formances made him lenient in his judgement, 
 says 
 
 The English stage has been blamed, particularly during 
 the reign of Charles II, for being exceedingly licentious ; 
 but it has been, in this respect, much reformed ; though 
 there occur frequently such expressions and double entendres 
 
 1 England and the Englith, vol. i. p. 165.
 
 7 8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 as may put modesty to the blush ; which, however, seem 
 not to be disliked by the majority even of female spectators, 
 who either bestow a smile upon them, or hide their titter 
 behind their fans. 1 
 
 If an audience may be judged by a play, a play 
 may also be judged by an audience. What was the 
 character of the people who trooped into the theatres 
 in the eighteenth century? Writing in 1786, Dr. 
 Wendeborn says 
 
 The great propensity of the present English to see 
 plays of all kinds performed ; the crowded play-houses in 
 London ; the private theatres, and the spouting clubs make 
 a fine contrast with the times in which Dryden lived. It 
 might, perhaps, be wished, for the sake of morality, that 
 the reservedness and seriousness of that age were not, as it 
 seems, totally given up. Numbers of women of easy virtue 
 are to be seen within the theatres, and in the avenues 
 leading to them, which contributes not a little to increase 
 that immorality which play-houses are said to promote. 
 Formerly, this class of females, when they frequented the 
 theatre, were obliged to wear either masks or hate with a 
 black crape, and they were not admitted into every part of 
 the house. At present, they are seen in numbers in the 
 boxes, or any division of the house, among the rest of the 
 company, without the least distinctive mark, impudence 
 perhaps excepted. Nay, they often give the ton in dress, 
 and in an easy and free deportment, to those of their sex 
 who are reputed modest ; so that it is attended with some 
 difficulty to distinguish innocence lost from that which is 
 supposed still to exist. 8 
 
 1 A View of England, vol. ii. p. 255. 
 1 Ibid., voL ii. pp. 201, 202.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 79 
 
 Lest it should be said that this description of the 
 audience in an English theatre bears the marks of a 
 foreigner's spite, we will quote the words of Sydney. 
 He says 
 
 The reader would err, and that very considerably, were 
 he to suppose that it was the attractions of the stage that 
 induced the majority of fine gentlemen in the last century 
 to resort to the three principal theatres in London. Con- 
 temporary light literature bears its emphatic testimony to 
 the fact that it was the attractions presented by the saloons 
 of the play-houses, establishments which partook as much 
 of the nature of brothels as they did of taverns, which 
 filled the benches of the theatres with visitors, and the 
 purses of those who kept them with the coin of the realm. 
 The existence of these resorts was the chief inducement for 
 hundreds of men, old and young, to resort to Drury Lane, 
 Covent Garden, and the Haymarket Theatres. 1 
 
 Weighing the evidence we have collected, and 
 giving due allowance for the reforms introduced by 
 David Garrick, we see no reason to dispute the sub- 
 stantial accuracy of John Wesley's verdict, that the 
 English theatre of his day was ' the sink of all pro- 
 faneness and debauchery.' 
 
 The classes which had some claim to be considered 
 educated found their amusement not only at the theatre, 
 but in the perusal of the books which poured from 
 the 'Minerva Press.' These were eagerly devoured, 
 and the character of the readers may be gauged by 
 the novels they read. 
 
 1 Emjland and the Engliih, vol. i. p. 161.
 
 8o The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Jeffrey, in Ms Essays, describing th^se books, says 
 
 A greater mass of trash and rubbish never disgraced 
 the press of any country than the ordinary novels that 
 filled and supported circulating libraries down nearly to 
 the time of Miss Edgeworth's first appearance. . . . The 
 staple of our novel market was beyond imagination despic- 
 able, and had consequently sunk and degraded the whole 
 department of literature, of which it had usurped the name. 
 
 Sydney informs ua that ' these trashy productions ' 
 were, in most cases, the composition of women ; and 
 their plots turned chiefly upon amorous intrigue. 
 ' Rotten is the one adjective that, with some few excep- 
 tions, best describes them one and all.' He continues 
 
 The perusal of these detestable novels was, in great 
 measure, the sole recreation of young people of either sei 
 whose education had been utterly neglected, or of persons 
 whose morbid cravings after excitement could be satisfied 
 by no other means. 
 
 Novel-reading was one of the chief employments 
 of women, and the quickest way to coarsen the moral 
 fibre of a nation is to pollute the minds of its 
 women. Speaking of the general literature of the 
 period, Overton, in The English Church in the 
 Eighteenth Century, says 
 
 Notwithstanding the improvement which such writers 
 as Addison and Steele had effected, it was still very impure. 
 Let us take the evidence of the kindly and well-informed 
 Sir Walter Scott : ' We should do great injustice to the 
 present day by comparing our manners with those of the 
 reign of George I. The writings, even of the most
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 81 
 
 esteemed poets of that period, contain passages which now 
 would be accounted to deserve the pillory. Nor was the 
 tone of conversation more pure than that of composition ; 
 for the taint of Charles IPs reign continued to infect 
 society until the present reign [George III], when, if not 
 more moral, we are at least more decent.' 1 
 
 While mawkish women were enervating themselves 
 with sentimentality, and besmirching their minds with 
 the scenes and suggestions of infamous novels, their 
 fathers and brothers pursued a more exciting form of 
 pleasure. The men of the eighteenth century have 
 an evil reputation for their passion for gaming. That 
 passion was cultivated and inflamed by the rulers of 
 the nation. The State lotteries affected thousands of 
 men and women, and filled them with a burning 
 desire for gain. The patronage of lotteries continued 
 until the latter end of the eighteenth century, and 
 we agree with Sydney when he says : ' Of all the 
 baneful things that the evil propensities of Government 
 ever induced it to patronize, assuredly they were the 
 worst.' * 
 
 When we get a clear sight of the men of the time, 
 we cease to wonder at the action of Parliament. Both 
 Houses of the Legislature were filled with gamblers. 
 The name of Charles James Fox springs up in the 
 mind at once. Before he had reached his twenty- 
 fourth year he was indebted to the Jews for something 
 like 100,000, which he had lost at cards and dice. 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 45. 
 
 * England and the Englith, vol. I p. 224.
 
 82 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Gibbon says that Fox strengthened himself for the 
 memorable debate in the House of Commons on the 
 relief of the clergy from subscription to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles by indulging in a twenty-two hours' recreation 
 at hazard, at the cost of 500 per hour that is 
 11,000 in all. Pitt, at one period of his life, was 
 a keen gamester. At the Boar's Head, Eastcheap, he 
 made a great impression on William Wilberforce by 
 the intense earnestness which ho displayed when joining 
 in games of chance. But Pitt perceived his danger 
 in time, and, by a strong effort of will, broke loose 
 from the gaming-table, and abandoned it for ever. It 
 is strange to watch William Wilberforce at Brooks's 
 so late as 1780, sitting at the faro-table, where George 
 Selwyn kept the bank. He explains that he joined in 
 play ' from mere shyness.' But the fascination seized 
 him, and it was not until he won GOO, 'much of it 
 lost by those who were only heirs to future fortune,' 
 that ' the pain he felt at their annoyance cured him 
 of a taste which seemed but too likely to become 
 predominant.' 
 
 Diverting our glance from the Legislature, we find 
 that the whole of English society was infected with the 
 passion for gaming. Trevelyan, in his Early Life of 
 C. J. Fox, declares that 
 
 Society was one vast casino. On whatever pretext and 
 under whatever circumstances half a dozen people of 
 fashion found themselves together, whether for music, or 
 dancing, or politics, or for drinking the waters or each
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 83 
 
 other's wine, the box was sure to be rattling, and the cards 
 were being cut and shuffled. 1 
 
 Beneath the level of 'Society,' the same craze 
 for games of chance existed. There is no reason to 
 doubt the correctness of the assertion that it may be 
 fairly questioned whether the passion for gambling 
 ever wielded such absolute sway in any country as it 
 did in England during the whole of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Let us apply another test to the character of 
 the English people in the eighteenth century. The 
 character of a nation is revealed by the manner in 
 which it treats the lower animals. Since the eighteenth 
 century we have learned reverence for that which is 
 beneath us. The virtue of humaneness has appeared 
 in the English character, and its advent signifies much 
 in the eyes of a man who knows how to test the 
 moral progress of a people. At the time of which we 
 write, in town and country, one of the most popular 
 forms of public amusement was cock-fighting. The 
 pencil of Hogarth has made us realize the scenes 
 of cruelty that were enacted in order to give a mild 
 excitement to dull country squires and debauched men 
 about town. In Hogarth's picture of the cock-pit there 
 is one figure that specially impresses us. It is that of 
 a Frenchman, who is turning away from the brutal 
 spectacle with an expression of unqualified disgust. 
 Our insular pride is wounded by this keen touch of the 
 1 p. 89.
 
 84 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 satirist's pencil. Latimer, in his Annals of Bristol 
 records the occurrence of great cock-fights. In March, 
 1724, a match took place between the ' gentlemen ' of 
 Bath and Bristol. The stakes were six guineas on each 
 battle, and sixty guineas on the concluding fight. The 
 tournament extended over three days. The 'gentle- 
 men* of the two cities must have been glutted with 
 blood. 1 In February, 1778, a fight took place at the 
 Ostrich Inn, Durdham Down. It was attended by 
 a great number of country squires, the match having 
 been arranged between the gentry of Somerset and 
 Devon. Fifty-one birds contended on each side, for 
 prizes amounting to about 350 guineas. 3 In April, 
 1786, there was a great cock-fighting tournament in 
 Bristol. The promoters were the gentry of Gloucester- 
 shire and Dorset. The stakes were 350, and the 
 betting was heavy. In Leicester, in the closing years 
 of the eighteenth century, it is on record that as many 
 as one hundred cocks were slain in the course of a 
 single day. 
 
 What strikes us in reading the descriptions of 
 eighteenth-century cock-fighting, is the fact that the 
 nation at large seemed utterly unable to feel any 
 disgust at the scenes in the pit. It is singular that 
 the sport was considered so harmless that boys might 
 enjoy it without rebuke. At Wimborno School, an 
 annual cock-fight was held with the approval of the 
 masters. 8 The pastime was numbered among the 
 
 1 Latimer's Annali, p. 140. p. 432. p. 25.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 85 
 
 recreations of some of the clergy. In 1656 Parson 
 Allambrigge, of Monkton Farleigh, fought a main of 
 cocks with a neighbour, and was so delighted by his 
 victory that he recorded it in the parish register. 1 
 The mantle of this clerical sportsman seems to have 
 fallen on Samuel Creswicke, the Dean of Bristol in 
 1730, and the incumbent of St. James's Church in 
 that city. In 1739 he was promoted to the deanery 
 of Wells, holding still his Bristol parish. At his 
 residence, Haydon, near Wells, he ordered a cock-pit 
 to be constructed, so that he and his guests could 
 witness the ' sport ' from his dining-room, the window 
 of which was enlarged for the purpose. 2 Koberts, in 
 his Social History of the Southern Counties* informs 
 us that the church bells at times announced the 
 winning of a long main. 
 
 At one time bear-baiting was a favourite amuse- 
 ment in England. It was enjoyed more especially by 
 'gentlemen/ but the rabble entered with great zest 
 into the 'sport.' But the bear disappeared from the 
 arena in favour of the bull. Throughout the whole 
 of the eighteenth century bulls were tortured to make 
 an English holiday. In London, in Queen Anne's time, 
 they were baited twice a week; and Lecky tells us 
 that there was no provincial town to which the practice 
 did not extend. 
 
 It was regarded on the Continent as peculiarly English. 
 The tenacity of the English bull-dog, which would 
 
 1 Latiiner's Annalt, p. 25. * Ibid., p. 170. p. 421.
 
 86 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 sometimes suffer itself to be cut to pieces rather than relax 
 its hold, was a favourite subject of national boasting, while 
 French writers pointed to the marked difference in this 
 respect between the French and English taste as a conclusive 
 proof of the higher civilization of their own nation. 1 
 
 The torture of animals for amusement is one of the 
 most hideous forms of human cruelty. Prize-fighting 
 between men, in comparison with it, is an innocent 
 form of physical exercise. But the eighteenth century 
 could not allow even this form of amusement to stand 
 in its native simplicity. The readers of the news- 
 papers, in the first half of the century, often caught 
 eight of the advertised challenges of women. Syduey 
 reproduces advertisements from the London Journal 
 and the Daily Post in confirmation of this fact. As 
 the nation was callous to the spectacles of the cock-pit 
 and bull-ring, it is scarcely necessary to say that it was 
 indifferent to the batterings of a prize-fight. All the 
 evidence shows that the sport was not considered 
 brutal We presume that some fastidious persons 
 objected to look at the combat between the Stoke 
 Newington ass-driver and the European championess, 
 or the contest in which ' the famous boxing woman of 
 Billingsgate' pounded her adversary; but, as to the 
 fights between men, even members of Parliament held 
 that they were conducive to manliness, and that the 
 national character and the constitutional liberties of 
 the country were closely bound up with them. 
 
 1 Lecky's Ilitlory, vol. i. p. 552,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 87 
 
 According to Dr. Weudeborn, 1 some foreigners were 
 accustomed to call the English 'the wild nation of 
 Europe/ and notwithstanding the natural resentment 
 we feel at the criticism, it must be admitted that, in 
 the eighteenth century, we deserved the epithet. The 
 ' wildness ' of the English people was especially illus- 
 trated, in times of excitement, by the swift gathering 
 and desperate onslaught of the mob. Fielding calls 
 the English rabble the 'Fourth Estate.' There were 
 occasions, such as the Sacheverell, the Wilkes, and 
 the Lord Gordon riots, when the mob ruled London. 
 Outside the metropolis the rabble often reigned. In 
 the provincial towns there seemed always to be a large 
 number of people who, on provocation, would break out 
 into tumults, disgraced by murder and the burning of 
 the houses of obnoxious persons. In many places the 
 magistrates were held in contempt. As for the con- 
 stables, instead of hunting they were hunted. Nothing 
 tamed the madness of the mob save the sight of soldiers 
 and a discharge of musketry. Then the coward, so 
 often latent in the rioter, revealed himself, and the 
 crowd scattered and ran for its hiding-places. The 
 mob also existed in sparsely-peopled neighbourhoods. 
 By some evil instinct the most violent men and women 
 of the villages got to know that some obnoxious person 
 was coming into the district, and they swiftly assembled 
 to drive him out with cudgels and brickbats. They 
 gathered quickly, and gave themselves up to the luxury 
 
 1 A View of England, vol. i. p. 3G4.
 
 88 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 of fury. The unbridled brutality of the English rabble 
 may be traced, in part, to the indifference for the 
 Bufferings of other people which is acquired by long 
 indulgence in cruel sport. There is not much difference 
 between the baiting of a bear or a bull and the 
 hounding of a man through a village street. In an age 
 when gallant deeds on battlefields were common, we 
 doubt whether any soldier displayed a finer heroism 
 than was shown by the evangelists of the Great 
 Revival, who, knowing their danger, stood in perfect 
 peace in the midst of the raging ruffians who sought 
 their lives. 
 
 We have tested the moral character of the people 
 of England by the condition of the criminal code and 
 by their amusements. In concluding our sketch of 
 that condition we will avail ourselves of the keen 
 eyes of John Wesley. He was a seer, and he had 
 unparalleled opportunities for observing the state of the 
 nation. His verdict was that the outstanding evils of 
 his day were the prevailing habits of ' taking the name 
 of God in vain, the profaning the day of the Lord, and 
 drunkenness.' Wherever he rode, through city, town, 
 or village, these were the signs which revealed the 
 moral condition of England. 
 
 Let us take one of the 'evils' which Wesley 
 indicates. The student of the moral condition of the 
 people of England in the eighteenth century is 
 especially impressed with the prevalence of drunken- 
 ness. It was a vice affecting all ranks of society.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 89 
 
 The clubs, the coffee-houses, and the city taverns 
 ministered to the corruption of the upper and middle 
 classes, and the beer- and gin-shops intensified the 
 miseries of the labourer and the herder in the slums. 
 The vice desolated both town and country ; it mastered 
 the English people in the eighteenth century. 
 
 Lecky, in his History of England in the Eighteenth 
 Century, gives a sketch of the rise and progress of this 
 curse of our nation. Drunkenness extensively pre- 
 vailed during the time when beer was the ordinary 
 beverage of the people. But the starting-point of our 
 career as a pre-eminently drunken race is to be found 
 in the early Hanoverian period, when gin-drinking 
 began to be the rage in this country. Under Charles I 
 a company was formed with the sole right of making 
 spirits and vinegar in the cities of London and West- 
 minster, and within twenty-one miles of the same. 
 Other distilleries were subsequently started ; but, 
 according to Lecky, up to the time of the Eevolution 
 their number was inconsiderable. In 1689, in order to 
 exclude French brandies, the importation of spirits from 
 all foreign countries was absolutely prohibited; and 
 the trade of distilling, on the payment of certain duties, 
 was thrown open to all English subjects. For a time 
 the consequences of this fatal step were not seen. In 
 the days when French-made brandies were imported, 
 they were so expensive that they were consumed, almost 
 exclusively, by the moneyed classes. But the spirits 
 produced in English distilleries were purchasable by
 
 9O The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 all sections of the population; and spirit-drinking 
 gradually became a habit in England. Lecky mentions 
 1724 as the year when gin-drinking began to spread 
 with 'the rapidity and the violence of an epidemic.' 
 He says 
 
 Small as is the place which this fact occupies in English 
 history, it was probably, if we consider all the consequences 
 that have flowed from it, the most momentous in that of 
 the eighteenth century incomparably more so than any 
 event in the purely political or military annals of the 
 country. The fatal passion for drink was at once, and 
 irrevocably, planted in the nation. 1 
 
 The progress in the drinking of spirits at this period 
 may be gauged from the following facts : In 1684 the 
 average of British spirits distilled was 527,000 gallons. 
 In 1714 the quantity rose to 2,000,000; in 1727 to 
 3,601,000 ; and in 1735 to 5,394,000 gallons. In 1742 
 more than 7,000,000 gallons were distilled. In 1750 
 and 1751 more than 11,000,000 gallons of spirits were 
 annually consumed. 
 
 With these figures before us, we can understand 
 the indignant words which were uttered by humane 
 men who watched the physical deterioration of the 
 English race. The London physicians stated that, in 
 1750, there were in and about the metropolis no less 
 than fourteen thousand cases of illness, most of them 
 beyond the reach of medicine, directly attributable to 
 gin. Fielding, in his pamphlet On the late Increase 
 
 1 Hittory, yol. i. p. 479.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 91 
 
 of Robbers, declared that 'gin was the principal 
 sustenance of more than a hundred thousand people 
 in the metropolis/ and he predicted that 'should 
 the drinking of this poison be continued at its 
 present height during the next twenty years, there 
 will, by that time, be very few of the common people 
 left to drink it.' It seems to be a well-authenticated 
 fact that retailers of gin were accustomed to hang out 
 painted boards, announcing that their customers could 
 be made drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, 
 and that they should have straw to lie upon for nothing. 
 Cellars, strewn with straw, were accordingly provided, 
 into which those who had become insensible were 
 dragged, and where they remained until they had 
 sufficiently recovered to renew their orgies. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Parliament was 
 wholly indifferent to the prevalence of the evil which 
 the Legislature had, in a sense, created. In 1736 
 Sir J. Jekyll brought in and carried a measure 
 imposing a duty of twenty shillings a gallon on all 
 spirituous liquors, and prohibiting any person from 
 selling them in less quantities than two gallons 
 without paying a tax of 50 a year. This stringent 
 law produced violent riots, and created a clandestine 
 trade. In 1749 more than four thousand persons were 
 convicted of selling spirituous liquors without a licence, 
 and it was estimated that more than seventeen thousand 
 private gin-shops existed within the Bills of Mortality. 
 In 1751 a measure was carried in Parliament which
 
 92 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 had a considerable effect on the liquor trade. Distillers 
 were prohibited, under a penalty of 10, from either 
 retailing spirituous liquors themselves, or selling them 
 to unlicensed retailers. Debts contracted for liquors, 
 not amounting to twenty shillings at a time, were 
 made irrecoverable by law. Retail licences were 
 conceded only to 10 householders within the Bills 
 of Mortality, and to traders, who were subject to 
 certain parochial rates, without them ; and the penalties 
 for unlicensed retailing were greatly increased. For 
 the second offence the clandestine dealer was liable 
 to three months' imprisonment and to whipping; for 
 the third offence he incurred the penalty of trans- 
 portation. Two years later another useful law was 
 carried, restricting the liberty of magistrates in issuing 
 licences, and subjecting public-houses to severe regula- 
 tions. Lecky considers that these later Acts improved 
 the morals and physical health of the people, but, he 
 says, 'these measures formed a palliation, and not a 
 cure ; and from the early years of the eighteenth 
 century, gin-drinking has never ceased to be the 
 main counteracting influence to the moral, intellectual, 
 and physical benefits that might be expected from 
 increased commercial prosperity.' J 
 
 The destructive effects of drinking spirituous liquors 
 are graphically depicted in Hogarth's picture of Gin 
 Lane. It is a little bit of eighteenth-century London 
 cut out as a specimen of scenes which were being 
 
 1 Hittory, vol. i. pp. 481, 482.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 93 
 
 enacted over the whole country. Dr. Martin Benson, 
 the Bishop of Gloucester, writing to Bishop Berkeley 
 in 1752, says : ' Our people are now become what 
 they never before were cruel and inhuman. Those 
 accursed spirituous liquors, which, to the shame of our 
 Government, are so easily to be had, and in such 
 quantities drunk, have changed the very nature of our 
 people. And they will, if continued to be drunk, 
 destroy the very race of the people themselves.' l 
 
 It is difficult to trace the evils produced by 
 drunkenness. It is a vice which never stands alone. 
 One effect, however, is sufficiently conspicuous. We 
 have mentioned the creation of a clandestine trade in 
 spirituous liquors which was produced by the action 
 of Parliament. When the Government of the Eevolu- 
 tion took the false step of 'encouraging the home 
 industry ' of distilling, they were blind to the fact 
 that another step would soon have to be taken. When 
 the liquor trade is fostered, it flourishes so prodigiously 
 that restraints have to be applied to it lest it should 
 rule the country and endanger the morals and health 
 of the people. But when a Government has so 
 legislated as to create a taste, a passion, for strong 
 drink, its subsequent efforts to restrain the evil it 
 has created meet with strenuous resistance. When 
 the Government remedy is increased taxation, which 
 either raises the price of liquor or impairs its quality, 
 then an effort will be made to obtain strong spirits 
 
 1 Sydney, England and the Snglith, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.
 
 94 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 that are cheap because they have escaped duty. 
 It seemed like a nemesis that the French brandy 
 which was so obnoxious to the Government that it 
 determined to shut it out by encouraging home dis- 
 tilleries, should have been a means of setting on foot 
 a contraband trade that produced innumerable evils in 
 English life. Nor was this all. Holland was ready 
 to send any quantity of gin into England. Round our 
 coasts, as a direct consequence of the action of the 
 Government, smugglers' boats ran into creek and cove, 
 and immense quantities of duty-free spirits were 
 landed, and conveyed by pack-horses to the towns 
 and villages of England. Dr. Wendeborn says 
 
 I have frequently seen, on the public roada leading to 
 London at midday, gangs of smugglers, between fifteen 
 and twenty, mounted on the best horses, provided with 
 pistols and cutlasses, carrying their contraband goods 
 behind their saddles in packages, and sufficiently resolute 
 to repel any excise or custom-house officers who should 
 attempt to stop them. If these should happen to have 
 soldiers along with them for assistance, bloody engage- 
 ments will ensue, and many on both sides will lose their 
 lives. 1 
 
 There can be no doubt that the life of the smuggler 
 lends itself to picturesque description ; but those who 
 recognize the fact that the smuggled ankers of brandy 
 and Hollands were confirming Englishmen in their 
 drunken habits see the black shadows that blot the 
 sketches painted by graphic writers. 
 
 1 A View of England, Tol. i. p. 212.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 95 
 
 It is impossible to challenge with any success the 
 doleful descriptions which have been given of the 
 moral condition of the masses of the people of England 
 in the eighteenth century. Mark Pattison, in his essay 
 on Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 16SS- 
 1750, expresses our own conviction when he says 
 
 The historian of moral and religious progress is under 
 the necessity of depicting the period as one of decay of 
 religion, licentiousness of morals, public corruption, pro- 
 faneness of language a day of ' rebuke and blasphemy.' 
 It was an age destitute of depth or earnestness ; an age 
 whose poetry was without romance, whose philosophy was 
 without insight, and whose public men were without 
 character ; an age of ' light without love,' whose * very 
 merits were of the earth, earthy.' l 
 
 Ettayt, Tol. ii. p. 42.
 
 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 IV 
 
 The Religious Condition of England 
 
 AS there is so little dispute, in the present day, 
 concerning the religious condition of England 
 at the opening of the eighteenth century, we 
 shall not make any attempt to give a minute 
 description of that condition. We shall try to trace 
 the admitted evils to their source ; and we shall show 
 that the paralysis of religion in this country is to be 
 attributed to the unhealthy condition of the Churches. 
 The story of the Church of England and of the Dis- 
 senting Churches during the eighteenth century is a 
 story of lost ideals. It must, however, be remembered 
 that the loss was not complete. In every Church, in 
 every age, there are saints of the Lord who are immune 
 against the evils which surround them. It is pleasant 
 to meet them in the byways of history. In all 
 times there have been men and women who have 
 diligently trimmed the household lamp of domestic 
 piety, and ministers of God who have guarded the 
 nickering flame in the temple of the Lord. A kindly 
 light, streaming from pure and lovely Christian lives,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 97 
 
 relieves the gloom that settled upon the Churches in 
 the dark days of the eighteenth century. 
 
 In speaking of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Carlyle, in his 
 lectures on ' Heroes/ says that ' his fatal misery was 
 the spiritual paralysis of the age in which his life lay, 
 whereby his life, too, do what he might, was half 
 paralysed.' The phrase ' spiritual paralysis ' correctly 
 describes the condition of religious life in the eighteenth 
 century. In accounting for that condition it is usual 
 to insist upon the prevalence of doubt and of in- 
 difference to divine things, and to trace such doubt 
 and indifference to the effects that were produced by 
 the Deistic controversy. We do not undervalue the 
 desolating effects of that sharp contention ; but ' the 
 spiritual paralysis of the age ' cannot be wholly 
 attributed to it. We think that Sir Leslie Stephen, 
 in his English, Thought in the Eighteenth Century, has 
 estimated the influence of the Deistic controversy 
 correctly. He says 
 
 The main result of the attack and defence was to lower 
 the general tone of religious feeling without destroying 
 the respect for established creeds ; to make men unwilling 
 to ask awkward questions, and to compound with their 
 consciences by not making arrogant assumptions ; and, 
 generally, to bring about a comfortable compromise, which 
 held together till Wesley from one side, and Paine from 
 another, forced more serious thoughts upon the age. 1 
 
 It is a mistake to explain the decay of the spiritual 
 
 1 Vol. i. pp. 272, 273. 
 
 H
 
 98 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 force of Christian Churches by the prevalence of 
 scepticism. The student of Church history knows that 
 doubters have always confronted the teachers of the 
 Christian religion. Strictly speaking, there has never 
 been ' an age of faith.' Speculative scepticism, practical 
 atheism, militant or contemptuous godlessness have 
 always had their representatives, who have bitterly 
 assailed the Church. But the Church, so long as it 
 has been true to the doctrine of Christ and His 
 Apostles, so long as it has maintained its evangelistic 
 experience and testimony, so long as it has been 
 spiritual and unworldly, has never suffered permanently 
 from the attack of the sceptic: The secret of the 
 partial success of Deism was that the Christian Church 
 in this country had almost lost its power of resistance. 
 The intellectual battle was fought by the champions of 
 orthodoxy with much keenness, and with conspicuous 
 success. But an intellectual victory over those who 
 assail the Church does not, of itself, fortify the spiritual 
 life of the spectators who watch the tournament and 
 applaud the conquerors. Something more is required. 
 If the Church in the eighteenth century had been 
 true to the ideals of the New Testament, the Deistio 
 controversy might have caused a flutter in the minds 
 of those people who were afraid of religious discussion, 
 but the fighting strength of the Church would have 
 been sufficient, not only to repel attacks, but to secure 
 an unquestioned victory. 
 
 The principal cause of the decay of religion in
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 99 
 
 England in the eighteenth century is to be found in 
 the character of the Christian ministers of that day. 
 ' like priest, like people,' is a maxim which can be 
 turned about, and which reflects light from both sides. 
 It is true that the people make the priest, if he is 
 weak enough to be influenced by them ; but it is even 
 more certain that the priest makes the people. If we 
 accept this fact we shall find the reason of ' the spiritual 
 paralysis ' that had enfeebled the age which was 
 vitalized by the energy of the Evangelical Revival. 
 
 In his Life in the English Church, 1660-1714, 
 Overton shows that the chief impediment in the way 
 of the spiritual progress of the Church in the reign of 
 Queen Anne was the inextricable confusion which 
 existed between civil and ecclesiastical affairs. He 
 says 
 
 Politics have constantly been the bane of Church life, 
 and never more so than in the reign of Queen Anne. 
 Many of the so-called Church questions which violently 
 agitated men's minds were really far more of a political 
 than of an ecclesiastical character. The fact is, that though 
 it is exceedingly doubtful whether the State was of much 
 use to the Church, there is no doubt that the Church was 
 of very great use to the State ; it was a name to conjure 
 with, and it was used accordingly. Nothing marks more 
 strongly the popularity of the Church of this period than 
 the evident fact that no one had the least chance of a 
 hearing unless he professed friendship for, or at least no 
 hostility to, her. Those who were her bitterest enemies 
 assumed an apologetic tone. If the Church did not take 
 as much advantage as might have been expected of the
 
 ioo The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 splendid opportunity which now seemed to be offered to 
 her, the reason was that she was too much absorbed in 
 the vortex of politics. 1 
 
 These words are descriptive of the Church of Eng- 
 land in the reign of Queen Anne, but Overton's testi- 
 mony is that in the eighteenth century the Church 
 was ' an immense engine of political power ' ; and he 
 tells us that 
 
 the bench of bishops formed so compact a phalanx in the 
 Upper House of the Legislature, and the clergy could and 
 did influence so many elections into the Lower House, 
 that the Church had necessarily to be courted and favoured, 
 often to the great detriment of her spiritual character. 3 
 
 It is not difficult to note the currents which carried 
 the State Church into 'the vortex of politics.' As 
 more light is poured upon the Reformation in England 
 the more clearly do we see that it was not so much 
 a reformation of character as of opinions concerning 
 important doctrines and ceremonies. The reformation 
 was partial; everywhere the eye detects the mark of 
 compromise. One discovery of the age, however, stands 
 out conspicuously. The civil and ecclesiastical states- 
 men of the time were convinced that it was essential 
 that the theory of the headship of the Church should 
 be settled, and that such headship should not be found 
 in the Pope of Rome. Notwithstanding the manifest 
 unfitness of Henry VIII for the position, they invented 
 
 1 pp. 14, 15. 
 
 1 The Englith Church in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 6.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 101 
 
 the doctrine that the King is the head of the Church. 
 This was no doubt an astute move on the part of the 
 statesmen of the day. The claims of the King were 
 pitted against those of the Pope, and an issue was 
 raised that could be understood by the average mind. 
 The solution of the problem did not satisfy all English- 
 men. There were certain keen-sighted men who held 
 that, if the spiritual character of the Church was to be 
 maintained, the head of the Church must be invisible 
 save to the eye of faith. They contended that Jesus 
 Christ was the King of kings and the Head of His 
 Church on earth and in heaven. But, in such an age 
 as that of the Reformation, the form of religion was not 
 settled by the most spiritual men, but by the Court 
 clergy and the politicians. They, we suppose, assented 
 to the doctrine of the headship of Christ as a pious and 
 venerable opinion, but they saw that it was unsuited 
 to the grave national crisis that had arisen. It was 
 no use to proclaim such a spiritual doctrine to a nation 
 that put off its faith so quickly in the reign of Henry 
 VIII, and assumed it again, with equal swiftness, in 
 the time of Mary. The human imagination had to be 
 struck, and the King was selected to strike it. He 
 became a battle-standard around which the fight raged 
 nearly down to the reign of Queen Anne. It would 
 be difficult to estimate the injury to the spiritual and 
 evangelizing work of the Church which resulted from 
 the prolonged controversy concerning the ecclesiastical 
 position of the King.
 
 io2 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 The doctrine of the headship of the Church being 
 settled, the influence of the Court began to tell upon 
 the character of the clergy with disastrous effect. So 
 long as the King was a Protestant the mischievous 
 character of the doctrine was obscured ; but when 
 Charles II and James II reigned it was startlingly 
 revealed. A Eoman Catholic King, at the head of a 
 Protestant Church, is an anomaly that produces com- 
 plications. This was discovered; and for years the 
 country was restive under the arrangement. In the 
 reign of James II it became intolerable, and clerical 
 and lay politicians combined to end it. The student 
 of those distant years watches the conspiracies, the 
 intrigues, and the secret negotiations of bishops and 
 clergymen with mixed feelings. The work that was 
 accomplished brought permanent benefit to the Church 
 and the nation, but we cannot repress the conviction 
 that these clerical conspirators would have been better 
 employed in preaching the gospel and in seeking the 
 salvation of the souls of men. 
 
 A striking result of the doctrine of the King's 
 headship was the creation of that spirit of servility in 
 the clergy which was so painfully manifested in the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It infected some 
 of the noblest men in the Church. One of the most 
 pitiful spectacles ever witnessed was the scene in the 
 death-chamber of Charles II, when, after the King 
 had blessed the little Duke of Richmond, his illegiti- 
 mate cliild, the bishops who were present moved him
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 103 
 
 'as he was the Lord's anointed, and the father of his 
 country, to bless them also, and all that were there 
 present, and in them the whole body of his subjects.' 
 Whereupon, we are told, ' the room being full, all fell 
 down upon their knees, and he raised himself in his 
 l>cd, and he very solemnly blessed them all.' It cuts 
 us to the quick to see in this kneeling company the 
 saintly Bishop Ken. At the time when the King 
 bestowed his blessing on tliis group of Protestant 
 clergymen he was, according to the testimony of the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, one of his mistresses, 'a 
 Catholic at the bottom of his heart'; and shortly 
 afterwards a Romish priest was smuggled into his 
 room, and the King received 'his viaticum with all 
 the symptoms of devotion imaginable.' 1 The 'gay 
 monarch's' blessing of the bishops is a saddening 
 episode in the history of the English Church. 
 
 The scene in the death-chamber of Charles II was 
 symptomatic of much that then, and for many years 
 afterwards, existed in England. The subserviency of 
 the clergy to the King was remarkable. There was 
 a reason. He held their ecclesiastical fortunes in 
 his hands. The ambitious men who were consumed 
 with a passion for preferment knew that their only 
 hope of attaining to positions of dignity lay in standing 
 well with the Court. The yearning for preferment is 
 one of the most marked characteristics of the clergy of 
 the period. There were splendid exceptions. We may 
 
 1 Life of Thomat Ken, by a Layman, pp. 157, 160.
 
 iO4 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 not sympathize with the principles of the non-juring 
 bishops and clergymen in the reign of William and 
 Mary, but we cannot withhold our admiration from 
 the men who, having sworn the oath of allegiance to 
 James II, refused, out of conscience, to take a similar 
 oath to his successors. The healthiness of their con- 
 science is still a subject of academic debate, but there 
 can be no doubt that they valued their convictions so 
 highly that they descended from their places of dignity 
 and became poor men ; dependent, some of them, all 
 their days on the bounty of others. Upon them, in a 
 mean and sordid age, when conscience was often 
 treated by self-seekers with reckless audacity, a 
 pleasant light rests, a light that cheers the gloom of 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 The facts which illustrate the preferment-hunting 
 habits of the clergy of the eighteenth century are 
 abundant. Canon Overton, in Tlie English Church in 
 the Eighteenth Century, speaks upon this subject with 
 perfect frankness. Dealing with the scandalous 
 practices of non-residence and the holding of pluralities 
 he says 
 
 Unhappily the bishops could not remonstrate against 
 the evil, because the chief offenders were among their 
 own order. It is perfectly astonishing to observe the lax 
 views which even really good men seem to have held on 
 this subject in the middle part of the century. Bishop 
 Newton, the amiable and learned author of the Dissertation 
 on the Prophecies, mentions it as an act of almost Quixotic
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 105 
 
 disinterestedness that, when he obtained the deanery of St. 
 Paul's (that is, in addition to his bishopric), he resigned his 
 living in the city, having held it for twenty-five years. In 
 another passage he plaintively enumerates the various pre- 
 ferments he had to resign on taking the bishopric of Bristol. 
 'He was obliged to give up the prebend of Westminster, 
 the precentorship of York, the lectureship of St. George's, 
 Hanover Square, and the genteel office of sub-almoner.' 
 On another occasion we find him conjuring his friend 
 Bishop Pearce, of Rochester, not to resign the deanery 
 of Westminster. ' He offered and urged all the arguments 
 he could to dissuade the bishop from his purpose of 
 separating the two preferments, which had been united for 
 near a century, and lay so convenient to each other that 
 neither of them would be of the same value without the 
 other, and if once separated they might perhaps never be 
 united again, and his successors might have reason to 
 reproach and condemn his memory.' In another passage he 
 complains of the diocese of Lincoln being 'so very large 
 and laborious, so very extensive and expensive ' ; but the 
 moral he draws is, not that it should be subdivided, so that 
 its bishop might be able to perform his duties, but ' that 
 it really requires and deserves a good commendam to 
 support it with any dignity.' l 
 
 Mr. W. H. Hutton, writing about Newton in The 
 Guardian for August 23, 1905, says 
 
 In this old man's chit-chat the conversation always 
 turns, sooner or later, on preferment ; and we learn that 
 it was from George III and his mother that the bishopric 
 eventually came to him, when he was fifty-nine, though the 
 Duke of Newcastle was not above claiming some share in 
 the matter, for ' he had been so long used to shuffle and 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 11.
 
 io6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 cut the cards, that he well knew how to pack them in snch 
 a way aa to have the honours dealt to his particular 
 friends.* 
 
 When he is a bishop there is hardly a word of his 
 episcopal duties still the tale is of this statesman and the 
 other man of affairs. . . . Still the tale is of preferments, for 
 every bishop, if we may take Newton for example, was on 
 the look-out for translation ; and George Grenville said, in- 
 genuously, that he considered bishoprics of two kinds 
 bishoprics of business for men of abilities and learning, and 
 bishoprics of ease for men of family and fashion. 
 
 When we pass from the bishops to the clergy of 
 inferior rank, we find the presence of the same fatal 
 defects of character. In Mr. Albert Hartshorne's 
 Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain, 1729-1763, the veil is 
 lifted from the private life of the country clergy, and 
 disclosures are made which assist us to understand the 
 mystery of the extraordinary ineffectiveness of the 
 national Church in the eighteenth century. The look 
 contains the correspondence of Dr. Edmund Pyle, 
 Chaplain-in-ordinary to George II, with Dr. Samuel 
 Kerrich, vicar of Dersingham, rector of Wolferton and 
 rector of West Newton. This book excites our disgust, 
 but at the same time we are compelled to acknow- 
 ledge its value as a revelation. It is written with an 
 astounding frankness. Dr. Pyle pours into the ears 
 of his correspondent stories which blight the character 
 and spoil the reputation of men who had the mis- 
 fortune of his acquaintance. Our first thought is that 
 the acrid gossip is worthless; but further knowledge
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 107 
 
 of the persons whom he describes leads ns to the 
 conclusion that, allowing due verge for the statements 
 of an excitable newsmonger, sufficient truth remains to 
 enable us to understand the life of a numerous section 
 of the clergy of the period. In these letters we find, 
 according to Mr. Hartshorne, ' notices of the clamouring 
 crowd of self-seeking, clerical vultures'; we hear 
 ' unseemly stories ' of Bishop Mawson ; we learn of 
 the ' bartering ' and ' managing ' of Bishop Gooch ; 
 the ' wickedness ' of Archbishop Stone ; the ' violent 
 language ' of Bishop Butts ; the ' rude ways ' of Arch- 
 bishop Blackburne; and the almost uniform neglect 
 of the dioceses. But, above all else, we are intro- 
 duced to Dr. Pyle himself. We see in him a man 
 athirst for preferment, who is absolutely unfitted in 
 spirit, character, and conduct for the position of a 
 Christian minister. He is fatally irreverent, and 
 contemptuous of the doctrines which he officially 
 preached. We will content ourselves with one illustra- 
 tion. His father, Thomas Pyle, was the vicar of St. 
 Margaret's Church in Lynn. The church was restored 
 in 1743, and Thomas Pyle, who had been suffering 
 from 'a violent hoarseness and oppression upon his 
 lungs,' went out to see the new church, in which a 
 magnificent pulpit was being put up. This is the way 
 in which his son describes the visit : ' In going down 
 the middle aisle he started back, on a sudden, at the 
 sight of Trinity in Unity emblematically displayed in 
 the front panel of the said pulpit, and, what with
 
 io8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 distemper and indignation, was almost suffocated. But 
 nature, God be praised, got the better both of the 
 mystery and the disease, and the conflict produced 
 what physic had in vain attempted.' Recovering his 
 voice, he indulged in 'a fit of as clear and audible 
 raving as a man would wish to hear from a sound 
 Protestant divine upon so provoking an occasion.' 1 
 Mr. Hartshorne says : ' In spite of the shock it caused 
 to Thomas Pyle, the offending Trinity in Unity emble- 
 matically displayed was happily suffered to remain. 
 It consists of the sacred monogram within a triangle, 
 inlaid with different woods.' a Lest it should be sup- 
 posed that this ' sound Protestant divine ' was angered 
 by the spectacle of a material symbol of the Deity in 
 his church, it may be well to explain that Edmund Pyle 
 acknowledges that 'his father scarcely disguised his 
 Unitarian views.' Edmund Pyle ' was apparently 
 worldly-wise enough to keep his heterodox principles 
 somewhat to himself,' but there can be no doubt that 
 his views differed little from those of his father. 
 
 Pyle was successful in his pursuit after preferment 
 On attaining the position of prebendary, a deep content 
 spread through his souL He expressed his feelings to 
 a correspondent in the self-revealing words : ' The life 
 of a prebendary is a pretty easy way of dawdling away 
 one's time; praying, walking, visiting, and as little 
 study as your heart could wish. A stall in this church 
 is called a charming thing. And so it is.' He gave 
 
 1 Memoirs of a Royal Cluiplain, p. 86. * p. 87.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 109 
 
 himself up to the pleasures of the table, drinking 
 ' astonishing ' quantities of port, and hurrying from 
 one mansion to another in his ceaseless round of 
 pleasure. In him we cannot find a single characteristic 
 of a true Christian minister. 
 
 In the Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain we catch sight 
 of another clergyman who was a type of many whose 
 figures flit across the pages of the book. John Hoadly 
 was a younger son of the Bishop of Winchester that 
 prelate who, according to Macaulay, ' cringed from 
 bishopric to bishopric.' He began life as a poet and 
 dramatist, and assisted his brother, Benjamin Hoadly, 
 in some of his dramatic writings. One of Benjamin 
 Hoadly's plays was styled by a contemporary, 'Hoadly's 
 Profligate Pantomime.' It was full of dissolute small- 
 talk and indecent situations. It was whispered in the 
 town that Bishop Hoadly had corrected it. If he left so 
 much that excited disgust, what must the play have been 
 when it first felt the touch of the episcopal pruning- 
 knife? John Hoadly, being dazzled with the vision of the 
 rich patronage in his father's gift, determined to enter 
 the Church. His father ordained him deacon and priest, 
 and Hartshorne tells that he was appointed at once 
 chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, and chaplain 
 in the household of the Prince of Wales. In 1737 he 
 became rector of Mitchelmersh, in Hampshire, vicar 
 of Wroughton, in Wiltshire, rector of Alresford, in 
 Hampshire, and prebendary of Winchester. In 1743 
 he was made rector of St. Mary's, near Southampton,
 
 no The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 and in 1746 vicar of Overton, in Hampshire. With 
 the exception of Wrought/on, he received all these 
 benefices from the hand of a benevolent father. In 
 1748 Archbishop Herring conferred on him the degree 
 of LL.D., and in 1751 he was made chaplain in the 
 household of the Princess Dowager. On the death of 
 Dean Lynch, in 1760, Bishop Hoadly further appointed 
 him to the Mastership of St. Cross. It seems incredible, 
 but it is a fact that he retained all these preferments, 
 except the vicarage of Wroughton and liis prebendal 
 stall, until his death. Hartshorne says that it was 
 only Bishop Hoadly "s lack of 'merit' with the Duke 
 of Newcastle that prevented the further scandal of 
 John Hoadly being made Dean of Winchester. 1 
 
 When we move among the clergy of the eighteenth 
 century, and see their character and the manner of 
 their lives, we cease to wonder at the ineffectiveness 
 of the Church they represented. Once more we 
 remind ourselves that there were notable exceptions ; 
 but the weight of testimony is in favour of the fact 
 that true-hearted Christian clergymen were in a 
 minority, and that their influence was slight as com- 
 pared with that wielded by the men who had only 
 an official belief in their creed, and whose lives con- 
 stantly brought reproach on the Christian religion. 
 
 In seeking to account for the decadence of Chris- 
 tianity in England during the eighteenth century, it is 
 necessary to consider the condition of the Dissenting 
 
 1 Mvmoin of a lioyal Chaplain, pp. 268, 209.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century in 
 
 Churches, and to determine whether they possessed 
 sufficient spiritual force to impress, restrain, and uplift 
 the people. According to the testimony of those who 
 have most deeply studied this subject, such force was 
 absent. They had once possessed it, but gradually 
 they had been diverted from their mission, and had 
 lost their power. 
 
 The point at which we must begin our study of 
 Nonconformity in England is the period of the Eefor- 
 mation. At that time men had an opportunity of 
 seeing an example of compromise in religion. It is 
 customary to glorify compromise. It seems to smooth 
 difficulties out of the way when discussion is keen, and 
 when obstinate men on all sides need to be conciliated. 
 But there is no finality in a compromise. It is the 
 starting-point of new contention when other minds 
 examine it, and when conscience asserts its rights over 
 expediency. It was so in the days of the Eeformation. 
 Many persons looked with suspicion on the alloy of 
 Romanism which politic statesmen left in the teaching 
 and ceremonial practice of the English Church. Sus- 
 picion speedily turned to dislike, and to antagonism. 
 Then arose the Nonconformist party, not outside, but 
 within the Church; and the long fight began, which 
 ended in the exclusion of that party, in 1662, by 
 the application of the searching test of the Act of 
 Uniformity. 
 
 It is always interesting to watch the attempt of 
 earnest men to reform a Church to which they cling.
 
 ii2 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 English history teaches that a reforming Nonconformity 
 in a Church has a brief and troubled life. When it 
 becomes disagreeably aggressive it is extruded, or it 
 exiles itself and begins its wanderings in the wilderness. 
 This fate overtook some of the members of the Puritan 
 party in the English Church immediately after the 
 close of the reign of Edward VI. They set about the 
 establishment of presbyteries, and made other arrange- 
 ments for the inevitable exodus. But they were not 
 inclined to leave the Church too suddenly. They 
 remained in it as long as they could. At one time, to 
 their gratification, they found themselves the dominant 
 party in the Church of England ; and, through the 
 fortune of the Civil War, they were able to exhibit 
 their strength by casting out the bishops and the 
 episcopal clergy, and by imposing their own system 
 of Presbyterianism on a restive Church. But their 
 triumph was short. The end of the Commonwealth 
 and the return of Charles II sounded the death-knell 
 of their supremacy. Nothing remained for them, if 
 they were not to trifle with conscience, but to depart 
 from the Church. The attempt to Presbyterianize the 
 Church of England failed, and the Presbyterians had to 
 commence a separate career outside its borders. 
 
 We must distinguish between the Nonconformists 
 and the Dissenters. The latter were the first to perceive 
 that the spiritual reformation of the English people 
 must be accomplished by men who did not shrink from 
 the name of 'separatists.' Unless a man possesses
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 1 1 3 
 
 considerable self-esteem, he always finds it difficult to 
 cut himself adrift from old associates, and from an 
 established form of worship. But when intellect and 
 conscience unitedly utter the exiling word, then, 
 although the lonely path is entered with reluctance, 
 it is pursued with firmness. Gradually the solitary 
 traveller attracts to his side men of similar convictions. 
 Then out of the association rises a form of ecclesiastical 
 life, which slowly develops and takes its place among 
 the Churches of England. The inquirer into Church 
 origins generally finds something that commands his 
 respect in the circumstances in which Christian 
 Churches begin. He may not agree with the prin- 
 ciples and convictions of their founders ; but, almost 
 invariably, there is such a manifestation of the might of 
 conscience, such a heroic endurance of suffering, such 
 an aim after the things that are essential in the 
 experience of a Christian man, that hostile criticism 
 is hushed. 
 
 Paying our tribute of respect to the Nonconformists 
 and Dissenters of Eeformation times and the days of 
 the Commonwealth, we must now ask, How was it 
 that Churches, founded on conscience and faith, formed 
 to combat error and to maintain the pure worship 
 and Word of God, begun in order that the spiritual 
 side of the Reformation might triumph over every 
 subordinate aspect of that great revolution of Church 
 life how was it that these Churches, in the eighteenth 
 century, were found, with rare exceptions, to have lost 
 
 I
 
 1 1 4 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 sight of their mission, and to have abandoned their 
 work? 
 
 In trying to answer these questions we will take up 
 the case of the Presbyterians. There can be no doubt 
 that many of the men who were in favour of the 
 Presbyterian form of church government were reformers 
 of the best type. They commenced their work inside 
 the Church of England, and fought with superb courage 
 against the compromise in matters of fuith and practice 
 which had been arranged by the politicians and Court 
 clergy who were chiefly responsible for the English 
 Reformation. The Puritan Nonconformists began their 
 work as early as the reign of Elizabeth. In the year 
 1574 an important work was published at Geneva. 
 It was written in Latin, and was entitled The lloly 
 Discipline of the Church, Described in the Word of God. 
 Its author was Walter Travers, the famous afternoon 
 lecturer at the Temple, who is well known as the 
 distinguished disputant with Eichard Hooker. This 
 book was corrected, perfected, and translated into 
 English by Thomas Cartwright, of whom John Wesley 
 says : ' I look upon him, and the body of Puritans 
 in that age, to have been both the most learned and 
 the most pious men that were then in the English 
 nation.' Cartwright's translation of Travers's book 
 had a singular history. As it was being printed in 
 Cambridge it was seized at the press, and Archbishop 
 Whitgift directed that all the copies should be burnt as 
 ' factious and seditious.' One copy escaped the flames.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 115 
 
 It was found in Cartwright's study at his death ; and, 
 in the year 1644, it was reprinted under the new title, 
 A Directory of Government Anciently contended for, and, 
 as far as the Times would suffer, practised by the first 
 Nonconformists in the days of Queen Elizabeth. The 
 Directory is reprinted as an appendix in Neal's History 
 of UK, Puritans, and it well repays the study of those 
 who wish to discern the spirit and aims of the first 
 English Nonconformists. 
 
 In reading the Directory we are most impressed by 
 those sections of the book which relate to the spiritual 
 work of the Church. The place of doctrine and of 
 discipline is accurately marked ; and it is clear that the 
 supreme purpose of the organization of the Church is 
 to secure the faithful preaching of the Word of God, and 
 the salvation of those who were the members of the 
 Church. 
 
 We have spoken of the spiritual aim of the early 
 Puritans. In many of them the salvation of man was 
 the ruling idea. Who can doubt the aim of Joseph 
 Alleine, the author of the Alarm to the Unconverted ? 
 The name of Eichard Baxter stands out as that of a 
 man who ever kept before him the principal duty of a 
 Christian minister. His Call to the Unconverted, his 
 Saints' Everlasting Rest, display the intensity of his zeal. 
 It is a suggestive fact that, in this country, in a single 
 year, twenty thousand copies of the Call were sold. Does 
 not that show that there were myriads of people who 
 were in sympathy with his evangelical convictioLS ?
 
 1 1 6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Oliver Heywood, the apostle of the north of England, 
 was a man who aimed at and secured the conversion of 
 his hearers. John Westley, the grandfather of the 
 great agent in the Eevival of the eighteenth century, 
 was an evangelist whose ministry turned men from sin 
 to God. Let any one who is eager to find the traces of 
 the evangelical spirit in the seventeenth century read 
 sympathetically Calamy's Account of the Ministers who 
 were ejected or silenced after the Restoration in 1660. 
 He will find that in the Church of England there was 
 no lack of men imbued with the right spirit, men who 
 so believed and preached the word that they saved both 
 themselves and those who heard them. We have no 
 hesitation in saying that if the spiritual party in the 
 Church of England had triumphed in the seventeenth 
 century, the revival of religion in the eighteenth century 
 would have been anticipated. 
 
 It is a melancholy fact that the men who decided 
 the fate of Presbyterianism were not the evangelists 
 but the politicians of the Presbyterian party. It is not 
 necessary to enter into details; it is enough to say 
 that, in 1654, the victory of the political Presbyterians 
 seemed to be complete. The Parliament of that year 
 recognized Presbyterianism as the form by which the 
 State Church was to be thenceforth governed. 
 
 When Presbyterianism became allied with the State 
 it was brought under the influences which are detri- 
 mental to the spiritual mission of the Church. In 
 Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy there may be
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 117 
 
 exaggerations and gross errors, but any man who has 
 a knowledge of human nature will be inclined to think 
 that some of the statements concerning the persecutions 
 of Episcopalians by Presbyterians are true. As a 
 matter of fact, no Church is fit to be trusted with the 
 weapons of the civil power, no Church can wield them 
 without loss of character. But that is not all. When 
 a Church becomes dominant in a State, and avails 
 itself of political power to push its own interests, it 
 cannot resist the temptation to intrigue. Unbridled 
 lust of managing is one of the vices of human nature. 
 When it takes possession of the rulers of a Church, 
 the secularizing of that Church is only a question of 
 time. 
 
 An illustration of nemesis is afforded by the 
 history of Presbyterianism. The political intrigues of 
 the Presbyterians brought about the Kestoration of 
 Charles II. They little knew what they were doing. 
 There are some men who yearn to handle 'grand 
 affairs/ and we have no doubt that, unconscious of 
 their coming doom, the Presbyterian leaders revelled 
 in the conspiracies and secret correspondence that led 
 to the restoration of the King. But they soon found 
 out their mistake ; and then they lifted up their hands 
 in horror when they saw the catastrophe which had 
 overtaken them. 
 
 The ' Act of Uniformity ' deprived the Church of 
 England of two thousand of its clergy, and did a work 
 which we still contemplate with sorrow. We have
 
 u8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 nothing but admiration for the men who quitted their 
 livings at the call of conscience ; but we are afraid 
 that all who ought to have marched out did not do 
 so. The Act got rid of some of the best clergy from 
 the Church; but it kept in it a crowd of men with 
 low aims, and easily conformable consciences. The 
 triumphant Episcopalians had no need to congratulate 
 themselves on some of those who were retained. They 
 were a source of weakness to the Church to which 
 they clung, a hindrance to the work of the State Church 
 as a spiritual organization. 
 
 In following the fortunes of the men who left the 
 State Church in 1662, we travel a pathway that is 
 dark with shadows. In process of time the country 
 was dotted with Presbyterian churches, which retained 
 for some years the best traditions of the Puritans. 
 But decay set in. Having lost their supremacy in 
 politics, we should have thought that the Presbyterians 
 would have turned their attention to the evangelization 
 of the neighbourhoods in which they settled. Some of 
 them did. They preached the gospel ; they cared for 
 their congregations, leading them into a knowledge of 
 the great doctrines which nourish and perfect Christian 
 character. But, in a succeeding generation, the evan- 
 gelistic spirit drooped; the evangelical doctrines dis- 
 appeared from the pulpits, and the Presbyterian 
 churches scarcely counted among the forces that 
 fought against the influences that were spoiling the 
 religious life of the nation.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 119 
 
 When political weapons are taken out of the hands 
 of a Church, there are others which it is tempted to 
 grasp. It has often been remarked that, when a nation 
 is compelled by arbitrary rulers to abstain from political 
 discussion, it plunges into theological controversy. 
 We cannot accept this as a rule that acts invariably; 
 but it is certain that, in the case of the English 
 Presbyterians, doctrinal discussion soon occupied the 
 attention of ministers and congregations to the exclusion 
 of the preaching of the gospel. It was unfortunate 
 that the topic of investigation and debate was the 
 Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. If it had been a 
 merely speculative subject, or a doctrine of minor 
 importance, the evil effects would have been un- 
 important and transitory. But the fact of the Divinity 
 of our Lord lies at the basis of Christian belief. If it 
 is disputed by men who seem only anxious to display 
 their intellectual aloofness and expertness, the faith 
 and work of the Church are endangered. When such 
 men, from their privileged place in the Christian 
 pulpit, assail the doctrine, they create uneasiness in the 
 minds of their audience, and they prepare the way for 
 the abandonment of the evangelistic mission of their 
 Church. It cannot be too clearly understood that a 
 firm belief in the Divinity of Christ is the central force 
 of evangelism. It is only so long as we are convinced 
 that He is God that we have sufficient strength and 
 hope to attack the sins and miseries of the world. 
 
 We have seen that the taint of Arianism existed
 
 i2O The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 in the State Church. Contemporary opinion leads us 
 to the conclusion that it was widespread. At the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century the plague declared 
 itself among the Dissenters. Skeats, in his History of 
 the Free Churches, tells us that it is probable that the 
 General Baptists had never been entirely free from it. 
 The assurance that ' neither the Particular Baptists nor 
 the Congregationalists evinced any tendency towards 
 anti-Trinitarian opinions' is cheering. But the same 
 cannot be said of the Presbyterians. They ' shared 
 equally with, if not to a greater extent than, the 
 General Baptists, the characteristic tendency of theo- 
 logical thought.' l 
 
 We are now more particularly concerned with the 
 progress of Unitarianism among the Presbyterians. 
 For a considerable time the trend of thought concerning 
 the Divinity of Christ was scarcely observed in the 
 Dissenting Churches ; but, in 1718, events occurred in 
 the city of Exeter which brought the mischief to light. 
 In that city there were four Presbyterian churches. 
 The minister of one of them, James Peirce, held anti- 
 Trinitarian views, but he did not think it necessary to 
 publish them in his preaching. In a private conversa- 
 tion with a minister he revealed his convictions, and 
 Exeter soon rang with the information of his heterodoxy. 
 His case came before the local committee that was 
 charged with the management of the four Churches, 
 and also before a conference of the Western ministers. 
 
 1 pp. 239, 240 (Miall's ed.)
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 121 
 
 From this time [says Skeats] scarcely any question 
 was debated throughout the West of England but that of 
 the Trinity. It was discussed in families, preached about 
 from pulpits, written about in pamphlets, and the local 
 journals teemed with intelligence of what was being said 
 and done. 
 
 The West of England was aflame with excitement, 
 and it was determined that the whole matter should 
 be laid before the London Dissenting ministers. 
 
 On February 19, 1719, a meeting was held in 
 Salters' Hall, London, which was attended by more 
 than one hundred and fifty ministers. After consider- 
 ing the subject it seemed to be the general opinion that 
 a letter of advice should be drawn up and forwarded 
 to Exeter. At this point a proposition was made by 
 Thomas Bradbury, with the unanimous consent of the 
 Congregational ministers, that every one then present 
 should, as a witness to his own faith, subscribe the 
 First Article of the Established Church on the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, and the answers to the fifth and sixth 
 questions in the Catechism of the Westminster 
 Assembly. The proposition was rejected by seventy- 
 three to sixty-nine votes. After this vote the minority 
 left the meeting and constituted themselves into a 
 distinct assembly. The ministers who had opposed 
 subscription were, in the main, Presbyterians, but 
 among them were a few Congregationalists and 
 Baptists. The ' subscribing-' company ' included nearly 
 all the Congregational ministers of the metropolis,
 
 122 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 and a majority of the Nonconformist pastors actually 
 exercising the pastoral office.' The two assemblies 
 forwarded separate addresses to Exeter, each address 
 containing ' Advices for Peace.' * 
 
 It unfortunately happened that the letters of 
 advice were delivered just too late to be of any service. 
 The Exeter trustees had taken the matter into their 
 own hands, and had locked Peirce out of his chapeL 
 This act caused great resentment. Peirce's friends, to 
 the number of three hundred, built him a new place 
 of worship. 
 
 From this time [says Skeats] Unitarianism spread with 
 unexampled rapidity. It was unfortunate for the orthodox 
 party that their cause, both in London and in the "West, 
 had become identified with an act of personal injustice, 
 and something like synodical tyranny. It is impossible, 
 however, to throw the whole blame of this transaction on 
 one party. The trustees contrived to make the doctrine 
 of Unitarianism popular, and they lived to see nearly every 
 Nonconformist church in Exeter, and some of the principal 
 churches in Devonshire and Somersetshire, lapse from the 
 orthodox standard. The Presbyterian churches of London, 
 Lancashire, and Cheshire became similarly infected. In 
 less than half a century the doctrines of the great founders 
 of Presbyterianism could scarcely be heard from any 
 Presbyterian pulpit in England. The denomination 
 vanished as suddenly as it had arisen; and, excepting in 
 literature, has left little visible trace of the greatness of its 
 power. 9 
 
 1 Skeata's History of the Fret Churchet, pp. 241-246 (Miall'a Ed.). 
 1 Il.id., p. '2iS.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 123 
 
 It is impossible to watch the collapse and dis- 
 appearance of Evangelical Presbyterianism in England 
 without profound sorrow. But the sketch of its history 
 which we have given explains its ineffectiveness, and 
 also casts some light upon the reasons for the failure 
 of the Dissenting Churches as evangelizing forces. 
 
 Those who weigh the evidence we have adduced 
 concerning the ministers of the Established and the 
 Dissenting Churches will have no difficulty in account- 
 ing for the fact that during the eighteenth century the 
 great mass of Englishmen was unmoved by the power 
 of Christianity. The evangelist was scarcely repre- 
 sented in the ranks of the ministry. The contro- 
 versialist was conspicuous ; but, side by side with him, 
 was the politician, the pluralist, the seeker for prefer- 
 ment, the indolent shepherd of the flock, the man of 
 low morals and disgraceful life. Was it any wonder 
 that in such an age, to use Skeats's words, ' Nothing 
 that required great exertion or great sacrifice was 
 either attempted or done/ l Such ministers were 
 impotent in the presence of the ignorance and the 
 corruption that surrounded the Churches. They had 
 no power to rouse the nation that slumbered in the 
 valley of the shadow of death. 
 
 1 Skeats's Hittory of the Free Churchet, p. 251.
 
 124 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 The Religious Societies 
 
 GENERAL descriptions of the religious con- 
 dition of a country are rarely absolutely 
 correct. They often fail to include modify- 
 ing facts which, when weighed, alter our estimate, 
 and lend a little brightness to pictures of spiritual 
 desolation. In dealing with a revival of religion, 
 it must be remembered that although it is not produced 
 by, still it arises out of, existing conditions, and that 
 some are favourable. The law of development acts in 
 the religious world. When studying the new creation 
 of a people, it is essential that we should search 
 diligently for the beginnings of the new life that has 
 manifested itself with such abruptness. 
 
 The description we have given of the condition of 
 religion in England in the eighteenth century is 
 founded on unimpeachable testimony. It is certain 
 that the country suffered from a paralysis of faith. As 
 a consequence, those fine qualities of tone and temper, 
 character and conduct, which depend upon faith for 
 their life, languished. Not only so. As the restraining
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 125 
 
 power of faith no longer influenced those whose 
 morality is, in great part, the result of a belief of facts 
 which they dare not disbelieve, the ordinary virtues 
 were enfeebled. In point of spirituality and morality 
 it would be difficult to find a more discouraging 
 generation than that which existed in these islands 
 when the evangelists of the new era began their work. 
 To a man who searches religious problems only with 
 his intellect, the state of the country at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century seems beyond remedy. But 
 he who knows something of the wonderful ways of 
 the Spirit of God is saved from despair. He stands 
 in the valley of dry bones ; he admits that they are 
 ' very dry ' ; but, in the great silence, he waits for the 
 whispers of the wind that can make a dead nation live. 
 Turning towards the preceding century, we hear 
 the faint sounds of the beneficent storm which vitalized 
 the heavy atmosphere. Let us take one illustration of 
 the manner in which the Spirit of God prepared the 
 way for the great revival of religion. About the year 
 1678, in the dreary days of Charles II, Dr. Andrew 
 Horneck, a German by birth, was the preacher at the 
 Savoy. He attracted large audiences by his ' awaken- 
 ing sermons.' At St. Michael's, Cornhill, Mr. Smithies 
 was the morning lecturer. He was of a kindred spirit, 
 and his sermons brought many under conviction of 
 sin. Amongst the hearers of Horneck and Smithies 
 were several young men who belonged to ' the middle 
 station of life.' Woodward, in his Account of the Rise
 
 126 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 and Progress of the Rdigious Societies, gives a descrip- 
 tion of the experiences of these young men. He says 
 that they belonged to the Church of England, in the 
 cities of London and Westminster; and that, about 
 the same time, they were 
 
 touched with a very affecting sense of their sins, and 
 began to apply themselves, in a very serious manner, to 
 religious thoughts and purposes. 1 
 
 He tells us that one of them revealed to him his 
 spiritual sorrows. With floods of tears he lamented 
 
 that he had not till then had any affecting apprehen- 
 sions of the glorious majesty and perfections of Almighty 
 God, nor of His infinite love to men, in His Son Jesus 
 Christ ; and that he had not before felt any just con- 
 victions of the immense evil of every offence against God, 
 though it be but, said he, in the wilful neglect or mis- 
 performance of any duty to Him. But now he saw, and 
 groaned under all this, in very sharp and pungent con- 
 victions. And withal, perceiving the universal corruption 
 of human nature, and the deplorable crookedness and 
 deceit of man's heart, and with what a world of temptations 
 we are encompassed, being withal besieged by many in- 
 visible legions of infernal spirits ; when he considered all 
 this, his soul was even poured out within him, and he was 
 in danger of being overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. 
 The case was very much the same with several young men 
 at the same time, as he then told me, some of whom had 
 been greatly tempted by the devil, that murderer from the 
 beginning, to lay violent hands on themselves, which was 
 also, he confessed, his own temptation ; and that so urgent, 
 
 1 p. 19.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 127 
 
 sometimes, that sleep departed from his eyes, as well as rest 
 from his soul. 1 
 
 These young men often resorted to their ministers 
 for spiritual advice. Woodward says 
 
 There needed little other language but that of their 
 looks to discover their inward sorrows to each other ; they 
 needed no other arguments to incline them to pity each 
 other's case, but to consider their own, there being a 
 propensity in nature to succour those who groan under the 
 like miseries with ourselves. So that by these and the like 
 means, they soon contracted a very intimate acquaintance. 3 
 
 The ministers whom they consulted advised 
 
 that since their troubles arose from the same spiritual 
 cause, and that their inclinations and resolutions centred 
 in the same purpose of a holy life, they should meet 
 together once a week, and apply themselves to good dis- 
 course and things wherein they might edify one another. 
 And for the better regulation of their meetings, several 
 rules and orders were prescribed them, being such as 
 seemed most proper to effect the end proposed. Upon this 
 they met together, and kept to their rules, and at every 
 meeting they considered the wants of the poor, which, in 
 process of time, amounted to such considerable sums, that 
 thereby many poor families were relieved, some poor people 
 set into a way of trade suitable to their capacities, sundry 
 prisoners set at liberty, some poor scholars furthered in 
 their subsistence at the university, several orphans main- 
 tained, with many other good works. 3 
 
 These young men soon found the benefit of their 
 conferences one with another, by which, as some of them 
 
 1 pp. 19, 20. p. 21. p. 22.
 
 128 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 have told me with joy, they better discovered their own 
 corruptions, the devil's temptations, and how to countermine 
 his subtle devices ; as to which each person communicated 
 his experiences to the rest. 1 
 
 For the better management of their ' common stock,' 
 these young men chose two stewards, who managed 
 the charities of the society. Woodward possessed a 
 list of these stewards. From it we learn that the first 
 were chosen in 1678. The list extends to the begin- 
 ning of the reign of James II. 
 
 The reign of Charles II was a most impropitious 
 time for the founding of a spiritual society. The 
 reaction against the stern rule of the Puritans dis- 
 played itself in the sphere of morals. It would be 
 difficult to point to any period in English history in 
 which godliness had to fight so hard for its life as in 
 the years succeeding the restoration of the dissolute 
 king. At his death some slight sense of relief may 
 have been experienced, but those who were able to 
 discern the times were full of gloomy anticipations. 
 James II was a Roman Catholic. A roue was suc- 
 ceeded by a bigot, and a bigot is the deadly foe of 
 religion. Woodward, speaking of the beginning of the 
 reign of James II, says 
 
 In this unhappy juncture the face of the reformed 
 religion began to be clouded, and all private meetings were 
 suspected. And now, alas 1 some of these persons, that is, 
 the members of the Religious Societies, not having digged 
 
 1 Rise and Progrets of the Beliijious Societies, p. 1:3.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 129 
 
 deep enough to have a firm root in religion, began to shrink 
 and give back, like the seed in our Saviour's parable which 
 had no deepness of earth. They were afraid of the jealousy 
 of the State against them, especially when they saw the 
 bloody and merciless executions in city and country with 
 which that reign began, which dyed it of such a crimson 
 colour as rendered it frightful to many, particularly to these 
 young proselytes. Upon which some of them forsook their 
 wonted assemblies, and getting loose from their strict rules 
 and good society, they grew cool in religious concerns, and 
 some of them grew vain and extravagant. 1 
 
 Although the Religious Societies were numerically 
 weakened by the secession of some of their members, 
 these days of danger roused the spirit of the remnant, 
 and they soon made their influence felt. When they 
 saw the Mass celebrated daily in the Chapel Eoyal and 
 elsewhere, they resolved to set up at their own expense 
 daily prayers at eight in the evening at St. Clement 
 Danes, which ' never wanted a full and affectionate con- 
 gregation.' Not long after, they began an evening 
 monthly lecture in the same church for the benefit of 
 communicants. As lecturers they secured the services 
 of the most eminent divines in London. 
 
 With the beginning of the reign of William and 
 Mary, a change came over the fortunes of the Religious 
 Societies. The spiritual work prospering, a private order 
 was made at one of their assemblies that every member 
 should endeavour to bring in one other at least into 
 their Society. This was the means of a considerable 
 
 1 p. 24. 
 
 K
 
 130 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 increase in numbers. These 'religious fraternities' 
 grew and increased 'even until they became con- 
 spicuous, and in some degree famous : which still 
 induced other young men, that were of sober inclina- 
 tions, to join with them ; and as they multiplied in 
 distant parts of the city they erected new Societies by 
 the pattern of the old.' l 
 
 This increase excited suspicion, and in order to 
 remove it an ' apology ' was addressed to the Bishop of 
 London by the members of the Societies. In this 
 ' apology ' they said that 
 
 their only design was to quicken each other's affections 
 towards spiritual things, and to advance their preparations 
 for another world ; and to this end, to assist each other to 
 live in all respects as it becometh the gospel. And that 
 they desired to prosecute this Christian design in none but 
 Christian methods, with due respect to their superiors in 
 Church and State, and without any cause of offence to 
 any one.' 
 
 When they presented their 'apology,' the bishop 
 dismissed them with the words : ' God forbid that I 
 should be against such excellent designs.' 8 
 
 It must be noted that these Societies were in close 
 connexion with the Established Church. The members 
 went to the monthly communion, they constantly used 
 portions of the Book of Common Prayer in their 
 assemblies; they set up public prayers in many 
 
 1 liite and Progreu of the Religion* 8ocietie$, p. 35. 
 p. 36. p. 36,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 131 
 
 churches in the City, and frequented them in great 
 numbers. They deferred to their ministers, without 
 whose approbation no rule, prayer, or practice was 
 allowed among them. Dr. Woodward says 
 
 It has scarce ever happened that any person who could 
 be truly said to be of these Societies hath fallen from the 
 public communion to any sect or separation. 1 
 
 Frequent communion was practised by many of the 
 members of the Societies, and sermons were preached 
 in certain churches, preparatory to the administration 
 of the sacrament. 
 
 At the time when Dr. Woodward wrote, there were 
 forty Eeligious Societies ' in the compass of the Bills of 
 Mortality.' But they were not confined to London. 
 They were formed in Oxford and Cambridge, and in 
 other cities and towns. There can be no doubt that 
 they exercised very considerable influence upon the 
 religious life of the country. 
 
 Our brief sketch of the Keligious Societies, which 
 we have taken from the pages of Dr. Woodward, 
 proves that the Spirit of God had not forsaken England 
 even during those dark years of which we have written. 
 In inscrutable ways, in that night of despair He was 
 shedding His gentle light into innumerable lives, and 
 was preparing the nation for the visitation of ' a day- 
 spring from on high.' 
 
 pp. 37, 38.
 
 132 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 VI 
 
 The Dawn of the Revival in Wales 
 
 OUR description of the social, moral, and religious 
 condition of the English people during the 
 eighteenth century gives us the right point 
 of view from which to watch the work that was done 
 in this country by John Wesley, and those who were 
 associated with him in the toils and triumphs of the 
 Great Revival. Their work was national. It is a 
 mistake to suppose that it was done within the Estab- 
 lished Church, or even in association with that Church. 
 We note with satisfaction that, in the seventh volume 
 of the new History of the English Church, a volume that 
 deals with the period from the accession of George I 
 to the end of the eighteenth century, the late Canon 
 Overton and the Rev. Frederick Relton acknowledge 
 that Wesley's work does not come within their province. 
 They dismiss it with brief reference. In their intro- 
 duction they say 
 
 The reader will find little in these pages about the 
 marvellous organization which Wesley either originated or 
 adopted, not because it is a thing of naught, but simply
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 133 
 
 because it is not a part of the particular subject of this 
 book. For the same reason Whitefield's efforts, under the 
 patronage of Lady Huntingdon, are lightly passed over, 
 because they had even less connexion with the Church of 
 England than the Wesleyan Societies ; Whitefield being 
 far less of a Churchman than either of the brothers 
 Wesley. 1 
 
 In another place they say 
 
 The Society of which John Wesley was the founder 
 hardly comes within our scope. It is impossible not to 
 come to the conclusion that from the very first the Wesleyan 
 movement, so far as it concerned organization, never was 
 and never could have been a Church movement. It is 
 true that Wesley's commanding influence not only prevented 
 any formal separation from the Church during his lifetime, 
 but also secured the punctual attendance, at least for some 
 time, at the public worship in the parish churches * of all 
 who regarded his opinion ' ; that is, in other words, of all 
 Methodists, for with them his word was law. But all this 
 seems beside the mark. The real question is, What was 
 the tendency of the movement from the very beginning ? 
 Where did the followers of Wesley find their religion ? 
 Surely not in the Church system, but in their own separate 
 organizations. It is purely a modern notion that the 
 Wesleyan movement ever was or ever was intended to be, 
 except by Wesley a Church movement. 3 
 
 There can be no doubt that the authors of the 
 seventh volume of The History of the English Church 
 are right. They have reached the conclusion which 
 was so clearly stated by Dr. Eigg in 1881, in a 
 
 > p. 6. pp. 74, 75.
 
 134 The Revival of- Religion in England 
 
 pamphlet entitled, Is Modern, Methodism Wesleyan 
 Methodism f He then said 
 
 Many Methodists were themselves personally members 
 of the Church of England though a continually increasing 
 number were not ; but the Society, as such, was in no 
 sense or degree any part or any dependency of that Church. 
 It had no organic connexion with it whatever. The 
 parish clergy, as a rule, had no authority in the Society, 
 they stood in no relation with it. Some three or four 
 parish clergymen, during fifty years, connected themselves 
 with Mr. Wesley as his helpers, and put themselves under 
 his orders. These were thus brought into connexion with 
 his Societies. But otherwise, and as parish ministers, the 
 clergy had no relation whatever to John Wesley's Societies. 
 Nor had the bishops, nor any bishop, any authority over 
 the Society, or in the Conference, or, so far as regarded his 
 Methodist work, and his relation to his Societies, over John 
 Wesley. Methodism, therefore, as an organization, was 
 altogether outside the Church of England during Wesley's 
 own lifetime. 1 
 
 It is well that the ' purely modern notion/ so 
 frankly abandoned by Canon Overton and Mr. Helton, 
 should disappear. It tends to obscure the real 
 character of Wesley's work. The direct influence of 
 that work on the Church was slight. Wesley's sphere 
 was the nation. Like his Master, moved with com- 
 passion he went out to the multitude. He spent his 
 life in seeking and saving the people of England. 
 
 We intend to fix our attention, more especially, 
 upon the revival of religion in England, but our 
 
 >p.6.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 135 
 
 understanding of that event will be clearer if we turn 
 aside for a while to consider certain facts which are 
 closely connected with Wesley's work in this country. 
 The sunrise which came upon the nation after Wesley's 
 conversion was preceded by a beautiful dawn in 
 America and Wales. So early as 1730-1732, a re- 
 markable revival occurred in the Presbyterian church 
 at Freehold, New Jersey, under the ministry of the 
 Rev. John Teunent. In 1734 Jonathan Edwards 
 preached with remarkable success in Northampton, 
 New England. The Spirit of God stirred the hearts of 
 men into an eager desire for salvation, and led them 
 into the new life that comes through faith in Christ. 
 But we wish, more especially, to turn our eyes towards 
 Wales. Among its hills it is easy to see the lights of 
 dawn which heralded the morning of the Great Revival. 
 Griffith Jones has been called the ' Morning Star of 
 the Methodist Revival' In his parish of Llanddowror, in 
 Carmarthenshire, he preached the gospel with success 
 nearly twenty years before Wesley's conversion. There 
 is no more interesting figure in modern Welsh church 
 history than that of Griffith Jones. He was a man 
 who acted on his own convictions, and who dared to 
 initiate and accomplish original work. He was not 
 an evangelist merely. He had the sagacity to see 
 that the battle he had to fight was not only against 
 sin, but also against ignorance. He was the founder 
 of the famous ' Circulating Schools/ in which, in the 
 course of twenty-four years, upwards of one hundred
 
 1 3 6 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 and fifty thousand men, women, and children, between 
 the ages of six years and seventy, were taught to read 
 the Bible in the Welsh language. In these schools the 
 minds of the people were prepared for the appeals that 
 were subsequently made to them by the evangelists who 
 passed from village to village like flames of fire. 
 
 Many of the scenes of the Great Eevival are made 
 beautiful by the presence of Griffith Jones. We think, 
 however, that one of the most significant incidents in 
 his life is connected with the little church of Llanddewi 
 Brefi. He was accustomed to make excursions into 
 different parts of Wales, in order that he might preach, 
 in behalf of his schools, in churches where the clergy 
 were in sympathy with his work. On one of his journeys 
 he came to Llanddewi Brefi, a village that stands about 
 five miles from Llangeitho in the county of Cardigan. 
 When he commenced his sermon he noticed a young 
 clergyman in the crowd, and was struck with the 
 scornful look with which he was watching the pro- 
 ceedings. He paused, and darted a prayer to heaven 
 that the service might result in the conversion of the 
 supercilious hearer, and that, being converted, he 
 might be the instrument of saving many souls. That 
 prayer was answered. The young clergyman was 
 Daniel Eowlands, of Llangeitho, a little village that 
 lies in a narrow valley surrounded by wild mountains. 
 Daniel Rowlands was the curate of his brother, John 
 Eowlands. He had been permitted to take orders one 
 year before the usual age ' in consideration of his
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 137 
 
 superior scholarship.' He was a fine athlete. It had 
 been his custom to spend Sunday afternoon with the 
 young men of the parish in sport, and his skill and 
 enthusiasm gained him great popularity. But he was 
 restless in mind and dissatisfied. There was an In- 
 dependent preacher in the neighbourhood named Philip 
 Pugh, who is described as one of the very few Dissent- 
 ing ministers then in Wales who were able to gather 
 together a considerable congregation. Daniel Eowlands 
 was attracted to him, and he determined to discover 
 the secret of his success. Listening to his preaching, 
 he thought that the secret of his power was that he 
 ' thundered.' He resolved to try the same method. 
 He chose the most terrible texts. He spoke of the 
 sinner's miserable condition, of judgement, and ever- 
 lasting torments, with such eloquence and force that 
 the church soon became crowded with attentive and 
 awe-struck listeners. It is estimated that more than a 
 hundred members of his congregation were under deep 
 impressions before the preacher himself began to think 
 seriously at all. At this point in his career he heard 
 Griffith Jones preach in the church of Llanddewi 
 Brefi. He returned to Llangeitho a 'new creature.' 
 His fame spread abroad, and he was asked to preach 
 in many places. He still ' thundered.' Multitudes 
 trembled in his presence, and the churches sometimes 
 rang with the shouts and shrieks of affrighted people. 
 Mr. Pugh, deeply interested in his work, spoke to him, 
 and advised him to preach the gospel, and to show his
 
 138 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 congregations their need of faith in the crucified 
 Redeemer. ' I fear/ said Rowlands, ' that I do not really 
 possess that faith myself.' ' Preach it,' was the reply ; 
 ' preach it until you feel it. It will come without fail. 
 If you go on preaching the law after this fashion you 
 will kill half the population, for you thunder those 
 awful curses in such a terrible manner that it is 
 impossible for any man to stand before you.' Mr. 
 Pugh's advice was taken, and Eowlands began to 
 preach the gospel with singular sweetness and success. 
 The effect upon his audiences was remarkable. 
 
 As he proclaimed free forgiveness through the sufferings 
 and death of the Saviour of the world, sinners ready to 
 perish felt that there was hope even for them. In 
 realizing that hope, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and 
 full of glory, and great numbers expressed their ecstatic joy 
 in shouts of praise. 1 
 
 Instead of the wailings of despair the churches were 
 filled with the hallelujahs of people who emerged from 
 darkness and walked in the glory that shone from the 
 face of the Lord. The church of Llangeitho became the 
 scene of wonderful events. On one Sunday morning 
 Eowlands was preaching, and the people were listening 
 with intense eagerness. Unconscious of the flight of 
 time, he preached on and on until a ray of light came 
 through the western window, and revealed the fact 
 that the sun was setting. We can imagine the 
 worshippers wending their way homewards in the 
 
 1 Williams'* Welsh Calrinitic Mtthodiim, p. 20.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 139 
 
 lovely evening light that lies upon the hills and 
 floods the valleys at the close of day. 
 
 Griffith Jones and Daniel Rowlands were clergymen. 
 They fought a good fight for the gospel, and rendered 
 invaluable evangelistic service in Wales. But we must 
 turn from them to another part of the Principality 
 if we are to catch sight of a man who also stands 
 conspicuous in the dawn-light of the Great Revival. 
 On March 30, 1735, in Talgarth Church, in the county 
 of Brecon, the parish minister preached a sermon in 
 which he urged upon his people the necessity of 
 receiving the sacrament, and in which he used argu- 
 ments removing objections against attendance at the 
 Lord's Supper. Listening to him was a young man 
 about twenty-one years of age, who was a schoolmaster 
 in the neighbourhood. His name was Howell Harris. 
 He felt the force of the preacher's appeal, and deter- 
 mined to be present at the sacrament on the next 
 Sunday, which was Easter Day. When the time 
 arrived, he went to the church, intending to approach 
 the Lord's table. While repeating the confession 
 in which the communicants declare that the remem- 
 brance of their sins is 'grievous' to them, and that 
 their burden is 'intolerable,' his mind awoke to the 
 significance of the words he was using. Reflecting 
 for a moment, he found that he had no such sense 
 of sin, and that the words to him were meaningless. 
 He felt inclined to rise and leave the church, but 
 better thoughts prevailed, and he remained and received
 
 140 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the sacrament. The light which had fallen upon him 
 on Easter Day followed him. In private he read and 
 prayed until, at last, he saw the exceeding sinfulness 
 of sin. The words that he had uttered in Talgarth 
 Church became instinct with terrible suggestions. On 
 Whit Sunday, May 25, 1735, the sacrament was again 
 administered at Talgarth, and, once more, Howell 
 Harris was present. In one of the books he had read, 
 this sentence occurred : ' If we would go to the sacra- 
 ment simply believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
 should receive forgiveness of all our sins.' These words 
 haunted him, and he was determined to test their truth. 
 In the quiet church, in the presence of the emblems of 
 the Saviour's sacrificial death, there shone out before 
 liim a vision of the crucified Christ. His own words 
 concerning the experience that came to him, through 
 faith, in that solemn moment, are 
 
 I was convinced by the Holy Ghost that Christ died 
 for me, and that all my sins were laid on Him. I was now 
 acquitted at the bar of justice, and in my conscience. This 
 evidenced itself to be true faith by the peace, joy, watch- 
 fulness, hatred to sin, and fear of offending God that 
 followed it. 1 
 
 The Whitsuntide experience in Talgarth Church 
 made Howell Harris an evangelist. He tells us that 
 when he saw Christ on the cross at the sacrament he 
 ' felt some insatiable desires after the salvation of poor 
 
 1 A Brief Account of the Life of Hoioett Harris, extracted from 
 papers written by himself, pp. 13, 14.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 141 
 
 sinners,' and that his heart longed 'for their being 
 convinced of their sins and misery.' He soon began 
 his work. On his way home he told some of his neigh- 
 bours that he knew his sins were forgiven. They 
 might well stare at him and wonder at his words. He, 
 himself, ' had never heard any one make that confession 
 before,' or say that it was possible for a man to know 
 that his sins were pardoned. His confession amazed 
 the sober, orthodox communicants of Talgarth ; but 
 he was so firmly convinced of the forgiveness of his 
 sins that nothing could shake his assurance. 
 
 Howell Harris had now entered on strange ex- 
 periences. He was a traveller in a lonely land, and 
 he fared onward without the comfort and guidance of 
 a human companion. But in the days that prelude 
 great revivals of religion the doctrines suggested by 
 Whitsuntide receive beautiful illustrations. On June 
 18, 1735, an experience came to Howell Harris which, 
 to us, is still full of significance. In some quiet place 
 he was kneeling in secret prayer, when suddenly his 
 heart was filled 'with the fire of the love of God.' 
 There sprang to his lips words with which, previously, 
 he was ' totally unacquainted.' They may have caught 
 his eye as he turned over the leaves of his Bible, but 
 they had made no distinct impression on his memory. 
 When the ' fire of the love of God ' fell upon him he 
 cried, ' Abba, Father ! Abba, Father ! ' 'I could not 
 help calling God my Father,' he says, with touching 
 simplicity. 'I knew that I was His child, and that)
 
 142 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 He loved me and heard me.' The cry that rose from 
 the secret place of prayer became a watchword in the 
 days of the Great Revival. 
 
 Howell Harris's experiences in the neighbourhood 
 in which he lived were unique. He had no one to help 
 him, no mature Christian to lead him and comfort 
 him in the midst of the temptations that soon pitilessly 
 assailed him. But he walked with God, guided 
 through all perplexities by the light of a simple 
 faith. His own words, descriptive of his experiences 
 at this period, are golden : ' I was all this while a 
 total stranger to all the controversies about religion. 
 I only knew this, that God loved me, and would love 
 me, for His own Name's sake, freely to the end. This 
 made me love Him again, and study how to show my 
 love to Him.' 
 
 It was no wonder that Howell Harris became an 
 evangelist. He had realized, in Talgarth Church, the 
 forgiveness of his sins, and his heart was filled with 
 ' the fire of the love of God.' At first he was tempted 
 to hide himself from his friends, and brood over his 
 new experiences in secret. But the love of God 
 burned in him, and constrained him to lead others 
 into a consciousness of personal salvation. He was 
 stirred by the religious condition of the neighbourhood. 
 On the Lord's Day, no sooner was the service in the 
 church over than sport and revelry began. With the 
 exception of some of the Dissenters, family prayers 
 were utterly laid aside. 'A universal deluge of swearing,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 143 
 
 lying, reviling, drunkenness, fighting, and gaming had 
 overspread the country.' So far as he could see, no 
 one took any notice of the prevailing wickedness, or 
 made any effort to stop it. He was a layman, and 
 naturally turned to the ministers as the men who had 
 most power to stop the evils of the day. But his 
 appeals to them were in vain. Then he could be silent 
 no longer. He began to speak to his neighbours. Grad- 
 ually an impression was made. He gathered together 
 a few of his friends whose hearts had been touched 
 with ' some sense of their danger.' Soon the people 
 flocked around him. The inevitable result followed 
 he began to preach in an informal way. 
 
 In November, 1735, Howell Harris went to Oxford, 
 and spent one term at St. Mary's HalL But he grew 
 weary of the 'irregularities and immoralities' of the 
 University, and returned to Wales. He began to visit 
 systematically from house to house, not only in his 
 native parish, but also in the parishes adjoining. The 
 people crowded to the houses in which he and his 
 associates met. A remarkable change showed itself 
 in the moral and religious condition of the neighbour- 
 hood. Family worship was set up in many houses, 
 the churches were crowded, and the number of the 
 communicants at the sacrament was greatly increased. 
 The success of Howell Harris's work attracted the 
 attention of the magistrates and the clergy. Instead 
 of encouraging the man who was toiling for the uplift- 
 ing of the people, the magistrates threatened him and
 
 144 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 those who received him into their houses with punish- 
 ment, and the clergy were furious with him for daring 
 to preach. Their hostility checked the progress of the 
 work. But, in secret, Howell Harris met those who 
 had been religiously impressed; and then, when the 
 springtime came, he resumed his work of house-to- 
 house visitation. In his visits he became acquainted 
 with several Dissenters ; they opened their houses to 
 him, and he availed himself of the opportunity to 
 make known the gospel 
 
 In 1736 Howell Harris set up a school at 
 Trevecca ; and, in the same year, he founded several 
 Religious Societies like those which are described in 
 Dr. Woodward's book. Being turned out of his school 
 in 1737, he devoted himself to the work of itinerant 
 preaching, going from town to town, braving the 
 violence of the mob. He had great power as a preacher. 
 He had a fine presence and a commanding voice. He 
 was specially successful in dealing with the con- 
 science and in bringing his hearers to a knowledge 
 of their sins. At first his preaching was confined to 
 private houses, but eventually he was driven to preach 
 in the fields and streets. At the beginning of March, 
 1739, he met George Whitefield at Cardiff, who gives 
 the following description of him and his work. 
 Writing of Howell Harris and Wales, Whitefield says 
 
 A burning and shining light has he been in those 
 parts ; a barrier against profaneness and immorality, and 
 an indefatigable promoter of the true gospel of Jesus
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 145 
 
 Christ. About three or four years God has inclined him to 
 go abont doing good. He is now above twenty-five years 
 of age. Twice he has applied, being every way qualified, 
 for holy orders, but was refused, under a false pretence, 
 that he was not of age, though he was then twenty-two 
 years and six months. About a month ago he offered 
 himself again, but was put off. Upon this he was, and is, 
 still resolved to go on in his work ; and indefatigable zeal 
 has he shown in his Master's service. For these three years, 
 as he told me from his own mouth, he has discoursed almost 
 twice every day for three or four hours together ; not 
 authoritatively as a minister, but as a private person, 
 exhorting his Christian brethren. He has been, I think, 
 in seven counties, and has made it his business to go to 
 wakes, &c., to turn people from such lying vanities. Many 
 ale-house people, fiddlers, harpers, &c., Demetrius-like, sadly 
 cry out against him for spoiling their business. He has been 
 made the subject of numbers of sermons, has been threat- 
 ened with public prosecutions, and had constables sent to 
 apprehend him. But God has blessed him with inflexible 
 courage instantaneous strength has been communicated to 
 him from above ; and he still continues to go from con- 
 quering to conquer. He is of a most catholic spirit, loves 
 all that love our Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, he is 
 styled by bigots a Dissenter. He is contemned by all that 
 are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; but God 
 has greatly blessed his pious endeavours. Many call, and 
 own him as their spiritual father ; and, I believe, would 
 lay down their lives for his sake. He discourses generally 
 in a field, from a wall, a table, or anything else, but at 
 other times in a house. He has established near thirty 
 Societies in South Wales, and still his sphere of action is 
 enlarged daily. He is full of faith and the Holy Ghost. . . . 
 Blessed be God, there seems to be a noble spirit gone out 
 into Wales; and I believe ere long there will be more 
 
 L
 
 146 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 visible fruits of it. What inclines me strongly to think so 
 is, that the partition-wall of bigotry and party-zeal is broken 
 down, and ministers and teachers of different communions 
 join with one heart and one mind to carry on the kingdom 
 of Jesus Christ. The Lord make all the Christian world 
 thus-minded I For till this is done I fear we must despair 
 of any great reformation in the Church of God.' l 
 
 "When Howell Harris commenced to preach in the 
 open air, he soon found himself in the presence of 
 the turbulent mob. But he was a fearless man, and 
 risked his life without hesitation in the cause of his 
 Master. Lecky tells us that he made it his special 
 mission to inveigh against public amusements, and 
 he describes an incident which occurred at Mon- 
 mouth when Harris, during the races, took his stand 
 on a table outside the room in the town-hall, where 
 many county people were dining under the presi- 
 dency of a duke, and ' poured out a fierce denunciation 
 of the sinfulness of his auditors.' a On another occasion 
 we catch sight of him, in February, 1739, at Mac- 
 hynlleth, placed in an open window, trying to preach 
 to the crowd that surged and roared in the street 
 But he was obliged to desist. The shouting, threatening, 
 and swearing of the mob drowned his voice, and stones 
 were flung at him. An attorney came to him with 
 ' rage and fury in his looks, and his mouth full of the 
 language of hell.' With him was a ' gentleman,' and 
 also a clergyman, 'possessed of the same spirit and 
 
 1 Brief Account of the Life of Howdl Harri$, pp. 30-32. 
 Hittory of England, voL ii. pp. 604, G05.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 14? 
 
 using the same language.' These three headed the 
 mob. A pistol was discharged at him, but he received 
 no hurt. Finding that it was useless to attempt to 
 preach, he left the house and went into the midst of 
 the crowd, 'not expecting to escape alive.' But his 
 hour was not come. The mob assaulted him, but did 
 not kill him. At last, one of his friends fetched a 
 horse, and he mounted and rode through the street. 
 Sticks and stones were thrown at him, but the shield 
 of the Lord was over him, and he escaped. Lecky says 
 that the people and clergy were furious against him. 
 On one occasion a companion was killed by the mob. 
 On another, he was beaten almost to death ; again and 
 again he was stoned with such fury that his escape 
 appeared all but miraculous. 
 
 He was repeatedly denounced from the pulpit. One 
 clergyman was seen distributing intoxicating liquors among 
 the mob, in order to excite them. Another, who held no 
 less a position than that of chancellor of the diocese of 
 Bangor, stirred up whole districts against him. 1 
 
 But his work was successful. He preached to 
 immense crowds, founded many Eeligious Societies, and 
 drove back the flood of godlessness that threatened 
 to overwhelm the country. His name still shines with 
 special radiance in the annals of the religious life of 
 Wales. 
 
 We can only mention one other Welsh preacher 
 
 1 Hittvry of England, vol. ii. p. 605.
 
 148 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 who was a herald of the Great llevival. His name was 
 Howell Davies. Griffith Jones, in addition to his parish 
 work as a clergyman, kept a school, and Howell Davies 
 was one of his pupils. Through the ministry of his 
 tutor, Davies was converted. He determined to become 
 a clergyman, and was ordained to the curacy of Llysy- 
 fran in Pembrokeshire. His preaching produced a 
 great impression ; crowds came to hear him, and many 
 received spiritual blessing. But there were some of 
 the influential parishioners who resented his plain 
 dealing, and, through their means, he was dismissed 
 from Llysyfran. Being set free from a settled cure 
 he accepted invitations to preach in other parts of 
 the county. Remarkable scenes were witnessed when 
 he administered the Lord's Supper in the little Welsh 
 churches of Pembrokeshire. They could not contain 
 the communicants who flocked to the table of the Lord. 
 On some occasions crowds stood outside waiting their 
 turn, and the church had to be filled twice or thrice 
 before all had received the sacrament. Howell Davies 
 seems to have done his principal work in Pembroke- 
 shire. His influence in the county was great, and the 
 effect of his preaching was shown in the changed lives 
 of many people. 
 
 When we review the work of Griffith Jones, Daniel 
 Rowlands, Howell Harris, and Howell Davies, we see 
 in it the characteristics of the great religious and moral 
 movement that subsequently changed the condition of 
 England. Their experiences, sufferings, and successes
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 149 
 
 present us with a miniature of the Great Eevival. One 
 point, especially, is clear. These men felt the burden 
 of sin, they knew that, through faith in Christ, that 
 burden could be removed, and their experience of for- 
 giveness made them evangelists. No one can follow 
 Howell Harris, for instance, as he takes his solitary 
 journey to the Cross, and from the Cross to the reve- 
 lation of his sonship, without discerning the secret of 
 the inspiration that afterwards drove him into the 
 midst of the masses of his wild and dissolute country- 
 men. His life interprets the meaning of the ' New 
 Covenant.' The forgiveness of sins was followed by 
 the writing of the law in his heart. The knowledge 
 of the Lord came to him, not by human instruction, 
 but by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And, because 
 he saw that his joyous experience could be shared by 
 every one who would come to Christ and believe in 
 Him as he had done, he counted not his life dear to 
 him so that, by his ministry, from the least to the 
 greatest, the people of Wales might be saved.
 
 150 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 VII 
 
 The Dawn of the Revival in England 
 
 WE have watched the springing of the day 
 amongst the hills of Wales, and must 
 now turn to England to detect the touch 
 of the dawn on the darkness which enshrouded this 
 country in the first half of the eighteenth century. 
 
 It is often affirmed that the Great Revival had its 
 beginning in Oxford. It is undoubtedly true that some 
 of the most prominent workers in the revival were 
 members of the University; but the more closely we 
 pcrutinize their religious experience, the more are we 
 impressed with the fact that, with scarcely an excep- 
 tion, while in the University, they lacked the force that 
 makes a man an evangelist and fits him for the task of 
 affecting and changing the moral and religious condition 
 of a nation. The cleansing fire did not fall on John 
 and Charles Wesley at Oxford. It came amidst other 
 surroundings ; and it was only after that baptism that 
 they went out with the message of salvation to the 
 people of England. 
 
 We must, however, make one exception. The
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 151 
 
 knowledge of the forgiveness of sins came to George 
 Whitefield at the University. It is interesting to read 
 the account of his experiences, and to watch the working 
 of his mind on the problem which was soon to engage 
 the anxious consideration of myriads of Englishmen. 
 He sought passionately the entrance into the way of 
 salvation, thought that he had found it, and tried to 
 keep in the path by the practice of stern austerities, by 
 observing the ordinances of the Church, and by busying 
 himself in good works. But his heart was weighed down 
 by the ' intolerable burden ' of unpardoned sin. Then 
 there came to him the revelation that flooded the mind 
 of Howell Harris with sunshine. It is an interesting 
 fact that the conversion of Howell Harris and of George 
 Whitefield occurred nearly at the same time. Those 
 who follow with reverence the work of the Spirit of 
 God in the lives of men will picture to themselves 
 the lonely Welshman, in the silence of the mountains, 
 and Whitefield, in the stir and excitement of the 
 University of Oxford, each receiving the priceless gift 
 of conscious salvation. Howell Harris saw Christ as 
 his Saviour on Whit Sunday, 1735 ; and ' about seven 
 weeks after Easter' in the same year the great 
 experience came to Whitefield. In the 1756 edition 
 of his Journal he says 
 
 After having undergone innumerable buffetings of 
 Satan, and many months' inexpressible trials by night and 
 day under the spirit of bondage, God was pleased at length 
 to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold on His
 
 152 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 dear Son by a living faith, and, by giving me the spirit of 
 adoption, to seal me, as I humbly hope, even to the day of 
 everlasting redemption. But oh ! with what joy joy 
 unspeakable even joy that was full of and big with glory, 
 was my soul filled, when the weight of sin went off, and an 
 abiding sense of the pardoning love of God, and a full 
 assurance of faith, broke in upon my disconsolate soul 1 ... 
 At first my joys were like a springtide, and, as it were, 
 overflowed the banks. Go where I would, I could not 
 avoid singing of psalms almost aloud ; afterwards it became 
 more settled, and, blessed be God, saving a few casual 
 intervals, has abode and increased in my soul ever since. 1 
 
 Whitefield left Pembroke College, Oxford, at the 
 end of May, 1735, and did not return until March, 
 1736. In the interval the spirit of the evangelist 
 stirred in him, and drove him out to work. His home 
 was in Gloucester; and, by means of conversation, he 
 was made instrumental in awakening several young 
 people, whom he formed into a Society. He also visited 
 other Societies, and diligently attended to sick persons 
 and the poor. He went to the jail, and having gained 
 the permission of the keeper and two ordinaries, he 
 constantly read to and prayed with the prisoners each 
 day for about three months. 
 
 While he was thus busy in his native city, the 
 attention of Dr. Benson, the Bishop of Gloucester, was 
 drawn to him by Lady Selwyn. An interview took 
 place, which finally resulted in his being ordained in 
 Gloucester Cathedral on Sunday, June 20, 1736. A 
 
 1 p. 17.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 153 
 
 week later he preached his first sermon in the Church 
 of St. Mary de Crypt, the church in which he was 
 baptized, and where he had received his first com- 
 munion. When he faced the large congregation he felt 
 a little awed. But his work in the prisons of Oxford 
 and Gloucester stood him in good stead. There he had 
 grown accustomed to teach and to exhort; and, as he 
 proceeded with his sermon, his nervousness vanished, 
 and he spoke out of a full heart his message to the 
 people. His subject was 'The Necessity and Benefit 
 of Religious Society,' and the sermon, probably, was 
 the same which he afterwards preached before the 
 Religious Societies in Bow Church, London. While 
 
 O 
 
 commending the Societies, he took the opportunity 
 to deliver an attack on the fashionable assemblies 
 that wasted the time and dissipated the seriousness of 
 those who frequented them. He took this line of set 
 purpose. His eye had already discerned a mischief 
 that was sapping the strength of the English people. 
 Speaking to his audience, he said 
 
 I warn you of the great danger those are in who, either 
 by their subscriptions, presence, or approbation, promote 
 societies of a quite opposite nature to religion. And 
 here I would not be understood to mean only those 
 public meetings which are designed manifestly for nothing 
 else but revellings and banquetings, for chambering and 
 wantonness, and at which a modest heathen would blush to 
 be present, but also those seemingly innocent entertain- 
 ments and meetings which the politer part of the world 
 are so fond of, and spend so much time in ; but which,
 
 154 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 notwithstanding, keep as many persons out of a sense of 
 true religion as intemperance, debauchery, or any other 
 crime whatever. Indeed, whilst we are in this world, we 
 must have proper relaxations to fit us both for the business 
 of our profession and religion. But then, for persons who 
 call themselves Christians, that have solemnly vowed at 
 their baptism to renounce the vanities of this sinful world, 
 and that are commanded in Scripture to abstain ' from all 
 appearance of evil ' and to have their ' conversation in 
 heaven ' for such persons as these to support meetings that, 
 to say no worse of them, are vain and trifling, and have a 
 natural tendency to draw off our minds from God, is absurd, 
 ridiculous, and sinful. 
 
 This was a new note to sound in a pulpit of the 
 Established Church ; or, rather, it was a note that had 
 been silent too long. As the audience listened to the 
 young castigator of its foibles and follies, a few 
 mocked, but most of those who were present felt the 
 force of his appeal. Some one, however, went to the 
 bishop, and complained that fifteen persons had been 
 driven mad by the sermon. His lordship, after listening 
 to the complaint, said that he hoped that the madness 
 might not be forgotten before the next Sunday. 
 
 After preaching on 'The Necessity and Benefit of 
 Religious Society/ Whitefield turned his attention to 
 another subject. He tells us, in 1769, that the second 
 sermon he ever made and ever preached was on the 
 words, ' If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' 
 In making the sermon he examined the doctrine of 
 Baptismal Regeneration, and concluded that it was not
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 155 
 
 warranted by Scripture. In preaching, he expressed 
 the views at which he had arrived, and by so doing 
 roused strong opposition. Looking back upon the 
 teaching of this sermon in other years, he stands 
 firmly by the position he then assumed. He asserted, 
 and continued to assert, that it was untrue that ' all 
 people who were baptized were born again.' He 
 says 
 
 I would as soon believe the doctrine of transubstantia- 
 tion. Can I believe that a person who, from the time of 
 his baptism to the time, perhaps, of his death, never fights 
 against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and never minds 
 one word of what hia god-fathers and god-mothers promised 
 for him, is a real Christian ? No, I can as soon believe 
 that a little wafer in the hands of a priest is the very blood 
 and bones of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Whitefield's conversion had explained to him the 
 mystery of the 'new birth.' He saw that it was a 
 spiritual change that comes upon a man whose sorrow 
 for sin is accompanied by an act of direct faith in 
 Christ as his Saviour. The revelation of Christ as a 
 personal Saviour brings into the heart the love of 
 God which is shed abroad there by the Holy Ghost. 
 Through the influence of that divine love the great 
 change is effected which makes a man 'a new 
 creation.' Whitefield rejected the theory that this 
 change could be wrought in a child by sprinkling a 
 few drops of water on him, and so without any hesita- 
 tion he declared his convictions. By so doing he
 
 156 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 manifested a high courage. The doctrine of Baptis- 
 mal Kegeneration was essential to the religious system 
 of the Church of England. A vigilant orthodoxy 
 guarded it with scrupulous care. Any teaching that 
 moved the hour of a man's conversion from the moment 
 of his baptism, disarranged a skilfully constructed 
 scheme of doctrine and threw it into confusion. We 
 do not wonder that Whitefield's attack was bitterly 
 resented ; but, notwithstanding fierce opposition, he 
 refused to yield to his assailants. By his preaching 
 he lifted into the light the most conspicuous doctrine 
 of the Methodist Reformation, a doctrine without 
 which that Reformation would have been impossible. 
 
 After his ordination Whitefield returned to the 
 University, took his bachelor's degree, and then settled 
 down to work in the prisons and in the charity schools 
 which had been founded by the Methodists. But he 
 did not remain long in Oxford. The Eev. Thomas 
 Broughton, who afterwards was for many years the 
 secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge, was curate at the Tower of London. Being called 
 into Hampshire for a time, Broughton wrote to White- 
 field, and asked him to officiate in his place. On 
 Wednesday, August 4, 1736, Whitefield went up to 
 London. On that day, as there was no other passenger 
 by the stage-coach, he employed much of his time in 
 prayer. He got to London in the evening, and soon 
 commenced his work. For two months, while supply- 
 ing for Mr. Broughton, he preached in the chapel of the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 157 
 
 Tower to crowded congregations. The members of the 
 Religious Societies, being aware of his arrival, flocked 
 to hear him as he discoursed 'about the new birth 
 and the necessity of renouncing all in affection in 
 order to follow Jesus Christ.' He also preached in 
 several churches, and frequently visited the wretched 
 inmates of the jails. 
 
 Returning to Oxford, Whitefield once more settled 
 down. It was pleasant to get back to the University, 
 and he would have gladly spent all his time there. 
 But again he was called away. His friend, the Rev. 
 Charles Kinchin, was the minister of Dummer, in 
 Hampshire, and he needed a supply. The parish was 
 small. Even so late as 1801 the population did not 
 amount to three hundred persons. Whitefield says: 
 'His parish consisting chiefly of poor and illiterate 
 people, my proud heart could not well brook it. I 
 would have given all the world for one of my Oxford 
 friends, and mourned for lack of them, as a dove that has 
 lost its mate.' This mournful note is very genuine. It 
 reminds us of the fact that three of the most prominent 
 evangelists of the eighteenth century were men who 
 had fallen under the spell of the fascination of Oxford. 
 They would have remained there willingly, working 
 among prisoners, teaching children, caring for the poor, 
 preacliing occasionally ; and they would have allowed 
 the world to beat out its life in darkness and despair. 
 
 At Dummer Whitefield came into refreshing contact 
 with parish work. Mr. Kinchin had introduced the
 
 158 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 practice of having public prayers twice a day. He 
 also catechized the children, and visited from house to 
 house. Whitefield, adopting the same plan, found 
 that he derived great profit from conversing with ' the 
 poor country people.' He says : ' I frequently learnt as 
 much by an afternoon's visit as in a week's study.' 
 During his six weeks' residence in this Hampshire 
 village, he received the offer of ' a very profitable 
 curacy ' in London. The offer must have made a strong 
 appeal to him. He was poor and in debt; but, not- 
 withstanding, he determined not to accept it. Oxford 
 may have beckoned him from the distance ; but, more 
 probably, although he knew it not, a secret influence 
 drew him towards his destined path. The refusal of 
 ' a very profitable curacy,' in an age when the vision 
 of 'preferment' dazzled the eyes of so many clergy- 
 men, administers a shock of surprise. It was an 
 indication that a new spirit was abroad a spirit 
 which was conspicuously manifested during the years 
 of the Great Kevival. 
 
 While in Dummer another event occurred which 
 exercised a determining influence on Whitefield's career. 
 Charles Wesley, returning from Georgia, in America, 
 landed in England on December 3, 1736. He wrote 
 to Whitefield, saying that he had come back to procure 
 workers for the mission in America. Charles Wesley's 
 letter was followed by one from John Wesley. In it 
 was an irresistible appeal. ' Do you ask me what you 
 shall have ? ' wrote John Wesley, in his bright, eager
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 159 
 
 style. 'Food to eat, and raiment to put on; a house 
 to lay your head in, such as your Lord had not ; and 
 a crown of glory that fadeth not away/ This letter 
 made Whitefield's heart leap within him. In the 
 quietude of his little parish he thought out the matter, 
 and determined to become a missionary. He returned 
 to Oxford, said farewell to his friends there, ' whom he 
 loved as his own soul,' and made preparations to sail to 
 Georgia without delay. 
 
 But work was waiting for Whitefield in this country 
 which had to be done before he sailed to America. 
 New Year's Day found him in Gloucester. He visited 
 the city not only to say farewell to his friend there, 
 but also to consult Bishop Benson concerning his de- 
 termination to be a missionary. The bishop approved 
 of his decision, and wished him much success. While 
 staying with his relatives, he preached several times 
 in the city, and he tells us that he had reason to 
 believe that some were converted by his ministry. 
 He had relations in Bristol, and after a three weeks' 
 stay in Gloucester he went there to take leave of them. 
 At that time Bristol was the second city in the kingdom, 
 and its influence upon the country through its shipping 
 was widespread. It was a fine strategic centre. A 
 blow struck there for God would reverberate through- 
 out the laud. Indeed, it would be felt far beyond the 
 shores of England, in those colonies with which the 
 Bristol ships were accustomed to trade. Little thinking 
 of the importance of the step he was taking, Whitefield
 
 160 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 went to Bristol, staying, we presume, with Mrs. Greville, 
 his sister, the wife of a shopkeeper in Wine Street. 
 On the Thursday after his arrival he went to hear a 
 sermon in St. John's Church. The prayers having 
 been read, while the psalm was being sung the minister 
 came to his seat and asked him to preach. As he 
 had some notes with him he consented. The people 
 listened, and were impressed by the appeals he made. 
 The next day there was a lecture at St. Stephen's. 
 Once more he preached, and now the audience was 
 startled and alarmed. On Sunday he preached again, 
 and the city was stirred. The churches were crowded. 
 Whitefield says 
 
 The word, through the mighty power of God, was 
 sharper than a two-edged sword. The doctrine of the 
 new birth and justification by faith in Jesus Christ, though 
 I was not so clear in it as afterwards, made its way like 
 lightning into the hearers' consciences. The arrows of 
 conviction stuck fast ; and my whole time, between one 
 lecture and another, except what was spent in necessary 
 refreshment, was wholly occupied in talking with people 
 under religious concern. 
 
 The whole city [he continues] seems to be alarmed. 
 Churches are as full on week-days as they used to be on 
 Sundays, and on Sundays are so full that many, very many, 
 are obliged to go away because they cannot come in. 
 Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, all come to hear the word 
 preached. 
 
 The people of Bristol made a strong effort to retain 
 Whitefield in their city, but his heart was set on his
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 161 
 
 missionary work, and, after a time, he left them, and 
 journeyed to London. He hoped to find a ship that 
 would carry him to America; but for about three 
 weeks he waited for Oglethorpe, who expected to 
 sail every day. Finding that he would not be able 
 to set out on his voyage for some time, Whitefield 
 came back to Gloucestershire, and retired to the rural 
 seclusion of Stonehouse, where he supplied the place of 
 the Rev. Sampson Harris. Here he found a Society 
 in existence, and soon entered on congenial work. He 
 writes in raptures about the beauty of the country, 
 and the communion he had with God and his Christian 
 companions during his walks in the woods. Crowds 
 attended his preaching, and his constant theme was 
 the New Birth. On Ascension Day, May 10, 1737, 
 he preached on 'Whom He justified, them He also 
 glorified/ and afterwards, when he said good-bye to 
 the people, their sighs and tears almost broke his heart. 
 On May 23 Whitefield again visited Bristol. A 
 mile outside the city he was met by a multitude of 
 people on foot, and by many in coaches. When he 
 entered Bristol he was saluted and blessed as he went 
 along the street. During his stay he received letters 
 from Oglethorpe stating that he would not embark for 
 two months; and so, availing himself of his liberty, 
 he gave himself up to the work of proclaiming the 
 gospel. He preached about five times a week. The 
 congregations swiftly increased. The people crowded 
 the churches, hung on the rails of the organ-loft, and 
 
 M
 
 1 62 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 climbed on the leads of the roof. Often it was with 
 great difficulty that he forced himself through the 
 dense mass of hearers and made his way to the desk. 
 Persons of all denominations, of all ranks, flocked to 
 hear him. As a result of his work Eeligious Societies 
 were formed, and the whole city was moved by his 
 teaching concerning the doctrines of the forgiveness 
 of sins, and the new birth that comes through the 
 might of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 About the end of August Whitefield went up once 
 more to London, where he was invited to preach in 
 several churches. He came into close contact with 
 the Eeligious Societies, and his preaching was accom- 
 panied by the effects which had been seen in Bristol. 
 He preached generally nine times a week. On Sunday 
 mornings, long before day, the streets were filled with 
 people going to church. They carried lanterns in their 
 hands, and as they picked their way along the narrow 
 footpaths they could be heard conversing about the 
 things of God. The personal popularity of Whitefield 
 was remarkable. Walking through the streets, the 
 people surged around him, and he had at last to go 
 from place to place in a coach to avoid the admiring 
 crowd. It was well that his popularity was tempered 
 with opposition. At first, many of the clergy came 
 to hear him; then some grew angry, and complained 
 that the churches were so crowded that there was no 
 room for the parishioners, and that the pews were 
 spoiled. A report having been spread that the Bishop
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 163 
 
 of London intended to silence him, he waited on the 
 bishop, and found that he had no such intention. Soon 
 after this interview two clergymen sent for Whitefield, 
 and told him that they would not let him preach in 
 their pulpits any more unless he renounced that part 
 of his sermon on Eegeneration 'wherein he had ex- 
 pressed a wish that his brethren would entertain their 
 auditories oftener with discourses upon the new birth.' 
 As he promptly declined to comply with the request 
 they became his steady opponents. In addition to 
 the preaching of the obnoxious doctrine of the 'new 
 birth,' Whitefield took a course, at this time, that 
 excited the enmity of the clergy of the Church of 
 England. Seeking for men who sympathized with 
 his view of evangelical doctrine, he found some of 
 them among Dissenters. They came to hear him, in- 
 vited him to their houses, and received him into their 
 social circle. He tells us that in his private conver- 
 sations with them they repeatedly told him that if the 
 doctrines of the new birth and of justification by faith 
 were preached in the Church there would be few 
 Dissenters in England. Whitefield saw no objection 
 to such association with godly men; he thought it 
 ' agreeable to the Word of God ' ; and so he continued 
 his friendly relations with them. But some of the 
 clergy did not share his views. They denounced him 
 for consorting with the enemies of the Church, and 
 they warned those over whom they had any influence 
 to avoid him.
 
 164 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 In 1737 the influence of newspapers and magazines 
 in England was slight when compared with the power 
 which they now wield. But it was sufficient to form 
 the ideas of a select circle of thinkers, who, in their 
 turn, moulded public opinion. The news-letters that 
 circulated in the coffee-houses and clubs of London, 
 and found their way slowly into the country, often 
 determined the fate of men. It is a tribute to White- 
 field's popularity that he excited the interest of the 
 purveyors of news in London, and was deemed a 
 subject worthy of their pens. We can imagine the 
 bewilderment of the newsmonger in the presence of 
 the doctrines that Whitefield preached. The instinct 
 which urges us to attack and destroy that which we 
 cannot understand moved the literary men of the 
 eighteenth century. They therefore assailed the 
 young preacher and his teaching with the weapons 
 of raillery and contempt, thinking that scorn would 
 kill his reputation. Nerved by enthusiasm for the 
 Church, of which some of them were neither pillars 
 nor ornaments, they commenced a campaign of ridicule 
 and calumny that lasted through many years. There 
 can be no doubt that the biting paragraphs about 
 Whitefield which occasionally appeared in the news- 
 letters did much to create the adverse opinion which 
 displayed itself at the outset and during the course of 
 his evangelistic career. 
 
 On January 6, 1738, the ship on which Whitefield 
 had embarked set sail from Gravesend. Before he
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 165 
 
 quitted the English coast he received another letter 
 from John Wesley. In it he was strongly advised to 
 abandon his mission to Georgia. His conviction that 
 he was needed in America was only strengthened by 
 this letter, and he put out into the deep, trusting in 
 the providence of God. 
 
 We must now allow Whitefield to sink beneath 
 the western sky-line for a time, and fix our attention 
 on a man whose name is imperishably connected 
 with the revival of the eighteenth century. The year 
 1738 is one of the most remarkable dates in the 
 modern history of the Church of Christ. It is con- 
 spicuous because it was the year of John Wesley's 
 conversion. His conversion marks the true beginning 
 of that profound movement of religious thought 
 which has changed the character of the English 
 people. 
 
 It is not necessary to introduce biographical details 
 into our description of John Wesley. We think, 
 however, that if we could see him clearly, we should 
 more quickly understand the secret of his success. 
 There are only two portraits of Wesley that satisfy 
 us. One was painted by Williams in 1742-3, and is 
 now in Didsbury College; the other is the work of 
 Romney, and a replica is in the possession of the 
 Kev. G. Stringer Howe. Williams's portrait of Wesley 
 assists us when we try to picture the man who so 
 deeply stirred this country in the eighteenth century. 
 The Kev. Eichard Green, in the Proceedings of the
 
 1 66 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Wesley Historical Society* has admirably described this 
 portrait. He says 
 
 This portrait by "Williams is of great interest as 
 representing Wesley in the vigour of his days. The face 
 is of the Miltonic type. The nose is prominent and well 
 defined ; from a little above the centre to the tip is almost 
 a straight line, thus differentiating it from the distinctive 
 Roman type. The eyes are large and reflective ; and over 
 them the lids fall sufficiently to indicate calmness and rest, 
 without drooping to drowsiness. There is no appearance 
 of hurry or flutter in them ; but a hidden power of activity 
 and sustained labour. They betoken a concentration of 
 thought on the present moment ; there is no distant and 
 dreamy absence of mind. They are filed on the beholder 
 with that calm, steady, penetrating gaze with which he 
 arrested the leaders of riotous mobs, and put to silence 
 disturbers and rude assailants in his meetings. The well- 
 modelled mouth is firm, without sternness ; it indicates 
 calmness, placidity, and self-control ; it shows no line of 
 flippancy or anger, but an habitual seriousness that evidently 
 could brighten into sweetness and joy, or could melt into 
 tenderness, rather than harden itself into severity. Power 
 of thought is shown in the widely spread eyebrows and 
 the ample and slightly tapering forehead, partly hidden by 
 the dark auburn hair, which, parted in the middle, falls in 
 wavy ringlets upon the narrow, sloping shoulders. The 
 square jaw and slightly projecting chin add strength and 
 energy to the whole. The entire aspect is peaceful and at 
 rest, grave without sadness, without agitation, or sign of 
 fear or weakness ; calm and even majestic in its conscious- 
 ness of strength, but free from foible and vanity ; it shows 
 great reserve of power, and capability withal of quivering 
 
 > Vol. iv. p. 122.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 167 
 
 emotion. It is the face of one having large sympathies, 
 busied with great thoughts, moved by great purposes. 
 
 Mr. Green was happily inspired when he described 
 John Wesley's face as ' of the Miltonic type.' Those 
 who are connoisseurs of Wesley portraits are aware 
 that some print-sellers occasionally make a mistake in 
 the case of unnamed engravings. They have been 
 known to advertise Milton's portrait as that of Wesley. 
 No one can look at Williams's painting without seeing 
 "Wesley's Puritan ancestors looking out from the canvas. 
 His face is worthy of the eulogium pronounced by 
 Mr. Green. It is the face of one of the strongest, 
 bravest, gentlest men in English history. 
 
 We have already suggested that, in dealing with 
 the Evangelical Kevival, we do not attach prime 
 importance to the University life of John Wesley. 
 Still, his Oxford days told upon his religious experience 
 and character, and played their part in making him 
 an evangelist. 
 
 The point of light in John Wesley's Oxford 
 experiences is his connexion with what was called the 
 'Godly' or 'Holy Club.' Of that 'Club' he was 
 the most conspicuous figure. Several descriptions of 
 the ' Club ' have been given, but that which seems to 
 us the clearest and most reliable appeared under the 
 title ' The Oxford Methodists : Being an account of 
 some young Gentlemen in that City, in Derision so 
 called, setting forth their rise and designs. With 
 some Occasional Remarks on a Letter inserted in Fog's
 
 1 68 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Journal of December 9, 1732, relating to them. In 
 a letter from a Gentleman near Oxford to his friend 
 at London.' Three editions of this pamphlet were 
 published ; the first in 1733, the second in 1737, and 
 the third in 1738. The third edition, ' with very great 
 alterations and improvements/ is that from which we 
 take our sketch of the 'Godly Club.' The pamphlet 
 was published anonymously, but it is now well known 
 that its author was the saintly William Law, whose 
 Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life produced so 
 profound an impression on thousands of Englishmen. 
 William Law is honoured by Christian men everywhere, 
 and his testimony concerning the Oxford Methodists 
 will be considered exceptionally valuable. 
 
 On December 9, 1732, Fog's Journal contained a 
 letter severely criticizing a set of young men who, ' in 
 derision,' were styled Methodists. A copy of the 
 Journal, and a letter asking for information concerning 
 the 'Methodists,' was sent to William Law by a 
 friend. At that time William Law was entirely un- 
 acquainted with any of the members of the ' Club.' 
 Instead of giving a hasty reply, he determined to make 
 inquiries. He went on a visit to an intimate friend who 
 belonged to Christ Church. His friend introduced 
 him to two or three Merton men, who described the 
 ' Methodists ' in terms which gave him the impression 
 that they were ' miserable enthusiasts and zealots.' 
 Widening the circle of his inquiries, the result was the 
 same. No one called in question the morals or the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 169 
 
 integrity of the members of the ' Club,' but all the testi- 
 mony was in support of the charges levelled against 
 them by the writer in Fog's Journal. It was said 
 ' that they pretended to be more religious than their 
 neighbours ; that they put a gloomy and melancholy 
 face upon religion, and affected greater austerities and 
 exemplariness than the doctrines of the gospel 
 required.' Law was not satisfied with this universal 
 condemnation of the ' Methodists/ and so he went about 
 seeking for some one who was friendly to them, from 
 whom he thought he might obtain a more favourable 
 explanation of their conduct. It is a singular fact that, 
 in the University of Oxford, no friends of the despised 
 and hated ' Club ' could be found. Law, therefore, was 
 driven to seek the acquaintance of some of the Methodists 
 themselves. He relied upon the fact that no one had 
 called their probity and sincerity in question, and so he 
 judged it safe to run the risk of listening to a descrip- 
 tion of their proceedings from their own lips. In 
 July, 1732, he welcomed John Wesley to his house in 
 Putney. That was the beginning of their personal 
 acquaintance. They had a long conversation, and Law 
 soon perceived that the unfavourable reports he had 
 received were founded on ignorance and a lack of 
 spiritual perception. He gathered the following facts 
 from his visitor. In the latter end of the year 1729, 
 three or four serious men agreed to pass certain evenings 
 in every week together in order to study the classics. 
 On Sunday they read a book of devotion. The following
 
 i/o The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 summer one of their number, Mr. William Morgan, 
 called at the jail ' out of curiosity to see a man con- 
 demned for killing his wife.' Subsequently he told his 
 companions that during his visit to the prison he had 
 talked with one of the debtors, and he believed that it 
 would do much good if a sober person would now and 
 then take the trouble to converse with them. Being 
 urgent about the matter, two of his companions, John and 
 Charles Wesley, walked down with him to the castle, 
 and they were all so well satisfied with their conversa- 
 tion there, that they agreed to visit the prisoners once 
 or twice a week. Mr. Morgan soon after desired John 
 Wesley to go with him to visit a poor woman in the 
 town who was ill. Finding their advice well received, 
 they determined now and then to pass an hour in such 
 charitable visits. But it occurred to them that their 
 visitation of the poor might give offence to the parish 
 ministers, so they waited on those whose parishes they 
 entered and requested their consent and approbation. 
 In addition, they applied to Mr. Gerard, the chaplain 
 to the Bishop of Oxford, the minister who had the 
 care of prisoners under sentence of condemnation, for 
 permission to visit them. They also asked him to 
 allow one of their number, John Wesley, to preach to 
 the prisoners once a month, if the bishop would con- 
 sent. Mr. Gerard approved of the suggestion, and soon 
 afterwards intimated that the bishop had given his 
 permission, and had sent his hearty good wishes for the 
 success of the attempt.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 171 
 
 It will be seen that, in the matter of the visitation 
 of the poor and the prisoners, the Methodists acted with 
 caution, and with great respect for the ecclesiastical 
 authorities. In order that they might avoid any irregu- 
 larities, they took the advice of Samuel Wesley, the 
 rector of Epworth, who wrote a letter to them which Law 
 highly commends. The letter shows that the visitation 
 of the prisoners was not a new thing in Oxford. Samuel 
 Wesley says : ' Go on then, in God's name, in that path 
 to which your Saviour has directed you, and that track 
 wherein I have gone before you : for even when I was 
 an undergraduate at Oxford, I visited those in the 
 castle there, and can reflect on it with great satisfaction 
 to this day.' 
 
 Upon these encouragements [says Law] the young 
 gentlemen continued to meet together ; and the better to 
 confirm themselves in the good course they had begun, they 
 thought it requisite to communicate at the cathedral as often 
 as they had opportunity, which was once a week ; and hence 
 their ill-willers gave them the name of Sacramentarians. 
 They continued their services to the poor prisoners ; visited 
 such of their acquaintance as were sick, and several poor 
 families besides in town, and made collections from the 
 well-disposed, and among one another, to procure physic 
 and other reliefs to the bodily necessities, as by their best 
 advice and prayers they did to the spiritual wants, where 
 needed ; and abridged themselves of some diversions and 
 pleasures, in order to enable them to support the expence 
 which attended this good course ; and not, as the gentle- 
 man assured me, from any melancholy habit, or gloominess 
 of disposition, which this method had brought them into :
 
 172 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 For, as he declared, Religion is a cheerful thing, and the 
 satisfactions they reaped from the sense of having per- 
 formed what they took to be their duty, however imper- 
 fectly, were greater, and of a higher nature than any they 
 ever had before experienced. 1 
 
 William Law listened to John Wesley's explana- 
 tions, weighed them, and found that the popular opinion 
 in Oxford concerning the members of the ' Holy Club ' 
 was wrong. In his pamphlet, he states his conclusions 
 in the following words 
 
 That those gentlemen think themselves obliged in all 
 particulars to live up to the law of the gospel : That the 
 rule they have set themselves is not that of their own 
 inventions, but the Holy Scriptures, and the Orders and 
 Injunctions of the Church ; and that, not as they per- 
 versely construe and misinterpret them, but as they find 
 them in the Holy Canon : That, pursuant to these, they 
 have resolved to observe with strictness all the duties of the 
 Christian Religion according to their Baptismal Engage- 
 ments, and particularly the Fasts, the Prayers and Sacra- 
 ments of the Church ; to receive the blessed Communion 
 as often as there is opportunity ; and to do all the good they 
 can in visiting the sick, the poor, the prisoners, &c., know- 
 ing these to be the great articles on which they are to be 
 tried at the Last Day ; and in all things to keep themselves 
 unspotted from the world. It would be found, that, if they 
 rise earlier than ordinary, if they are sparing in eating or 
 drinking, or any expensive diversions, 'tis to save time and 
 money for improving those glorious ends ; and not, as is 
 unfairly insinuated, that they make such things to be 
 essentials in religion, much less, out of a gloomy and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 173 
 
 Pharisaical spirit, to shun the company, or upbraid the 
 practice of others. These are the Rules, this the method 
 they have chosen to live by. ... To live by rule, especi- 
 ally a good rule, was ever esteemed a sure sign of wisdom : 
 to live by none, much more to be against all rule and 
 method, must be a flagrant mark of folly. And I venture 
 to add, that if these young gentlemen persevere to the 
 end in this good method, they shall receive a crown of 
 glory. 1 
 
 In the pages of William Law's pamphlet we catch 
 a clear sight of the ' Godly Club.' When we consider 
 its purpose, its work, and the high character of its 
 members, it is strange that those who watched its 
 proceedings were unable to recognize and appreciate 
 its meaning. The only explanation is that it was out 
 of accord with the religious spirit of Oxford ; and, 
 perhaps, that is the severest condemnation that can be 
 passed on the moral condition and Christian tone of the 
 University. At that time men hated 'seriousness,' 
 self-restraint, discipline ; they ignored the duties of the 
 rich to the poor, the cultured to the ignorant, the 
 strong to the weak and helpless. They thought that 
 work amongst debtors and condemned prisoners ought 
 to be done by the people who were paid for doing 
 it. As to religion, the anxiety of the Christian 
 'gentleman' was not to have too much of it. He 
 thought it better to lead a self-indulgent, even a 
 licentious life, rather than to run the danger of being 
 considered an ' enthusiast.' 
 
 1 pp. 21, 22.
 
 174 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 It is interesting to gather William Law's impres- 
 sion of John Wesley from his interview with him. 
 He speaks of him as ' a very modest and ingenuous 
 man ' ; and says that he was struck with his circum- 
 spection, and with the solid answers which he gave 
 to the objections which might be urged against the 
 proceedings of the 'Godly Club.' Those answers 
 showed that ' their notions and principles were better 
 considered and digested than their ill-wishers generally 
 imagine them to be.' l It was clear also that Wesley 
 was a man of the highest integrity, a man upon whose 
 moral life even Humour itself cast no aspersion. This 
 glimpse of John Wesley is valuable. It shows us a 
 man of religious fervour, high principle, and fine 
 character, whose actions were regulated by convictions 
 that were the result of deep, quiet thought concerning 
 the meaning and obligations of the Christian life. 
 There is no hectic flush upon the cheek, no unhealthy 
 sparkle of the eye. In speech and bearing we note 
 the presence of the ' cool spirit ' which marks the man 
 of understanding. Calm investigation had led him 
 to see, before other religious people saw them, certain 
 principles of life and conduct which are now admitted 
 to be essential to the Christian character. The price 
 he had to pay for his keener insight was suffering and 
 contempt. Those are the rewards we generally give 
 to the men who are in advance of their times on 
 questions of morals and religion. 
 
 p. 9.
 
 In the Eighteenth Century 175 
 
 It is well known that the members of the ' Club ' 
 never adopted the names that were flung at them. 
 They might be called ' Sacramentarians/ ' Supereroga- 
 tion Men,' ' The Enthusiasts/ ' The Keforming Club/ 
 the 'Holy Club/ the 'Godly Club/ or ' Methodists/ 
 but they treated all these epithets as nicknames 
 invented by sprightly witlings. They were especially 
 careful not to call themselves a 'club/ although the 
 word was ' in the air.' But it had a sinister meaning. 
 The clubs of London, even ' The Club/ of which 
 Addison, Burke, Johnson, and Eeynolds were members, 
 were assemblies in which there was much dissipation. 
 We are told that the ' common title ' by which the 
 Oxford Methodists were known was the ' Godly Club.' 
 The name gave great offence to Samuel Wesley, John 
 Wesley's brother. Because of his dislike of the term, 
 it was suggested that the word 'Society* should be 
 adopted, and that rules should be drawn up for the 
 observance of its members. Writing to John Wesley, 
 in July, 1733, Clayton says 
 
 We had a deal of talk about your scheme of avowing 
 yourselves a Society, and fixing upon a set of Rules. Mr. 
 Deacon seemed to think that you had better let it alone, as 
 it would be an additional tie upon yourselves, and perhaps 
 a snare upon the consciences of those weak brethren that 
 might come among you. 
 
 The word ' Society ' was not formally adopted by the 
 Oxford Methodists ; but, inasmuch as it had received 
 a religious meaning by its use by Dr. Horneck and
 
 176 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Dr. Woodward, it lingered in the mind of Wesley 
 until it became the inevitable word in the days when 
 he commenced his evangelistic mission. 
 
 The ' Godly Club ' was broken up and its members 
 were dispersed. It had effected its purpose. Its 
 leading idea was Christian philanthropy ; its special 
 mission was, primarily, to the ' bodies ' of men. But 
 the keen-eyed members of the club found that the 
 two great commandments are inseparably knit together, 
 and that the work of the philanthropist can only be 
 properly done by those who submit themselves to all 
 the laws of God. Constant communion with Christ in 
 the sacrament seemed to these lonely workers essential 
 to the performance of their duties. They fed the 
 hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the 
 prisoners, taught the children, distributed the Scriptures, 
 and denied themselves of everything that savoured of 
 luxury, that they might stand without rebuke before 
 the Judge in the day of His coming. Their eyes were 
 fixed on that day ; and, as they knelt at the Lord's 
 table week by week, the figure of Christ as their Judge 
 became more clearly defined. When He stood before 
 them, and their conscience recorded His words of 
 sympathy and approval, they bent their heads humbly 
 for His blessing; and then rose and passed through 
 the crowded streets insensible to ribald scorn. Some 
 persons seem to think that the discovery of the fact 
 that ' men have bodies as well as souls ' was reserved 
 for the closing years of the nineteenth century. It
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 177 
 
 was made by the members of the ' Godly Club ' ; and 
 throughout the long years of his evangelistic work 
 John Wesley never lost sight of it From dawn to 
 evening twilight he was true to the philanthropies that 
 beautify the religious life. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should specially allude 
 to the episodes of John Wesley's career in Georgia. 
 There are a few incidents, however, which arrest our 
 eye when we glance over the events of that period. 
 First of all, it must be remembered that he went out 
 to America as a missionary. His secret wish was to 
 preach the gospel to the Indians. The world-wide 
 view which is such a conspicuous feature of the 
 earliest Methodist hymns indicates that, from the first, 
 Wesley's eye searched the flowing outline of his great 
 ' parish.' 
 
 A second fact is also worthy of note. We find that 
 Wesley's desire to avail himself of the advantages 
 afforded by a Religious Society found expression when 
 he was in America. Under date April 17, 1736, he 
 wrote in his Journal 
 
 Not finding, as yet, any door open for the pursuing of 
 our main design, we considered in what manner we might 
 be most useful to the little flock at Savannah. And we 
 agreed : (1) To advise the more serious among them to form 
 themselves into a sort of little Society, and to meet once or 
 twice a week, in order to reprove, instruct, and exhort one 
 another. (2) To select out of these a smaller number for a 
 more intimate union with each other, which might be for- 
 warded partly by our conversing singly with each, and 
 
 N
 
 178 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 partly by inviting them all together to our house ; and this 
 accordingly we determined to do every Sunday in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 But the aspect of John Wesley's life in America 
 which most impresses us is that which is presented by 
 his own religious experience. On his voyage from 
 England, and also during his residence in Georgia, he 
 came in contact with the Moravians, and their conduct 
 and conversation made a deep impression on him. 
 His association with them compelled him to face the 
 question of his own religious condition. He found 
 that the Moravians used the word 'faith' in a sense 
 different from that in which he used it. He was a 
 man who was impatient of obscurity ; he had a passion 
 for clear-sighted views on all subjects, especially on 
 those which concerned the salvation of the soul. 
 When he conversed with Moravians whose character 
 was blameless, and whose faces glowed with the delight 
 of a divine happiness, he found that they held a view 
 of faith which, he could not understand. He believed 
 himself to be a Christian. But he was not satisfied. 
 The Moravians assured him that their joyous experience 
 arose from the exercise of faith in Christ as a personal 
 Saviour. He had faith, but it did not produce the 
 effects which he saw in the men whose holy lives he 
 admired. So he became dissatisfied, and could not rest 
 until he had worked out the problem that continually 
 haunted him. He saw, with a fine penetration, that 
 the point on which he must concentrate his thoughts
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 179 
 
 was the character of his own faith. At that time he 
 understood that ' saving faith ' meant no more than ' a 
 firm assent to all propositions contained in the Old 
 and New Testaments.' That assent he gave with his 
 whole heart, but he began to suspect that this faith 
 was not 'saving faith.' When he questioned himself 
 concerning his hope of salvation, he found satisfaction 
 in remembering his good works and his own righteous- 
 ness. This, he tells us, had been the ground of his 
 hope from his youth. He discovered, to his surprise, 
 that the Moravians placed no reliance on good works, 
 and that they renounced their own righteousness ; yet 
 he saw that they rejoiced all the day in the conscious- 
 ness of salvation. In his talks with them he was 
 ever at cross purposes. For instance, one day he 
 met Spangenberg, one of their pastors. Spangenberg 
 inquired : ' Have you the witness within yourself ? 
 Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit 
 that you are a child of God ? ' John "Wesley listened 
 with amazement to these questions. He knew that 
 they were expressed in scriptural language, but what 
 they meant he could not divine. He gave no reply. 
 Spangenberg, perceiving his embarrassment, pushed 
 the question home. He asked, ' Do you know Jesus 
 Christ?' Wesley paused to weigh his words, and 
 then said, ' I know that He is the Saviour of the world.' 
 'True,' said Spangenberg; 'but do you know He has 
 saved you ? ' 'I hope He has died to save me,' was tho 
 answer. ' Do you know yourself ? ' Spangenberg asked.
 
 180 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 In his perplexity ho replied, ' I do.' But he confesses 
 in his Journal that they were ' vain words.' Reflecting 
 on his conversation with Spangenberg, Wesley must 
 have been convinced that the mystery he was trying 
 to understand had been darkened. 'What is saving 
 faith ? ' That was the question which was still un- 
 answered when he stepped ashore in England after his 
 disappointing experiences in Georgia. 
 
 It is sometimes said that the doctrine of saving 
 faith, which afterwards became so prominent in the 
 teaching of the evangelists of the revival, is Moravian 
 in its origin. That is a mistake. We have seen that 
 George Whitefield, and Howell Harris who did not 
 come into contact with any human instructor, solved 
 the problem that so long baffled the keen intelligence 
 of John Wesley. By the exercise of faith in a crucified 
 Saviour they both found pardon, and entered on the 
 joyous experiences of the new life. As a matter of 
 fact, the way leading to pardon lies distinctly marked 
 in the formularies of the Church of England. The 
 ' intolerable burden ' of sin ; the deliverance that comes 
 through the Cross and Passion of the Lord ; the 
 assurance that forgiveness follows true repentance and 
 unfeigned belief of the gospel, these were the truths 
 that were constantly sounded in the ears of the men 
 and women who bowed at the table of the Lord, or 
 knelt in the parish churches of England. It should 
 be remembered that during the Great Revival men 
 entered into the experience of salvation when the
 
 In the Eighteenth Century 181 
 
 Liturgy and the Litany were read. One Sunday 
 morning, for instance, as Daniel Rowlands was reading 
 the Litany in Llangeitho Church, a great wave of 
 spiritual emotion rolled over the worshippers when 
 he repeated the words : ' By Thine agony and bloody 
 sweat; by Thy cross and passion; by Thy precious 
 death and burial; by Thy glorious Resurrection and 
 Ascension ; and by the coming of the Holy Ghost.' 
 At this point some fell silent on the floor of the 
 church, while many, through their tears, cried, ' Good 
 Lord, deliver us.' Those heart-subduing sentences had 
 been spoken by clergymen and murmured by people 
 for generations, and their meaning had scarcely been 
 guessed. When it flashed out of the well-worn words, 
 the Cross of Christ was revealed to penitent sinners 
 as the only means of salvation. The evangelists were 
 right when they affirmed that they preached no new 
 doctrine; that they only proclaimed the truths con- 
 tained in and affirmed by the Bible and the formularies 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 Carrying with him the load of his perplexity, 
 baffled by problems that were beyond his power of 
 solution, plunged in great spiritual darkness, Wesley 
 joined his friends in London. He stayed in the house 
 of the Rev. John Hutton, who resided in College 
 Street, Westminster. Mr. Hutton was a clergyman 
 who, having resigned his living because of conscientious 
 scruples, settled in London, and boarded several boys 
 of Westminster School in his house. Mr. Hutton,
 
 1 82 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 who is described as a devout and pious man, opened 
 his house as a meeting-place for one of the Religious 
 Societies. His son, James Hutton, was well known 
 to John and Charles Wesley. The acquaintance 
 was formed while James Hutton was visiting some 
 of the Westminster boys who had gone to Oxford. 
 During his visit he met both John and Charles 
 Wesley. Understanding that they sometimes came 
 to London and stayed with their brother Samuel, 
 a master in Westminster School, who lived next door 
 to the Buttons in College Street, James Hutton in- 
 vited them to come to his father's house the next time 
 they were in town. The invitation was accepted when 
 John and Charles Wesley were on their way to 
 Georgia. During this visit John Wesley preached a 
 sermon that deeply impressed James Hutton and his 
 sister. Its subject was 'The one thing needful the 
 renovation of fallen man.' James Hutton had 'lived 
 very wildly in the world,' but now he ' turned round ' 
 and became earnest in his religious life. The Religious 
 Society in. his father's house was also quickened, and 
 entered upon a more vigorous life. 
 
 When James Hutton was out of his apprenticeship 
 he commenced business on Ids own account, in a shop 
 called 'The Bible and Sun,' which stood next to the 
 Rose Tavern, a little to the west of Temple Bar. In 
 this house he gathered together a Religious Society. 
 The condition of some of the Societies, both in town 
 and country, was unsatisfactory. Hutton himself says
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 183 
 
 that they had so settled down into lifelessness that the 
 majority of their members ' were altogether slumbering 
 or dead souls, who cared for nothing but their comfort 
 in this world.' The preaching of Whitefield, however, 
 had roused the London Societies, and the religious 
 tone of many of them was improved. Hutton, how- 
 ever, was dissatisfied with the old Societies. He 
 thought they were founded on wrong lines, and he 
 determined to form Societies of a different type. In 
 addition to the Society which met at the ' Bible and 
 Sun,' we find from his Memoirs, by Benham, that he 
 was an active supporter, if not the founder, of a 
 meeting for Christian fellowship at Islington. He 
 was, however, obliged to give it up, because he could 
 not secure proper persons to conduct it. With another 
 Society he was more successful. He engaged a room 
 in Nettleton Court, Aldersgate Street, where, his 
 biographer tells us, 'he met a small Society every 
 week for mutual edification.' 1 It is only necessary, 
 further, to say that the Society which met in James 
 Button's house grew rapidly. It was well organized 
 and worked. At last the house became too small 
 for its accommodation, and it was removed to the 
 chapel at No. 32, Fetter Lane, where it entered upon 
 a remarkable career. 3 
 
 The great transition in the spiritual life of John 
 Wesley is closely connected with James Hutton. We 
 nave spoken of Wesley's confusion of mind and acute 
 
 1 Memm'n, p. 12. H>id., p. 29.
 
 184 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 distress in the presence of the problem of saving faith, 
 and we must once more stand by his side in the 
 darkness and watch the course and the result of the 
 conflict which he fought with intense earnestness. We 
 will gather the incidents that led to his deliverance 
 from the darkness from the pages of his own Journal. 
 
 After an absence of more than two years, John 
 Wesley found himself again in London. He had 
 changed intellectually and religiously. Among other 
 things, he had got light upon the subject on which 
 he preached in John Button's house before leaving for 
 Georgia ' The renovation of fallen man.' He acutely 
 felt the necessity of that renovation, although he was 
 bewildered as to the means whereby it was to be 
 effected. The subject so stirred his heart that he 
 preached on it, in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, 
 on February 5, 1738. He took Whitefield's great text, 
 ' If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' He 
 must have spoken plain truths, for he was informed 
 that ' many of the best in the parish ' were so offended 
 that it had been decided he was not to preach in the 
 church any more. The next Sunday he preached in 
 St. Andrew's, Holborn, on the words, ' Though I give 
 all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my 
 body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth 
 me nothing.' Again he annoyed his hearers, and the 
 church was closed against him. 
 
 Between the dates of the sermons in these two 
 churches, an event occurred to which Wesley gives
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 185 
 
 special prominence in his Journal. He calls Tuesday, 
 February 7, 1738, 'a day much to be remembered.' 
 At the house of Mr. Weinantz, a Dutch merchant, 
 he met Peter Bohler and two of his companions, 
 Moravians, who had just landed from Germany. 
 Finding that they had no acquaintance in England, 
 he offered to procure lodgings for them. He did so, 
 in a house near that of Mr. John Hutton, where he 
 himself was then staying. This brought him into 
 constant communication with them. He soon found 
 a kindred spirit in Bohler, a man of lofty moral 
 and religious' character. On Friday, February 17, 
 John Wesley and Peter Bohler set out on a visit 
 to Oxford. They relieved the tedium of travel by 
 constant conversation on the deep things of God. 
 Bohler was impressed with Wesley's acuteness of mind, 
 and his way of insisting that reason should be the 
 ruler of thought and action. In their conversations 
 about religion they occupied distinct, and almost 
 opposite, standpoints. Bohler talked about faith, 
 Wesley reasoned; and they perplexed each other. 
 At last Bohler cried, ' My brother, my brother, that 
 philosophy of yours must be purged away.' Wesley 
 stared at him. He could not understand the mean- 
 ing of such an assertion. After spending a few days 
 in Oxford, Wesley returned to London, but was sum- 
 moned back to Oxford by the news that his brother 
 Charles was dying. He hurried to his bedside, and 
 found him recovering, Peter Bohler being with him.
 
 1 86 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Ou Sunday, March 5, a memorable conversation took 
 place between John Wesley and Peter Bohler. In 
 his Journal Wesley says: 'I was clearly convinced 
 of unbelief, of the want of that faith whereby alone 
 we are saved.' 
 
 Being ' clearly convinced ' that it is ' by faith alone 
 we are saved,' Wesley, driven out of his old position, 
 tried to accustom his eyes to the new light that had 
 streamed upon him. One thing was certain. If it 
 is by 'faith alone' that salvation comes, then it had 
 not come to him. On Thursday, March 23, after 
 several days' absence from Oxford, he returned to the 
 city, and closely conversed with Peter Bohler. He 
 was 'amazed more and more' by the account Bohler 
 gave of 'the fruits of living faith the holiness and 
 happiness which he affirmed to attend it.' The next 
 morning he began the Greek Testament again, re- 
 solving to abide by ' the law and the testimony ' ; 
 being confident that God would thereby show him 
 whether this strange doctrine was true. 
 
 On Saturday, April 22, Wesley met Peter Bohler 
 once more. Their conversation revealed the progress 
 which Wesley had made. He had reached the con- 
 clusion that faith, to use the words of the Church, is 
 ' a sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, 
 that, through the merits of Christ, his sins are forgiven, 
 and he reconciled to the favour of God.' He also was 
 convinced that both happiness and holiness were fruits 
 of this living faith. That happiness, he had learned,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 187 
 
 arose out of a consciousness of a changed relation to God. 
 In his reading his attention had been arrested by the 
 two statements of Scripture to which Spangenberg had 
 alluded in the questions put to him in Georgia : ' The 
 Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we 
 are the children of God ' ; and ' He that believeth 
 hath the witness in himself.' Wesley had read 
 these texts many a time, but a new light had broken 
 out of them, and he found that they had mean- 
 ings of which he had never dreamed. That faith led 
 to holiness was equally clear to him, from the state- 
 ment, 'Whosoever believeth is born of God/ and 
 ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.' Thus 
 far he had travelled, but there he stopped. Bohler's 
 assertion that faith could be given in a moment 
 staggered him. How could a man be turned in a 
 moment from darkness to light, from sin and misery to 
 righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost? In his 
 perplexity he once more took up his Testament, and 
 read the Acts of the Apostles. To his astonishment, 
 he found 'scarce any instances there of other than 
 instantaneous conversions; scarce any so slow as that 
 of St. Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the 
 new birth.' He put aside his Bible with the thought 
 that such sudden changes might occur in the Apostolic 
 age, but that the times were so changed that there 
 was no reason to believe that God now worked in the 
 same manner. 
 
 Wesley was accustomed to appeal, first to the
 
 1 88 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Scriptures, and afterwards to experience. On the 
 crucial question of the instantaneousness of conversion, 
 after consulting his New Testament, he turned to the 
 evidence of witnesses. Several persons testified to 
 him that ' God had thus wrought in themselves, 
 giving them in a moment such a faith in the blood 
 of His Son, as translated them out of darkness into 
 light, out of sin and fear into holiness and happiness.' 
 He laid down his weapons ; he could no longer resist 
 the combined voice of Scripture and experience. He 
 ceased his disputings, and cried, ' Lord, help Thou my 
 unbelief.' 
 
 Peter Bohler, before sailing for Carolina, had 
 another man to instruct and convince. On Wednesday, 
 May 3, 1738, he had a long and particular conversation 
 with Charles Wesley. The result was that God opened 
 the eyes of the latter to see clearly 'what was the 
 nature of that one true, living faith, whereby alone 
 "through grace we are saved.'" On May 21, 1738, 
 Charles Wesley was added to the number of those 
 who testified that God had translated them out of 
 darkness into marvellous light. 
 
 When Peter Bohler left England, John Wesley 
 sorely missed his companionship. But he acted on 
 the advice that had been given him: 'Preach faith 
 till you have it ; and then, because you have it, you 
 will preach faith.' He did not possess saving faith, 
 but in several churches he proclaimed the doctrine that 
 had become clear to his intellect. His hearers were
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 189 
 
 scandalized by his teaching, and again and again he 
 was informed : ' Sir, you must preach here no more.' 
 On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, May 22, 
 
 23, and 24, Wesley tells us that he had ' continual 
 sorrow and heaviness' in his heart. But deliverance 
 was nigh. About five o'clock in the morning of May 
 
 24, he opened his Testament and read the words, 
 'Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
 precious promises: that by these ye might be par- 
 takers of the divine nature ' (2 Pet. i. 4). Then, just 
 before he went out, he again opened the book, and 
 his eye fell on the words, ' Thou art not far from the 
 kingdom of God.' 
 
 In the afternoon of this eventful day, Wesley, being 
 asked to go to St. Paul's, consented. His feelings 
 found expression in the words of the anthem 
 
 Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, Lord : 
 Lord, hear my voice. let Thine ears consider well the 
 voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme 
 to mark what is done amiss : Lord, who may abide it ? 
 For there is mercy with Thee ; therefore shalt Thou be 
 feared. Israel, trust in the Lord : for with the Lord 
 there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. 
 And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins. 
 
 The De profundis must have ministered to his 
 storm-tost mind. When he went down the cathedral 
 steps and made his way through the streets of London, 
 he carried music in his heart. If he had consulted 
 his own wishes, we imagine that he would have
 
 190 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 hidden himself in his lodgings, and there brooded 
 over the problems that filled him with awe. But 
 he was not destined to spend the rest of the day 
 in seclusion. In the evening, 'very unwillingly,' he 
 went to a Society which met in Aldersgate Street. 
 It is reasonable to suppose that it was the Society 
 which had been formed and which was conducted 
 by James Hutton in Nettleton Court. Wesley must 
 describe in his own words the great event which 
 happened in the obscure ' Society ' room on that critical 
 evening. He says 
 
 One was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the 
 Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was 
 describing the change which God works in the heart 
 through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. 
 I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation ; 
 and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away 
 my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and 
 death. 
 
 The strange warmth in his heart caused him, first 
 of all, to pray with all his might for those who had, in 
 a more especial manner, despitefully used and perse- 
 cuted him. Then, rising in the midst of the little 
 group, he bore testimony to the fact that he was 
 conscious of personal salvation. Soon he heard a 
 whisper in his heart, ' This cannot be faith ; for where 
 is thy joy ? ' 
 
 Then [says he] was I taught that peace and victory over 
 sin are essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation ;
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 191 
 
 but that, as to the transports of joy that usually attend the 
 beginning of it, especially in those who have mourned 
 deeply, God sometimes giveth, sometimes withholdeth them, 
 according to the counsels of His own will. 
 
 Wesley had discovered the meaning of saving 
 faith. Better than that, he had exercised it ; and the 
 result was peace, and victorious resistance to tempta- 
 tion. But he wondered that the coming of joy was 
 delayed. He determined to retire for a short time into 
 Germany. At Marienborn, at one of the conferences 
 for strangers, he heard Count Zinzendorf discourse 
 on a topic that intensely interested him. The question 
 under consideration was, ' Can a man be justified and 
 not know it?' With the exception of the assertion 
 that ' to be justified is the same thing as to be born of 
 God/ Wesley considered that the Count's teaching was 
 Scriptural. He sums it up as follows 
 
 1. Justification is the forgiveness of sins. 2. The 
 moment a man flies to Christ, he is justified. 3. He has 
 peace with God ; but not always joy. 4. Nor, perhaps, 
 may he know he is justified till long after. 5. For the 
 assurance of it is distinct from justification itself. 6. But 
 others may know he is justified by his power over sin, by 
 his seriousness, his love of the brethren, and his ' hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness,' which alone prove the 
 spiritual life to be begun. 
 
 Wesley found that this teaching reminded him 
 of Peter Bohler's. He employed his time in Germany 
 in seeking interviews with Christian men, and in
 
 192 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 noting the varying characteristics of their experiences. 
 With an open mind he sought light upon the problems 
 of salvation. 
 
 Wesley returned to England about the middle of 
 September, and at once commenced to preach in such 
 churches as were open to him. He also proclaimed 
 the gospel to the condemned felons in Newgate. We 
 notice that he spoke ' the truth in love ' to the 
 Aldersgate Street Society. ' Some contradicted at 
 first, but not long; so that nothing but love appeared 
 at our parting.' A month after landing in England 
 from Germany he wrote in his Journal a careful 
 review of his spiritual condition. We see that he 
 has still to record 
 
 I have not that joy in the Holy Ghost ; no settled, 
 lasting joy. Nor have I such a peace as excludes the 
 possibility either of fear or doubt. 
 
 He goes further, and says 
 
 When holy men have told me I had no faith, I have 
 often doubted whether I had or no. And those doubts 
 have made me very uneasy, till I was relieved by prayer 
 and the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 He ends his description of his spiritual condition 
 with the words 
 
 I nevertheless trust that I have a measure of faith, 
 and am ' accepted in the Beloved ' : I trust ' the hand- 
 writing that was against me is blotted out ' ; and that I am 
 reconciled to God through His Son.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 193 
 
 Such was John Wesley's spiritual position nearly 
 six mouths after the experience that came to him 
 in the Aldersgate Street room. It was only gradu- 
 ally that he learned to be content with the fact 
 that faith is the one thing needful for salvation. 
 When he saw that clearly, then he was thankful 
 for peace, and waited patiently for the joy of the 
 Lord. 
 
 We have had an opportunity of watching the 
 processes by which the most prominent evangelists of 
 the Great Eevival entered into the experiences which 
 qualified them for their work. We have seen that 
 each advanced in his own way towards the goal; 
 swiftly or slowly, according to temperament, each 
 passed into the light. They trod the same path to 
 the cross. Faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour 
 brought the warmth of divine love into their hearts ; 
 that love kindled an enthusiasm for holiness, and 
 made them the antagonists of sin. In some cases the 
 battle against sin was accompanied by a sense of 
 fellowship with Christ that made the struggle a 
 rapture; in others, the fight was a distress. But, 
 whether in gladness or in gloom, the contest was 
 waged, and the victory was won. Can it be supposed 
 that men, who had reached the assurance of salvation 
 through such different experiences, would afterwards 
 teach that conversion is a stereotyped process ? John 
 Wesley, in one of the earliest accounts he gives of 
 the conversion of those ' whose sins were of the most 
 
 o
 
 194 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 flagrant kind/ and of ' the Pharisees, the righteous that 
 needed no repentance/ says 
 
 The manner wherein God hath wrought this work in 
 many souls is as strange as the work itself. It has generally, 
 if not always, been wrought in one moment. ' As the light- 
 ning shining from heaven,' so was ' the coming of the Son 
 of Man/ either to bring peace or a sword ; either to wound 
 or to heal ; either to convince of sin or to give remission 
 of sins in His blood. 
 
 The cautionary words, 'generally, if not always/ 
 indicate that Wesley knew that there were varieties 
 of experience in the cases of those who, by the exercise 
 of a living faith, entered into the consciousness of 
 personal salvation. 
 
 A second fact is demonstrated by our description of 
 John Wesley's conversion. In following his spiritual 
 progress, we are impressed with his perfect sanity. 
 He would not be dragged along any path blindfold. 
 He must have reason, the Scriptures, and experience 
 to light the way. Unhasting and unresting he pro- 
 ceeded with measured steps until the critical moment 
 arrived. When the new revelation came, and the 
 power to exercise faith was given, all that had come 
 to him through reading, prayer, and deep brooding 
 on the subjects which had perplexed his thoughts, 
 told upon that act of faith. When he accepted Christ 
 as a personal Saviour, and felt the strange warmth 
 in his heart, he was not a wild enthusiast, but a 
 self-restrained and well-instructed man. The more
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 195 
 
 thoroughly we investigate his experiences, the more 
 completely do we exonerate him from the charge of 
 ' fanaticism.' That charge reveals the religious con- 
 dition of the men who make it. They have no eyes 
 to see the things of the kingdom of God ; they stand, 
 dazed and blinded, in the presence of spiritual experi- 
 ences which are clearly understood by multitudes of 
 Christian people throughout the world. 
 
 We cannot close our recital of the events which 
 occurred in the dawn of the Great Kevival without 
 emphasizing a fact on which we have already touched. 
 We have seen that the first evangelists of the 
 Revival found the pardon of their sins by exercising a 
 living faith in a crucified Saviour. When they after- 
 wards bore their testimony to this fact, their witness 
 stirred up bitter hostility. The parish ministers 
 assailed them, and sober-minded laymen, as well as 
 frantic mobs, joined in the attack. The doctrine 
 which they taught concerning the forgiveness of sins, 
 which was founded on the Word of God and their own 
 experience, was considered to be new, and therefore 
 false and dangerous. Yet all the time, as we have 
 suggested, it was speaking in vain from the formularies 
 of the English Church. 
 
 The eleventh of the 'Articles of Religion' plainly 
 says 
 
 We are accounted righteous before God, only for the 
 merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and 
 not for our own works or deserviiiga. Wherefore, that we
 
 196 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, 
 and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the 
 Homily of Justification. 
 
 In the Boole of Homilies, the 'Homily of Justi- 
 fication' appears under the title, 'A Sermon of the 
 Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from 
 sin and death everlasting.' It opens with these words 
 
 Because all men be sinners and offenders against God, 
 and breakers of His law and commandments, therefore can 
 no man by his own acts, works, and deeds, seem they never 
 so good, be justified and made righteous before God ; but 
 every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another 
 righteousness or justification, to be received at God's own 
 hands, that is to say, the remission, pardon, and forgiveness 
 of his sins and trespasses in such things as he hath offended. 
 And this justification or righteousness, which we so receive 
 by God's mercy and Christ's merits, embraced by faith, is 
 taken, accepted, and allowed of God for our perfect and 
 full justification. 1 
 
 In these remarkable sentences the writer of the 
 Homily defines the position which he afterwards 
 explains and defends. In his defence of the statement 
 that we are justified ' only by a true and lively faith 
 in Christ,' he shows that such was the teaching of 
 the 'old doctors.' He quotes St. Hilary, St. Basil, 
 and St. Ambrose. He specially emphasizes the words 
 of St. Ambrose : ' This is the ordinance of God, that 
 he which believeth in Christ should be saved without 
 
 1 Certain Sermons or Homilies appointed to b read in Churches in 
 tin time of Queen Elizabeth, p. 20 (S.P.C.K. ed.).
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 197 
 
 works, by faith only, freely receiving remission of his 
 sins.' The writer of the 'sermon' invites the reader 
 to consider diligently the statement, ' Without works, 
 by faith only, freely we receive remission of our sins/ 
 Then, as if to drive them home, he repeats them in a 
 slightly different form. He asks, ' What can be spoken 
 more plainly than to say that freely, without works, 
 by faith only, we obtain remission of our sins ? ' l Not 
 content with quoting the opinions of St. Hilary, St. 
 Basil, and St. Ambrose in defence of his position, he 
 asserts that similar views are to be found in Origen, 
 St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, Anselm, 
 and other Greek and Latin authors. Fortified by this 
 agreement of the Fathers, he continues 
 
 This faith the Holy Scripture teacheth : this is the 
 strong rock and foundation of Christian religion : this 
 doctrine all old and ancient authors of Christ's Church do 
 approve: this doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the 
 true glory of Christ, and beateth down the vain glory of 
 man : this whosoever denieth is not to be counted for a 
 true Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ's glory, 
 but for an adversary of Christ and His gospel, and for a 
 setter forth of man's vain glory. 2 
 
 The writer of the Homily is aware that the doctrine 
 that faith alone justifies may be so taught as to be 
 dangerous. He therefore guards it by careful exposi- 
 tion. His conception of its true meaning is given in 
 the following words 
 
 1 pp. 24, 25. pp. 23, 26.
 
 198 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 The true understanding and meaning thereof is, that, 
 although we hear God's Word and believe it, although we 
 have faith, hope, and charity, repentance, dread, and fear 
 of God within us, and do never BO many good works 
 thereunto, yet we must renounce the merit of all our said 
 virtues of faith, hope, charity, and all our other virtues 
 and good deeds, whioh we either have done, shall do, or 
 can do, as things that be far too weak and insufficient and 
 imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our justi- 
 fication ; and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy, 
 and in that sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour 
 Christ Jesus, the Son of God, once offered for us upon the 
 Cross, to obtain thereby God's grace and remission, as well 
 of our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed 
 by us after our baptism, if we truly repent and turn 
 unfeignedly to Him again. 
 
 When we carefully weigh the words of the Homily 
 of Justification, and remember that the eleventh Article 
 has to be read in their light, we find that it is 
 absolutely true that the doctrine Wesley preached 
 regarding the justification of a sinner is the doctrine 
 of the Church of England. Upon this fact he in- 
 sisted, and his statement was vehemently attacked. 
 But his assailants suffered from the inconveniences 
 of ignorance. They may have had some slight know- 
 ledge of the Articles of Religion ; but few of them 
 knew anything about the Homily of Justification. 
 Many of the parish ministers were too deeply interested 
 in other pursuits to spend much time in becoming 
 familiar with the teachings of their Church. When 
 they heard Wesley assert that ' without works, by
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 199 
 
 faith only, freely we receive the remission of our 
 sins,' they knew that they had never preached such 
 a doctrine themselves, and that they had never heard 
 any one else preach it. They, therefore, rushed to 
 the conclusion that it was a new-fangled theory that 
 had sprung from the heated brain of an 'enthusiast.' 
 To reason with a man who seemed to be suffering 
 from mischievous theological delusions was a waste 
 of time, and so they shut him out of their churches. 
 
 The eighteenth century presents many scenes which 
 stir our wonder and excite our sympathy, but few are 
 more remarkable and pathetic than the spectacle of 
 the exclusion of John Wesley from the Church of 
 England for proclaiming a doctrine which stands 
 clearly writ in the ' Articles of Religion ' and the 
 ' Sermon of Salvation.' When we remember that the 
 men who cast Wesley out into the wilderness held 
 their ' livings ' because they had signed the ' Articles ' 
 in token of their belief in the teaching they contained, 
 the exclusion of Wesley by the parish ministers must 
 be considered as a striking example of the irony of 
 history.
 
 200 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 VIII 
 The Revival in England 
 
 AFTER his conversion, John Wesley identified 
 himself with the Religions Society that met 
 in Fetter Lane. He retained his connexion 
 with it for more than a year. That Society gradually 
 came under the controlling influence of the Moravians. 
 It was not until 1742 that it was formally settled 'as 
 a congregation of the Church of the Brethren ' ; and it 
 is a noteworthy fact that, even after its settlement, 
 it was looked upon as 'a Society in the Church of 
 England in union with the Brethren.' l Owing to cir- 
 cumstances which we need not detail, John Wesley 
 withdrew from it towards the close of July, 1740. 
 
 In the interval between Wesley's conversion and 
 his separation from the Fetter Lane Society, events 
 occurred which determined his career as an evangelist. 
 It is interesting to trace the path he followed, and to 
 see how he was led to the work which resulted in 
 the awakening of England. 
 
 George Whitefield's visit to America was brief. 
 
 1 Beiiham'i Memoir of Jame$ Button, p. 89.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 201 
 
 On November 30, 1738, he landed in England. He 
 hastened to London, and found, to his disappointment, 
 that it was difficult to obtain permission to preach in 
 the churches. ' Five churches,' he writes, ' have been 
 already denied me ; and some of the clergy, if possible, 
 would oblige me to depart out of these coasts.' 1 
 With few exceptions the parish ministers closed their 
 churches against him. He went to Oxford, and having 
 been ordained ' priest ' on January 14, 1739, he returned 
 to London, and tried once more to obtain opportunities 
 for preaching. It was during this visit that an un- 
 fortunate event occurred. On Sunday, February 4, 
 1739, Whitefield was present at a service in St. 
 Margaret's, Westminster. At that church a ' Friendly 
 Society ' had arranged one of its ' weekly lectures ' on 
 the date just named, but the lecturer, Mr. Morgan, 
 was obliged to be absent from town. He had, how- 
 ever, secured a substitute. Unaware of the fact that 
 another minister was to take Mr. Morgan's place, the 
 officers of the ' Friendly Society ' went to Whitefield, 
 and asked him to preach. He consented, and the two 
 preachers met in St. Margaret's. When Whitefield 
 found that Mr. Morgan's substitute was present, he 
 wished to retire, but the officers of the Society insisted 
 on his preacliing, and he consented. His action caused 
 an unseemly disturbance in the church, and immedi- 
 ately provoked an angry controversy in the newspapers. 
 The news was spread through the country ; the incident 
 
 1 Tjerman's Life of George Wttitefcld, vol. i. p. 149.
 
 2O2 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 was much exaggerated by the voice of rumour, and it 
 is indisputable that it roused the anger of the parish 
 clergy against Whitefield, and profoundly affected his 
 subsequent career. 
 
 Whitefield set out for the West of England. On 
 February 14, 1739, he reached Bristol to find 
 that the Weekly Miscellany, containing a highly- 
 coloured account of the service in St. Margaret's, had 
 arrived in the city, and that its description of the 
 event was beginning to tell against him. The next 
 morning he waited on the Vicar of St. Mary Redcliffe, 
 the Chancellor of the Diocese, and the Dean of Bristol, 
 and found that there was strong opposition to his 
 preaching in the city churches. The Vicar of St. Mary 
 Redcliffe told him that he could not lend his church 
 without a special order from the Chancellor ; the Chan- 
 cellor declined to issue such an order, but stated that 
 if any clergyman thought proper to lend his church 
 to Whitefield he would not prohibit it ; and the Dean 
 promised to send for him at another time and let him 
 know whether there was 'any just objection' against 
 his preaching in the churches. 
 
 In the afternoon of the same day, Whitefield found 
 a place where he might preach. It was the city 
 prison. The governor, Mr. Dagge, had heard him 
 preach in 1737, and had received and believed the 
 message of salvation. Mr. Dagge has been immor- 
 talized by Dr. Johnson in his Life of the poet 
 Savage. That vagrant and unfortunate genius found
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 203 
 
 himself, at the close of his wanderings, in Bristol prison, 
 and Johnson says : ' During the whole time of his 
 imprisonment the keeper continued to treat him with 
 the utmost tenderness and civility. Virtue is un- 
 doubtedly most laudable in that state which makes it 
 most difficult, and therefore the humanity of a jailor 
 certainly deserves this public attestation ; and the man 
 whose heart has not been hardened by such an employ- 
 ment may be justly proposed as a pattern of bene- 
 volence. If an inscription was once engraved " to the 
 honest toll-gatherer," less honours ought not to be paid 
 " to the tender jailor." ' Savage died in Bristol in 1743, 
 and was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's, the 
 'tender jailor' defraying the cost of the funeral. 
 Whitefield applied to Mr. Dagge for permission to 
 minister to the prisoners, and his request was immedi- 
 ately granted. He preached a sermon on ' the penitent 
 thief,' and then made arrangements for regular services 
 in the prison. These services were continued until 
 they were stopped by the mayor and sheriffs, who 
 absolutely commanded Mr. Dagge not to allow White- 
 field to preach in the prison again. They alleged, as 
 their reason, that he 'insisted upon the necessity of 
 our being born again,' and such a doctrine, in the 
 opinion of the civic authorities, was unfit for the ears 
 of debtors and criminals. 
 
 When Whitefield surveyed the situation in the 
 evening of February 15, he must have seen that it had 
 greatly changed since his previous visit, when he
 
 2O4 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 moved the whole city by his preaching. His con- 
 versation with the ecclesiastical authorities convinced 
 him of their prejudice against him. In justice to them, 
 it must be remembered that Whitefield had no licence 
 to preach in the diocese, and that the news of the 
 disturbance at St. Margaret's was common talk in 
 Bristol. From his reception by the Chancellor and 
 the Dean, he rightly judged that the churches would 
 be denied him. He had, therefore, only the prospect 
 of preaching in the prison, and to the Religious Societies 
 in their ' rooms.' To a man possessing his temperament 
 and convictions such a restriction of his work must 
 have been insupportable. As he surveyed the prospect 
 we think that he remembered a sentence spoken in 
 Bristol during his previous visit. When he had an- 
 nounced that it was his intention to go to Georgia, 
 some one said that 'if he had a mind to convert 
 Indians, he might go among the Kingswood colliers 
 and find Indians enough there.' The suggestion took 
 definite shape in his mind, and he determined to act 
 upon it. Without waiting for any further negotiations 
 with Chancellor, Dean, or Bishop, on Saturday, February 
 17, 1739, with William Seward and another friend, he 
 went to Kingswood, and, after dinner, stood upon a 
 mount and preached to upwards of two hundred people 
 who clustered around him. 
 
 Kingswood occupies such an important place in the 
 history of the Great Revival that it merits special 
 attention.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 205 
 
 In ancient days a great forest spread through 
 Gloucestershire and Somerset. In the light of early 
 English history we see a remnant of the old wood- 
 lands, about seven miles in length, and varying in 
 width from two to five miles. It was still unspoilt. 
 Through its glades herds of deer wandered, and its 
 quietness was rarely disturbed save by the sound of 
 the hunter's horn. About the year 1200, coal was 
 discovered in the forest; and gradually the beauty of 
 the wood was besmirched, and disappeared. It was 
 found that a considerable belt of the forest, about four 
 miles in width, and running north and south, contained 
 coal. As the mines were opened and worked the trees 
 were felled. Their destruction was hastened by the 
 ruthless cutting down of timber for the supply of the 
 pressing pecuniary needs of divers kings. In 1673 
 the aspect of the wood had changed. The collieries 
 numbered seventy-two. In 1734 they had more than 
 doubled. When Whitefield visited the place, though 
 some portion of the wood remained, thousands of colliers 
 lived and worked within the boundaries of the old 
 forest. 
 
 The portion of the King's wood left as a chase lay 
 in the parishes of St. Philip and St. Jacob, Stapleton, 
 Mangotsfield, and Bitton. It might have been thought 
 that the ecclesiastical authorities of these parishes 
 wonld have made some arrangement to meet the 
 religious needs of the people who herded in the huts 
 that stood among the black heaps of the forest. But
 
 206 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 neither church nor school was to be found within the 
 area of the wood. The colliers' children grew up in 
 practical heathenism. As for the colliers themselves, 
 they seemed to be beyond the reach of Christian 
 influence. They formed a population that displayed 
 every vice that disfigured the England of the eighteenth 
 century. They were ignorant, violent, brutal, blas- 
 phemous, drunken, criminal. They were the terror of 
 Bristol. When work was scarce and bread was dear, 
 the whisper that the Kingswood colliers were on the 
 march for the city caused a shudder among the shop- 
 keepers, and stirred the civic authorities into wild 
 activity. 
 
 The reproach which rests upon the Church of 
 England because of its neglect of the Kingswood 
 colliers is slightly mitigated by the fact that, in 1738, 
 Mr. Morgan, who is described as 'a serious and 
 awakened clergyman/ pitying their rude and ignorant 
 condition, sometimes preached to them in the fields. 
 It is interesting to note that his services were held in 
 or near Eose Green, the place where "Whitefield, a year 
 later, commenced his great campaign. Mr. Morgan 
 subsequently joined the Quakers, and was well known 
 as a preacher among the ' Friends ' in Bristol. 
 
 Eeturning from Eose Green to his sister's house 
 in Wine Street, Whitefield found that his prospects 
 had suddenly improved. The next day he not only 
 preached at Newgate, but also in St. Werburgh's, 
 and also, to his astonishment, in St. Mary Eedcliffe.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 207 
 
 At St. Mary Kedcliffe, that beautiful church that 
 fascinates the antiquary and charms the lover of 
 noble architecture, he had such a congregation as 
 his eyes had never before seen. Many persons had 
 to turn away from the doors, so great was the crowd, 
 and the vicar welcomed him with 'exceeding civility.' 
 The next day he preached to a great multitude in the 
 parish church of St. Philip and St. Jacob, and collected 
 eighteen pounds for his Orphan House in Georgia. 
 
 The gleam of bright spring sunshine that had fallen 
 on Whitefield's fortunes soon faded. On Tuesday, Feb- 
 ruary 20, he was served with a summons demanding 
 his appearance before the Chancellor of the Diocese. 
 After a somewhat sharp interchange of questions and 
 answers, the Chancellor said to him : ' I am resolved, 
 sir, if you preach or expound anywhere in this diocese, 
 till you have a licence, I will first suspend, and then 
 excommunicate you.' Showing Whitefield to the door, 
 he dismissed him with the words: 'What I do is in 
 the name of the clergy and laity of the city of Bristol.' 
 
 In his dilemma Whitefield determined to write to 
 the Bishop of Bristol. At that time Dr. Butler, the 
 famous author of The Analogy of Eeligion, presided 
 over the diocese. The Bishop replied in a letter which 
 seems to have given Whitefield some satisfaction, but 
 which did not give him any solid ground for hoping 
 that he would be allowed to preach in the churches. 
 After this letter he saw clearly that he must set his 
 face in the direction of the Keligious Societies, and of
 
 2o8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 field-preaching. We can understand his disappoint- 
 ment ; but he showed his wisdom by submitting to the 
 inevitable. 
 
 Whitefield continued his work among the Kings- 
 wood colliers. From February 17 to April 2, he 
 preached about twenty times in different parts of 
 Kingswood, including Eose Green, Hanham Mount, 
 and the Fish Ponds. The congregations grew in 
 numbers. The colliers flocked to hear him ; then 
 the Bristol people streamed out of the city, and 
 swelled the great crowds that stood before him. A 
 writer in the Gentleman's Magazine l says that on one 
 occasion 
 
 he preached at Hanham Mount to five or six thousand 
 persons, and, in the evening, removed to the Common, 
 about half a mile further, where three mounts and the 
 plains around were crowded with so great a multitude of 
 coaches, foot and horsemen, that they covered three acres, 
 and were computed at twenty thousand people. 
 
 The success of the preaching-services was not con- 
 fined to Kingswood. At Coalpit Heath Whitefield's 
 congregation numbered two thousand. In Bristol he 
 gathered ' many thousands ' about him in the yard of 
 the glass-house. While he was preaching there a 
 drunken 'gentleman' interrupted the service. He 
 called Whitefield a ' dog,' and told him that he ought 
 to be whipped at the cart's tail. Turning to the 
 
 1 1739, p. 162.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 209 
 
 crowd, he offered money to any who would pelt the 
 preacher. Instead of pelting the preacher, some began 
 to 'cast stones and dirt' at the interrupter; and the 
 incident closed. In the city, also, a large bowling- 
 green was lent to Whitefield. He preached there twice 
 in the last week of March. On the first occasion he 
 had a congregation of about five thousand people. 
 Describing the second service, he says 
 
 I believe seven or eight thousand people were present. 
 The sun shone bright, and the windows and balconies of 
 the adjoining houses were filled with hearers. Many were 
 very faint because of the throng, which was so exceedingly 
 great that they trod one upon another. 
 
 He was quick to recognize the advantage which was 
 afforded him by these great open-air assemblies. 
 When the mayor and sheriffs forbade him to preach 
 any more in the prison, he writes 
 
 Blessed be God ! All things happen for the furtherance 
 of the gospel. I now preach to ten times more people than 
 I should if I had been confined to the churches. 
 
 In addition to his open-air work, Whitefield found 
 that the meetings of the Eeligious Societies gave him 
 opportunities for usefulness. The ' rooms ' in Baldwin 
 Street and Nicholas Street were crowded. The ' room ' 
 of the Society at Lawford's Gate, which seems to have 
 been connected with the poor-house, was sometimes so 
 thronged that he had to preach from the steps leading 
 to the door, or to stand at the window and preach 
 
 P
 
 2io The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 to those outside and within. In the Nicholas Street 
 'room' a charity school was opened. When it was 
 commenced a collection was taken, and Whitefield 
 stood at the door, hat in hand, receiving the money 
 that was thrown in by a generous people. 
 
 But the time rapidly approached when Whitefield 
 had to quit Bristol, and to prepare for his second 
 voyage to America. He found himself embarrassed 
 by his success as a preacher. He was anxious for 
 the continuance of his work, and looked about for a 
 man who could take his place. His thoughts turned 
 towards John Wesley, who at that time was closely 
 associated with the Fetter Lane Religious Society. We 
 suspect that Whitefield had his doubts concerning the 
 willingness of Wesley to undertake the kind of work 
 which he had begun in Bristol and Kingswood. So far 
 as the Religious Societies were concerned he would not 
 anticipate any difficulty ; but he must have known that 
 Wesley would be strongly prejudiced against the 
 irregularity of preaching in the open air. It is true 
 that Wesley, when in America, had sometimes preached 
 to his congregation under the trees when the sultry 
 weather made the inside of a church unendurable ; but 
 the blustering winds of an English March rob a man 
 of that excuse for field-preaching. Whitefield knew 
 that Wesley instinctively shrank from eccentric pro- 
 ceedings, and always sought to regulate his actions by 
 reason, good taste, and precedent. But the rapid 
 approach of the crisis compelled Whitefield to come
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 2 1 1 
 
 to a decision. Whatever might become of his work 
 among the colliers, and the crowds that thronged the 
 bowling-green, he was convinced that Wesley would 
 not hesitate to take care of the Religious Societies, 
 so he wrote to him and asked him to supply his 
 place and carry on his work in Bristol. Wesley 
 considered the invitation, and, after seeking advice, he 
 determined to accept it. 
 
 On Saturday, March 31, 1739, John Wesley rode 
 from Basingstoke to Bristol. Reaching the city, he 
 found that it was market day. The streets were 
 crowded, but he made his way between the lines of 
 stalls which nearly blocked the narrow thoroughfares, 
 and entered Wine Street. At that time Wine Street, 
 at its junction with Broad Street, was only seventeen 
 feet wide, its scanty width being still further dimin- 
 ished, at one point, by the whipping-post and pillory. 
 Through this narrow way he walked until he paused 
 at a grocer's shop that belonged to Mr. Greville. Mr. 
 Greville had married Whitefield's sister, and, as we 
 have seen, Whitefield had made his home with his 
 sister during his stay in Bristol. When Wesley 
 entered the shop he found that Whitefield had not 
 come in, so he waited for him. Soon he arrived, and 
 the two friends clasped hands. The imagination 
 lingers on the scene, and pictures the meeting of 
 the self- restrained, refined man, with the Miltonic 
 face, and the young orator, charged with magnetism, 
 overflowing with high spirits, and flushed with the
 
 212 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 excitement of splendid adventures. It was a fateful 
 interview. When we remember its influence on the 
 destiny of England, we feel that it is impossible to 
 express all that it meant for thr, nation and the 
 world. 
 
 Wesley and Whitefield would, doubtless, converse 
 freely about the evangelistic work that was being done 
 in Bristol, and the conversation would make Wesley 
 acquainted with the peculiar conditions of that work. 
 He would see that the task before him was formidable. 
 Whitefield's youthful enthusiasm made him blind to 
 difficulties; Wesley saw them clearly. His age and 
 temperament made him cautious. He was in his 
 thirty-seventh year; Whitefield was only twenty-four. 
 He was a man of steady brain, who was accustomed to 
 weigh all things in the scales of a finely balanced judge- 
 ment. He was also scrupulous in all matters concerning 
 ecclesiastical order. When Whitefield told him about 
 his exclusion from the churches, and described drama- 
 tically his interviews with the Dean and Chancellor, 
 Wesley would listen with sharp attention. We have 
 seen that as a member of the Holy Club at Oxford 
 he had been careful to act in harmony with the 
 parish clergy and with the recognized authorities. It 
 is true that he and his brother had been excluded from 
 the London churches, but such exclusion had not led 
 them, up to that time, to rebel against ecclesiastical 
 authority. When Whitefield went on to describe the 
 incidents of his field-preaching, Wesley found that the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 213 
 
 current of sympathy between himself and his friend 
 was interrupted. He tells us frankly 
 
 I could scarce reconcile myself to this strange way of 
 preaching in the fields ; having been all my life, till very 
 lately, so tenacious of every point relating to decency and 
 order, that I should have thought the saving of souls 
 almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church. 
 
 And so he would listen to Whitefield with a dis- 
 turbed mind in Mr. Greville's house that night. At 
 this distance of time, knowing subsequent facts, we 
 may be a little impatient with the prudence of Wesley ; 
 but we must remember that the observation and reflec- 
 tion of such a man are never wasted. It was necessary 
 for the accomplishment of his great work that he 
 should form strong convictions. Such convictions are 
 not formed in a moment; they are not created by a 
 thrill of enthusiasm ; they are the result of that deep, 
 sustained, and solemn thinking by which we pass into 
 the presence of reason, of conscience, of God, of Eternity. 
 Wesley paused for a time ; then, in the silence of his 
 soul, he heard a voice sending him out to take up 
 his cross, to face his destiny, and to accomplish his 
 mission. 
 
 Sunday, April 1, 1739, was one of the most 
 eventful days of Wesley's life. In the morning he 
 accompanied Whitefield to the bowling-green, which 
 was in the Pithay, close to Wine Street. A large 
 assembly had gathered, and Wesley must have been 
 impressed with the spectacle. After the service he and
 
 214 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Whitefield made their way to Hanham. Arriving at 
 Kingswood they probably struck some path that trailed 
 over broken ground and led to the Mount. At that 
 time clusters of colliers' cottages stood among the 
 scrub of the old wood, and black pit-banks rose in 
 the fields. An immense crowd had assembled at the 
 Mount. Whitefield commenced the service with a 
 hymn, and the solemn sound of the singing of the 
 multitude must have touched Wesley's music-loving 
 heart. Then followed the sermon. Delivered with 
 dramatic power, and with an overwhelming force of 
 appeal, it moved the audience as the forest is stirred 
 by rushing winds. With uplifted hands, the bene- 
 diction was pronounced, and the entranced multitude, 
 with a rustle and a far-spreading murmur, awoke to 
 the light of ' common day.' A little later, Whitefield 
 and Wesley crossed the country to the other side of 
 the wood, and reached Rose Green. On that April 
 day an immense crowd had assembled. Describing 
 the scene Whitefield says 
 
 There were twenty-four coaches, and an exceeding 
 great number of other people, both on foot and horseback. 
 The wind was not BO well set to carry the voice as usual ; 
 but, however, I was strengthened to cry aloud and take my 
 last farewell. As I was returning home, many blessed and 
 prayed for me, and wished me a good voyage in the name 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Whitefield's day's work was not yet done. Return- 
 ing to Bristol with Wesley, the two men separated for a
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 215 
 
 time. We have no record of their conversation on that 
 critical day, but from an incident which occurred that 
 evening we may guess that they once more discussed 
 the question of the necessity and advisability of field- 
 preaching. Whitefield went to the Baldwin Street 
 Religious Society. The 'room' in which the Society 
 met was in a yard to which admission was gained by 
 a narrow entry. The preacher found entry, yard, and 
 room filled by an immense crowd. A ladder was 
 brought, and, climbing over the tiling of an adjoining 
 house, he managed to reach the door of the ' room ' and 
 to enter the building. There he spoke his farewell 
 words to a weeping people. The Rev. Henry J. Foster, 
 a keen and careful Methodist antiquary, has discovered 
 a record of a most interesting fact connected with this 
 service. In the ' room ' that evening were several young 
 men ' making sport ' during the sermon. One of them 
 was named Webb, and afterwards he gave an account 
 of an important announcement that was made by 
 Whitefield at the close of the sermon. He told the 
 audience that the Rev. John Wesley was to preach in 
 ' the brickyard at the farther end of St. Philip's Plain ' 
 on the following day. 1 We presume that Whitefield 
 was warranted in making this announcement ; if so, the 
 prejudices of John Wesley must have been successfully 
 assailed by the events of the day. 
 
 While Whitefield was preaching to the people in 
 Baldwin Street, John Wesley was beginning his work 
 
 1 Proceedings of the Wetley Hittorical Society, vol. ii. p. 5.
 
 216 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 in the Religious Society in Nicholas Street. The 
 Society was small, and we can imagine that with the 
 strong attraction of "YVhitefield's farewell sermon in 
 the immediate neighbourhood only a little company 
 faced Wesley on that memorable evening. In con- 
 genial quietness he began a series of expositions of 
 the Sermon on the Mount. When he began to speak, 
 a fact which had made no special impression upon 
 him before stood out clearly. In his Journal he says 
 that the Sermon is ' one pretty remarkable precedent 
 of field-preaching,' adding, 'I suppose there were 
 churches at that time also.' The remark is character- 
 istic of Wesley. He had the Englishman's restlessness 
 in the absence of precedent. Now he had found solid 
 ground on which to march, and with renewed courage 
 he faced the experiences awaiting him on the morrow. 
 When Wesley and Whitefield met that night at 
 Mrs. Greville's any lingering hesitation on the part 
 of Wesley to take up his friend's work must have 
 vanished. The matter was urgent. Whitefield was 
 leaving the next day, the churches were closed against 
 the evangelists, at Eose Green and Hanham Mount 
 the harvest, ripening in the sunshine, called for the 
 reaper's hand. The work already done had begun to 
 change the moral aspect of an infamous neighbourhood. 
 Was this work to be abandoned because a stiff 
 ecclesiasticism had created a prejudice against it ? 
 Wesley's eyes turned towards the mountains of Galilee, 
 and the example of his Master shone before him.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 217 
 
 He thought of Him, standing on the hillside, yearn- 
 ing over the people who were scattered like sheep 
 having no shepherd. He saw Him sending out His 
 disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and 
 to gather together the harried and wearied flock. In 
 his evening talk with Whitefield the last film of the 
 prejudice which dimmed his spiritual sight disappeared. 
 He saw clearly. The vision of the English Church, on 
 which he had been inclined, previously, to fix his gaze, 
 faded. It did not altogether vanish; but, above it 
 and beyond it, he saw Christ and the neglected masses 
 of his fellow countrymen. That revelation made him 
 an evangelist whose sphere was the nation. 
 
 On Monday, April 2, 1739, at four in the afternoon, 
 "Wesley 'submitted to be more vile.' He took his 
 stand on 'a little eminence in a ground adjoining to 
 the city.' The Methodist antiquary has searched for 
 many years for this ' little eminence/ At last, through 
 the patient investigation of the Rev. Henry J. Foster, 
 we are able to identify its position. It will be 
 remembered that Whitefield announced in the Baldwin 
 Street 'room' that Wesley would preach on the Monday 
 'in the brickyard at the farther end of St. Philip's 
 Plain.' We know that this was a spot where Whitefield 
 himself preached. In addition, Wesley, in a letter 
 sent to the Fetter Lane Society, dated April 9, 1739, 
 expressly says that at four in the afternoon he went 
 to a brickyard adjoining to the city where he had an 
 opportunity of preaching the gospel of the kingdom
 
 2i8 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 from a little eminence. Further, the young man 
 named Webb, who heard the announcement in the 
 Baldwin Street 'room,' was present at the service at 
 the brickyard, listened to the preacher, and says, 'It 
 was the first sermon Mr. Wesley preached in the City 
 of Bristol.' l Standing upon a ' little eminence ' which, 
 according to Mr. Foster, may have been 'the higher 
 end of the ground, the slope of which is slightly 
 toward the river ; or, perhaps, a terrace of clay, 
 not yet worked down to the lower level on which 
 his congregation stood,' Wesley faced about three 
 thousand people who had assembled to hear him. He 
 opened his commission as a field-preacher with the 
 text from which his Master once taught His fellow 
 countrymen in the synagogue of Nazareth : ' The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath 
 anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; He 
 hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
 deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to 
 the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord ' (Luke iv. 
 18, 19). With these words upon his lips, Wesley com- 
 menced that bright succession of appeals to the reason, 
 the conscience, and the heart of Englishmen which 
 awoke the churches and changed the spirit of his age. 
 
 It is impossible rightly to estimate the conse- 
 quences of Wesley's action in taking up the work of 
 
 1 See Rev. H. J. Foster's article in the Proceeding! of the Weiley 
 Hittorical Society, vol. ii. pp. 3-8.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 219 
 
 field-preaching. By it he discovered the lost people 
 of England. The audiences he gathered were not 
 composed of sedate church-goers, the righteous who 
 ' need no repentance.' A few enthusiastic Churchmen 
 and Churchwomen were there, but the bulk of the 
 listeners represented the crowds that were outside 
 all the churches, the crowds that, at every stage of 
 our history, are in danger of drifting out of the sight 
 of the religious people of this country. The over- 
 whelming majority of Englishmen, in the eighteenth 
 century, had escaped from the direct control of the 
 Christian religion. They stood aloof from the Church, 
 or they were antagonistic to it, or they were indifferent 
 to its existence. They were content that Christians 
 should shut themselves up in their several enclosures, 
 and cease from troubling other people about sin and 
 judgement. They asked to be let alone, and to be 
 allowed, without interference, to find the most pleasant 
 paths to destruction. Wesley and Whitefield felt the 
 agony which rends the heart of a man who is con- 
 scious of the frightful lethargy which sometimes creeps 
 over the religious life of a land ; they saw it could 
 never be banished by preaching in the churches ; and 
 so they took the cross, which, unmoved itself, moves all 
 things, and planted it in the midst of their irreligious 
 countrymen. 
 
 There are some who utter a pathetic lament over 
 the exclusion of Whitefield and Wesley from the 
 churches. At this distance of time, with the problem
 
 22O The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 well worked out, we have no disposition to join in 
 that lament. It was imperative that the evangelists 
 should be thrust into the harvest-fields, and we have 
 no bitter quarrel with the clerical exclusionists who 
 drove them to their work. We may go a step further. 
 It is customary to pour unmitigated blame on the 
 ecclesiastical authorities who made it impossible that 
 Wesley should preach within the comparatively narrow 
 circle of the Church of England; but some obvious 
 facts should be remembered. We have referred to 
 reasons which may have influenced the Bristol clergy 
 in their determination to exclude Whitefield from 
 their pulpits. It is only fair, also, to remember that 
 the doctrines preached by John and Charles Wesley 
 must have appeared new and dangerous to parish 
 ministers who were only slightly acquainted with 
 the authoritative teachings of their own Church. In 
 his Plain Account of the People called Methodists John 
 Wesley gives us an insight into the character of the 
 doctrines that stirred the opposition of the clergy, and 
 excited the amazement of the laity in the early years 
 of the Great Revival. He says 
 
 The points we chiefly insisted upon were four. First, 
 that orthodoxy, or right opinions, is, at best, but a very 
 slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part 
 of it at all ; that neither does religion consist in negatives, 
 in bare harmlessness of any kind ; nor merely in externals, 
 in doing good, or using the means of grace, in works of 
 piety (so called) or of charity ; that it is nothing short 
 of, or different from, ' the mind that was in Christ ' ; the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 221 
 
 image of G od stamped upon the heart ; inward righteous- 
 ness, attended with the peace of God ; and 'joy in the Holy 
 Ghost.' Secondly, that the only way under heaven to this 
 religion is, to ' repent and believe the gospel ' ; or (as the 
 Apostle words it), 'repentance towards God, and faith in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ.' Thirdly, that by this faith, 'he 
 that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the 
 ungodly, is justified freely by His grace, through the 
 redemption which is in Jesus Christ.' And, lastly, that 
 ' being justified by faith,' we taste of the heaven to which 
 we are going ; we are holy and happy ; we tread down sin 
 and fear, and ' sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.' 1 
 
 We can imagine the horror of an eighteenth-century 
 clergyman, when he was informed, for instance, that 
 'orthodoxy, or right opinions, is at best but a very 
 slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any 
 part of it at all.' Such teaching cut the ground from 
 under Ids feet, for his hope of salvation rested on the 
 correctness of his 'opinions.' When he heard this 
 revolutionary doctrine, it is no wonder that his anger 
 blazed out against the teacher, and that he informed 
 him. that he should preach in his church no more. 
 
 At the present time there is no one who will 
 seriously challenge the truth of Wesley's famous 
 dictum concerning 'orthodoxy, or right opinions.' It 
 is admitted that a man may hold correct religious 
 'opinions,' that he may be ready to recite the three 
 creeds, that he may assent to all the doctrines of 
 rel igion, and yet that his ' orthodoxy ' may begin and 
 
 Worltt, vol. viii. p. 249 (third edit.>
 
 222 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 end in his mind, leaving his heart and his conduct 
 untouched. That a man's life cannot be wrong so 
 long as his creed is right is an exploded fallacy, 
 and Wesley did much to destroy it. But it must 
 be remembered that in his day this obvious fact 
 concerning ' right opinions ' was not understood ; and 
 therefore orthodox precisians were scandalized by 
 his assertions. 
 
 In mitigation of the severe sentence which is 
 now universally pronounced on the men who excluded 
 Wesley from the churches, we must once more em- 
 phasize the fact of the extraordinary ignorance of 
 church doctrine which prevailed among the clergy 
 and laity of the eighteenth century. We have shown 
 from the Boole of Homilies that the Church of England 
 teaches that we obtain remission of our sins 'freely, 
 without works, by faith only.' 1 If we consider 
 Wesley's 'four points,' we shall find that they 
 harmonize with that declaration. As to his state- 
 ment concerning 'orthodoxy or right opinions,' it is 
 only a re-affirmation of the teaching of the ' Sermon of 
 Salvation' in the Book of Homilies. After showing 
 that the devils believe the 'articles of our faith and 
 all things that be written in the New and Old Testa- 
 ment/ but that they lack 'the very true Christian 
 faith/ the ' Sermon ' proceeds 
 
 For the right and true Christian faith is, not only to 
 believe that Holy Scripture and all the foresaid articles of 
 1 Book of Homiliet and Catum*, p. 25 (S.P.C.K. edit.).
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 223 
 
 our faith are tnic, but also to have a sure trust and 
 confidence in God's merciful promises to be saved from 
 everlasting damnation by Christ ; whereof does follow a 
 loving heart to obey His commandments. And this true 
 Christian faith neither any devil hath, nor yet any man 
 which, in the outward profession of his mouth and in his 
 outward receiving of the Sacraments, in coming to the 
 church and in all other outward appearances, seemeth to 
 be a Christian man, and yet in his living and deeds showeth 
 the contrary. For how can a man have this true faith, 
 this sure trust and confidence in God that by the merits 
 of Christ his sins be forgiven, and he reconciled to the 
 favour of God, and to be partaker of the kingdom of 
 heaven by Christ, when he liveth ungodly and denieth 
 Christ in his deeds ? Surely no such ungodly man can 
 have this faith and trust in God. 1 
 
 Such is the teaching of the Church of England, 
 and such was the doctrine that Wesley preached. 
 But the ' orthodox ' clergy and laity of the eighteenth 
 century did not recognize it; and so they shut the 
 churches against the plain-speaking evangelist and 
 turned him into the fields. In after years, when the 
 best of the clergy awoke to the fact that Wesley's 
 doctrine was biblical and in accordance with their own 
 forgotten standards, they did their best to repair their 
 error, and invited him to preach to their congregations. 
 But it was too late. The great step had been taken 
 which led him away from all existing ecclesiastical 
 organizations. He had gone out into the nation, and 
 from it he had gathered a host of men and women 
 
 1 Book of Homiliet and Canont, pp. 30, 31 (S.P.C.K. edit.).
 
 224 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 who listened to the message of salvation with sim- 
 plicity and eagerness, and accepted it with ' a right and 
 true Christian faith.' 
 
 Losing sight for a moment of the men who com- 
 pelled Whitefield and Wesley to take to the fields, we 
 have only words of commendation for the plan of 
 action which the evangelists adopted. Experience soon 
 dissolved Wesley's prejudices against open-air preach- 
 ing, and to the end of his days he was an enthusiastic 
 advocate of this method of reaching the masses. On 
 Hanham Mount and at Eose Green he must have 
 watched, with his keen, quiet eyes, the crowds that 
 confronted Whitefield on that memorable Sunday. He 
 felt that at last a man had got at the people who most 
 needed the gospel. The ecclesiastical theorist might 
 argue that there were other methods of reaching them ; 
 he saw that, as a matter of fact, this was the only 
 method that had actually reached them. These people 
 were untouched, untroubled, unhardened, by the teach- 
 ing of the time. Their minds were virgin soil. The 
 theologian had not instructed them in the intricacies 
 and niceties of the Deistical controversy, nor had the 
 ethical sermonizer trained them in his system of morals. 
 There survived in them, notwithstanding all the havoc 
 that sin had made, a conscience that was not dead but 
 sleeping, and that awoke at the thought of God and 
 eternity. They possessed a power to receive and 
 appreciate the strange tidings of the love of God 
 manifested in the death of Christ. Face to face with
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 225 
 
 these ' outcasts/ Wesley noted that the words of White- 
 field, spoken with the directness and simplicity which 
 are essential to effective open-air preaching, captured 
 and profoundly moved his hearers. The gloom and 
 the gleam, answering to the changing April weather, 
 were on their faces. Tears were there, and so was the 
 sunshine that told of the consciousness of sins forgiven. 
 Wesley caught the significance of the spectacle. He 
 learned that the knowledge of pardon that came to 
 him in an obscure room in London could come to 
 colliers, villagers, townsfolk, and citizens on the hill- 
 side and in the green meadows, and in that moment of 
 insight he discovered the secret of the regeneration of 
 England. 
 
 We must now note an important event in the life 
 of Whitefield. After introducing Wesley to his work 
 in Bristol, he went on an evangelizing tour in Wales, 
 his travelling companions being William Seward and 
 Howell Harris. With them, on April 25, 1739, he 
 journeyed to London, where, save for one or two brief 
 excursions made to other places, he continued until the 
 end of June. He found that the churches were all 
 closed against him. It is true that the Eev. George 
 Stonehouse, the vicar of Islington, would have 
 welcomed him, but the churchwardens insisted that, 
 inasmuch as he had not a licence, he had no right to 
 preach in the church. The churchwardens were sturdy 
 opponents of the new evangelists. In an article by 
 Mr. E. Crawshaw, in the Proceedings of the Wesley 
 
 Q
 
 226 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Historical Society* there are several interesting and 
 important extracts from the Minutes of the Islington 
 Vestry, which cast light upon the events of this period. 
 The Vestry met on April 29, 1739, and the following 
 resolutions were passed 
 
 Resolved, that it appears that the Rev. Mr. Stone - 
 house is the real occasion of the frequent disturbances in 
 this church and churchyard, by his introducing strangers to 
 preach in this church, particularly Mr. Charles Wesley, Mr. 
 Whitfield (sic}, and other unlicensed persons, by encouraging 
 and promising to stand by and indemnify them in their 
 preaching, without producing their licences as the canon 
 directs. Resolved, that it be referred to the churchwardens 
 and others, or any five of them, to draw up a presentment 
 to be exhibited by the churchwardens to the Bishop of 
 London, or his surrogate, at the next visitation, relative to 
 the aforesaid facts. 
 
 A week having passed, the Vestry met again on 
 May 6, 1739, and the following minutes were entered 
 in the book 
 
 It having been agreed to refer all matters in difference 
 between Mr. Stonehouse and this parish to ten gentlemen 
 of the said parish, five of whom were nominated by Mr. S. 
 and five by the parish, it has been concluded by the said 
 ten gentlemen that the Rev. Mr. Stonehouse shall abso- 
 lutely refuse the granting of his pulpit to Mr. John Wesley, 
 Mr. Charles Wesley, and Mr. George Whitfield (sic), and that 
 those gentlemen shall not officiate any more for him in the 
 parish church or churchyard in any part of the duty 
 whatsoever. 
 
 1 VoL v. pp. 238, 239.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 227 
 
 This agreement Mr. Stonehouse ratified and confirmed 
 by his signature : and, the quarrel being ended, it was 
 ordered that the committee appointed to draw up a 
 presentment should be discharged. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Chancellor of the 
 Diocese of Bristol, when he informed Whitefield that 
 he was not to preach in the churches, told him. that he 
 spoke ' in the name of the clergy and laity of the city 
 of Bristol.' That fact, and the minutes of the Islington 
 Vestry, show that the opposition to the evangelists 
 was not exclusively clerical. In the Islington case 
 a friendly clergyman found himself helpless in the 
 presence of the laymen of his church. They determined 
 that the evangelists should not preach in the pulpit, 
 or in the churchyard, and, although with great reluct- 
 ance, Mr. Stonehouse had to yield to their will. 
 
 Being shut out of the churches, Whitefield fell back 
 on his Bristol experiences, and resolved to preach in 
 the open air. He sought out a place where he might 
 set up his field-pulpit, and make his appeal to the 
 neglected myriads of London. His choice was excel- 
 lent It is difficult to imagine the condition of 
 Finsbury when Whitefield fixed upon it as the scene of 
 his preaching. It may serve to carry us back into the 
 vanished past if we remember that the City Eoad was 
 not completed and opened for traffic until more than 
 twenty years after the events we are recording. Where 
 Finsbury Square now stands there was an open space, 
 known as the Upper Moorfields. From its south side
 
 228 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 to the present South Place and Eldon Street stretched 
 the Middle Moorfields; and from South Place to the 
 City Wall, and from Broad Street to Finsbury Pave- 
 ment, there spread another great space of ground, 
 known as the Lower Moorfields. 1 The Upper and 
 Middle Moorfields were encircled by trees. The 
 Lower Moorfields were divided into four squares by 
 strong but clumsy wooden rails. Each square con- 
 tained a large grass-plot, surrounded by trees. 
 Between these squares, called the ' quarters,' were 
 gravel walks. One of them, which extended from east 
 to west, and was adorned with an avenue of trees, 
 was known as ' the City Mall,' and it was generally 
 thronged on Sunday, at noon and in the evening, by 
 a multitude of the citizens. 3 
 
 In the Moorfields Whitefield saw that he could 
 preach to the ' well-dressed ' citizens of London, but he 
 was anxious also to reach the mob. He effected this 
 part of his purpose by selecting Kennington Common 
 as a strategic point. Kennington Common at that time 
 was a vast tract of land which lay about a mile 
 beyond Newington, then a small hamlet. Gardens 
 spread between the Common and Westminster Bridge. 
 This open country is described by Sydney as the resort 
 of the 'riff-raffs' of London. Kennington Common 
 itself was the place where hundreds of condemned felons 
 
 1 Sydney's England and the Englith in the Eighteenth Century, 
 TO! i. p. 81. 
 1 Ibid., p. 32.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 229 
 
 had been hanged and gibbeted. The neighbourhood 
 had a bad reputation, vicious men and women infested 
 it, and it was the scene of constant violence. In the 
 eyes of the field-preacher it was irresistibly attractive. 
 
 On Sunday, April 29, 1739, Whitefield preached in 
 the Lower Moorfields to ' an exceeding great multitude,' 
 and at five o'clock he took his stand on Kennington 
 Common. The news of his coming must have been 
 spread abroad, for he tells us that thirty thousand 
 people were supposed to be present. "VVe do not know 
 his system of enumeration. This estimate may be 
 exaggerated ; but, undoubtedly, both at Moorfields and 
 the Common, immense audiences gathered together on 
 that day to hear the gospel from his lips. In his 
 description of the evening service we get a glimpse of 
 the field-preaching of the day. He says 
 
 The wind carried my voice to the extremest part of the 
 audience. All stood attentive, and joined in the psalm and 
 the Lord's Prayer most regularly. I scarce ever preached 
 more quietly in any church. . The word carne with power. 
 The people were much affected. All agreed that it was 
 never seen on this wise before. I hope a good inroad has 
 been made into the devil's kingdom this day. 
 
 During his stay in London, the Moorfields and 
 Kennington Common were his principal places for field- 
 preaching, and there he entreated thousands of men and 
 women to be reconciled to God. 
 
 Whitefield's work in London attracted wide atten- 
 tion. The interest in his preaching was much
 
 230 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 quickened by the hostile criticism of the clergy, who 
 attacked him savagely, warned their congregations 
 against him, and, as a consequence, made people curious 
 to hear him. The criticism was not wholly clerical. 
 Dr. Johnson's opinion of Whitefield seems to have been 
 formed at this time. Subsequently he expressed it in 
 the following words 
 
 "tt'hitefield'jj popularity is chiefly owing to the peculiarity 
 of his manner. He would be followed by crowds, were he 
 to wear a night-cap in the pulpit, or were he to preach from 
 a tree. He never drew as much attention as a mountebank 
 does ; he did not draw attention by doing better than others, 
 but by doing what was strange. Were Astley to preach a 
 sermon standing upon his head on a horse's back, he would 
 collect a multitude to hear him ; but no wise man would 
 Bay he made a better sermon for that. I never treated 
 Whitefield's ministry with contempt. I believe he did good. 
 He devoted himself to the lower classes of mankind, and 
 among them he was of use. But when familiarity and 
 noise claim the praise due to knowledge, art, and elegance, 
 we must beat down such pretensions. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Dr. Johnson's ' apprecia- 
 tion ' of Whitefield represents the opinion concerning 
 him current in the literary circles of the time. It does 
 not surprise us that the young evangelist was keenly 
 attacked in the journals of the day. 
 
 Wliile there may be a little truth in Dr. Johnson's 
 opinion that Whitefield's popularity was due to ' the 
 peculiarity of his manner,' it is impossible to accept his 
 explanation of the secret of the preacher's success.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 231 
 
 Tyerman, in his Life of Whitefidd, comes nearer the 
 mark. He attributes his success to the facts that he 
 was a natural orator of the highest order, and that the 
 truths he preached were exactly adapted to the wants 
 and yearnings of human nature. He points out that, 
 speaking generally, these truths had been forgotten, 
 and were not preached in the churches and chapels of 
 England. But there was another fact, which Tyerman 
 mentions, and which we think is the right explanation 
 of the wonderful scenes of the Evangelical Eevival. 
 In answer to the prayers of the best men in the country, 
 the Holy Spirit was moving the masses of the people, 
 and making them intensely anxious for personal salva- 
 tion. The preaching of Whitefield was accompanied 
 by ' power from on high/ and the scenes witnessed in 
 Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost were reproduced in 
 England. This is the only explanation that meets all 
 the facts of the case. 
 
 When Whitefield was in London, he received news 
 of ' the wonderful success of John Wesley in Bristol.' 
 We have noted the influence of Whitefield on Wesley 
 at the commencement of the Great Eevival. That 
 influence was definite, strong, and decisive. We must 
 now turn aside from following the career of White- 
 field, and fasten our attention more particularly on 
 John Wesley. We left him in Bristol, after his first 
 service in the brickyard. It is necessary that we 
 should return to the West of England if we would 
 study the progress of the Great Eevival.
 
 232 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 After his preliminary experiment in the brick- 
 yard, Wesley took up the work of field-preaching 
 with zest. He preached at the places where White- 
 field had taken his stand in the neighbourhood of 
 Bristol, and he struck out further afield. By the light 
 of a letter which has been published in the Moravian 
 Messenger 1 we see him journeying to Bath. He 
 preached there at five o'clock ' in a meadow on the 
 side of the hill close to the town.' He says, 'they 
 could see us from Lady Cox's in the square plainly.' 
 He offered ' God's free grace ' to about two thousand 
 souls. Again, at eight o'clock, he stood on some steps 
 at the end of a house in Gracious Street, and preached 
 'remission of sins to many casual hearers.' In the 
 crowd we notice with peculiar pleasure Griffith Jones, 
 whose eyes must have kindled at the sight of Wesley. 
 At the close of the service, Wesley and Griffith Jones 
 met, and, spending about an hour together, were 
 refreshed with each other's company. The next day, 
 at ten o'clock, Wesley preached once more in the 
 meadow to about two thousand five hundred people. 
 Then he rode back to Bristol and resumed his work in 
 that city. 
 
 The work of Wesley in Bristol was not confined to 
 open-air preaching. His connexion with the Eeligious 
 Societies was fruitful of striking results. It will be 
 remembered that James Hutton was dissatisfied with 
 the spiritual condition of many of the members of 
 
 1 1877, p. 95.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 233 
 
 these Societies. In his estimation, not a few of them 
 failed to rise above a rather low level of the Christian 
 life. Button's dissatisfaction led him to found new 
 Societies, in which, in addition to the means usually 
 employed, he adopted and adapted certain arrangements 
 which existed among the Moravians. Wesley assisted 
 Hutton in the remodelling of these Societies, and 
 carried with him into the West the new ideas which 
 had proved serviceable in London. He was not a man 
 who could be satisfied with preaching to a huge crowd 
 of unrecognizable strangers. He could not be satisfied 
 until he had individualized them. He was compelled, 
 by his instincts and convictions, to keep in touch with 
 those who were influenced by his ministry, and to 
 train them in the doctrines and duties of the religion 
 to which so many of them were suddenly introduced. 
 No man saw more clearly that the consciousness of 
 the remission of sins is only a primary experience 
 of the Christian life. He knew that such conscious- 
 ness was sometimes dulled, and eventually lost; 
 that a man has to fight hard against temptation, and 
 that he is helped to win the battle if he fights it 
 in association with sympathetic comrades. We notice 
 that, on the Wednesday following the Monday 
 service in the brickyard, he formed a little 'band,' 
 consisting of three women, who agreed to meet 
 together weekly in order ' to confess their faults one 
 to another, and pray one for another, that they may 
 be healed.' The same evening four young men agreed
 
 234 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 to meet ' in pursuance of the same design.' The three 
 women were Mrs. Norman, Mrs. Greville, and Mrs. 
 Panon. The four young men were Samuel Wathen, 
 surgeon; Richard Cross, upholsterer; Charles Bonner, 
 distiller; and Thomas Westell, carpenter. 1 On Tues- 
 day, April 17, 1739, eleven unmarried women met at 
 Mrs. Greville's, and desired that three others might be 
 admitted among them. They were then divided into 
 three ' bands.' Wesley had now an object-lesson from 
 which the other members of the Eeligious Societies 
 might learn, and that fact made him proceed with his 
 work with greater hopefulness. In the various places 
 where the Religious Societies met, he preached and 
 taught assiduously. His doctrine of the forgiveness of 
 sins was as strange to some of the members of these 
 Societies as to the colliers of Kingswood. But with 
 irresistible logic, and with unanswerable appeals to 
 Scripture and his own experience, he drove home the 
 truth. It was understood and accepted. Sometimes 
 the revelation of the possibility of personal pardon 
 came as quietly as the dawn ; at others, it lit up 
 the soul as with a lightning flash. In some cases, 
 when men and women were convinced of sin and 
 groaned beneath its ' intolerable ' burden, they shud- 
 dered in the presence of ' the wrath to come.' Then, 
 when they saw Christ upon the cross, and their 
 burden rolled away, their rapture was boundless. 
 The 'scenes' which occurred in the rooms of the 
 
 1 Wet'eyun Methwlist Magatine, 1877, p. 512.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 235 
 
 Religious Societies were often strange and bewildering. 
 Overwrought people fell into strong convulsions, and 
 acted as if they were the subjects of demoniacal 
 possession. Their fierce excitement was followed by 
 profound peace, and a clear and joyous understanding 
 of the mercy of God as manifested in Christ their 
 Saviour. These ' scenes ' scandalized some of the on- 
 lookers. They provoked keen public criticism at the 
 time, and they still form a stock objection to the 
 work of John Wesley. Greatly daring, the critic 
 sometimes asserts that these 'scenes' justified the 
 hostility of the clergy to the evangelists, and were 
 the reason why the churches were closed against 
 them. This ingenious theory cannot bear the test 
 of the almanack. The churches were closed against 
 Whitefield and Wesley before any of the ' scenes ' took 
 place in the Bristol 'rooms.' To a man who knows 
 nothing of the impetuous running of the tides of 
 emotion at a time of religious revival, the 'scenes' 
 remain to this hour unexplained. But those who have 
 felt the pentecostal stroke of conviction, and the 
 ecstasy that follows pardon, can understand, to some 
 extent, the remarkable events which startled and re- 
 pelled the ordinary observer at the outset of the Great 
 Revival. John Wesley, whose sympathy made him 
 patient with much that was unusual in religious ex- 
 perience, noted these cases, and records them in plain 
 and unexcited words. He did more. He watched the 
 persons who were so violently affected, and he was
 
 236 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 not content unless their extraordinary agitation was 
 followed by moral reform. When he saw a man 
 walking in the way of holiness who had been a 
 drunkard and a blasphemer, a sinner unclean in heart 
 and lips and life, he was not inclined to doubt the 
 reality of the exceptional experience through which 
 lie had entered into the kingdom of God. 
 
 Undeterred by public and private criticism of the 
 ' scenes ' which perplexed and scandalized some of the 
 sober-minded members of the Religious Societies, 
 Wesley went on with his work. He preached the 
 doctrine of Salvation by Faith with remarkable success. 
 The pages of his Journal shine with the records of the 
 experience of those who rejoiced in the pardon of their 
 sins. The Society rooms were crowded, and at last it 
 became necessary to provide accommodation for those 
 who flocked to the services. A piece of ground near 
 St. James's Churchyard, in the Horsefair, was secured, 
 and upon it a room was built ' large enough to contain 
 both the Societies of Nicholas and Baldwin Street, 
 and such of their acquaintances as might desire to 
 be present with them, at such times as the Scripture 
 was expounded.' The foundation-stone of the new 
 building was laid on Saturday, May 9, 1739, and the 
 new ' room ' began to be erected. Before it was ready 
 for occupation, events occurred which made it im- 
 possible for Wesley to continue his services in Baldwin 
 Street. On Sunday, June 3, 1739, after preaching to 
 eight or nine thousand people at Rose Green, in the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 237 
 
 evening he went to Bristol and held a service in the 
 shell of the new Society room. Across the years we 
 can hear the people singing 
 
 Arm of the Lord, awake, awake! 
 Thine own immortal strength put on. 
 
 Wesley expounded the text, ' Marvel not if the world 
 hate you,' and so with prayer and song and preaching 
 the building was dedicated to God. Wesley did not 
 perceive the significance of the step he had taken, but 
 there can be no doubt that the erection of the 'New 
 Eoom ' in Bristol was one of the most decisive acts of 
 his life. 
 
 It was necessary that Wesley should leave Bristol 
 for a time and visit London, in order that he might 
 assist in composing disputes that had arisen in the 
 Fetter Lane Society. Biding along the roads and 
 country lanes, he had an opportunity of thinking over 
 the events which had occurred during his stay in the 
 West. Those events found their true perspective, and 
 stood out clearly. In his Journal he records the results 
 of his reflections. He confesses that while in Bristol 
 he had been perplexed concerning his own proceedings. 
 But after much prayer and thought, and full considera- 
 tion of all the objections which had been made against 
 the course he had taken, he was satisfied that he had 
 done right. To a man of his habit of mind 'irregu- 
 larity' was distasteful. He did not affect to deny 
 that his proceedings were not in accordance with the
 
 238 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 discipline of the Church of England. If he had been 
 unconscious of the fact, his friends saw it, and would 
 have made him see it clearly. In their letters they 
 expostulated with him. One of them told him that 
 it was difficult to justify, on Catholic principles, the 
 assembling of Christians who were none of his charge, 
 to sing psalms, pray, and hear the Scriptures ex- 
 pounded. Wesley felt the force of the objection. 
 After weighing it in the well-poised scales of his 
 judgement, he reached a conclusion which he expressed 
 in memorable words 
 
 I look upon all the world as my parish ; thus far, I 
 mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, 
 right and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are 
 willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. This is the 
 work which I know God has called me to ; and sure I am, 
 that His blessing attends it. 1 
 
 During his journey from Bristol his mind laid hold 
 upon this principle with a firmer grasp. Convinced 
 that he was carrying out the designs of God, he rodo 
 on to London. 
 
 Wesley's time in London was much occupied by 
 attempts to settle the disputes that had arisen in 
 the Fetter Lane Society. Fortunately be found more 
 congenial work to do. He went with Whitefield to 
 Blackheath, where twelve or fourteen thousand people 
 were assembled. At Whitefield's request he preached 
 in his stead. He tells us that he was greatly moved 
 
 vol. i. pp. 201, 202.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 239 
 
 with compassion for the rich that were there, and 
 that he applied a part of his sermon to them. ' Some 
 of them seemed to attend, while others drove away in 
 their coaches from so uncouth a preacher.' On Sunday, 
 June 17, 1739, he preached in the Upper Moorfields 
 to a congregation numbering nearly seven thousand, 
 and on Kennington Common to a huge crowd of about 
 fifteen thousand persons. His invariable message was 
 salvation through Christ. In addition to preaching 
 in the open air he exhorted in other places. It is a 
 significant fact that at Wapping some of his hearers 
 were affected by the physical prostrations that had 
 occurred in connexion with his services in Bristol. 
 
 On Monday, June 18, 1739, Wesley returned to 
 Bristol, and preached to a numerous congregation. 
 Our eye rests with special pleasure on one of his 
 hearers, Howell Harris. For some reason Harris had 
 conceived a prejudice against Wesley, and he had been 
 much dissuaded from either hearing or seeing him by 
 many who said ' all manner of evil ' about him. But 
 when Wesley preached from his Kennington Common 
 text, 'Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth,' Harris's prejudice disappeared. In an 
 interview that followed the service all misunderstand- 
 ings vanished, aud the two evangelists clasped hands 
 as comrades in the great campaign. 
 
 When Wesley returned to Bristol he took up 
 another building scheme which had far-reaching 
 consequences. Whitefield, when he rode away on
 
 240 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Monday, April 2, 1739, paused for a while at Kings- 
 wood. He had been stirred in heart by the spectacle 
 of the neglected children of the colliers, who were 
 growing up in ignorance among the black heaps of 
 the forest. We have seen that no school existed in 
 the wood, and Whitefield determined that the want 
 should be supplied. He was much attracted by the 
 scheme of ' Circulating Schools ' projected and worked 
 by Griffith Jones in Wales, and the success of the 
 scheme kindled his desire to build a school in Kings- 
 wood. Negotiations were entered into for the acquisi- 
 tion of land, a site was given him, and, on April 2, 
 the foundation-stone was laid. Whitefield knelt upon 
 it and prayed, then he went on his way, and left the 
 task of erecting the school to others. Towards the 
 end of June Wesley took up the work and commenced 
 building. On Tuesday, June 26, he tells us that he 
 preached near the house which, a few days before, had 
 begun to be built as a school. He stood under ' a 
 little sycamore-tree ' daring a violent storm of rain. 
 The school was in the middle of Kingswood ; and, 
 when it was finished, it became the centre, not only 
 of educational, but also of evangelistic, work. 
 
 It will be remembered that a school had been pre- 
 viously established in the Baldwin Street Society Room. 
 It is also interesting to note that provision for the 
 teaching of children was made in the new room in the 
 Horsefair. In the policy of insurance effected with 
 the Bristol Crown Fire Office, and dated May 16, 1740,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 241 
 
 the Horsefair property is described as 'a dwelling- 
 house, school, and Society room, all under one roof,' 
 and 'another small schoolroom adjoining thereto.' 
 The room seems to have been a long building contain- 
 ing, first of all, a Society room in which were forms and 
 a desk ' with a piece of green cloth nailed to it ' ; and 
 lighted by ' two sconces for eight candles each in the 
 middle.' Then came the school ; and near it was the 
 dwelling-house where John and Charles Wesley lived 
 during their visits to Bristol The dwelling-house 
 consisted of a little room where Wesley spoke to the 
 persons who came to him, and a garret in which he 
 slept. There was also a second school, which, perhaps, 
 was formed by a ' lean-to ' against the main building. 
 The school in Bristol was of importance. At first 
 four masters and a mistress were employed in it; 
 but under the pinch of poverty the staff had to be 
 reduced. 
 
 The creation of schools in Bristol and Kingswood 
 shows that from the outset Wesley saw that his work 
 as an evangelist needed to be supplemented. He was 
 not only called to preach, but also to teach. At Oxford 
 he had gathered poor children into the schools and had 
 taught them to read ; in Georgia he had been a school- 
 master ; and, when he began to preach the gospel in 
 England, some of his earliest thoughts were directed to 
 the problem of education. His aim was to ' unite the 
 pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety,' and 
 his success in achieving his purpose entitles him to 
 
 R
 
 242 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 be placed among the pioneers of popular education in 
 this country. 
 
 The ' Room ' in Bristol and the school in Kings- 
 wood brought great financial burdens on Wesley ; but 
 the load was speedily increased. On August 31, 1739, 
 he returned to London and remained there for a 
 month. He preached to great multitudes in Moor- 
 fields and on Kenniiigton Common, and visited several 
 Religious Societies. After another excursion to the 
 West we find him again in London, where, on Sunday, 
 November 11, 1739, he preached at eight o'clock in 
 the morning to five or six thousand people in Moor- 
 fields, and in the evening to seven or eight thousand 
 ' in the place which had been the King's foundery for 
 cannon. 1 It was 'a vast, uncouth heap of ruins.' 
 Wesley was pressed to take the place into his own 
 hands and use it as a preaching-house. He did so. 
 The purchase and adaptation of the building cost 
 800 ; and for some years this heavy debt gave 
 him grave anxiety. When he bought the Foundery 
 it had been a wreck for more than twenty years. In 
 1716, while recasting guns taken from the French in 
 Maryborough's campaign, a terrible explosion blew off 
 the roof, shook the building, killed several of the 
 workmen, and injured others. The place was aban- 
 doned by the Government, and the Royal Foundery was 
 removed to Woolwich. When the old Foundery was 
 first opened, Silas Told, the prisoners' friend, informs 
 us that it was ' a ruinous place with an old pantile
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 243 
 
 covering,' and that it consisted of decayed timbers, the 
 pulpit being made of 'a few rough boards.' Wesley 
 spent money upon it, and transformed it into a 
 serviceable building. Tyerman, speaking of it, says 
 
 It stood in the locality called 'Windmill Hill,' now 
 known by the name of Windmill Street. The building 
 was placed on the east side of the street, some sixteen or 
 eighteen yards from Providence Row, and measured about 
 forty yards in front, from north to south, and about thirty- 
 three yards in depth, from east to west. There were two 
 front doors, one leading to the chapel, and the other to 
 the preacher's house, school, and band-room. The chapel, 
 which would accommodate some fifteen hundred people, was 
 without pews, but, on the ground floor, immediately before 
 the pulpit, were about a dozen seats with back rails, appro- 
 priated to female worshippers. Under the front gallery 
 were the free seats for women ; and under the side galleries 
 the free seats for men. The front gallery was used ex- 
 clusively by females, and the side galleries by males. The 
 band-room was behind the chapel, on the ground floor, some 
 ci_ r hty feet long and twenty feet wide, and accommodated 
 about three hundred persons. Here the classes met ; here, 
 in winter, the five o'clock morning service was conducted ; 
 and here were held, at two o'clock, on Wednesdays and 
 Fridays, weekly meetings for prayer and intercession. The 
 north end of the room was used for a school, and was fitted 
 up with desks ; and at the south end was the book-room for 
 the sale of Wesley's publications. Over the band-room were 
 apartments for Wesley, in which his mother died ; and at 
 the end of the chapel was a dwelling-house for his domestics 
 and assistant preachers, while attached to the whole was 
 a small building used as a coach-house and stable. 1 
 
 1 Life of We$ley, vol. i. pp. 271, 272.
 
 244 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Wesley's connexion with the Fetter Lane Society 
 was terminated in July, 1740. On the 23rd of that 
 month twenty-five men and fifty women assembled 
 at the Foundery, and were constituted into a Society. 
 It will, therefore, be seen that in Bristol, Kingswood, 
 and London permanent provision was made for the 
 accommodation of the people who were under Wesley's 
 special pastoral care. 
 
 In addition to London, Bristol, and Kingswood, 
 Wesley had another principal centre of work. He was 
 much encouraged with the result of his preaching 
 among the Kingswood colliers. Eight months after he 
 began his work among them he could say 
 
 The scene is already changed. Kingswood does not 
 now, as a year ago, resound with cursing and blasphemy. 
 It is no more filled with drunkenness and uncleanness, and 
 the idle diversions that naturally leal thereto. It is no 
 longer full of wars and fightings, of clamour and bitterness, 
 of wrath and envyinga. Peace and love are there. Great 
 numbers of the people are mild, gentle, and easy to be 
 entreated. They do not cry, neither strive, and rarely is 
 their voice heard in the streets, or indeed in their own 
 wood, unless when they are at their usual evening diversion 
 singing praise unto God their Saviour. 
 
 The change is beautifully depicted in Charles 
 Wesley's hymn for the Kingswood colliers 
 
 The people that in darkness lay, 
 In sin and error's deadly shade, 
 
 Have seen a glorious gospel day, 
 In Jesu's lovely face displayed. 
 
 (HYMN 366, Methoditt Jlymn-Book.)
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 245 
 
 Delighted with the manifestation of the power of 
 the gospel in the case of the Kingswood colliers, it was 
 borne in on Wesley's mind that if he preached the 
 same doctrine to colliers elsewhere they would respond 
 to the message. In the spring of 1742, having gone 
 on an evangelizing tour, he reached Birstall, in York- 
 shire. Then he determined to ride further north. On 
 Friday, May 28, accompanied by his travelling com- 
 panion, John Taylor, he arrived in Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 and found a lodging in a small inn that stood on the 
 Gateshead side of the old bridge. His picture of the 
 moral condition of Newcastle is striking : ' So much 
 drunkenness, cursing and swearing, even from the 
 mouths of little children, do I never remember to have 
 seen and heard before.' He was roused to action. 
 ' Surely/ he says, ' this place is ripe for Him who 
 came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to re- 
 pentance.' On Sunday morning, at seven o'clock, he 
 and his companion went to Sandgate, ' the poorest 
 and most contemptible part of the town.' Stand- 
 ing there they sang the hundredth psalm. A 
 few people drew near, staring at the strange sight. 
 Then a crowd numbering about four or five hundred 
 persons collected. Wesley, opening his Bible, began 
 to preach. His text was : ' He was wounded for our 
 transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the 
 chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with 
 His stripes we are healed.' As the ' good news ' was 
 proclaimed many other persons were attracted, until
 
 246 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 about fifteen hundred had congregated. The service 
 closed, but the people lingered, gaping and staring in 
 profound astonishment. Then the preacher said, ' If 
 you desire to know who I am, iny name is John 
 Wesley. At five in the evening, with God's help, I 
 design to preach again.' At the hour appointed a great 
 multitude gathered together, and once more the glad 
 tidings of salvation were proclaimed. The people, with 
 loving importunity, pressed around him, and entreated 
 him to stay with them, but he had promised to be in 
 Birstall on Tuesday night, and was obliged to mount 
 and ride away. It is interesting to note that some of 
 those who heard Wesley were members of a ' Religious 
 Society' which existed in Newcastle. According to 
 their own testimony they had gone on ' in a prudent, 
 regular manner, and were well spoken of by all men.' 
 Wesley's visit opened their eyes to a higher form of 
 the Christian life. 
 
 Although Wesley was obliged to leave, he seems to 
 have been so much impressed with Newcastle that he 
 arranged that Charles Wesley should take his place. 
 Charles Wesley's preaching met with great success. 
 When John Wesley returned to the town on November 
 13, 1742, he found that a large number of persons had 
 been gathered together into a Society. During his 
 visit the number increased to upwards of eight hundred. 
 In addition, many in the neighbouring towns, villages, 
 and lone houses within ten or twelve miles of Newcastle 
 entered into the experience of the forgiveness of their
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 247 
 
 sins through faith in Jesus Christ. Wesley was con- 
 cerned when he faced ' the wild, staring, loving Society.' 
 He could not be content until he had spoken to all of 
 the members, and examined them as to their religious 
 experience. He was not satisfied with the result of 
 his conversation, and so he preached to them with 
 great plainness the doctrines of salvation. His 
 sermons told, and many who had been walking in the 
 twilight passed into the radiance of an unclouded sun. 
 
 During his second visit to Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 Wesley purchased a piece of land outside the Pilgrim 
 Street Gate. On Monday, December 20, 1742, the 
 first stone of the ' House ' was laid, and the building 
 went on to completion. On Friday, March 25, 1743, 
 Wesley preached ' in the shell/ and afterwards held a 
 watch-night there. In many respects the Newcastle 
 ' House ' answered to the description we have already 
 given of the Bristol Eoom and of the Foundery. Dr. 
 Stamp, in The Orphan-ffoiise of Wesley, says 
 
 The lower part of the House was the chapel, fitted up 
 with pulpit and forms, the men and women sitting apart. 
 Above the chapel was a large compartment lighted from 
 behind, the centre of which was used as a band-room ; 
 opening from which, on either side, were several class-rooms 
 for the use of the Society. On the highest story, a kind 
 of Scotch 'flat,' were suites of apartments, subsequently 
 appropriated for the residence of the preachers and their 
 families ; while on the roof was a wooden erection, about 
 eleven feet square, with tiled covering, generally known as 
 4 Mr. Wesley's study.' A narrow staircase, little more than
 
 248 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 two feet wide, led from the preacher's dwelling below, to a 
 small floor in the actual roof of the building, opening from 
 which was the doorway to the study. This apartment, even 
 in the tidiest days of the Orphan House, must have been 
 of the most homely description. Its exposure to the wintry 
 blasts would also render it an undesirable retreat for any 
 to whom warmth and comfort were matters of moment. 1 
 
 In the Trust Deed, which is dated March 5, 1745, 
 we notice that it was provided that a school was to 
 be kept up in the building, to consist of one master 
 and one mistress, and such forty poor children as the 
 Wesleys, and, after their death, the trustees, might 
 select. 
 
 It will be seen that the work of Wesley speedily 
 assumed a shape which indicated that it was not to be 
 a passing incident in the religious life of England. The 
 preaching-houses in London, Bristol, Kingswood, and 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne meant that his work was to abide. 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that these ' houses ' were 
 independent of the control of the bishops of the Church 
 of England. They were not erected with their per- 
 mission, nor had they anything to do with their 
 management. Anglican writers, watching Wesley's 
 work with illuminated eyes, detect the moment when 
 he commenced that departure from the Church of 
 England which resulted in the creation of an inde- 
 pendent ecclesiastical organization. They point to 
 'rooms' in Bristol, London, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 
 1 p. 16.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 249 
 
 and tell us that in them we may see the signs which 
 mark the parting of the ways. 
 
 The ' preaching-houses ' stood as evidences of the 
 permanence of Wesley's work, and that in both its 
 branches. The services held in them were not intended 
 to be substitutes for field-preaching. They were built 
 to contain the people who, having been influenced by 
 the preaching in the open air, needed special instruc- 
 tion in the great doctrines of salvation. They were 
 also erected in order that such persons might enjoy a 
 religious fellowship, such as could not be obtained in 
 any other place. In addition, Wesley knew that, if his 
 work was to last ' beyond the age of a man,' he must 
 influence the children, and so he connected schools 
 with his preaching-houses. He also made them 
 centres of philanthropic work; for he insisted that 
 care for 'the bodies of men' is an imperative duty 
 imposed on Christian men. 
 
 If we keep our eyes on these centres of evan- 
 gelistic work, we shall find that incidents which 
 occurred in them profoundly influenced the course of 
 the Great Revival. 
 
 If we turn our attention for a few moments to 
 Kingswood, we shall see there, on June 12, 1739, a 
 congregation gathered together near the sycamore-tree 
 that has become famous in Methodist history. In that 
 congregation stands a young man, who, on the preceding 
 day, has walked from Eeading. Wesley knows him, 
 and, indeed, has asked him to come to Kingswood to
 
 250 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 take charge of the school then being built for the 
 colliers' children. The people are disappointed, for the 
 young man who was to have read a sermon to them 
 has not arrived. They look round anxiously, and at last 
 some of them appeal to the stranger from Beading, and 
 ask him to preach. Reluctantly he consents. Describ- 
 ing the effect of the sermon afterwards, he says : ' The 
 Lord bore witness with my words, insomuch that many 
 believed in that hour.' He preaches again on the next 
 day, and twice on the following Sunday. Wesley was 
 absent from Bristol at the time, but returned on 
 June 18. Preaching in the ' room,' as we have already 
 stated, he met with Howell Harris, and had a long 
 interview with him. He thus had an opportunity of 
 becoming acquainted with a lay preacher whose work 
 had been signally owned of God. Any prejudice that 
 he might have entertained against the preaching of 
 laymen would be severely assailed by the talk which 
 he had with the enthusiastic and successful evangelist 
 of Wales. When the young man who had preached at 
 Kingswood saw Wesley, he reported to him his pro- 
 ceedings. Some persons objected to his preaching, and 
 these also came and urged Wesley to forbid him. But 
 he declined to interfere. Instead of stopping him, he 
 encouraged him in his work. ' Thus encouraged,' says 
 Tyerman, 'he preached constantly in Kingswood and 
 the neighbouring villages for the next eighteen months, 
 and sometimes supplied Wesley's place in Bristol, when 
 he was absent preaching in other towns.' His name was
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 251 
 
 John Connick, and we are inclined to accept the sugges- 
 tion that he was the first lay preacher definitely and 
 regularly employed by Wesley. It is true that Wesley 
 says that Joseph Humphreys was the first lay preacher 
 who assisted him in England in 1738, but the reference 
 is so obscure that it is impossible to found anything 
 upon it. As to the well-known story of Thomas Max- 
 field, whose care for the Society in the Foundery led to 
 his becoming a preacher, it must be remembered that 
 he was not converted until May, 1739, and that the 
 incident described so graphically by Whitehead and 
 Moore did not take place until more than a year after 
 Cennick had commenced preaching in Kingswood and 
 the neighbourhood. The importance of the step Wesley 
 took when he availed himself of the work of the lay 
 preachers cannot be exaggerated. Without their aid 
 he would never have accomplished the evangelization 
 of England. 
 
 If we have to go to Kingswood for the initiation 
 of lay preaching, we must direct our attention to 
 Bristol in order that we may watch the beginning 
 of another most important arrangement by which 
 Wesley carried on his work. Wesley's mind was 
 much exercised by the success of his preaching. He 
 was not elated by it. The sense of responsibility was 
 strong in him, and it was impossible for him to be 
 content with the results of his field-preaching, or even 
 with the swift accumulation of members in his Societies. 
 He could not rest until he obtained an exact knowledge
 
 252 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 of the spiritual condition and the moral character of 
 those who placed themselves under his care. A man 
 with such tendencies would be apt to concentrate his 
 attention on particular places and people. But Wesley 
 was destined to lead a wandering life. He had to 
 multiply his centres, and to give himself up to the 
 evangelizing of the nation. It was fortunate that in 
 the ' room ' in the Horsefair, which subsequently gave 
 place to the chapel which now stands on the old site, 
 an idea came quite unexpectedly, which relieved 
 Wesley's conscience, and placed in his hands an 
 efficient method of shepherding his people. The well- 
 known arrangement by which Societies were divided 
 into 'classes' under the care of 'leaders,' resulted in 
 a system not only beneficial to the members, but also 
 absolutely essential to Wesley if he was to be set 
 free to roam over the whole country. It will therefore 
 be seen that difficulties befriended Wesley at the outset 
 of his career. They provided him with great oppor- 
 tunities. His inability to overtake the work of preach- 
 ing led to the employment of lay evangelists ; and 
 the difficulty of exercising close pastoral oversight over 
 his Societies caused him to employ class-leaders. The 
 work of the latter was complementary to that of the 
 preachers, and its success is one of the most remarkable 
 facts in modern Church history. Wesley was a great 
 captain of spiritual industry. His skill in finding work 
 for unemployed Christians was remarkable, and it 
 determined his success. He insisted that men and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 253 
 
 women were not converted for themselves. He fought 
 the self-centring instinct in human nature, and did 
 much to modify it. "Work awaited a man as soon as 
 the new life possessed him. He had to go to his neigh- 
 bours, and tell them the great things God had done 
 for him. But the supreme workers were the preachers 
 and the class-leaders. To the former he spoke the 
 stirring words, ' You have nothing to do but to save 
 souls ' ; to the latter he gave constant counsels, which 
 convinced them that they must give themselves up to 
 the guiding and feeding of the people who had been 
 sought and saved. 
 
 Let us now turn to Newcastle-on-Tyne, in order that 
 we may watch the beginning of another elemental force 
 in Wesley's work. Some of the Religious Societies 
 possessed rules by which their proceedings were 
 governed. When Wesley was associated with the 
 Society in Fetter Lane he assisted in the work of draw- 
 ing up a set of rules for that Society, and especially for 
 its 'Bands.' We are not surprised, therefore, to find 
 him, during his visit to Newcastle-on-Tyne in February, 
 1743, busy in his airy study drawing up a document 
 which had not only a strong influence on the religious 
 and moral character of the members of his Societies, 
 but also served to knit them into a remarkable unity. 
 That document, which bears the date February 22, 
 1743, was the well-known 'Rules of the Society' ; and 
 from that hour it became an indispensable instrument 
 in his hands. The title of 'The Rules' indicates a
 
 254 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 special feature of his Societies. The Religious Societies 
 were scattered about the country without any marked 
 dependence on each other. In some of the towns they 
 were associated together for common work ; but, as we 
 have seen, they sprang up sometimes as separate units, 
 and were dominated by individuals. But Wesley, in his 
 title to the Eules, speaks of the ' United Societies in 
 London, Bristol, Kingswood, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.' 
 From the first, the Methodist people were one, and 
 through the years of their history that fact has ministered 
 to their growing strength. 
 
 Wesley, in pursuing his work, had no previously 
 arranged scheme of organization. He was, in the best 
 sense of the word, an opportunist. But, as we follow 
 his course we see that he was led to adopt the wisest 
 measures for promoting his evangelistic campaign. 
 During the first four years of his work the guiding 
 principles of his mission were settled. He had dis- 
 covered the doctrines which had in them the power of 
 religious, moral, and social reform ; he had tested them 
 on all sorts and conditions of men ; he had followed his 
 conscience, although it led him away from a Church 
 which he honoured and loved ; he had found the people ; 
 he had called to his side as fellow workers the un- 
 employed laity of England ; he had learned that religion 
 is nothing when divorced from morality ; he had 
 restored the practice of fellowship in the Christian 
 Church; he had accomplished the difficult task of 
 bringing into a warm-hearted brotherhood people who
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 255 
 
 had never seen each other, and who were isolated by 
 dreary roads and seemingly interminable distances. 
 Having found out the methods by which England could 
 be evangelized, he gave himself up to his task, and 
 did not lay it down until touched by the hand of death. 
 Being relieved of much of the burden of the task 
 of watching and feeding his Societies, John Wesley 
 gave himself up to the work of evangelizing the towns 
 and villages of England. He entered upon that extra- 
 ordinary itinerant career that finds its freshest and 
 fullest expression in his Journals. When we remember 
 the condition of the country, the difficulty of travelling, 
 the hardships incident to his wandering life, we read 
 the story of his work with an ever-increasing wonder. 
 How any man could have borne the physical fatigue 
 which he endured is a problem still unsolved. It 
 perplexed his contemporaries. He thought that he 
 knew the reasons for his extraordinary capacity for 
 toil, but those he cites do not explain the whole 
 case. There is no satisfactory explanation that omits 
 the divine intention and presence in his life and 
 work. He was strong because he was carrying out a 
 divine programme. Watching the times in which he 
 lived, following his unhasting, unresting progress, 
 scrutinizing the results of his lavish labours, we can 
 only accept the explanation that comforted him when 
 life and strength were ebbing away. Turning to his 
 old comrades gathered around his death-bed, he joy- 
 fully said, 'The best of all is, God is with us.' The
 
 256 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 secret of his work and its success is revealed by those 
 memorable words. 
 
 Let us not quit the standpoint we have reached 
 'The best of all is, God is with us.' There is a 
 philosophy of history that is vain. If we were to 
 accept its teaching we should be tempted to believe 
 that great reformations of religion invariably arise out 
 of the conditions of the life of the nation in which 
 they occur; that, after all, a revival of religion is an 
 incident in a natural process of events. No eye is 
 sufficiently keen to discover in the England of the 
 eighteenth century the streams of tendency that pro- 
 duced the Methodist Church. If we have rightly 
 discerned the social, moral, and religious condition of 
 this country at that time, we shall see that the full tide 
 of national thought and feeling ran against the 
 evangelists who changed the character of England. 
 The authority of the Bible was shakened by the Deistic 
 controversy ; religion had fallen into contempt ; the 
 world-resisting force of the churches had waned; an 
 insatiable love of pleasure drove the people of all 
 classes far from the calm delights of inward religion; 
 the consciousness of God and of Eternity had almost 
 disappeared. It was only here and there that little 
 groups of men and women cultivated the graces and 
 experiences of the Christian life and character. The 
 task Wesley had to accomplish was to stop the down- 
 drifting current of national life, and turn it into another 
 channel. The power by which he stayed the flood
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 257 
 
 was not his own; it was not the power of method 
 and of organization ; it was the mighty power of God. 
 
 In speaking of a revival of religion we insisted on 
 the fact that it is a manifestation of the special 
 presence and influence of the Holy Spirit. For such 
 manifestation there is a ' set time,' and that time came 
 to England in the eighteenth century. The wind came 
 from heaven, it blew where it listed, its sound was 
 heard in the towns and villages of England, and under 
 its influence the deadly mists were dispersed, the veiled 
 heavens were cleared, a new spring day of fresh, full, 
 more abundant life shone about the people who, having 
 walked in darkness, saw a great light. 
 
 When John and Charles Wesley, and the 'lay 
 preachers,' began their work in the small towns and 
 little villages of England, they soon came in contact 
 with the English mob. When Whitefield and Wesley 
 commenced to preach we do not see those outbursts 
 of fury against them which afterwards occurred. That 
 fact is worth studying. It cannot be understood 
 without recalling certain considerations which we have 
 previously suggested. The national instinct for brutal 
 sports must be remembered. Men who delighted in 
 torturing animals would revel in the sufferings of a 
 helpless preacher who stood among them without 
 weapon or other means of defence. To stone him, to 
 pelt him with clods, to trample him on the ground, 
 to fling him into a pond or a river, to set bull-dogs 
 upon him, to beat him with clubs, all such assaults 
 
 s
 
 258 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 were natural to a brutalized people who were quick to 
 break into riot, and to batter each other to death. We 
 are convinced, however, that simple love of cruelty 
 does not fully account for the mob violence that so 
 often threatened the lives of the Methodist evangelists. 
 The hostility of the Church to the new preachers was 
 displayed at the outset of the movement; and it was 
 not confined to acts of exclusion from pulpits. At an 
 early stage of his career, Wesley makes a significant 
 remark. He says that the report was spread abroad 
 that he was a Jesuit, and he mournfully admits that 
 the principal agents in circulating the report were 
 clergymen. We have seen, in a previous chapter, how 
 easily the passions of the mob were excited by the fear 
 of Popery. Those who wish to gauge the strength of 
 that fear should attempt to measure the fury of the 
 mob at the time of the Gordon riots. Anything that 
 seemed like Popery in disguise excited the passions 
 of the multitude. In a moment they became the 
 champions of the Church of England, and displayed 
 their loyalty by assaulting and slaying suspected 
 Papists. It is indisputable that Methodism was con- 
 sidered, at one time, a danger to the Church of England. 
 It, therefore, became a test of loyalty to abuse its 
 representatives. It is possible, on this theory, to 
 explain an extraordinary fact. In many parts of the 
 country the mobs that hustled and beat the Methodist 
 preachers were led by clergymen. The 'love of cruelty' 
 theory does not explain this phenomenon ; there must
 
 In the Eighteenth Century 259 
 
 have been some other motive that urged these parish 
 ministers to plunge into the fray. We are convinced 
 that the widespread impression was that the Church 
 was ' in danger.' At that dread word the tocsin sounded, 
 and the clergy gathered their drunken battalions together 
 and drove the Methodist preachers out of their parishes. 
 We have no wish to dwell upon the disgraceful scenes 
 that occurred in the course of the Great Revival. They 
 belonged, so far as Wesley is concerned, to his earlier 
 days of evangelism. Gradually he was understood and 
 revered, and the rioting abated or ceased when he was 
 present. But the lay preachers were not so fortunate. 
 When they appeared the fury broke out again, and 
 assaults upon them continued, intermittently, into the 
 last century. 
 
 If Methodism had not come into contact with the 
 mob it would never have reached the section of the 
 English people which most needed salvation. The 
 'Religious Societies,' shut up in their rooms, would 
 never have reformed the country. It was necessary 
 that a race of heroic men should arise who would 
 dare to confront the wildest and most brutal men 
 in England, and tell them the meaning of sin, and 
 show them the Christ of the Cross and of the Judge- 
 ment Throne. The incessant assaults of the mob on 
 the Methodist preachers showed that they had reached 
 the masses. With a superb courage, rarely, if ever, 
 equalled on the battlefield, the Methodist preachers 
 went, again and again, to the places from which they
 
 260 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 had been driven by violence, until their persistence 
 wore down the antagonism of their assailants. Then, 
 out of the once furious crowd, men and women were 
 gathered whose hearts the Lord had touched. They 
 lingered after the service to speak to the preacher, 
 who, in some quiet room, instructed them in the way 
 of salvation, joined them into a small Society, and 
 placed them under the care of a leader whose whole 
 life was given up to the congenial task of guarding, 
 encouraging, and training them for heaven. In this 
 way the work of Methodism was done in every part 
 of the country. Out of the mob the Methodist 
 preachers gathered some of their strongest and most 
 daring evangelists, and some of the brightest examples 
 of the triumphs of the grace of God in the life 
 of man. 
 
 In considering the question of the mobbing of 
 the Methodist preachers it is possible to perceive 
 an incidental advantage which was secured by the 
 violence of the assailants. We have shown that, 
 in the eighteenth century, England was a country of 
 small towns and little villages. That fact must be 
 remembered when we contrast the effects produced 
 by preaching in the present day and in the time 
 of Wesley. The coming of Wesley, or of one of his 
 preachers, into a town of two thousand inhabitants 
 stirred it to its deeps; the people flocked together 
 'gaping and staring,' wild with excitement. As the 
 stones began to fly, the news spread, until there was
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 261 
 
 scarcely a person in the town who was ignorant of the 
 fact that the preacher had come. Now, the population 
 of some of those towns, especially in Lancashire and 
 Yorkshire, numbers nearly one hundred thousand 
 people. The arrival of a Methodist preacher in them 
 produces no excitement. But Wesley was well adver- 
 tised. There were small towns that furnished mobs 
 that marched into the dales, and invaded the villages 
 in which it had been whispered that he was to preach. 
 As the little congregation assembled under the oak-tree 
 on the green, they sometimes saw the mob from a 
 neighbouring town coming down the hill-side like a 
 black cloud. Suddenly it broke upon them in violent 
 storm. Then came that wonderful illustration of 
 Wesley's influence. He continued to speak in the 
 midst of the uproar ; his voice arrested the men who 
 had come to destroy him; they were silenced; their 
 purpose was turned aside ; and when the service was 
 over, and he descended from horse-block, or table, or 
 little mound, the crowd opened up, and a way was 
 made for him along which he walked with a tranquil 
 mind. 
 
 By his contact with the fierce mobs of England, 
 Wesley gained the opportunity of testing the power of 
 the doctrines he preached to reform men who were 
 distinguished by their wildness and wickedness. It 
 may be taken for granted that, in the eighteenth 
 century, every method of effecting the reformation of 
 the masses had failed. Kepression had been tried.
 
 262 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 That discredited weapon had been handed down from 
 the time of the Commonwealth, and ' the reign of the 
 saints.' But repression never effects a radical and 
 permanent change in the morals of a nation. It 
 drives glaring manifestations of immorality under the 
 surface, but they reappear as soon as the repression 
 ceases. John Wesley went down into the gloomy 
 valley in whicli his countrymen lay in their misery. 
 As he faced the spectacle of their wretchedness his 
 one hope was that of the prophet who saw the dry 
 bones whitening the earth. He knew that if the 
 Spirit of God breathed upon these sinful men they 
 would live, they would start to their feet, they would 
 become a great army. And so he prophesied to the 
 four winds. He preached to swearers and drunkards 
 and felons the doctrines that had brought life to his 
 own heart. He did not rest until they were con- 
 vinced of sin. He knew that a man cannot see Christ 
 in the full radiance of His mercy until he has first seen 
 the exceeding sinfulness of his own sins. When the 
 conviction of sin was wrought, then the Cross was un- 
 veiled, and the conscious assurance of forgiveness filled 
 the soul with strange delight. Wesley saw that the 
 remedy was not repression, but the shedding abroad 
 in the heart of the love of God by the Holy Ghost. 
 He knew that the love of God would transform the 
 man and lead him into a new life. His remedy was 
 tried on the worst men that England contained ; on 
 those who were the terror of towns and villages and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 263 
 
 a disgrace to the civilization of the time. It was 
 found efficient. It was demonstrated that there was 
 not a vice in the whole category of human corruptions 
 that could not be burnt away by the fire of the love 
 of God ; that there was not a criminal carted to 
 Tyburn who was out of the reach of the mercy of 
 the Saviour. Once for all the effectiveness of the 
 gospel was absolutely proved; and, from that hour, 
 the Christian Church has seen the star of hope glitter- 
 ing over the most wretched and sinful of the children 
 of men. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should trace in detail 
 the course of the Great Eevival. . It will suffice if we 
 furnish one illustration of the results of Wesley's work 
 in a part of England which still maintains its pre- 
 eminence as the Methodist county. 
 
 In these days Cornwall is familiar to the tourist 
 who seeks for blue seas and the sweep of a splendid 
 coast. But, in the eighteenth century, Cornwall was 
 a secluded country. It was known by the packmen 
 who pushed their way on horseback over its moors 
 and along its bridle-paths; but to the general mass 
 of Englishmen it was an unknown land. The Cornish- 
 men worked in the mines, or sailed their fishing- 
 boats, or cultivated their farms, ' the world forget- 
 ting, by the world forgot.' The veil that covered 
 that old life has been lifted, and we can now see it 
 with some approach to clearness. The people attract 
 us. They are Celts. They have the imagination of
 
 264 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 that race, and possess its dramatic power. They 
 think and talk in pictures. On the religious side 
 they seem sometimes, like their kinsmen in Brittany, 
 to be just emerging from nature-worship. They are 
 full of superstition. Some of the churches that stand 
 on breezy headlands, or in the dull villages and little 
 towns, do something to relieve the darkness ; but 
 most of the clergymen have been unable to resist 
 the influences of their surroundings, and have sunk 
 to the level of their parishioners. The evil that is 
 in men's hearts takes its way unchecked by an effective 
 Christianity. There is a welcome point of light in 
 Truro. There Samuel Walker preaches a gospel which 
 he illustrates by the deeds of a beautiful life. Here 
 and there, also, is a glimmer of goodness that shines 
 from some storm-thrashed granite church. But these 
 gleams only intensify the gloom. Priests and people 
 are alike. Many of the clergy belong to the 'old 
 school' of drunken, hunting, rough-tongued parsons. 
 Some of them share the characteristic vices of the 
 county, and their lives travesty the truths which they 
 drearily read to their scanty congregations out of their 
 prayer-books and Bibles on Sunday. There is no 
 reason to doubt the correctness of Samuel Walker's 
 description of the people by whom he was surrounded. 
 He says 
 
 I observe in general, that in all ranks and orders of men 
 professing Christianity and the practice of religion, there 
 ia yet so little of it to be found, that all seriousness and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 265 
 
 decency are actually put out of countenance ; and a man 
 must have a large share of resolved piety not to be drawn 
 by the authority of the great, and the example of the 
 multitude, into infidel or libertine notions, or licentious 
 practice. Indeed, there seems to be a general conspiracy 
 in the cause of wickedness, by which every man, one 
 would think, was engaged to entice his neighbour into the 
 unchristian practices of which the world, in one shape or 
 other, is guilty. 1 
 
 Cornwall, in the eighteenth century, gained unenvi- 
 able notoriety as a county in which wrecking and smug- 
 gling were carried on without the slightest compunction. 
 The former practice was hideous. The day was distant 
 when a storm-driven foreign captain could say: 'We 
 knew it was the English coast, because we saw the 
 life-boat coming out.' In the eighteenth century ships 
 were lured to their destruction. In the night-time 
 false lights were burned to induce vessels to steer for 
 the jagged rocks, where they were broken in pieces by 
 the sweep of the tide. The news that a ship was 
 wrecked was often welcomed as a kindly intervention 
 of Providence. There was a rush to the shore, the 
 clergyman sometimes leading the plundering crowd. 
 There seemed to be little pity in the hearts of the 
 people for the men whose bodies were scattered over 
 the sands. A long course of brutal sport had produced 
 its effect, and the feelings of the people were blunted 
 and hardened against spectacles of human suffering. 
 
 1 Life of Samuel Walker, by Sidney, pp. 14, 15.
 
 266 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Defoe tells us that many Englishmen had been sacri- 
 ficed abroad in resentment for these barbarities. He 
 says that when a vessel, of which he was himself a 
 shareholder, was sinking on the coast of Biscay, a 
 Spanish ship refused to give any assistance, the captain 
 declaring 
 
 that, having been shipwrecked somewhere on the coast of 
 England, the people, instead of saving him and his ship, 
 came off and robbed him, tore the ship almost to pieces, and 
 left him and his men to swim ashore for their lives while 
 they plundered the cargo ; upon which he and his whole 
 crew had sworn never to help an Englishman, in whatever 
 distress he should find him, whether at sea or on shore. 
 
 Lecky tells us that about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, the crime of wrecking increased 
 to an enormous degree on many parts of the British 
 coasts, and that it was the especial scandal of Corn- 
 wall. 1 The Government passed severe measures to 
 repress the practice. The crime was made a capital 
 offence; but, in spite of threatened punishment, it 
 continued unchecked. 
 
 Sydney says that every sea-coast town or village, 
 especially in the western and south-western counties 
 of England, had some smugglers among the inhabi- 
 tants. Their operations were generally connived at by 
 the neighbouring gentry and clergy. The trade in 
 'uncustomed goods' was rife in Cornwall, and it led 
 
 1 Hittory of England, vol. i. p. 489.'
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 267 
 
 to scenes of violence, and to the demoralization of the 
 people of the county. All classes treated the offence 
 lightly. It was held that there was nothing wrong in 
 robbing the revenue, and so the 'free traders/ sup- 
 ported by public opinion, carried on their work briskly. 
 So long as smuggling paid the practice was continued, 
 whole villages being maintained by it. The policy of 
 the Government in placing a high duty on foreign 
 spirituous liquors in order to increase the business of 
 the English distiller introduced a deadly form of 
 intoxication into the country. The mischief arising 
 from this fatal mistake spread further. The high duties 
 on foreign liquors led to a largely increased number 
 of smugglers, and smuggling brought with it the evils 
 which always accompany contraband trade. 
 
 Cornwall became the scene of some of the greatest 
 triumphs of the Evangelical Eevival. It is interesting 
 to note the way in which the attention of the Wesleys 
 was attracted to the county. There is in existence a 
 fragment of the Eoll of the Bristol Society, in the hand- 
 writing of John Wesley, dated January 1, 1741. Look- 
 ing through the names, we pause at that of Joseph 
 Turner. He was a sea-captain. On one of his voyages, 
 in 1743, he landed at St. Ives, in Cornwall, and ' was 
 agreeably surprised to find a few persons who feared 
 God, and constantly met together. They were much 
 refreshed by him, as he was by them.' 1 When he 
 returned to Bristol he mentioned this incident. It 
 
 * Proctedingt of Wetley IIi$torical Society, vol. iv. p. 95.
 
 268 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 excited the interest of Charles Wesley, and he made 
 up his mind to visit Cornwall. He rode from Bristol, 
 through Exeter and Kedruth, to St. Ives, arriving there 
 on July 16, 1743. On his way to the town two 
 ' tinners ' met him, and wished him good luck in the 
 name of the Lord. His next meeting with the Cornish- 
 men was not so pleasant. A mob shouted at him, 
 and pursued him 'like the men out of the tombs.' 
 The news of his coming had preceded him, and the 
 clergy had prepared the way for his reception. 
 Thomas Jackson says that they preached against 
 him with great vehemence, and represented his 
 character and designs in the worst possible light ; and 
 so the people were ready everywhere to congregate in 
 mobs, and perpetrate any outrage. 1 At St. Ives, as 
 we have seen, there was a Religious Society, so Charles 
 "Wesley was not quite friendless. The mayor also 
 was a Presbyterian, and did his utmost to protect 
 him. His influence, however, was not strong enough 
 to counteract that of the clergy. When the mob 
 assaulted Charles Wesley, the mayor told him that 
 'the ministers were the principal authors of all this 
 evil.' They continually represented him in their 
 sermons as a Popish emissary, and urged the enraged 
 multitude to take all manner of ways to stop him. 
 'Yet,' says Charles Wesley, who, like his brother, 
 had the saving sense of humour, 'they modestly say, 
 my fellow labourer and I are the cause of all the 
 
 1 Life of Charles Wetley, vol. i. p. 839.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 269 
 
 disturbance ! It is always the lamb that troubles the 
 water.' But although stoned as ' a Popish incendiary,' 
 the people flocked to hear him, and the great doctrines 
 of the gospel gradually softened and melted their hearts. 
 Rough ' tinners ' and smugglers and wreckers were 
 converted, and the county was dotted with Societies, 
 which increased in number as John and Charles 
 Wesley repeated their visits. Gradually the opposi- 
 tion died down ; the clergy lost their power to inflame 
 the passions of the multitude, and that wonderful 
 moral and religious transformation took place which 
 has raised Cornwall to a unique position among the 
 counties of England. 
 
 It is singular that a man like Samuel Walker, of 
 Truro, should have looked askance at the work of the 
 Methodists in Cornwall. He came into contact with 
 John and Charles Wesley, and corresponded with 
 them. The letters on either side are self-revealing. 
 Walker was convinced that his own plan of forming 
 Religious Societies in strict connexion with the Church, 
 carried on under the supervision of the clergy, and 
 free from any taint of ' enthusiasm ' or ' irregularity,' 
 was the method best adapted to the work of reforma- 
 tion. He had a horror of lay preaching, and, indeed, 
 of everything which suggested the distressing thought 
 of separation from the Church. He was held in great 
 respect for his piety and his work; but the practical 
 note is strangely absent in his correspondence. He 
 had not the wisdom of the man who sees facts, and
 
 270 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 adapts means to ends. John Wesley's mind was of 
 another order. He saw that Walker's method was 
 useful in a time that was favourable to religion, but 
 that the antagonism of a violent people to Jesus 
 Christ could only be subdued by new modes of 
 work. And so he was true to his motto 'Church 
 or no Church, we must save souls.' While Walker, 
 by the use of his sedate methods, was assisting a 
 small number of people to accept and appreciate the 
 doctrines which nourish a sober, circumspect, and 
 godly life, Wesley and his lay preachers were standing 
 on the moors and the hill-sides of Cornwall, opening 
 the gates of the kingdom of heaven to multitudes 
 of men and women who had never darkened the 
 doors of a church, or showed the slightest appreciation 
 of real religion. The doctrines preached by the evan- 
 gelists broke their hearts, and led them to surrender 
 themselves to the Christ whom they saw stretched 
 on the cross for their sins. They were gathered 
 into the Methodist Society, and found in the class- 
 meeting the sphere which was best adapted to the 
 defence and increase of their spiritual life. Sidney, 
 when describing the 'conversation classes' formed by 
 Samuel Walker, contrasts them with the Methodist 
 meetings, in which ' the recital of experience ' forms 
 such a prominent part of the proceedings. He says 
 
 Such a communication of the progress of religion in an 
 individual is often, happily, made to one friend at a time ; 
 but to introduce it as a topic of general conversation will,
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 271 
 
 it is feared, in a majority of instances, be attended with 
 more harm than edification. A conversation of pious 
 people coming together to clear up doubts, to examine 
 fundamentals, to animate to perseverance, to exhort to 
 duty, to excite to prayer, and to insist on growth in 
 holiness, will ever be truly valuable ; but the secrets of the 
 heart should be laid open only in private intercourse with 
 a minister or friend, and before God in the closet. 1 
 
 The picture of wreckers and smugglers coming together 
 to ' clear up doubts ' and to ' examine fundamentals/ 
 appeals to our sense of humour. That work would 
 not have continued long. But when they came with 
 the joyous tidings that once they were blind but now 
 they saw ; when they described the battles they had 
 fought with the tempter, and the victory they had won 
 through the might of the Captain of their Salvation ; 
 when, in answer to prayer, they saw their old com- 
 rades stepping into the light of the kingdom of 
 heaven ; when they sang the great ' experience ' 
 hymns of Charles Wesley, then power swept down 
 upon them from on high. The weekly class-meeting 
 was the source from which they derived inspiration 
 for the march and the battle of life. It is strange that 
 Walker did not discern the practical value of Wesley's 
 methods. He would have done so, we think, if he 
 had followed his own advice : ' Keep full in view the 
 interests of Christ's Church in general, and of practical 
 religion, not considering the Church of England, or 
 
 1 Life of Samuel Walker, p. 448.
 
 272 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the cause of Methodism, but as subordinate thereto.' 
 Loyal at all costs to that guiding principle, he would 
 have ceased to criticize Wesley, and would have joined 
 hands with him in the great task of evangelizing the 
 neglected myriads of bhe county of Cornwall.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 273 
 
 IX 
 
 Some Results of the Revival 
 
 IN describing the Great Eevival we have regarded 
 it as a national event of supreme importance. It 
 is certain that it affected the country at large, and 
 permanently changed the conditions of English life and 
 character. In seeking to estimate its results, we must 
 maintain our standpoint. 
 
 There is one aspect of our present inquiry which 
 we may dismiss in a few sentences. When dealing 
 with 'results/ it is natural to turn towards the 
 numerical side of a subject. On this aspect of the 
 revival it will be enough to say that when Wesley 
 died there were upwards of one hundred and twenty 
 thousand members in the ' United Societies.' Some of 
 them were found in other countries. Wesley's work 
 soon passed beyond the narrow boundaries of these 
 islands. Evangelists were sent out into America and 
 the West Indies, and there they published the glad 
 tidings of the gospel to multitudes of colonists and 
 slaves. This true missionary work was done in the 
 remote regions of Wesley's ' parish' long before William 
 
 T
 
 274 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Carey sailed for India, and, with the exception of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, several years 
 before the great Missionary Societies were formed. 
 Since 1791, when Wesley died, the witness of the 
 Methodist evangelist has been borne in many lands, 
 and now the membership of the Methodist Churches 
 throughout the world amounts to upwards of eight 
 and a quarter millions of persons. John Wesley never 
 dreamed that, in a little more than a century and a 
 half, the small Society gathered in the Foundery would 
 grow until it reached the size of the population of the 
 England of his day. But the ' membership returns ' 
 do not fully represent the ' results ' achieved by the 
 Methodist Churches. It must be borne in mind 
 that there is a distinction between 'members' and 
 ' adherents.' Eound the nucleus of the ' membership ' 
 is gathered a great mass of people bearing the 
 Methodist name. Their number is a matter of specu- 
 lation. Some statisticians hold that for each ' member ' 
 at least three ' adherents ' should be counted ; others 
 are in favour of a lower estimate. It is difficult to 
 decide an often debated question; but we think that 
 it is no exaggeration to say that, at the present time, 
 there are upwards of twenty-five millions of persons 
 in the world who may be considered as Methodists. 
 Even these large figures do not adequately represent 
 the numerical results of the Great Eevival. To them 
 must be added the people who, during a century and 
 a half, have been influenced by the preaching of the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 275 
 
 gospel and the training of the Methodist Churches. 
 Who can enumerate the vanished multitude that has 
 passed through the Methodist Societies and congrega- 
 tions on its way to the invisible City of God ? 
 
 The realm of statistics is fascinating to minds of a 
 certain order; but we willingly quit it that we may 
 bring into view some of the social, intellectual, moral, 
 and spiritual results which have been produced in 
 England through the influence of the Great Eevival. 
 
 We have seen the perilous condition of the State 
 Church at the time when Whitefield and Wesley 
 commenced their evangelistic work in England. Clergy 
 and people were contented with a view of 'religion' 
 that was remarkable for its ' sobriety ' and ineffectiveness. 
 They abhorred ' enthusiasm.' When the wandering 
 evangelists began to preach doctrines which impeached 
 human nature, and demanded its regeneration by the 
 Spirit of God, they guarded their pulpits against them, 
 and turned them out to test the truth of their teaching 
 on the rabble in the fields. The sentiments expressed 
 by the Duchess of Buckingham, the illegitimate daughter 
 of James II, in her well-known letter to the Countess 
 of Huntingdon, were prevalent. She writes 
 
 I thank your Ladyship for the information concerning 
 the Methodist preaching ; these doctrines are most repul- 
 sive and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect 
 towards their superiors in perpetually endeavouring to level 
 all ranks and do away with all distinction, as it is monstrous 
 to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common
 
 276 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive 
 and insulting, and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship 
 should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high 
 rank and good breeding. 
 
 It was no wonder that persons, whose views are 
 fairly represented in the Duchess of Buckingham's 
 letter, stood at the church doors and waved the evange- 
 lists away. The success of the men who defended 
 the Church of England against the intrusion of the 
 Methodists was conspicuous. Canon Overton and 
 Mr. Relton, speaking of the period ending with the 
 year 1760, say 
 
 If any one expects that from the beginning of the 
 Evangelical Revival, in its earlier form of Methodism, an 
 improvement in the state of the Church will be perceptible, 
 he will be disappointed. It is quite the reverse. The 
 immediate effects of Methodism upon the Church were 
 rather to make Churchmen set their faces all the more 
 against the religion of feeling than to attract them to it ; 
 and though it is difficult to generalize on such a subject, 
 the state of religion in the Church does not appear to have 
 been any better at the end of our second period than it 
 was at the beginning. 1 
 
 The statement we have just quoted is, generally 
 speaking, correct. But although the Church took 
 every precaution to defend itself against the ' religion 
 of feeling,' it was difficult to secure absolute immunity. 
 The influences of a Great Revival are pervasive and 
 penetrating. They are 'in the air.' At such a time 
 
 1 Hittory of the Englith Church, p. 73.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 277 
 
 a vitalized atmosphere encompasses all the Churches, 
 and some of it steals into enclosures which are supposed 
 to be hermetically sealed. In following the early work 
 of Whitefield, it is noticeable that his preaching not 
 only affected the crowd, but also made a deep impres- 
 sion on persons who occupied a high social position. 
 During his successive visits to England the circle of 
 his fashionable hearers was enlarged. We have men- 
 tioned the name of the Countess of Huntingdon. Her 
 name suggests striking episodes in the history of the 
 Great Eevival, and throws a steady light upon the 
 relation of the aristocracy to that event. In her house 
 there were frequent gatherings of persons belonging 
 to her own social rank who were brought together to 
 hear the famous preacher. At one time he was 
 lionized by a section of Society. Assemblies, con- 
 taining men and women whose names still shine in 
 English history, were held, and to them he declared 
 the truths of the gospel. John Wesley was not so suc- 
 cessful in reaching the aristocracy. Still, in reading his 
 Journals we note, again and again, that the pages are 
 brightened by terse descriptions of his visits to great 
 houses, standing in their solemn woodlands, in which 
 he found a welcome, and where he spoke, heart to 
 heart, with high-born men and women who listened 
 eagerly to the good news of salvation. But, while we 
 do not overlook the direct and indirect influence of 
 Whitefield and Wesley on some of the members of the 
 Church, we are convinced they must not be regarded
 
 278 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 as the creators of that Evangelical Party within the 
 Church which accomplished so much for God at the 
 close of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The rise of an Evangelical Party within the Church 
 of England was inevitable. The exclusion of the 
 Methodist evangelists from the churches was a pru- 
 dent measure if it had been determined by the eccle- 
 siastical authorities that there was to be no interference 
 with stereotyped opinions concerning religion. But 
 prudent measures are not always rewarded with 
 success. It was so in this case. The exclusion of 
 the evangelist raised many questions. Men of open 
 and inquiring minds began to ask if there was any 
 truth in the doctrines he had preached. In the case 
 of Wesley, it is well known that he told his clerical 
 antagonists that if they would read the doctrinal 
 standards of their Church they would find that he had 
 declared the truths therein contained. It is difficult 
 to eliminate fairness of mind from an Englishman. 
 It seemed right that Wesley's challenge should be 
 accepted, and that the documents should be searched. 
 The result of honest investigation was the discovery 
 that the Methodist evangelists were preaching in the 
 fields the doctrines which the parish ministers ought 
 to have preached in the pulpits. That discovery 
 awakened the minds of some of the clergy, and induced 
 them to face the perils of proclaiming the neglected 
 teachings of their own Church. To the dismay of 
 their people they did so, and were instantly branded
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 279 
 
 as ' Methodists.' But they held their ground. Slowly 
 Truth won her certain victory, and the Evangelical 
 Party took its stand among the world-compelling 
 religious forces of England. 
 
 Those who have watched the emergence of the Evan- 
 gelical Party above the dead level of the formalism and 
 worldliuess that afflicted the Church of England in the 
 eighteenth century, will have been quick to sympathize 
 with the men who led the people up to the heights of 
 the spiritual life which had been revealed by the study 
 of the formularies of the Church, and especially by the 
 reading of the New Testament. Their work was en- 
 compassed with difficulties. Those difficulties, in the 
 case of some of them, were lessened by the fact that 
 they were incumbents. Wesley and Whitefield, men 
 who did not even possess a licence to preach, could be 
 cast out as intruders. But the holder of a benefice 
 has rights and authorities in his own church which 
 minister to his security. The people in his own parish 
 may object to his teaching, and decline to hear him, 
 but they cannot dismiss him at will. In the case of 
 the beneficed clergy who preached the evangelical 
 doctrines in their churches during the time of the 
 Great Eevival, even the superior ecclesiastical authori- 
 ties were helpless. Some of the bishops were aware 
 that the teaching was in accordance with the doctrinal 
 standards of the Church, and so, out of conscience, 
 they refused to interfere with them. The helplessness 
 of the people, in the case of the beneficed clergy, and
 
 2 So The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the 'masterly inaction' of the bishops, did much to 
 assist the formation of the Evangelical Party, and to 
 start it on its career. 
 
 The difficulties in the path of the beneficed Evan- 
 gelical clergy were mitigated by the advantages they 
 possessed. It is when we turn towards those who only 
 held lectureships and other subordinate posts that we 
 see the men who bore the brunt of the fight. When 
 John Newton came to London, in 1780, he found 
 one Evangelical incumbent there. That was William 
 Eomaine, whose experiences as a preacher of the gospel 
 taxed his courage to the uttermost. He joined the 
 Evangelical Party about the year 1749. In 1748 he 
 was appointed lecturer at the united parishes of St. 
 George's, Botolph Lane, and St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. 
 In 1749 he was appointed to a double lectureship at 
 St. Dunstan's-in-the-West ; and in 1753 he became 
 morning preacher at St. George's, Hanover Square. 
 When Romaine preached to the fashionable con- 
 gregation at St. George's, he attracted a crowd of 
 poor people, who filled the church, and their presence 
 so scandalized the ordinary worshippers that pressure 
 was brought to bear on him, and, at the request 
 of the vicar, he resigned his lectureship. At St. 
 Dunstan's-in-the-West, in Fleet Street, the poor flocked 
 to hear him; the throng was so great that the 
 parishioners had to force their way to their pews 
 through 'a ragged, unsavoury multitude.' The rector 
 came to the rescue of the aggrieved parishioners, and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 281 
 
 prevented Eomaine from occupying the pulpit by 
 sitting in it himself. The action of the rector led to 
 a trial in the King's Bench. Eomaine was deprived 
 of one of his lectureships, which was supported by 
 voluntary contributions, but continued in the other, 
 and the use of the church was granted to him at seven 
 o'clock in the evening. The churchwardens were equal 
 to the occasion. They refused to open the church a 
 moment before seven, and they refused to light it. 
 The result was that Eomaine had often to preach in 
 the dark, holding a candle in his hand. But the 
 churchwardens went too far. On one occasion Dr. 
 Terrick, the Bishop of London, officiated in St. 
 Duustan's in the evening, and then noticed that the 
 doors of the church were closed, although he knew 
 that Eomaine was to preach immediately afterwards. 
 He asked the reason, and discovering it, put a stop to 
 the persecution. 
 
 But [says Canon Overt/on] the poor man was still driven 
 from pillar to post. His own university refused him the 
 pulpit of St. Mary's, and the hostility of the Dean and 
 Chapter of Westminster drove him from a preachership at 
 a chapel of ease to St. Margaret's, Westminster. . . . Per- 
 haps Eomaine was not a very genial, conciliatory man ; 
 perhaps hia foreign extraction may l;ave been a hindrance 
 to his understanding English ways : but he was absolutely 
 without reproach ; his abilities and attainments much 
 above the average ; his earnestness and piety, his orthodoxy 
 and loyalty to the Church unquestioned. The chief objec- 
 tion against him was that he succeeded in doing what good
 
 282 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Churchpeople of all types are longing to see done. He 
 drew the poor to church, and mainly for this grave offence 
 he suffered annoyance which amounted to persecution. 1 
 
 Roniaine at last secured a position in London 
 which was unassailable by his antagonists. In 1764 
 he was elected to the living of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, 
 which was in the gift of the parishioners ; but the poll 
 was disputed, and he was kept out of it for two years. 
 In 1766, however, the Court of Chancery confirmed his 
 right to the benefice, and for twenty-nine years he 
 ministered with great success in his own church. He 
 lived to see a slow but steady increase in the number 
 of the Evangelical clergy in London, and when he died 
 a multitude of sorrowing people followed him to the 
 tomb. 
 
 It is not necessary that we should pursue the 
 history of the Evangelical Party in the Church of 
 England. Its progress may be judged by the fact that 
 the number of its clergy, which did not exceed, accord- 
 ing to the estimate of Mr. Gladstone, one in twenty at 
 the close of the reign of George III, had risen to one 
 in eight at the death of George IV. The party never 
 became actually dominant in the Church, but its 
 influence on the religious life of the country has been 
 profound. 
 
 The Great Revival produced considerable effects 
 on the State Church ; it also directly and indirectly 
 
 1 Uiftory of the English Church, p. 153.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 283 
 
 influenced the Dissenters. The effect on the latter 
 would have been greater had it not been for the 
 existence of facts which are sometimes overlooked. 
 It must be remembered that the Dissenters, for long 
 years, had been engaged in fighting the battle of 
 religious liberty, and that it had been fought mainly 
 with political weapons. We heartily recognize the 
 services rendered by the men who bore the stress of 
 the struggle, and who gained a victory which still 
 affects the fortunes of Nonconformity in this country ; 
 but it must be admitted that the triumph was not 
 achieved without religious loss. Political controversy 
 exacts a toll from the spiritual men who indulge in 
 it. When a Church gives its time and its strength to 
 battles that have to be fought out in the political 
 arena, the keenness of its zeal for evangelistic work 
 is often dulled. In the eighteenth century the Dis- 
 senters were so exhausted by their fight for existence 
 that they had no heart for the great evangelizing 
 mission in which they should have eagerly shared. 
 
 Another fact must also be weighed. The theological 
 and religious standpoint of the Dissenters differed 
 widely from those occupied by Wesley and the prin- 
 cipal agents in the Great Eevival. The doctrines of 
 Calvin, concerning election and reprobation, formed a 
 barrier which divided them ; but we think that they 
 were more effectually sundered by another division 
 of opinion. Dr. K. W. Dale has stated the view of 
 the old Dissenters so clearly that we will content
 
 284 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 ourselves with quoting his words. In his History of 
 English Congregationalism, he says 
 
 For some years the great majority of the Congrega- 
 tionalists regarded the new movement with deep distrust. 
 . . . The ways of Methodism were wholly unlike their own. 
 They had been accustomed to hope that their children 
 would be gradually drawn to Christ by the gentle influence 
 of Christian homes. If they grew up to manhood and 
 womanhood without showing any signs of personal religious 
 faith, they trusted that by the orderly services of the 
 meeting-house religious thought would be gradually 
 awakened, religious purpose gradually strengthened, and 
 that after some months perhaps some years of solici- 
 tude, they would be able to rest in the divine mercy 
 for eternal salvation. They did not deny the possibility 
 of sudden conversion ; but they were unfamiliar with it. 
 They found it hard to believe that a man might go into 
 a Methodist meeting a swearer and a drunkard, and be 
 * born again,' and ' find peace,' and rejoice in ' the full 
 assurance ' of his salvation, before the meeting broke up. 1 
 
 The distinction so clearly defined by Dr. Dale 
 shows the line of cleavage which divided not only the 
 Congregationalists but all other Dissenters from the 
 Methodists. There can be no doubt that the opinion 
 of the Dissenters concerning the gradual way in which 
 men and women are brought to God has much that is 
 true and beautiful in it. Holding it firmly, they gave 
 themselves up to the culture of the religious life in 
 their congregations, and they produced a type of piety 
 which wins our respect. Especially, in some places, 
 
 1 pp. 583, 584.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 285 
 
 they were successful in realizing an ideal of Christian 
 family life that was charming. The man who has 
 never stood to admire the lovely pictures of family 
 life that are revealed in the Dissenting biographies of 
 the period has much to learn concerning the influences 
 which, in that day of danger, preserved the noblest 
 virtues of the English character. But the theory 
 described by Dr. Dale is defective as a working force, 
 inasmuch as it fails to include the case of the people 
 who are outside the Church, and who will not present 
 themselves in the 'meeting-houses' for the 'gradual' 
 cultivation of the religious life. The Dissenters were 
 helpless in the presence of the non-church-going popu- 
 lation of England, and one sign of their weakness 
 was the irritability which they occasionally displayed 
 when they watched the new methods which were 
 employed by the evangelists who went out to seek and 
 save the lost sheep. 
 
 The Dissenters and the Methodists were also 
 separated by an impalpable barrier, which often proves 
 itself stronger than walls of brass. The Dissenters 
 were conscious and careful of their ' respectability,' and, 
 in their view, the Methodists were vulgar, violent, 
 and illiterate. A conviction of our own superiority 
 embarrasses the freedom of our intercourse with those 
 whom we deem to be our social inferiors. The incon- 
 venience of such a conviction was illustrated in the 
 case of the Dissenters and the Methodists in the 
 eighteenth century. It is pleasant to note that there
 
 286 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 was at least one man who rose above the prejudices 
 of the day. Dr. Doddridge associated with Wesley 
 and Whitefield, although his fraternal action excited 
 the condemnation of Dr. Watts and Dr. Jennings. 
 When Whitefield was in Northampton he preached in 
 Doddridge's pulpit, and shocked the Coward trustees, 
 who were the principal supporters of the ' Academy ' 
 which he conducted. Nathaniel Neal, the secretary 
 of the Trust, wrote immediately to tell Doddridge that 
 the information had given him the ' utmost concern ' ; 
 that ' the matter was canvassed ' at a meeting of the 
 trustees; and he adds, 'I now find myself obliged to 
 apprise you of the very great uneasiness which your 
 conduct herein has occasioned them.' Then follows a 
 long appeal to Doddridge to reflect 'in how disadvan- 
 tageous a light' his regard for the Methodists had 
 placed him in the opinion of many of his 'judicious' 
 friends, and what an advantage it had given to his 
 ' secret and avowed enemies.' The trustees were ' par- 
 ticularly in pain' on account of the harm .that 
 Doddridge's sympathy with the Methodists was likely 
 to inflict on the ' Academy.' It appears that not only 
 had he allowed Whitefield to preach in his pulpit, but 
 he had prefixed a recommendation to a Methodist book 
 without the advice of the trustees ; and he was informed 
 that the letter which he had written 'excusing' this 
 presumption, had given the trustees ' great offence.' l 
 The censure passed on Doddridge is symptomatic of 
 
 1 Dr. Dale's Hutory of English Cotigregationalitm, pp. 584, 585.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 287 
 
 the feeling of the time. There can be no doubt that 
 any friendliness shown by Dissenting ministers towards 
 the Methodists made them liable to hostile criticism. 
 Is it any wonder that it was difficult for the influences 
 of the Great Kevival to pass over the barriers with 
 which the Dissenters had enclosed themselves in the 
 earlier years of the eighteenth century ? But, as time 
 went on its way, and the central meaning of 
 Methodism was more clearly understood, a change took 
 place. In describing it, Dr. Dale says 
 
 The fires of the Revival had been kindled from 
 heaven, and before the accession of George III the Con- 
 gregational churches had caught the flame. Their ministers 
 were beginning to preach with a new fervour, and their 
 preaching was followed with a new success. The religious 
 life of their people was becoming more intense. A passion 
 for evangelistic work was taking possession of church after 
 church, and by the end of the century the old meeting- 
 houses were crowded ; many of them had to be enlarged, 
 and new meeting-houses were being erected in town after 
 town, and village after village, in every part of the 
 kingdom. 1 
 
 Unassisted and unhindered by the patronage of the 
 State Church and the Dissenters, John Wesley went 
 out into the nation, and there accomplished the work 
 assigned to him by the will of God. The evangelical 
 clergy must have sometimes watched his course with 
 envious eyes. He was free from ecclesiastical control. 
 While they were toiling in their narrow parishes, and 
 
 1 Hitiory of Enjlith Congregationalism, p 585.
 
 288 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 preaching in their small churches, he was ever seeking 
 'fresh woods and pastures new.' A few of them, 
 greatly daring, gave him occasional assistance, and 
 strengthened him with counsel and sympathy, but they 
 knew that their paths diverged. They returned to 
 their churches, and Wesley set his face towards the 
 unsaved masses of his fellow countrymen. 
 
 In estimating the results of the Great Eevival, it is 
 essential that we should note some of the effects which 
 followed the liberation of Wesley from ecclesiastical 
 control. As to the fact of his freedom there can be no 
 question. No bishop regulated his proceedings, or exer- 
 cised authority in his Societies. They left him to 
 pursue his own course. If they had stopped his 
 'irregularities,' he would have snapped the link that 
 bound him to the Church. If, for instance, they had 
 ordered him not to employ lay preachers, and if they had 
 threatened him with excommunication if he did not 
 obey the command, he would have accepted the penalty. 
 To the end of his life he was a Churchman, and the 
 reason for his continued Churchmanship is to be found 
 in the fact that the ecclesiastical authorities were too 
 wise to bring him under discipline. The bishops 
 adopted, as we have said, a policy of 'masterly in- 
 action,' and thereby gave him an opportunity to fulfil 
 his destiny and to accomplish his work. 
 
 Freedom is a touchstone. It reveals the character 
 of the man who possesses it. If he uses it to serve, 
 then we see in him the spirit of the Christian religion.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 289 
 
 How did John Wesley employ his freedom? He 
 dedicated himself to the service of his country, and 
 lived a life of self-denial such as has rarely been 
 paralleled in the history of the Church. The needs 
 of the nation appealed to him with masterful force ; 
 they claimed every moment and every power he 
 possessed. He lived for the people of England. In 
 order to save them he sacrificed home and friends, 
 health and leisure. He willingly bore the burden of 
 poverty, and rejoiced in persecution and contempt. A 
 man of culture and refinement, he placed a firm hand 
 on his tastes and intellectual yearnings, and went 
 down into the deptlis of the social life of England, and 
 dwelt in the midst of misery and coarseness which 
 wrung his heart. He spent his strength on felons and 
 criminals, on drunkards, on wild and impure men and 
 women, on those who had been abandoned by all 
 Churches and all Christian people. To him we may 
 apply, without irreverence, the splendid epithet hurled 
 at his Master : ' He was " the friend of publicans and 
 sinners." ' 
 
 As a consequence of Wesley's self-denying work, 
 there arose in England a new ideal of the Christian 
 minister. It was impossible that his strenuous and 
 beneficent life could fail to affect the men who watched 
 it. He pervaded the country, and everywhere he was 
 recognized as a clergyman. As he rode into a village 
 and took his stand on the green, and then, after preach- 
 ing, set his face towards the storms that howled among 
 
 u
 
 290 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the hills, those who looked at him saw a new aspect of 
 clerical life. They would compare him with their own 
 parish minister, and would be lost in amazement. They 
 would learn that here was a man who had ridden over 
 the wretched roads out of sheer love of their souls, a 
 man who received neither fee nor reward for his work, 
 who lived upon a small private income and continually 
 gave away large sums of money to the poor; a man 
 who had deliberately and cheerfully cut himself off 
 from all hope of advancement in the Church, and 
 was content with the approval of his conscience and 
 the commendation of Christ. When these facts con- 
 cerning him were widely known, he became an object 
 of reverence, a reverence which, towards the close of 
 his life, was paid as a loving tribute whithersoever he 
 wandered. 
 
 It was fortunate that John Wesley was able to 
 modify the eighteenth-century estimate of the clergy- 
 man. He stood apart from the pluralists, the prefer- 
 ment-seekers, the mitre-hunters, the worldlings, the idle 
 shepherds who neglected their flocks. He moves with 
 distinction among the scenes of clerical life in that far- 
 off day. His figure attracts us, even at this distance of 
 time, as we watch it resting against the gloomy back- 
 ground. By his contemporaries, slowly but inevitably, 
 the lesson of his life was learned. The criticism of the 
 clergyman was hushed in his presence. That criticism 
 abounds in the literature of the period. It was super- 
 cilious, bitter, contemptuous, withering, true. But men
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 291 
 
 confessed that Wesley's character endured the most 
 searching tests. That confession established the fact 
 that it was possible for a clergyman to be a man of 
 honour and culture, a gentleman and a Christian. 
 
 There is a picture in Thackeray's lecture on George II 
 which brings out the contrast between Wesley and his 
 contemporaries with consummate skill. 
 
 As I peep into George II's Saint James's, I see crowds 
 of cassocks rustling up the back stairs of the ladies of the 
 Court ; stealthy clergy slipping purses into their laps ; that 
 godless old King yawning under his canopy in his Chapel 
 Royal, as the chaplain before him is discoursing. Discoursing 
 about what ? about righteousness and judgement ! Whilst 
 the chaplain is preaching, the King is chattering in German 
 almost as loud as the preacher ; so loud that the clergy- 
 man it may be one Doctor Young, he who wrote ' Night 
 Thoughts,' and discoursed on the splendours of the stars, 
 the glories of heaven, and utter vanities of this world 
 actually burst out crying in his pulpit because the Defender 
 of the Faith and dispenser of bishoprics would not listen to 
 him 1 No wonder that the clergy were corrupt and in- 
 different amidst this indifference and corruption. No 
 wonder that the sceptics multiplied and morals degenerated, 
 so far as they depended on the influence of such a King. 
 No wonder that Whitefield cried out in the wilderness, that 
 Wesley quitted the insulted temple to pray on the hillside. 
 I look with reverence on those men at that time. Which 
 is the sublimer spectacle the good John Wesley surrounded 
 by his congregation of miners at the pit's mouth, or the 
 Queen's chaplains mumbling through their morning office iu 
 their ante-room, under the picture of the great Venus, with 
 the door opened iuto the adjoining chamber, where the
 
 292 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Queen is dressing, talking scandal to Lord Hervey, or 
 uttering sneers at Lady Suffolk, who is kneeling with the 
 basin at her mistress's side ? I say I am scared as I look 
 round at this society at this King, at thesa courtiers, at 
 these politicians, at these bishops at this flaunting vice 
 and levity. Whereabouts in this Court is the honest man ? 
 Where is the pure person one may like ? The air stifles 
 one with its sickly perfumes. 
 
 The contrast suggested by Thackeray struck 
 Englishmen in the eighteenth century. It made a 
 deep impression on the popular mind, and that impres- 
 sion was not the least of the results of the Great 
 Revival. 
 
 The Eevival introduced a new type of clergyman 
 into England. It also gave to the country preachers 
 in whom the best traditions of the Early Church were 
 revived. We have shown that in the sub-Apostolic 
 age ' apostles/ ' prophets/ and ' teachers ' itinerated 
 among the churches, preaching the gospel and witness- 
 ing for Christ. They served with absolute self-denial 
 and with an heroic ardour. 1 Wesley's lay preachers 
 were their true successors. They moved about from 
 place to place, finding shelter in the homes of their 
 people, eating such things as were set before them, 
 lavishly rendering poorly paid services on obscure 
 villagers and insignificant townsmen whose spiritual 
 darkness they turned to marvellous light. Great were 
 their sufferings and sore their straits. Sometimes 
 
 1 See ante, pp. 31-33.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 293 
 
 they lived habitually on the verge of starvation. Their 
 quiet endurance pained the heart of Wesley. Out of 
 his slender resources he helped them, often commend- 
 ing to them the text which tried their faith : ' Trust 
 in the Lord, and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the 
 land, and verily thou shalt be fed' (Ps. xxxvii. 3). 
 Those who have read the Lives of the Early Methodist 
 Preachers and the Letters of John Wesley will be 
 familiar with touching episodes which reveal the ex- 
 periences of the men who marched and fought in the 
 great campaign. Despite of suffering, however, the 
 work was done, and an example of self-sacrificing toil 
 was set which is a rebuke and an inspiration to 
 Church workers throughout the world. 
 
 The Great Revival brought back the Apostolic type 
 of the Christian minister into the Church ; it also 
 recovered, restated, and reaffirmed, the most conspicuous 
 doctrines in the Apostolic teaching. In Christ's last 
 conversation with His disciples before He suffered, 
 He spoke words which were explained on the day of 
 Pentecost, and which have flashed out new light in 
 every great revival of religion. He told His disciples 
 that when the Spirit came He would ' convict the 
 world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and 
 of judgement' (John xvi 8). In watching the 
 progress of the Great Revival we have seen that the 
 'conviction in respect of sin' was the starting-point 
 in the spiritual experience of the chief agents in the 
 movement. In their hour of sorrow they brooded over
 
 294 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 the evil of their life. They saw that sin was horrible 
 in itself, and that it laid them under the condemnation 
 of God. The contemplation of their personal sin drove 
 them into desperate efforts to still their consciences by 
 prayer and fasting and self-sacrifice. But these efforts 
 were in vain. A sense of helplessness and hopeless- 
 ness remained, and over them hung the threatening 
 cloud of the anger of God. They were conscious of a 
 wrath that had come as well as a wrath that would 
 overwhelm them in the future. In the darkness 
 they faced the problem of sin, they searched its 
 abysmal deeps, and they learned lessons which lie 
 at the heart of evangelical teaching lessons which 
 must be learned if that teaching is not to be weak 
 and mischievous. These men, by the experience of an 
 inexpressible sadness, regained that conviction of the 
 exceeding sinfulness of sin that can only be wrought in 
 the conscience by the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 When the men who had passed through the ex- 
 perience we have described stood before their wild and 
 turbulent audiences, they arraigned them as sinners 
 before the bar of God. They felt that nothing was 
 done by their preaching so long as the conscience was 
 unreached and the heart unmoved. So they set up 
 the rigorous standard of the law in the midst of the 
 people ; they made them see ' the great white throne ' 
 and Him who sat upon it ; they spoke of hell as men 
 who had been down to the iron gates and had gazed 
 upon the horrors of death eternal. Every appeal was
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 295 
 
 pointed with their own experience ; it winged every 
 arrow that flew into the hearts of their hearers. It 
 would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the 
 punishment of sin was the only aspect of the dire 
 problem they presented in their sermons. Had they 
 done so, they would have forgotten the course of their 
 own spiritual history. John Wesley, for instance, 
 during the time of his darkness, was concerned to be 
 saved from sin, not from hell. He remembered this 
 fact, and when he preached he aimed at breaking up 
 the indifference of his audience, and then, when that 
 purpose was effected, he deepened the impression by 
 showing that sin was an offence against a God who 
 was not only a Judge, but a Father whose infinite love 
 for the world had been manifested by the gift of His 
 Son. The Master had prophesied that the Spirit 
 would convict men of sin by showing them that they 
 had not believed in Him. He would convince them 
 that they had been blind to all that Christ represents 
 the severity of law, the hatefulness of sin, the bound- 
 less patience, pity, and loving-kindness of the Lord, 
 Wesley, as time went by, found that the Spirit of God 
 works as He lists, and he was content if he saw that 
 a true conviction of sin had been wrought in a man. 
 It was enough for him that conscience had been 
 awakened, and he did not inquire too curiously con- 
 cerning the source of the light that had disturbed its 
 slumber. It might have streamed from a vision of 
 judgement or from heaven ; better still, it might have
 
 296 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 fallen from those gentle eyes whose look broke the 
 Apostle's heart. The one essential thing was that sin 
 should be seen and bemoaned and hated, that it should 
 drive a man to the cross of Christ and make him 
 miserable until he realized the unspeakable joy of 
 abundant pardon. 
 
 The Great Eevival explained the meaning of the 
 ' conviction in respect of sin ' ; it also did much to 
 show what is meant by the ' conviction in respect of 
 righteousness.' It is confessed that, up to this hour, 
 the Church has not grasped the full meaning of this 
 phrase. Christ told His disciples that the ' conviction 
 in respect of righteousness ' would come through the 
 realization of the fact that He had gone away, that He 
 had departed to the Father. As we listen to the dis- 
 course in the ' upper room ' the words ' I go away ' 
 frequently fall upon our ears. They are not altogether 
 words of sadness ; they do not seem to apply exclusively 
 to the journey to the cross. They point to a pilgrimage 
 beyond the cross and the grave and the forty days after 
 the Resurrection. ' If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, 
 because I go to the Father.' The Christian Church 
 still bends over these words, desiring to look into 
 them. They are words of shadow and of insufferable 
 light. In connexion with the ' conviction ' we are con- 
 sidering, they suggest that there is a revelation of 
 ' righteousness ' in the death, the resurrection, and the 
 heavenly life of our Lord which it is the special 
 mission of the Spirit to explain. By ' righteousness '
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 297 
 
 we do not understand 'justice,' although conviction 
 concerning the justice of God does much to humble the 
 sinner and cast him into the dust. 'Righteousness' 
 is, rather, the purity and holiness of God which is 
 revealed to us by the Spirit who manifests the Christ 
 who toiled to the cross, the Christ who passed along 
 the viewless pathways of the sky to the house of His 
 Father in heaven. As the ' conviction in respect of 
 sin ' drives a man to the Saviour from sin, so the 
 ' conviction in respect of righteousness ' impels him to 
 enter on the quest after holiness; it fills him with a 
 consuming desire to be as Christ was in this world. 
 
 The astronomers tell of a star that has a dark 
 companion. Silently they move together in the fields 
 of space, inseparably connected in history and destiny. 
 The Great Revival brought into prominence the double 
 stars sin and righteousness. God has joined them 
 together, and no man can put them asunder. The 
 perils haunting the doctrine of justification by faith 
 have often been described, and are indisputable. But 
 John Wesley perceived these dangers, and so far as a 
 man can guard others against spiritual mischiefs, he 
 defended the doctrine of salvation by faith against 
 abuse. He insisted on the necessity of ' the new 
 birth,' and taught that the assurance of forgiveness 
 which was not followed by a changed life was a 
 delusion. Beginning with this point, he incessantly 
 proclaimed the need of holiness. He was fiercely 
 assailed because of his ' extreme ' teaching on the subject.
 
 298 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 That teaching was misrepresented ; it was described in 
 terms which he persistently rejected ; it excited the 
 ridicule and ribaldry of scornful assailants ; but, to the 
 end of his life, he steadfastly held the conviction that 
 if a man ' hungers and thirsts ' after ' righteousness,' he 
 shall be ' filled ' with it. 
 
 The secret of Wesley's loyalty to the doctrine of 
 ' Christian Perfection ' was that he had been convinced 
 of 'righteousness' by the Holy Spirit. He had seen 
 Christ, and had learned that it was possible for him to 
 be like his Lord. If we admit the possibility of Christ- 
 likeness, the admission carries with it the best and 
 highest things that Wesley said concerning ' Christian 
 Perfection.' In the days of his earlier experiences, 
 he had studied Thomas & Kempis's Imitation of Christ, 
 and it profoundly impressed him. When, in after- 
 years, the light of the great illumination shone around 
 him, and he saw the innermost meaning of the doctrine, 
 he preached it with an enthusiasm which was con- 
 stantly quickened by visions of his pure and perfect 
 Lord. 
 
 In describing the mission of the Comforter, Christ 
 assured His disciples that the Holy Spirit would not 
 only convict in respect of sin and righteousness, but 
 also of judgement, ' because the prince of this world hath 
 been judged.' The meaning of the ' judgement,' men- 
 tioned by our Lord, has been perverted by the popular 
 quotation of the text. It is often said that the Spirit 
 is to convince the world of 'judgement to come,' but
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 299 
 
 the misquotation sacrifices the glory of the prediction. 
 The 'judgement' of which Christ spoke is a completed 
 act; it does not refer to our own arraignment before 
 the bar of the Divine Justice, but to the condemnation 
 of the prince of the world. By the ministry of the 
 Comforter men are to see that the prince of this world 
 has failed in his conflict with Christ, that even now he 
 is the footstool of his mighty conqueror. 
 
 The Great Eevival illuminated the assurance of 
 Christ until it shone with a dazzling brightness. It 
 was extraordinary that Christian men should see, in 
 such an age as the eighteenth century, that the prince 
 of this world had received his fatal wound. But they 
 did see it. The vision that lifted up the heart of 
 Luther inspired them. With him they could sing 
 
 And let the prince of ill 
 Look grim as e'er he will, 
 He harms us not a whit; 
 For why? His doom is writ; 
 A word shall quickly slay him. 
 
 The work of the Spirit in the minds of the men of 
 the eighteenth century created a strong conviction of 
 the ultimate success of the kingdom of Christ. It 
 enabled them to see not only the Saviour hanging upon 
 His cross, but also the King of kings seated on His 
 throne. It is impossible to estimate aright the influence 
 of that vision on Christian life and work. The extra- 
 ordinary fluctuations in the fortunes of the Church 
 coincide with the variations of its spiritual sight.
 
 300 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 When the living Christ is obscured, the advance of tho 
 Church is checked ; but when it is seen that the Sou of 
 God goes forth to war at the head of His army 
 courage is roused, and the Church is invincible. 
 
 It must be remembered that through the preaching 
 of Wesley the ideas of the Church concerning the extent 
 of the world that was claimed by Christ were widened. 
 The sharp limits drawn by the hand of Calvin were 
 effaced, and the circle swept round the whole earth. 
 The larger view that was taken of the philanthropy, 
 of God brought a greater challenge to faith; but the 
 challenge was accepted, and the evangelists went out 
 with confidence into all the world and preached the 
 gospel to the whole creation. 
 
 The conviction that 'the prince of this world hath 
 been judged ' is an inspiration to the worker ; it is also 
 an instrument used by the Spirit to effect the conversion 
 of the sinner. When a man has lost sight of the 
 invisible, when he worships self, when he lives only to 
 enjoy the pleasures of the world, when he has become 
 so unconscious of things divine that he is satisfied 
 with carnal pleasures and the pale, wan light of 
 earthly happiness, it is a disappointment to him to find 
 that failure is written upon everything which he has 
 esteemed and trusted. It is difficult to describe the 
 weariness, the fainting of heart, that comes with this 
 discouraging revelation. The sun of life sets at 
 noon ; the world is black with shadows. What a 
 change ia effected by the conviction that although
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 301 
 
 the prince of this world, whom he has worshipped, 
 is doomed, hope need not be abandoned. Under 
 the guidance of the great Helper, he turns for consola- 
 tion to Jesus Christ. Believing in Him, loving Him, 
 working for Him, marching under His banner, he 
 finds himself experiencing a sense of the victoriousness 
 of life. He has done with failure and defeat. As time 
 passes, and the conviction that Christ is the Conqueror 
 deepens, he is led into the tranquil waiting of the 
 purified spirit for the manifestation of the King in His 
 beauty. 
 
 The conviction that ' the prince of this world hath 
 been judged' carries with it a suggestion that acted 
 with decisive effect upon the people who were influenced 
 by the Great Revival. ' The prince of this world ! ' 
 Then there is another world in which our King lives in 
 glory. It is no exaggeration to say that, through the 
 preaching of the evangelists, there came such a reve- 
 lation of eternity as had not been previously known 
 in England. That revelation brought before the 
 eyes scenes that were sombre and terrifying; but far 
 above the regions of perpetual sorrow there shone 
 the vision of a King who walked in the midst of His 
 saints, and led them to fountains of living waters. 
 Heaven was a city that had foundations. Its light 
 relieved the darkness of days of disappointment, and of 
 nights of anguish ; its music softened the harshness of 
 the world's discords ; its open gates sent their perpetual 
 welcome to the toil-worn soldiers of the King.
 
 302 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 In estimating the results of the Great Eevival, it 
 is essential that we should recognize the fact that it 
 brought into striking prominence the meaning of sin, 
 of righteousness, and of judgement. By so doing it 
 revolutionized the religious thought of the day, and 
 sounded a note that must be prolonged throughout the 
 ages if the Church is to be loyal to Christ. The ex- 
 planation of the ' Mission of the Comforter ' was not 
 conveyed to the people solely by sermons and in 
 private conversations. It was made the perpetual 
 possession of the Churches by a mightier agency. In 
 describing the Great Eevival, we have dwelt, more 
 especially, on the work of John Wesley ; but we have 
 been conscious all the time that his brother was stand- 
 ing by his side and sharing his work as an evangelist 
 and teacher. The methods of the two men differed. 
 John Wesley preached sermons which produced and 
 still produce permanent effects, but thousands of them 
 were spoken into the air. They served their high 
 immediate purpose and were forgotten. Charles Wesley 
 preached sermons; but he did something better, 
 he wrote hymns. His hymns entered into the 
 memory; they were conned and repeated in private 
 until every phrase was familiar. Their music streamed 
 along the humble pathways of common life. They 
 were sung when men were ' at work ' ; when they sat 
 quietly in their houses; when the soldiers of Christ 
 girded on their armour ; when the ' believer ' watched, 
 and prayed, and fought, and toiled for his King ; when
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 303 
 
 the way was rough or bright with sunshine; when 
 ' in a hurry of business/ and in the hush that comes 
 with the approach of death. On all these occasions 
 Charles Wesley found words that they could repeat 
 and sing, or to which they could listen as their 
 friends clustered around them when the hour of their 
 departure was nigh. All who remember the men and 
 women of sixty years ago who preserved so much of 
 the old Methodist spirit, will call to mind the treasured 
 hymn-book that they carried with such reverence to 
 the class-meeting, the love-feast, and the public service. 
 Some of these ancients knew every hymn, and could 
 break out into quotations that illustrated the changing 
 phases of their religious experience. The hymns were 
 their organ of expression ; they enabled them to explain 
 what they felt of the power and the love of God. 
 
 Charles Wesley's hymns convey clear and decisive 
 teaching on the subjects of sin, righteousness, and 
 judgement. The exceeding sinfulness of sin is set forth 
 in uncompromising language ; the perfect righteousness 
 of Jesus is displayed, and the eyes of the believer are 
 fixed upon His infinite purity and beauty; the note 
 of victory over the world rings out like a trumpet- 
 blast in the ears of the ' soldiers of Christ ' ; there is 
 the wail over the impenitent sinner's doom, and the 
 joyous cry that springs to the lips when the sky is 
 opened, and ' the world of spirits bright ' is seen. If 
 we could point to no other result of the Great 
 Eevival, then, in Charles Wesley's hymns, we could
 
 304 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 show that it brought to the Churches of England a 
 revelation of ' a new heaven and a new earth.' 
 
 The Great Revival produced a new type of gospel 
 minister, and brought into prominence evangelical 
 doctrines which had been hidden by ages of neglect. 
 In addition, it revealed a distinct and unfamiliar type 
 of Christian character. It is true that the ideal 
 ' Methodist ' might easily have been discovered in the 
 New Testament, but in the eighteenth century 
 religious people were disinclined to believe that Chris- 
 tian character had to be conformed to the example 
 set by men and women who lived in Apostolic times. 
 John Wesley went back to the purest, brightest 
 ages of the Church, and insisted that the graces 
 which then beautified the 'saints' must still distin- 
 guish the children of God. 
 
 In a pamphlet which John Wesley published in 
 1745 we see the ideal of character towards which he 
 worked. It is entitled Advice to the People called 
 Methodists. In describing the Methodists, he says that 
 they are a people who profess to pursue holiness of 
 heart and life that is, inward and outward conformity 
 in all things to the revealed will of God ; they place 
 religion 
 
 in a uniform resemblance of the great Object of it ; in a 
 steady imitation of Him they worship, in all His imitable 
 perfections ; more particularly in justice, mercy, and truth, 
 or universal love filling the heart and governing the life. 1 
 
 1 Worla, vol. viii. p. 852, 8vo ed.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 305 
 
 He then goes on to say 
 
 If you walk by this rule, continually endeavouring to 
 know and love and resemble and obey the great God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the God of love, of 
 pardoning mercy ; if from this principle of loving, obedient 
 faith, you carefully abstain from all evil, and labour, as you 
 have opportunity, to do good to all men, friends or enemies ; 
 if, lastly, you unite together to encourage and help each 
 other in thus working out your salvation, and for that end 
 watch over one another in love, you are they whom I mean 
 by Methodists. 1 
 
 Having described the people whom he addresses, 
 Wesley proceeds to give them advice. As we read 
 between the lines of his counsels, his ideal of the 
 Methodist comes out with great distinctness. In his 
 pamphlet he reminded his readers that they were ' a 
 new people.' Their name was new; so were their 
 principles, at least in this respect, that 
 
 possibly not in the Christian world was there any other 
 set of people who so strenuously and continually insisted on 
 the absolute necessity of universal holiness both in heart 
 and life ; of a peaceful and joyous love of God ; of a super- 
 natural evidence of things not seen ; of an inward witness 
 that they were the children of God ; and of the inspiration 
 of the Holy Ghost, in order to any good thought, or word, 
 or work. 
 
 He then indicates a fact which distinguished them, 
 from all other Christian people. He says 
 
 1 p. 353.
 
 306 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 There is no other set of people, at least, not visibly 
 united together, who lay so much and yet no more stress 
 than you do on rectitude of opinions, on outward modes of 
 worship, and the use of those ordinances which you acknow- 
 ledge to be of God. So much stress you lay even on right 
 opinions, as to profess, that you earnestly desire to have a 
 right judgement in all things, and are glad to use every 
 means which you know or believe may be conducive 
 thereto ; and yet not so much as to condemn any man upon 
 earth, merely for thinking otherwise than you do ; much 
 less, to imagine that God condemns him for this, if he be 
 upright and sincere of heart. On those eutward modes of 
 worship, wherein you have been bred up, you lay so much 
 stress as highly to approve them, but not so much as to 
 lessen your love to those who conscientiously dissent from 
 you herein. You likewise lay so much stress on the use of 
 those ordinances which you believe to be of God, as to con- 
 fess there is no salvation for you if you wilfully neglect 
 them : And yet you do not judge them that are otherwise 
 minded ; you determine nothing concerning those who, not 
 believing those ordinances to be of God, do, out of principle, 
 abstain from them. 1 
 
 In his Advice to them, Wesley also points out that 
 the Methodists were distinguished as a ' new people ' 
 by the strictness of their life. They made it a rule to 
 abstain from fashionable diversions, from reading plays, 
 romances, or books of humour, from singing innocent 
 songs, or talking in a merry, gay, diverting manner; 
 they dressed plainly ; they were honest in their manner 
 of trade ; they were exact in observing the Lord's Day ; 
 tliey were scrupulous as to things that had not paid 
 1 Works, vol. viii. pp. 353, 354, 8vo ed.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 307 
 
 custom ; they totally abstained from spirituous liquors, 
 unless in cases of necessity; and they were governed by 
 the rule ' not to mention the fault of an absent person, 
 in particular of ministers or of those in authority.' 
 
 After pointing out that the principles and practices 
 of the Methodists must bring persecution upon them, 
 Wesley gives them this exhortation 
 
 Keep in the very path wherein you now tread. Be 
 true to your principles. Never rest again in the dead 
 formality of religion. Pursue with your might inward and 
 outward holiness ; a steady imitation of Him you worship ; 
 a still increasing resemblance of His imitable perfections ; 
 His justice, mercy, and truth. Let this be your manly, 
 noble, generous religion, equally remote from the meanness 
 of superstition, which places religion in doing what God 
 hath not enjoined, or abstaining from what He hath not 
 forbidden ; and from the unkind ness of bigotry, which con- 
 fines our affection to our own party, sect, or opinion. . . . 
 Carefully avoid enthusiasm : Impute not the dreams of men 
 to the all-wise God ; and expect neither light nor power 
 from Him, but in the serious use of all the means He hath 
 ordained. Be true also to your principles touching opinions 
 and the externals of religion. Use every ordinance which 
 you believe is of God ; but beware of narrowness of spirit 
 towards those who use them not. Conform yourselves 
 to those modes of worship which you approve ; yet love 
 as brethren those who cannot conform. Lay so much 
 stress on opinions, that all your own, if it be possible, may 
 agree with truth and reason ; but have a care of anger, dis- 
 like, or contempt towards those whose opinions differ from 
 yours. . . . Condemn no man for not thinking as you 
 think. Let every one enjoy the full and free liberty of
 
 308 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 thinking for himself. Let every man use his own judgement, 
 since every man must give an account of himself to God. 
 Abhor every approach, in any kind or degree, to the spirit 
 of persecution. If you cannot reason or persuade a man 
 into the truth, never attempt to force him into it. If love 
 will not compel him to come in, leave him to God, the 
 Judge of all. 1 
 
 In reading Wesley's Advice to the Pevple called 
 Methodists, we seem to be breathing an ampler, purer 
 air. We instinctively adopt his words, and admit 
 that the religion he describes is 'manly, noble, and 
 generous.' We have no doubt that in the England of 
 the eighteenth century there were persons, untouched 
 by Methodism, who would have recognized that the 
 'principles' and 'practices' described in the Advice 
 were in accordance with the right view of the Christian 
 life. We may go further and say that, in all the 
 Churches of the time, men and women could be found 
 who exemplified these principles and practices in their 
 lives. But they were a dispersed people, knowing 
 little or nothing of one another. They quietly trimmed 
 the golden lamps of personal piety, and shed a radi- 
 ance over their own narrow sphere. The peculiarity 
 of Methodism was that it gathered together into the 
 United Societies those who accepted the teaching of 
 Wesley, and made it the rule of their life. The lamps 
 were clustered, and the concentrated light shone out 
 upon the darkness of the world. 
 
 > Works, vol. viii. p. 357, 8vo ed.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 309 
 
 The unification of the Methodists produced distinct 
 effects upon the cities, towns, and villages of this 
 country in the eighteenth century. At first the strange- 
 ness of their doctrine, character, and conduct irritated 
 those who could not understand them, and enraged 
 those who were reproved by their sobriety, purity, and 
 loving-kindness. But, in process of time, the eyes of 
 the people of England grew accustomed to the new 
 light. It was welcomed, and persecution ceased. At 
 this distance of time it seems remarkable that people 
 who professed and practised the principles of the 
 Methodists should have been assailed so bitterly. But 
 the instinct which makes most of us hate and assault 
 the peculiar displayed itself with exceptional force 
 in the days of which we write. Gradually the enmity 
 against Wesley and the members of his Societies was 
 modified, and, among men specially gifted with reason, 
 it disappeared. 
 
 One of the most striking results of the Great 
 Revival was the creation of a new Church in England. 
 Much discussion has circled round this fact. It is 
 asserted that John Wesley never considered that the 
 ' United Societies ' were a Church, and that he never 
 intended that they should become a Church. As a 
 matter of fact, he not only calls them a Church, but 
 he made careful arrangements for their ecclesiastical 
 organization. After much hesitation, he was, finally, 
 persuaded that they were destined to stand apart 
 from all other Churches and to pursue their own
 
 310 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 independent career. We presume that certain con- 
 troversialists will continue to debate these questions; 
 but the discussion has ceased to have any practical 
 value. 
 
 When we perceive the relation of the 'United 
 Societies ' to the Churches of the eighteenth century, 
 we see that it was inevitable that they should occupy 
 an independent position. The testimony of Canon 
 Overton is decisive on the question of the relation of 
 the Societies to the Church of England. As organiza- 
 tions they never were included in the State Church. 
 John Wesley dreamed of the possibility of inducing 
 the bishops and the clergy to interest themselves in his 
 work and to accept the responsibility of governing and 
 caring for his Societies, but rude facts disturbed and 
 ended his musings. Professor Gvvatkin says that 
 Wesley possessed 'one of the sanest minds of the 
 eighteenth century.' 1 The estimate is true. His 
 practical sagacity was shown by his acceptance of the 
 inevitable. He saw that the Church of England and 
 his Societies stood apart, and that no golden bridge 
 could span the abyss that divided them. 
 
 There were two forces that might have knit the 
 Societies to the Established Church in the eighteenth 
 century the forces of mutual understanding and 
 sympathy. But they did not exist. The mass of 
 Churchmen had no insight into the spirit and aims of 
 Methodism. The evangelical doctrines concerning sin 
 
 1 The Knowledge of God, ToL ii. p. 242.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 311 
 
 and its forgiveness were strongly resented by the 
 laity and clergy of the Establishment. Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson will be accepted as a favourable example of 
 the religious layman of his time. We have seen his 
 singularly crude criticism of Whitefield, and from it 
 we may judge his capacity to understand Methodism. 
 But that criticism does not stand alone. Boswell 
 records an incident which casts a glaring light upon 
 Johnson's ignorance of evangelical religion. He tells 
 us that two girls who had come under the influence 
 of Methodism, and had been touched with a new 
 'seriousness,' visited Johnson in his rooms. He was 
 distressed with the change. Consumed with anxiety 
 to chase away their sobriety, he took them on his 
 knees and tried to blandish their ' Methodism ' out of 
 them. It is a grotesque picture; but it is a revela- 
 tion not only of Johnson, but also of the spirit of 
 that distracted and dreary day. If we turn from the 
 laity to the clergy, we find in most of them an abso- 
 lute inability to understand Methodist teaching and 
 experience. It is pathetic to watch the helpless 
 astonishment of the parish ministers when confronted 
 by a case of ' conviction in respect of sin.' They saw 
 that the sorrow was genuine, but their only solution 
 of the mystery was that it sprang from physical causes, 
 or was the result of temporary mental derangement. 
 When Jean de Quetteville, so well known afterwards 
 as an evangelist in the Channel Islands, 'opened his 
 mind' to his parish minister, he was gravely advised
 
 312 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 to try the effect of sea-bathing and of dancing with 
 the girls. The readers of Methodist biographies are 
 familiar with similar prescriptions which were com- 
 mended to men and women who were distressed with 
 a consciousness of personal sin. These suggestions 
 revealed astounding ignorance of the work of the 
 Spirit of God. It was impossible that Wesley could 
 entrust the care of his Societies to such advisers. 
 
 But there was another obstacle in the way of the 
 union of the Methodists with the Church of England. 
 Not only was there an absence of spiritual perception in 
 the minds of the parish ministers, but sympathy, that 
 clear revealer of the meaning of things, was, in the 
 great majority of clergymen, entirely lacking. If the 
 ministers had confessed their inability to grasp the 
 meaning of repentance and salvation by faith, and left 
 the Methodists to pursue their own course as a 
 misguided and incomprehensible people, many dark 
 pages in the history of religion in England would not 
 have been written. Instead of ' refraining from these 
 men,' the clergy attacked them with an almost incon- 
 ceivable bitterness. In Wesley's Farther Appeal to 
 Men of Reason and Religion, he shows how he and his 
 people were treated by some of the parish ministers. 
 Speaking of the ministers who had turned so many 
 from sin to holiness, he says that the greater part of 
 the clergy, instead of receiving them with open arms, 
 spoke of them as if the devil, not God, had sent them. 
 Then he proceeds
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 313 
 
 Some repelled them from the Lord's Table; others 
 stirred up the people against them, representing them, even 
 in their public discourses, as fellows not fit to live, Papists, 
 heretics, traitors, conspirators against their king and country. 
 And how did they watch over the sinners lately reformed ? 
 Even as a leopard watcheth over his prey. They drove 
 some of them also from the Lord's Table, to which till 
 now they had no desire to approach. They preached all 
 manner of evil concerning them, openly cursing them in 
 the name of the Lord. They turned many out of their 
 work, persuaded others to do so too, and harassed them all 
 manner of ways. 1 
 
 In the absence of understanding and sympathy, 
 how was it possible that the Methodist Societies could 
 deliver themselves up to be absorbed by the Church 
 of England? Common sense forbade such a sacrifice, 
 and its counsels prevailed. 
 
 If it is not possible to find the conditions favourable 
 to permanent union of the Methodist Societies with 
 the Established Church, are such conditions to be 
 discovered among the Dissenters of the period? The 
 answer will be on the lips of every man who has 
 studied the history of the eighteenth century. It is 
 enough to refer to the incident concerning Dr. Doddridge 
 which we have recorded, and to the statements contained 
 in Dr. Dale's History of English Congregationalism, to 
 show that most of the principal representatives of the 
 Dissenters were out of sympathy with the Methodists. 
 There was no rapport between them. The lack of 
 
 1 WorJtt, vol. viii. pp. 223, 224, 8vo ed.
 
 3 14 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 sympathy was not displayed in the energetic fashions 
 adopted by the hostile clergy, but it showed itself 
 decisively, and it made a union between the Methodists 
 and the Dissenters impossible. 
 
 Unwelcome to the Church of England and to the 
 Dissenters, the Societies were isolated. They were not 
 only unwelcome, they were repelled. That repulsion 
 effected a beneficent result. Pressed from all sides, 
 they were massed together ; and, at last, they stood out 
 as a well-organized and fully equipped Church, charged 
 with a unique mission, and sent out by the Spirit of 
 God to accomplish a specific work in the nation and the 
 world. 
 
 The organization of the Methodist Church is sup- 
 posed to be a triumph of ecclesiastical statesmanship. 
 The constructive genius of Wesley has been lauded, 
 and he has been compared with famous constitution- 
 builders and legislators. He would have been sur- 
 prised with the eulogium. In his own opinion he 
 was not a creative statesman, but an unconscious 
 imitator of the work of other men. His arrangements 
 had all been anticipated. The pattern to wliich his 
 Societies were unconsciously conformed was contained 
 in the New Testament. Without any previous design, 
 he met ' occasions as they arose,' and, in the end, he 
 created a Church founded on the lines laid down in 
 Apostolic times. Unfettered by theory, and unham- 
 pered by plan, he did the day's work and provided for 
 its needs. The result shows that he was guided by the
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 315 
 
 Spirit of God. He formed a Church after the Pente- 
 costal pattern, a Church that existed to accomplish a 
 moral and spiritual purpose; a Church that, having 
 recovered the meaning of the New Covenant, wit- 
 nessed to the world that it is through the forgive- 
 ness of sins that men pass into the light and gladness 
 of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 If we compare the Methodist Church of the eigh- 
 teenth century with its Apostolic type, we shall find 
 many resemblances. It is only necessary to indicate a 
 few of them. In his Hymns on tlie Acts of the Apostles* 
 Charles Wesley speaks of the Apostolic Church as 
 ' the Church of pardoned sinners.' That is a true 
 description. The Acts of the Apostles shows that 
 Jeremiah's words concerning the New Covenant found 
 abundant illustration in those great days of missionary 
 preaching. And the new Methodist Church, founded 
 on the old model, was loyal to the ancient doctrines, 
 and was the meeting-place of myriads of people who 
 rejoiced in the forgiveness of their sins, and shone with 
 the graces which beautified the saints of Apostolic days. 
 
 The Methodist Church answered to the Apostolic 
 type in doctrine and experience. But it rendered an 
 invaluable service to religion by recovering the old 
 ideal of Christian fellowship. Those who have studied 
 the organization of the Church in Apostolic and sub- 
 Apostolic times are aware that fellowship determined 
 
 1 The Poetical Work$ of John and Charlet Wctley, vol. xii. pp. 
 134-450.
 
 316 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Church membership. The opportunity for demon- 
 strating that fellowship was, more especially, provided 
 by the weekly assemblies in which the lovefeast was 
 celebrated, and in which the Eucharist closed the 
 solemn and significant church meeting. The 'assem- 
 bling together' was essential to Church membership. 
 The Early Church knew nothing of men and women 
 who claimed to be Christians, but who refrained from 
 close association with the Church. Communion with 
 the invisible Christ and fellowship with the members 
 of the visible Church were the two essential points 
 which distinguished a man as a Christian. In the 
 little towns and villages where scattered converts lived, 
 small assemblies met and acknowledged their union 
 with each other and with the Christian Church 
 throughout the world. Their common meal proclaimed 
 their unity; much more did the words they uttered 
 at the Eucharistic feast. When they spoke of the seed- 
 corn that had been scattered on the mountains and 
 then gathered together into one loaf, they looked upon 
 the symbol of the Body of Christ, and rejoiced in their 
 fellowship with the Church in all lands as well as 
 with each other and with their living Lord. The 
 Christian Societies of the Apostolic age were 'united 
 Societies.' When the feeling of fellowship became weak 
 in a man's heart, and he neglected the meetings of 
 the Christian Church, he practically excommunicated 
 himself. He was a withered branch cut off from 
 the vine. In the Apostolic Church the idea and
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 317 
 
 the fact of fellowship occupied positions of supreme 
 importance. 
 
 In the eighteenth century the convictions and 
 practices of the Early Church revived. Surrounded by 
 a hostile world, the Methodist people found sympathy 
 and inspiration in their own Societies. The class- 
 meeting, the band-meeting, the lovefeasts provided 
 the occasion for communion with each other, and, 
 where it was possible, they came to the Table of the 
 Lord and rejoiced as they celebrated the death by 
 which they lived. Gradually there sprang up in 
 England a Church that has become remarkable for its 
 unity. To this hour the comradeship of the Methodist 
 people excites the wonder of the Churches. In Christ 
 they form one family ; they are knit together in love. 
 This extraordinary unity manifests the fact that the 
 spirit of the best years of the Apostolic Church has 
 found expression in modern times. 
 
 The ' United Societies ' were a restored picture of 
 the Apostolic Church in the matters of doctrine, 
 experience, and fellowship. They also reproduced 
 those scenes of activity which are displayed in the New 
 Testament, and are revealed by the records of the 
 sub -Apostolic Church. The 'apostles,' 'prophets,' 'evan- 
 gelists,' and ' teachers ' reappeared, carrying with them 
 the gospel message, and hastening from place to place 
 to publish glad tidings of great joy. The wisdom of 
 Wesley was shown not only in his employment of 
 itinerant preachers, but also in the use he made of the
 
 318 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 men and women who, settled in their respective towns 
 and villages, cared for the classes, and sought the salva- 
 tion of their neighbours. That wisdom was even more 
 clearly manifested when he placed the responsibility 
 of Christian work upon every member of his Societies. 
 We have seen that Charles Wesley described the 
 Apostolic Church as 'a Church of pardoned sinners/ 
 but he amplified the description and said that it was 
 a Church of ' practical believers.' The phrase has been 
 altered in recent times to 'justified believers.' The 
 change is not an improvement. It misses one of the 
 outstanding features of the Apostolic Church. And 
 that feature came out again in the experiences of 
 the members of the ' United Societies.' We are accus- 
 tomed to speak of the Great Eevival as the work of 
 John Wesley and of the evangelists who shared his 
 toils. We have no wish to minimize the importance 
 of that work, but it is evident that, while an itinerant 
 evangelist may found a Church, he can never consoli- 
 date it. The ' practical believers ' in the towns which 
 have been awakened by the call to repentance have to 
 do that work. They did it in the eighteenth century. 
 When we read the local histories of Methodism, and 
 watch the building up of prosperous Societies, we are 
 reminded of Harnack's words, ' It was characteristic of 
 this religion that every one who seriously confessed the 
 faith proved of service to its propaganda.' l Having 
 received the light, they let it shine before men. They 
 1 Bee ante, p. 35.
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 319 
 
 trimmed the lamp and put it on the stand in their own 
 house, and they carried it also to the houses of their 
 neighbours. Everywhere its light shone before men. 
 As it was in the ancient days, so it was in the times 
 of the Great Revival. The success of the Church did 
 not depend so much upon its preachers as upon the 
 Christian character, the steady influence, and the loving 
 work of its members. 
 
 The Great Revival produced a new Church ; it also 
 did much to make England a new nation. Those who 
 have studied the problem of the social, moral, and 
 religious progress of the English people are agreed that, 
 in the eighteenth century, this country experienced 
 a renaissance. The change has been attributed to 
 various causes. Those who remember that ' the roots 
 of the present lie deep in the past' will take care 
 to note the connexion between the seventeenth and 
 the eighteenth century, and will not forget the rela- 
 tion between Methodism and Puritanism. We readily 
 consent to the statement of John Richard Green, that 
 Puritanism 
 
 wrought out through Wesley and the revival of the 
 eighteenth century the work of religious reform which 
 its earlier efforts had thrown back for a hundred years. 
 Slowly but steadily it introduced its own seriousness and 
 purity into English society, English literature, English 
 politics. The history of English progress since the 
 Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the 
 history of Puritanism. 1 
 
 1 Hiftory of the English People, vol. iii. p. 322.
 
 320 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 Some persons, adopting a more superficial theory, 
 see, in the renaissance of the eighteenth century, the 
 effects of a less remote cause, the French Revolution. 
 This suggestion is so interesting that it may well 
 detain us for a few moments. There can be no 
 doubt that the Revolution did much to dislocate and 
 overturn the social system of France. The people 
 who had been oppressed asserted their rights, emerged 
 from obscurity, attacked the 'upper classes' pike in 
 hand, and manifested their strength in the days of 
 terror. The watchwords, ' Liberty, Equality, and 
 Fraternity,' were flung into the air. They acquired 
 a new meaning, and shone with a light that spread 
 far beyond the borders of France. The earthquake 
 shocks of the Revolution were felt in England, and 
 stirred the nation from its slumbers. The mind of the 
 English people awoke to the need of political and 
 social reforms, and a general consent was given to the 
 truth of Burke's declaration 
 
 A state without the means of some change is without 
 the means of its conservation. Without such means ifc 
 might even risk the loss of that part of the constitution 
 which it wished the most religiously to preserve. 
 
 Attracted by the theory that the renaissance of 
 England was produced by the French Revolution, some 
 have pointed out that the influence of that great event 
 found expression in the literature of the period, and 
 that the poems and books that were then written
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 321 
 
 were filled with ideas that changed the spirit of 
 the age. Especially is it held that Wordsworth, and 
 those who sang with him in that great hour, revolu- 
 tionized English society. The theory attracts those 
 who have yielded to the fascination of the 'lake' 
 poets. At the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 the population was split up into fragments. There 
 was little, if any, sympathy between the upper and 
 the lower classes. We are told that Wordsworth dis- 
 covered the value of the individual, and that he 
 compelled men of all ranks to recognize the worth 
 and importance of the peasant and the poor. In 
 addition, it is asserted that he produced the renais- 
 sance by rousing the sense of wonder in the minds of 
 prosaic and practical English people. A light that 
 never was on land or sea shone round about them, 
 and they suddenly awoke to find themselves in a 
 mysterious and transcendently lovely world. We 
 eagerly acknowledge the value of Wordsworth's work. 
 In its own time and sphere it exercised a profound 
 influence; but we cannot attribute to him and his 
 fellow singers the renaissance of England. 
 
 It must be remembered that long before the French 
 Revolution convulsed the world, and long before 
 Wordsworth sang of the beauty of lowly life and 
 the wonder of the universe, John Wesley had 
 preached the doctrines which lead to the emancipa- 
 tion of the minds and the souls of men. He began 
 his evangelistic career fifty years before the critical 
 
 T
 
 322 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 dates of the French Revolution. The truths which 
 were vindicated by that upheaval of French society 
 had been taught, quietly and effectually, by the 
 preachers of the Revival. If Liberty, Equality, and 
 Fraternity are words that express the ideas that 
 revolutionize a nation, then their force had been felt 
 in England long before the men of the ' Terror ' wrote 
 them in letters of blood. John Wesley, as he wandered 
 over the country, instilled the truths concerning the 
 freedom, the equality, and the brotherhood of men into 
 the minds of the people. He taught that a man should 
 be free to do what he ought to do. He insisted that 
 ignorance and sin are the enslavers of the soul and the 
 spirit, and he struck vigorous and deadly blows at these 
 oppressors. By his pamphlets, his schools, and his care 
 for the children, he assailed the ignorance that blinded 
 the people. He made them think, and thinking is the 
 sworn foe of all kinds of tyranny. He made them 
 think broadly and deeply, not so much about their 
 own rights as about the rights of others. But he went 
 further. By his teaching concerning the forgiveness of 
 sins and the possibility of holiness, he created in the 
 minds of multitudes of Englishmen the true concep- 
 tion of liberty. Far above all social and political 
 freedom he placed the liberty that comes to the man 
 who flies to Christ for salvation. 
 
 Those who keenly watch the variations of English 
 thought in the eighteenth century are struck with the 
 progress of the idea of equality among all classes. It
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 323 
 
 has been said that, at a certain period of the century, 
 'all ranks of society recognized, or had a passionate 
 desire to recognize, the equality of every living being 
 before Almighty God,' and that ' this was largely due 
 to the preaching, the fervour, and the faith of the 
 Methodist preachers like Whitefield and Wesley.' 
 It is certain that something did, then, occur in the 
 eighteenth century which altered the estimate of men 
 concerning each other, and placed them on one platform 
 in the light of the divine justice and love. Searching 
 the age for an adequate cause of this change in the 
 method of assessing human values, we find it in the 
 Evangelical Eevival. The Duchess of Buckingham's 
 objection that it was monstrous to be told ' that you 
 have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that 
 crawl on the earth ' was natural, and was shared by 
 her contemporaries. But in process of time its 
 strength waned, and now we presume there is no one 
 who would venture to urge it. But the Duchess was 
 unnecessarily alarmed. The preachers of the Great 
 Ifevival never made the attempt to destroy social dis- 
 tinctions and to drag men down to one level. They 
 insisted that men were equally sinful, but they pointed 
 upward to the heights of moral and spiritual elevation, 
 and showed that the pathways to the summit are not 
 closed to any one because of his social condition, that 
 they may be travelled by every one who believes in 
 the Name of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The doctrine of the equal spiritual value of the
 
 324 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 individual is fatal to the evils which were so con- 
 spicuous in English society during the time of the 
 Great Revival. When accepted, it compels a nation 
 to face and to remove social and legislative injustice, 
 and all the conditions that produce misery among the 
 labouring classes and the poor. If our description of 
 the state of this country in the eighteenth century 
 is again read, it will be seen that the evils which 
 existed in those dreary days arose, in great part, from 
 the fact that men cared little about each other, and 
 were contemptuous of the common rights of man. 
 Gradually the indifference began to disappear. Among 
 the nobler spirits, who are ever the saviours of society, 
 it ceased. Then the doctrine that all men are equal 
 in the sight of God steadily advanced, and with it 
 there sprang up the light which still shines upon the 
 great questions that concern the social, moral, and 
 religious welfare of the English people. 
 
 It is not necessary to insist, at any length, upon 
 the notorious fact that the Great Kevival brought the 
 doctrine of the brotherhood of man into prominence. 
 It was constantly taught by the evangelists ; the ' United 
 Societies ' illustrated the fact that those who are the 
 sons of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, are brothers, 
 bound together in affection, and pledged to mutual 
 help. If the 'Rules of the Society' are studied, it 
 will be seen that they strikingly illustrate the principle 
 of fraternity. It will be enough to note one fact. 
 Wesley's mind was constantly exercised concerning
 
 in the Eighteenth Century 325 
 
 the condition of the poor. He relieved their suffer- 
 ings with a liberality which would now be condemned 
 by every political economist. But he did something 
 better than scattering alms among them. When times 
 were hard, and work was scarce, he was ingenious in 
 inventing methods for their employment. But it was 
 impossible for him to fight the poverty of the nation. 
 That battle is still being waged, and as yet there is 
 no sign of victory. Foiled in his attempts to deal 
 on a large scale with the poverty of the people, Wesley 
 resolved that he would systematize the relief of the 
 poor so far as the ' United Societies ' were concerned. 
 Following the example of the Apostolic Church, 
 stewards were appointed to consider and supply their 
 needs. Schools were built for their children, widows 
 and orphans found 'a harbour of refuge' in some of 
 the preaching-houses, and Wesley incessantly exhorted 
 his people to stand by each other in the fierce battle 
 of life. Through the influence of the Great Eevival 
 a new spirit of fraternity arose in England. It still 
 finds high expression in the Methodist Societies; 
 it has made them the exponents of the meaning of 
 brotherhood to the whole world. 
 
 We have, then, no hesitation in affirming our con- 
 viction that the Great Revival was the cause of the 
 renaissance of England in the eighteenth century. The 
 nation was born again, and born from above. Picturing 
 to ourselves that wonderful transformation, we do not 
 forget the human workers, but their figures fade as we
 
 326 The Revival of Religion in England 
 
 become conscious of the presence and power of the 
 Divine Agent who secured all their success. It was a 
 time of the pouring out of the Spirit from on high. 
 Wandering through the dusty deserts of those far-off 
 years, we often ask ourselves how they were made 
 to live. Here and there we see a few springs of living 
 water, but the winds blow, and the hot sands, shifting 
 restlessly, fill the air. It was not the coming of a man 
 that turned the wilderness into ' the garden of the 
 Lord.' It was the rising of a river that rolled out 
 from a hidden, celestial source. That river, bright as 
 crystal, proceeded out of the throne of God and the 
 Lamb. It flowed irresistibly from the deep fountains 
 of eternity, it filled this land, it spread into the waste 
 places of the earth. That is the secret of the coming 
 of the Great Revival. Discerning this fact, we lift up 
 our eyes to heaven with gratitude and hope. We are 
 thankful for the flooding out of the Spirit's influences 
 in the days of our fathers. But deep down in our 
 heart there lives a hope that in our own days those 
 influences will again refresh us. Let us not put aside 
 our study of the Great Revival with the thought that 
 it was an event which cannot be repeated. If, adopting 
 the methods suitable to our own age, we will preach 
 and work as Wesley did, our toil will be honoured by 
 the Holy Ghost. Once more the river will roll from 
 its heavenly fountains, and 'everything shall live 
 whithersoever the river coineth.'
 
 INDEX 
 
 Absolution, 13-16 
 
 Act of Uniformity, 117 
 
 Addison, 57, 76 
 
 Adherents of Methodist Churches, 
 274 
 
 Advice to the People called Metho- 
 dists, 304-8 
 
 Alleine, Joseph, 115 
 
 America, Revivals in, 135 
 
 Amusements, 75-86, 153, 306 
 
 Apostles in Early Church, 31, 
 21)2 
 
 Apostolic teaching, Revival of, 
 293 
 
 Arianism, 108, 119 
 
 Articles of Religion, 195 
 
 Bands, 233 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration, 17, 
 
 1546 
 
 Baptists, 120, 121 
 Buth, 232 
 
 Baxter, Richard, 115 
 Bear-baiting, 85 
 Benson, Dr., 152, 159 
 Birmingham, 47 
 Birstall, 245 
 
 Bishops in Early Church, 33 
 Blackheath, 238 
 Bohler, Peter, 183-8, 191 
 Book of Homilies, 196-8, 222 
 Bradbury, Thomas, 121 
 Bristol, 48, 159, 161, 202-18, 231, 
 
 252, 267 
 
 Buckingham, Duchess of, 275, 323 
 Bull-baiting, 85 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 70, 320 
 Butler, Dr., 207 
 
 Calamy's Ejected Ministert, 116 
 Carey, William, 274 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 97 
 Cartwright, Thomas, 114 
 Cennick, Jolm, 249-51 
 Character of clergy, 99, 291 
 Character of Methodists, 304-8 
 Charles II, 102, 103, 112, 117, 
 
 128 
 
 Christian Perfection, 298 
 Church and State, 37 
 Church, the Methodist, 309-19 
 Circulating Schools, 135, 240 
 Classes, 252, 270, 271 
 Cock-fighting, 83-5 
 Congregationalists, 120, 121, 284 
 Constantine, 37 
 Conversation Classes, 270 
 Conversion, 193, 194 
 Cornwall, 263-72 
 Crawshaw, Mr. E., 225 
 Criminals, 62 
 
 Dagge, Mr., 202 
 
 Dale, Dr. R. W., 283-7, 313 
 
 Davies, Howell, 148 
 
 Dawn of the Revival in England, 
 
 150-99 
 Dawn of the Revival in Wales, 
 
 132-49 
 Deacoui in Early Church, 33
 
 328 
 
 Index 
 
 Defoe, Daniel, 266 
 Deistic controversy, 97, 256 
 Directory, the, 115 
 Dissenters, 110, 163, 283-7, 313 
 Dobschiitz, Ernst vou, 26 
 Doddridge, Dr., 286 
 Drunkenness, 89-93 
 Dummer, 157 
 
 Edgeworth, Mi.-s, 80 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 135 
 Evangelical Party in Lhuroh of 
 
 England, 278-82 
 Executions, 64, 65 
 Experience, the testimony of, 
 
 183 
 
 Faith, saving, 178-81, 185-99 
 Farther Appeal to Men of Btaton 
 
 and Reliyion, 312 
 Fellowship, 254, 315 
 Fetter Lane Society, 183, 200, 
 
 210, 217, 237, 238, 244, 2.'3 
 Field-preachm-*, 204, 206, 208, 
 
 209, 210, 212-19, 224, 227-9, 
 
 232 
 
 Foster, Rev. H. J., 215, 218 
 Foundery, the, 242-4 
 Fox, Charles James, 81 
 Franklin, Dr., 62 
 French Revolution, 320 
 Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 72 
 
 Gaming, 81-3 
 
 Georgia, 158, 165, 177, 178, 
 
 241 
 
 Garrick, David, 75, 76, 79 
 Germany, Wesley's visit to, 191 
 Gift of the Spirit, 40-2, 326 
 Gifts of the Spirit, 39 
 Gladstone, Mr. W. E., 7, 282 
 Gloucester, 152, 159 
 Godly Club, the, 167-77 
 Green, John Richard, 319 
 
 Green, Rev. R., 1T,5 
 
 Greville, Mri., 160, 211, 216, 234 
 
 Harnack, Dr., 26, 28, 35 
 Harris, Howell, 139-47, 225, 2:!9 
 Harris, Sampson, 161 
 Hartshorne's Memnir* of a Iloyal 
 
 Chaplain, 106, 109 
 Hey wood, Oliver, 116 
 Hoadly, Bishop, 109 
 Hoadly, John, 109 
 Hogarth, William, S3, 92 
 Holiness, 187, 206-8 
 Homily of Juttification, 196-8 
 Hooker, Richard, 114 
 Horneck, Dr. Andrew, 125, 175 
 Howard, John, 70-2 
 Humphreys, Joseph, 251 
 Huntingdon, Countess of. '275, 277 
 Hutton, James, 182, 18:?, 190, 
 
 232 233 
 Hutton, John, 181, 184, 185 
 
 Imitation of Chri*t, Thomas a 
 
 Kempis's, 28, 298 
 Influence of MethodiHiu on 
 
 Church of England, 27G 
 Instantaneous conversion, 187, 
 
 193, 284 
 Islington Church, 225, 226 
 
 Jackson's Life of Charlfx Wcthy, 
 
 268 
 
 James II, 102, 104, 128, 275 
 Jeffrey, Lord, 80 
 Johnson, Dr. 8., 58, 67, 97, 203, 
 
 230, 311 
 Jones, Griffith, 135, 136. 232 
 
 Ken, Bishop, 103 
 
 Kenningtou Common, 228, 239, 
 
 242 
 
 Kinchin, Charles, 157 
 King and Church, the, 101
 
 Index 
 
 329 
 
 Kingslcy, Charles, 1 
 Kingawood, 201-6, 208, 214, 240, 
 .Ml, 249 
 
 Lancashire, 47 
 
 Latimer's Annalt of Britol, 63, 
 
 71,84 
 
 Law, William, 167-74 
 Lay Preachers, 249-51, 2G9, 292 
 Leaders, Class, 252 
 Lecky, W. E. H., 76, 89, 266 
 Liberty, equality, fraternity, 820 
 Live* of the Early Methoditt 
 
 Preachen, 293 
 London, population of, 46 
 Lord's Supper, the, 19 
 Luther, Martin, 299 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 45 
 Membership of the Methodist 
 
 Churches, 274 
 Methodism and the aristocracy, 
 
 '2.11 
 Methodism and the Church of 
 
 England, 132-4, 276, 310 
 Methodists, 168 
 Milton, John, 166, 167 
 Minerva Press, 79 
 Missionary Societies, 274 
 Mob, the English, 87, 257-63 
 Moorfields, 227-9, 239, 242 
 Moral condition of England, 74- 
 
 95 
 
 Moravians, the, 178, 200, 233 
 Morgan, William, 170 
 
 Neal's Hittory of the Puritant, 
 115 
 
 Nettleton Court, Religions So- 
 ciety in, 183, 190, 192 
 
 New Birth, the, 155, 182, 184 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 245-8, 253 
 
 Newman, John Henry, 28 
 
 Newspapers, 164 
 
 Newton, Bishop, 104, 105 
 
 Newton, John, 280 
 
 Nicknames, 168, 175 
 
 Nonconformists, 111 
 
 Non-jurors, the, 104 
 
 Novels, 79 
 
 Numerical results of Revival, 274 
 
 Oglethorpe, General, 68, 161 
 
 Opinions, 220 
 
 Orthodoxy, 220-3 
 
 Overton, Canon, 80, 99, 104, 132, 
 
 276, 281 
 
 Oxford, 150, 167-77. 185, 241 
 Oxford, Bishop of, 170 
 
 Pattison, Mark, 95 
 
 Peirce, James, 120, 122 
 
 Pitt, William, 82 
 
 Plumptre, Dean, 6 
 
 Politics and the Church, 99, 283 
 
 Population of England, 45, 4G 
 
 Portraits of John Wesley, 165 
 
 Poverty, 59-62, 325 
 
 Preaching-houses, 236, 242, 247, 
 
 248 
 
 Preferment-hunting, 103-10, 291 
 Presbyterians, the, 112, 114-23 
 Presbyters in Early Church, 33 
 Prisons, 68-72 
 Prize-fighting, 86 
 Prooeedingt of Wesley Hittorical 
 
 Society, 166, 218, 226, 267 
 Prophets in Early Church, 32, 
 
 292 
 
 Pugh, Philip, 137 
 Pyle, Dr. Edmund, 106 
 
 Reformation, the, 100 
 
 Relation of United Societies to 
 
 the Church of England, 132-4 
 Religion, 1-43 
 Religious condition of England, 
 
 96-123 
 Religious Societies, the, 124-31, 
 
 153, 162, 182, 183, 204, 232, 
 
 234, 236, 254, 259, 268, 269
 
 330 
 
 Index 
 
 Results of the Revival, some, 
 273-326 
 
 Revival in England, the, 200-72 
 
 Revival of religion, 42 
 
 Rigg, Dr., 133 
 
 Riots, 87 
 
 Roads, 50 
 
 Rogers, Professor, 46. 53, 61 
 
 Romaine, William, 280 
 
 Romilly, Sir Samuel. 63, 66 
 
 Romney's portrait of John Wes- 
 ley, 165 
 
 Rowe, Rev. Q. 8., 165 
 
 Rowlands, Daniel, 136, 137, 181 
 
 Rules of the Society, 253 
 
 Baiter's Hall Conference, 121 
 
 Savage, Richard, 202 
 
 Savannah, Wesley's Society in, 
 177 
 
 Saving faith, 178-81, 185-99 
 
 Scenes, 234-36, 239 
 
 Schaff, Dr., 34, 36 
 
 Schools, 210, 240, 241, 248 
 
 Scott, Sir W., 80 
 
 Selwyn, Lady, 152 
 
 Separation from Church, 112 
 
 Sermon of the Salvation of Man- 
 kind, 196-98, 222 
 
 Seward, William, 204, 225 
 
 Shopkeepers, 56 
 
 Sidney's Life of Walker, 264, 
 270 
 
 Sin, righteousness, and judge- 
 ment, 293-304 
 
 Skeats's History of tfo Fne 
 Churchet, 120, 121, 122 
 
 Smithies, Mr., 125 
 
 Smuggling, 94, 265 
 
 Social condition of England, 44- 
 73 
 
 Spangenberg, 179, 187 
 
 St. Andrew's, Holborn, 184 
 
 St. Ires, 267, 268 
 
 St. Margaret's, Westminster, 201, 
 202, 204 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, 189 
 
 Stage-coaches, 50 
 
 Stamp, Dr., 247 
 Stanley, Dean, 21 
 State and Church, 37 
 State lotteries, 81 
 Stephen, Sir Leslie, 97 
 Stonehouse, 161 
 Stonehouse, George, 225 
 Sydney's England and the Englith, 
 48, 50, 58, 59, 76, 79, 80, 266 
 
 Teachers in the Early Church, 
 
 33 292 
 Teaching of the Tioelve, the, 19, 
 
 25,31 
 
 Tennent, John, 135 
 Terrick, Dr., 281 
 Thackeray, W. M., 291 
 Theatres, 75-9 
 Travers, Walter, 1 14 
 Turner, Joseph, 2t!7 
 Tycrman's Life of Wetley, 231, 
 
 243 
 
 Unitarianism, 122 
 
 United Societies, the, 254, 309 
 
 Upper Classes, the, 57, 58 
 
 Villages, 51 
 
 Wages, 53-6 
 
 Walker, Samuel, 264, 269-72 
 
 Walker's 8u/ering$ of the Clergy, 
 
 116 
 
 Wapping, 239 
 Watts, Dr., 286 
 Wendeborn's View of England, 
 
 59, 77, 78, 87, 94 
 Wesley, Charles, 158, 170, 182, 
 
 185, 188, 220, 241, 246, 271, 302 
 Wesley, John, 37, 39, 79, 88, 114, 
 
 158, 165-95, 231-72, 277, 287- 
 
 92, 304-10, 312, :! 14 
 Wesley, Samuel, 171 
 Wesley, Samuel, junior, 182
 
 Index 
 
 Westley, John, 116 
 
 Whitefield, George, 144, 151-65, 
 
 200-17, 225-31, 238, 27f>, 277 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, 114 
 Wilbcrforce, William, 82 
 Williams'* portrait of Wesley, 
 
 165 
 
 Witness of the Spirit, 141, 187 
 Woodward's Account of the Seli- 
 
 yiout Societiet, 125-31 
 
 Wordsworth, William, 321 
 Wrecking, 265 
 
 Yorkshire, 47 
 Young, Arthur, 50, 54 
 Young, Dr., 291 
 
 Zinzeudorf, Count, 191
 
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