nightingale, '^-.
The heroic sge of Congre£.:r,tionsli3ra.
lond.onrid21"^

Bought with the income of the
Wilham C. Egleston Fund

THE HEROIC AGE
OF
CONGREGATIONALISM

REV. B. NIGHTINGALE, M.A.. Litt.D

^ THE HEROIC AGE
OF CONGREGATIONALISM

BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Lancashire Nonconformity
The Ejected, of 1662 in Cumberland
AND Westmorland
History of Independency in Tockholes
The Story of the Lancashire Congre
gational Union
The Sermon on the Mount in relation
to the present War
Conscience and the War
From the Great Awakening to the
Evangelical Revival
Fidelity to an Ideal
Congregationalism Re-examined
Isaac Ambrose, the Religious Mystic
Thomas Jollie of Altham and
Wymondhouses
Early Stages of the Quaker Movement
IN Lancashire ETC. etc.

THE HEROIC AGE
OF CONGREGATIONALISM

BY THE
REV. B. NIGHTINGALE, M.A., Litt.D.

LONDON :
CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES, INC.
MEMORIAL HALL, E.C.4

THIS LITTLE BOOK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO
EPHRAIM HINDLE, ESQ., J.P.
OF BLACKBURN
who, even after the lapse of long years, is still
gratefully remembered as an employer of
labour in the village of my birth, and with
whom it has been my great privilege to
be intimately associated for many
years in service, more particularly
in Lancashire, for the Con
gregationalism, which he loves
so well, and for which he
has done so much

PREFACE
The recent Centenary of the Church Aid and Home
Missionary Society is, in part, responsible for the
publication of this work. The approach of that in
teresting event led me to tum again to that period in
our religious history which, for many years, has had
considerable fascination for me ; and it seemed to me
that something along the line of what is here given
might be useful. The story is fuU of encouragement,
because it shows how the depressions of any particular
period are never such as to more than temporarily
prevent the progress of the Divine Kingdom. More
over, only good can issue from being brought face to
face with those devoted Itinerant preachers, to whom
the Christian ministry was always a venture of faith,
and who seemed prepared to risk everything in the
pursuit of their mission. I am not aware that any
previous attempt has been made to tell the story as
it is here given. A certain amount of space is, of course,
always devoted to it in reUgious histories ; but I have
long felt that it is so supremely important as to deserve
a place to itself, and the book is sent forth in the hope
that it win be helpful to all who are trying to win for
Christ, not England only, but also the world.
For the loan of a volume of the early Reports of the

6 CONGREGATIONALISM
Home Missionary Society, of which I have made con
siderable use, I gratefully acknowledge the kindness of
the Rev. J. E. Flower, M.A., who, after many years
of faithful service, has just retired from the Secretary
ship of the Church Aid and Home Missionary Society.
If amidst the changes which the new times are
bringing for Congregationalism, as for much else in
our national life, we can keep the old spirit of courageous
faith, unselfish service and sacrificial life, we may go
into the future assured of achievements greater and
more wonderful than anything the past has to show.
B. NIGHTINGALE

MiLTONA
Riley Avenue
St Annes-on-Sea May 1 92 1

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE NEW MISSIONARY SPIRIT .

PAGE

THE GREAT REVIVAL ..... 9
CHAPTER II

i6

CHAPTER III
ENGLAND FOR CHRIST  22
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS AND LESSONS  4^

INDEX  ^^

Chapter I
THE GREAT REVIVAL
The Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century
was one of the most remarkable movements that have
ever appeared in this country. The story has never
yet been adequately told ; certainly it has not been
sufficiently read and studied by Nonconformists, and
particularly by Congregationalists, who are so directly
concerned with it. Yet is it pre-eminently the story
for these days, when it is so easy to become pessimistic
in relation to religion, and when everywhere the under
lying ieeling would appear to be that Christianity has
reached its commonplace stage and nothing great,
daring, mighty may be expected from it. The fact,
however, made clear by the story is that any moment,
when the need arises, the power Divine may appear
in "signs and wonders," moral marvels and spiritual
miracles. The Evangelical Revival arrested the pro
cess of decay in religion, which for some time had
been developing so swiftly and threateningly, that it
seemed as if nothing could save it from dying com
pletely out of the land. Never before had religion
been at so low an ebb ; never has it been so since. It
is not possible to exaggerate the seeming hopelessness
of the situation ; and it was not merely one section of
the Christian Church or one locality that suffered ; the
spiritual paralysis was so general and so complete that
infidel writers openly boasted that the time had come

10 CONGREGATIONALISM
to dig the grave for the Christian faith. Voltaire,
who aU his life was in close touch with men and move
ments in this country, predicted that, before the close
of the century, Christianity and all its belongings would
be among the forgotten things of a past age. How
false and foolish these predictions were the Revival
soon made clear. With it came a mighty quickening
everywhere. The results which followed completely
baffle description ; the story reads like a thrilling
romance. "In many respects," writes one, "the
movement corresponds to the Quaker movement of
a century before. In the vastness of its sweep ; in
the audaciousness of its faith ; in the courage and
endurance of its promoters ; in the hostiUty which
it excited, not only among people outside the Churches
but stiU more among people within, and in the con
versions which it effected, it even more than paralleled
that earUer movement." On vUlage greens, from market
crosses, in churchyards, in open fields, on hiUsides,
in market squares, at race courses, at the comers of
streets, in places of worship when they could command
them, anjTwhere and everywhere the great Evangelists,
Whitefield and Wesley, preached a long lost Gospel
of redeeming love for a fallen world, with the most
marveUous effect. In his Popular History of the Free
Churches, Mr Silvester Home says that ' ' these revival
services were the scenes of an indescribable tumult
of emotions — the awful anguish of conscience-stricken
souls and the equaUy intense "rapture of faith in a
pardoning love. Men and women rocked to and fro
in agony of contrition and fear, and not seldom f eU
groaning to the ground overwhelmed with shame and
despair. Then the message of peace started new faith
and hope in their souls, and their ecstasy of joy was

THE GREAT REVIVAL ii
as frantic as the ecstasy of their sorrow had been.
Sometimes it is certain the weaker sort of men and
women were driven clean out of their senses with
alarm as the present and future condition of the soul
was depicted by the unsparing eloquence of the preacher.
Often the audiences that had come to scoff Ustened
to Whitefield or Wesley with white faces and un
controUable sobbings, whUe hardened hypocrites and
caUous men of the world cried out, ' What shaU I do
to be saved ? ' Those whose set purpose was to in
terrupt would begin with ' big sweUing words,' but
' immediately after, the hammer of the Word brake
the rocks in pieces.' " I have given that passage in
fuU because, I think, in these days of unemotional
reUgion, it wiU do us good to come face to face with
those strange happenings, in one of the mightiest
reUgious upheavals that this country has ever witnessed.
It is easy, of course, to be critical and to attempt to
dismiss all this by saying that it was simply
" emotionaUsm." But it cannot be so dismissed.
Even if it be admitted that the emotional entered
largely into it, what of it ? It was a real achieve
ment to make any impression at aU, and certainly
an impression so vast and tremendous, upon a cold,
stoUd, apathetic, Ufeless society, such as the England of
that day had become. But why depreciate emotion,
especiaUy in reUgion ? The truth is that religion with
out emotion is of Uttle value ; it lacks dynamic ; we
shall have to get back for it some of that warm,
passionate feeling, which is such a prominent element
in the story of every great religious revival, and
especiaUy in that of the Evangelical Revival, before
it wiU be the living, attractive, achieving power among
us that it was meant to be. The theology of the move-

12 CONGREGATIONALISM
ment, also, may excite the criticism of some ; but
again, why so ? It is not in the least necessary to
make it our theology in order to see in the movement
what is of unspeakable value. This habit of hurling
criticisms at the theology of the great religious leaders
of a past age, which some have so diUgently cultivated,
is reaUy so much waste time and energy, and reflects
mainly upon the critics themselves. For it shows an
entire lack of appreciation of the real position of things.
The correct attitude to assume towards them is not that
which seeks to discover what they f afled to become and
do in the light of our own age, but what they succeeded
in becoming, quite colossal in comparison with others
around them, and the magnificence of their achieve
ments with their equipment and for their time. If
we believe in the great word of John Robinson, that
" the Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth
from His Holy Word," theologicaUy, as in other
respects, it would be strange if we were stUl standing
where Calvin and Luther, Baxter and MUton, Wesley
and Whitefield did. These must be judged by their
day ; and, if we are to take as evidence the character
and life which their theology produced, it was good
for their day, that for which indeed it called. Certainly
in relation to the Evangelical Revival it was so. The
awfulness of sin ; the sovereignty and power of God ;
and the certainty of punishment for sin were the things
upon which those great preachers everywhere insisted ;
and they were the things which were required to shake
a duU, sluggish, dead age into repentance and prayer,
seriousness and life.
The years which foUowed the Revival may be caUed
the afterglow ; and, in many respects, this was even
more wonderful than the Revival itself. Few move-

THE GREAT REVIVAL 13
ments have borne frait so rich and plentiful, and, in
aU sorts of ways, we are stiU gathering and enjo5dng
it, though often ignorant of the tree on which it has
grown. The revived reUgious spirit made itself felt
in every department of the national life. This is,
of course, always the case. ReUgion cannot be kept
in a watertight compartment ; it affects the whole
man into whom it enters, maldng him a new man ; it
touches the whole nation that has faUen under its
influence, making it a new nation ; and never was
this seen to be more so than then. It is beyond
aU question that it was the EvangeUcal Revival
which saved this country from the horrors of the
French Revolution. Our national characteristics may
be different from those of the French ; it may be that
we are less impulsive, more even tempered, more
difficult to excite and move ; that the habit of seeldng
our poUtical changes in quiet, constitutional ways has
so long been with us that it- is difficult, indeed almost
impossible, to break it ; but that is not sufficient to
account for the fact that during those fateful years,
when the imperial throne of France was roUed in the
dust and its occupant was guiUotined, when the streets
of Paris ran with blood and the worst passions of human
nature went unchecked in their career of lust and
murder, this country enjoyed comparative calm. For
it needs to be remembered that the doctrines, which
bore such terrible fruit in France, were not strange to
this country ; on the contrary, it has been stated on
high authority that they were "the product to a very
considerable extent of English ideas, borrowed by
Uterary men like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu\"
It was the return of England to the things of reUgion
which was its salvation in those perilous days.

14 CONGREGATIONALISM
Literature, also, was greatly influenced by the change,
poetry, in particular, becoming more warm, living, and
real. It would, indeed, be quite easy to show that
social reform, commercial enterprise, colonial expansion,
and general national progress felt the throb of a new
life through the revival of religion in the nation.
But it was in the domain of religion itself that the
richest fruit appeared. There was, for example, a
disposition among the various religious bodies to seek
feUowship with each other to a far greater degree than
they had previously been known to do. The rigid
denominational barriers, for which a dominant Church
was largely responsible, showed some tendency to
crumble away ; and Anglican and Nonconformist
ministers fraternized in a quite new and delightful way.
The late Mr SUvester Home, who was accustomed to
make much of this point, both in his speeches and
writings, used to say that the Reunion of Christendom
was then almost in sight. Perhaps that statement was a
Uttle too sweeping, more rhetorical than exact ; but the
happy relations existing between many of the Clergy and
Nonconformist ministers speciaUy impress the student
of those days. It was not that Congregationalism had
ceased to care for its great distinctive principles. Dr
Dale is, I think, at fault in the over emphasis which
he puts upon the spread of, what he caUs, the " un
denominational spirit" in consequence of the Revival.
What happened was not so much a weakening of attach
ment to the denominational spirit and position, on the
part of Congregationalists, as a fuUer recognition of
that larger truth, that aU Christian people are one in
Christ, and a consequent eagerness to co-operate,
wherever possible, in furthering the common interests
of the Kingdom of God.

THE GREAT REVIVAL 15
It is, however, the birth of a New Missionary Spirit
of marveUous daring and power that is one of the main
things, which Eirrests attention on reading the story of
those days^ and to the consideration of this the next
chapter wiU be devoted.

Chapter II
THE NEW MISSIONARY SPIRIT
Never, since the days of the Apostles, had so real and
serious an attempt been made to carry out the last com
mand of the Lord to His disciples, "Go ye into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature," as
that which marked the closing years of the eighteenth
century and the opening years of the nineteenth. Not
that missionary enterprise was then a new thing. It
is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Christianity
that, when it is able to be its true self, it is aggressive
and missionary. Inevitably so, because it is the one
religion which claims the right to the faith, obedience
and love of the whole human world. Hence, at various
times, there have been efforts, on a more or less large
scale, by different sections of the Church to extend
the Christian faith, in the form perhaps which the
Church so labouring represented. The story of the
preaching Friars of Wycliffe's day and the Jesuit
missionaries of later times makes extremely interesting
reading, showing, as it does, what men are prepared
to do and suffer for the faith that is in them. Nor
can one forget how John EUot went among the wUd
Indians of America, and so won their confidence and
affection that his name is stiU treasured by such frag
ments of that ancient race as yet remain ; nor how
Hans Egede, the Apostle of Greenland, made his home
in that land of eternal snow and ice, in order to bring
16

THE NEW MISSIONARY SPIRIT 17
the Gospel to the lonely and benighted people there.
The history, also, of Moravian Missions is one of the
finest chapters in the story of missionary enterprise.
To extend the Kingdom of Christ was part, too, of the
scheme of the PUgrim Fathers, when they left these
shores for the new world across the Atlantic. "A
great hope, and indeed zeal, they had," says one, " of
lajdng some good foundation, or, at least, to make
some way thereunto for the propagating and advancing
the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote
parts of the earth, yea, though they should be but as
stepping stones unto others for performing of so great
a work." In CromweU's conception of " a Christian
State and its functions " a " grand campaign of Foreign
Missions" had an important place; and, though he
had little or no opportunity to carry out his scheme
in relation to Foreign Missions, much was done by
Itinerant preachers to reach the heathen at home. It
is, however, in the period named, that we get the great
missionary age of the Christian Church. As never
before in its history, the burden of the heathen world
seems to have been laid upon the conscience and heart
of the newly awakened Christian Church ; and, in aU
sorts of ways, the New Missionary Spirit sought ex
pression and endeavoured to carry out what it believed
to be the wiU of the Divine Lord in the matter. AU,
or nearly aU, the great Missionary Societies then came
into being. The Baptists led the way in 1792 ; the
London Missionary Society foUowed in 1795 ; the
Church Missionary Society came next in 1799 ; and the
Wesleyans, who had been at work for nearly thirty
years in a somewhat irregular way, founded their
Society in 1813. The ReUgious Tract Society began
its career in 1799 and the Bible Society in 1804. These
B

1 8 CONGREGATIONALISM
two organizations are stiU among the most vigorous
and useful agencies in religious circles, and they are
to-day, as they have been from the hour of their birth,
largely auxUiary missionary societies ; it is to them
that the various Missionary Societies look for some of
the literature which their work requires.
This was the birth period also of many of the more
important County Associations and County Unions in
CongregationaUsm. The eighteenth century was pre
eminently individualistic, and religion felt the influence
of this, as did ever37thing else. CongregationaUsm was
Independency, and often of a very rigid t37pe ; but it
began to be borne in upon its leaders that something
in the way of union was needed if it was to be effective.
To repeat what is stated in the previous chapter, there
was no disposition to sacrifice the distinctive prin
ciple of Congregationalism, the right of each Church to
govern itself under the guidance and leadership of
Christ ; the principle which is its glory, which has
been its power, and which surrendered and sacrificed
Congregationalism will lose its right to be ; but, whUe
sacredly conserving this, it was felt that there should
be a coming together of the various Churches in a
county, or some other specific area, and a uniting
of their forces for common service. So there came
into being many of the Unions and Associations which
remain untU this day. The Bedfordshire Union was
formed in 1797 ; Berks, South Oxon and South Bucks
in 1798 ; North Bucks and North Oxon in 1818 ;
Cheshire in 1806 ; CornwaU in 1802 ; Derbyshire in
1815 ; East Devon in 1817 ; North Devon in 1785 ;
South Devon in 1786 ; West Dorset in 1795 ; Durham
and Northumberland in 1822 ; Essex in 1798 ; Glou
cester in 1811 ; Hampshire in 1781 ; Herts in 1810 ;

THE NEW MISSIONARY SPIRIT 19
Kent in 1791 ; Lancashire in 1806 ; Norfolk in 1814 ;
Northamptonshire in 1812 ; Shropshire in 1796 ;
Somerset in 1796 ; WUts and East Somerset in 1797.
Some others are given in the Congregational Year Book
as reformed at a comparatively late date, which origin
aUy may have belonged to the period in question.
Perhaps nothing witnesses more distinctly to the pre
sence and power of the New Missionary Spirit, which
had taken possession of awakened English Christianity
than the birth of the Home Missionary Society in 1819,
which, as the Church Aid and Home Missionary Society,
is stiU pursuing its useful work. More wiU be said about
this later ; and perhaps sufficient has been advanced
to show how tremendously aUve and active this new
spirit was.
It has already been pointed out that this New Mis
sionary Spirit was one of the fruits of the EvangeUcal
Revival. It is said by some that it was the circulation
of the story of Captain Cook's voyages which gave rise
to missionary enterprise ; that the reading of that story
by WflUam Carey, the Northamptonshire cobbler, fired
his soul to the work. I camiot help thinking that that
is an unfortunate way of putting the matter. There
are those who say that the men of the Mayflower, in
their great venture of three centuries ago, were simply
under the influence of that restless spirit, wliich is
more or less a feature of the EngUsh character, and
which had been aroused and sharpened by the reports
of rich new worlds across the seas discovered by
daring Elizabethan sailors ; but that is to misread the
situation completely. Far more weighty and sacred
were the powers which were at work within them.
" O 'twas no earth bom passion
That bade the adventurers stray."

20 CONGREGATIONALISM
We. have already seen that in part, at least, their
aim and purpose were missionary. Along with this
was that undying passion for religious freedom, which
is one of the deepest things in man, under whose influ
ence the mightiest achievements have been won, in
whose presence fire, dungeon, sword, death are powerless,
and which, in the final grapple with t57ranny, always
wins. So in this other case. Whatever interest in par
ticular peoples and places the reading of the wonderful
story of Cook's voyages may have excited, that does
not in the least explain why the Christian Church of
all sections was so mightily moved and so ready to
sacrifice in order to enlighten the world's darkness with
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the work of the
Divine Spirit, in a quite new and powerful way, bringing
home to the conscience of the Church the supreme
and pressing need of the heathen world. Mr SUvester
Home, in his Story of the L.M.S., puts the matter in
truer way when he says: "The passionately Evangel
istic spirit of Whitefield communicated itself to very
many of those Churches, which were debtors to his
spiritual power and religious teaching. A conscience
was created among the various Christian communities
which were speciaUy brought under the influence of
Whitefield and his associates as to the necessity of seek
ing to save those who were lost in sin and misery at
home. This spirit of Evangelism produced as its in
evitable fruit a sense of the larger responsibUity of the
Christian Church." And what speciaUy strikes one, in
relation to first missionary effort, is its splendid audacity.
Like early Christianity, which sought not easy positions
for attack, but the great centres, where heathendom was
most strongly entrenched, as Rome and Corinth, Athens
and Ephesus, the places to which the first agents of the

THE NEW MISSIONARY SPIRIT 21
London Missionary Society went were the distant islands
of the South Seas, whose inhabitants were utterly be
nighted and savage, where ' ' a long period of trial,
persecution, suffering and even martyrdom awaited
them," and which could only be reached after months
of exposure to perUs untold on seas but little known and
infested by French privateers. And as one reads of the
marvellous triumphs of this New Missionary Spirit, both
at home and in foreign fields, it is impossible to resist
the feeling that had the Great Revival of the eighteenth
century issued in nothing else, the world's debt to it
would still be incalculable.

Chapter III
ENGLAND FOR CHRIST
In the previous chapter, the work of the New Missionary
Spirit, so far as it was considered, was mainly concerned
with foreign fields ; but the story of its work among
the heathen at home is little less wonderful. From this
point of view, the first two decades of the nineteenth
century are among the most remarkable in the history
of English Christianity. Never before had so serious
an effort been made to win England for Christ. Doubt
less other Free Churches can tell an almost equally in
teresting story of worthy endeavour to bring the people
of this country within reach of the Gospel, but my
concern, in these pages, is with Congregationalism.
Those twenty years, in particular, ought to be diUgently
studied by every Congregationalist, and especiaUy so
by every minister and student in our coUeges. They
are rich in the finest possible romance : quite fittingly
may they be called the ' ' Heroic Age of Congregational
ism." There is no suggestion in this of any desire to
deprive the Great Ejection of 1662 of any of its glory.
That period, when men went uncomplainingly into the
wUdemess of suffering and loss for great religious prin
ciples, wiU forever remain unique in religious history ;
but, in a somewhat different way, the men who sought
to win England from its heathen darkness, and plant
Congregationalism in almost every little viUage in the
land a hundred years ago, give evidence of a courage, a

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 23
faith, a readiness to endure suffering and loss, which place
them high among the religious heroes of the world.
Reference has already been made to the birth of the
various County Unions and Associations during that
time, the reason for this being the benighted condition
of England, rural England in particular, which by co
operative effort it was hoped to change. In like manner
with the Home Missionary Society, which, as previously
stated, came into being in 1819. It owed its origin to
"the piety and zeal" of Mr Thomas Thompson, "a
man of marked abiUty, a great lover of children, a
Christian phUanthrophist of the widest sympathies."
The story has been briefly but interestingly told in a
smaU tractate issued in connection with its Centenary by
the Rev. J. E. Flower, M.A., untU recently the honoured
Secretary of the Church Aid and Home Missionary
Society. Mr Thompson, who was his father's assistant
on the Stock Exchange and in the Bank of England,
is said to have devoted his evenings to study and
benevolent works. It was when visiting Gloucester
shire, Kent and Surrey, that he was " deeply moved
by evidences of ignorance, vice and irreligion among
the people " ; and besides organizing Sunday Schools,
Cottage Meetings, Missions for SaUors and Fishermen,
and other reUgious agencies, he engaged missionaries
himself in several districts, endeavouring to excite
interest in others by offering a prize of £20 " for the
best method of introducing the Gospel into country
viUages." This was really preparatory to the founding
of the Home Missionary Society at the London Tavern
on nth August, 1819. Mr Thompson was appointed
Treasurer of the new Society ; and he held the office
for forty six years. It is curious how even an institution
like this, so obviously Christian and worthy, should, in

24 CONGREGATIONALISM
the first instance, have met with opposition. Dr
Waddington in his History says that " many objections
were raised to its formation, too feeble and ridiculous
for the most part to enumerate " ; and, according to
Bennett in his History of Dissenters, its title, at the
outset, gave offence, on the ground that it " treated
as heathen a nation, that in name, at any rate, was
Christian." "But," says Dr Dale, "the Society had
no difficulty in proving that large districts of the
kingdom lay wholly outside the range of ordinary
religious organizations ; that if the Gospel was to reach
them at aU it could not be through the ordinary channels ;
and that they needed a special agency to deUver them
from a condition that was one of practical paganism."
Take, for example, the West Lancashire coast. The
transformation effected there during the last century
has been perfectly marveUous. To-day there are long
terraces of palatial houses, detached or semi-detached
viUas, with aU kinds of poetical names, hning the coast.
Every day great streams of merchant princes may be
seen pouring forth from Blackpool, St Annes, Fair-
haven, Lytham, Southport, Birkdale and Ainsdale for
Manchester, Liverpool and other great centres of in
dustry ; and at night crowded trains, speciaUy ar
ranged for their convenience and comfort, carry them
back to their homes. The tendency for some years has
been for the wealth and social influence of the county
to migrate thither. But eighty or a hundred years ago
most of the names just given wiU be sought in vain on
any map ; for the places scarcely, if at aU, existed. In
their stead were long stretches of sandhUls and rabbit
warrens, sUent and sohtary almost as a desert. Cut off
from the Une of life the people, who occupied the little
viUages and hamlets inland, were poor, ignorant and

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 25
superstitous to an appalUng degree. The Rev. George
Greatbatch, writing of his early experiences there, says :
' ' I Uttle thought there was a station at home which so
much resembled the ideas I had formed of an un-
civUized heathen land. I recalled the awkward gaze
wherewith the people looked upon me and the painful
feelings of my heart when I retired to a Uttle hovel
from among them. Poor creatures ! Such was their
ignorance and general behaviour that for a long time my
heart saiik within me when I must leave my famUy at
Newburgh to preach among them. The thought of
Uving among them would at that time have overwhelmed
me." In the Life of the Rev. Wm. Alexander, who
succeeded Mr Greatbatch at Churchtown, and who
worked side by side with him in that district, is a very
vivid picture of the deep darkness, which brooded over
the place. Referring to the early years of the century,
the writer says : " There is no reason to beUeve that
the Gospel was at that time preached in any part of this
immense district, so that the people within it were
perishing for lack of knowledge. When Mr Greatbatch
began his itinerant ministry among them, most of the
people were unable to read ; very few of them possessed
a Bible ; and miUtitudes devoted the Sabbath day to
the practice of aU iniquity. In North Meols [the present
Southport] staUs for the sale of cakes, toys, and other
articles, and for purposes of gambling, were erected every
Sunday on the way to Church. After the service, the
beUman stood on a gravestone, and gave notice of the
business to be transacted during the week ; and the
clergyman spent the evening of that holy day with his
jovial companions in the alehouse. Mr Greatbatch
having urged the people to read the Bible, an effort was
made to find one in some of the houses ; but for some

26 CONGREGATIONALISM
time unsuccessfuUy. The churchwarden, it is said, had
one ; but when his famUy were asked the question they
stared with aU the astonishment of ignorance and said
' they had noan such a thing ' ! At length, however, a
copy of the New Testament was found at the bottom of
a chest in a farmer's house, and the man, who was able
to read, opened it towards the middle of one of the
Evangelists. After he had read aloud for some time
of the treatment which Christ received from the Scribes
and Pharisees, one of the party who was listening said
within himself, ' They'U kiU that feUow before they have
done with him ' ; and then asked the reader how long
it would be before they would hear of ' th' mon being
kUt.' He took hold of about half the leaves of the book,
and replied, ' he should have to read haply aU that
before they came to the part which told about his being
kUt.' As the history was deemed to be too long to be
continued then, the book was closed. The man who
asked the question was afterwards converted under
Mr Greatbatch' s ministry, and continued a consistent
member of the Church for more than forty years.
In that same parish, when Mr Hone5rwood and Mr
Hacking, the first Itinerants, had preached a few times,
one of the people said to his neighbours, ' You may
think what you like but I think they are highwaymen,
for every time they have come to preach there has been
a storm of wind.' "
Nor was it much better in other parts of Lancashire.
The Fylde, for example, is described as " the most dark
and most miserable part of the county," " awfuUy
obscured with the mists of popish ignorance, error and
superstition" ; in Oldham the difficulties were so serious
that it took thirty years of continuous effort for the pre
sent Queen Street Church to become firmly established ;

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 27
Burnley is said to be " a Ucentious place" with many
" profligate characters" ; the Colne and Barrowford area
is referred to as " most destitute and barren." In the
Prescot district, near Liverpool, it is said that " much
sensuaUty, as weU as intemperance prevaUed among the
working classes, and the language of young women, even
in the pubUc streets, was in the highest degree disgusting
and poUuting. The vulgar and cruel sport of cock-fighting
was, if possible, exceeded by that of buU-baiting ; which
was to the multitude a most attractive and exciting
amusement ; and the more fierce and terrible the antag
onism between the infuriated buU and the mercUess dogs,
the louder became the shout of savage joy from the men
and women that mingled in the crowd. On the first
Monday and Tuesday in Easter, these buU-baiters and
cock-fighters, with their wives and daughters, became
' Ufters,' a profane and popish custom, originally
practised in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ,
Parties, containing from four to eight persons in each,
paraded the streets ; and every one, who was thought
suitable for the purpose, was seized by the feet and arms,
and then tossed up horizontaUy, as high as the Ufters
could, and never less than three times. They were
caught in coining down, amidst the shouts and laughter
of the spectators, some of whom ought to have known
better. On the Monday the men Ufted the women, and
on the Tuesday the women retumed the compliment
by as lustUy Ufting the men. To this rude and profane
treatment, everyone who was caught was compeUed to
submit, unless he exempted himself by the payment of
a fine, which some would not and others could not do."
Much more of this sort of thing might easUy be given
from the Uterature of the time, and Lancashire was not
exceptional in this matter. The early Reports of the

28 CONGREGATIONALISM
Home Missionary Society cast a lurid light upon the
benighted condition of the country in those opening
years of the nineteenth century. After a visit to
Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and parts of
Lancashire, a certain minister writes : " The state of
many, very many viUages and several towns is truly
affecting ; they have no man that cares for their souls,
and are consequently perishing in their sins, being
ignorant of the only way of salvation. Darkness covers
this part of England, and gross darkness the people."
Another referring to Northumberland alone, says :
' ' The more internal parts are awfully destitute ; and
the people are living in the greatest darkness "and
wickedness. In most of the places I have mentioned
the people spend their Sabbath in gambling and drunken
ness." A Yorkshire minister's statement of the con
dition of his county is to the effect that it is " most
distressing, affording on all sides facUities for greatly
increased exertion, but everywhere without means of
supporting the Gospel." A North Devonshire minister's
testimony reads thus : "To see thousands around us
perishing for the lack of knowledge without having the
means of assisting them is truly painful ; the places
are dark and stand in great need of spiritual instruction."
Another in South Devon " draws a most affecting
picture of the state of many of the viUages, some of
which are even without Bibles." The Rev. Timothy
East of Birmingham, in a published sermon, says :
" The county of Worcester, which contains 152 parishes,
and, according to the census in 1811, 160,546 inhabitants,
has been termed the Garden of England, but in a moral
light, it may be regarded as a waste howling wilderness."
In support of this another writes : " This part of the
island, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, is, I beUeve,

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 29
one of the darkest districts that you wUl meet with. In
Worcestershire we have no Itinerant. There are ten
Baptist Churches, and four Independent, who occupy the
towns, and there are two or three of Lady Huntingdon's
Chapels, but the viUages are neglected." In reference
to Warwickshire it is said that out of thirty viUages
visited " only five have the Gospel regularly and one
occasionaUy. The population of these places taken
together wiU be found to exceed 11,000, not more than
1000 of whom have the sound of the Gospel from any
denomination of ministers." The number of " destitute
viUages of a simUar population " in the county, it is
said, might be doubled. We read that "in Staffordshire,
with a population of about 300,000, half are distributed
over the whole space of the county in small viUages
and hamlets, the greater part of whom are in a state
to excite our commiseration. They sit in darkness and
the gloomy shades of overspreading death. In the
extreme northern part, a large space on the Shropshire
side of the county, and especially a large district
scattered in the neighbourhood of Lichfield, is in the
most pitable state." Oxfordshire is said to "present
but a dreary desert. Large viUages and even towns
within its boundaries and on its borders are deplorably
ignorant of the way of salvation ; it is a moral wUdemess
of awful dimensions, extending from vUlage to vUlage
in large numbers." Conceming several vUlages in
Berks, one writes : " No one unacquainted with simUar
scenes can form an adequate idea of the extreme ignor
ance of the inhabitants of these viUages. Not only
these viUages but a number of others near us are
siimlarly situated ; in one of them the viUagers are in
a state of complete mental darkness."
SimUarly with other counties. Somerset, WUtshire,

30 CONGREGATIONALISM
Dorset, CornwaU, Cheshire, Norfolk and many other
places appear in the Reports ; and aU are said to present
immense areas in an absolutely neglected condition
religiously, with the result that ignorance, superstition,
intemperance, and crime were powerfuUy present. It
has already been stated that, when the Home Missionary
Society was founded, one objection in certain quarters
was to the name, because it carried with it the suggestion
that England was stUl heathen ; and no one can lift
the veU from the England of that day, without realiz
ing how weU founded the suggestion was, and how
tremendously pressing and great was the need for some
such missionary agency as the Society was intended to
provide. This, then, was the England which faced Congrega
tionaUsm a century ago, and which it set itself to win
for Christ ; and the men who were sent to this task
by the Home Missionary Society, by County Union and
County Association, by Itinerant Societies of various
types and names, and by individual Churches and even
private persons, went to it with a faith, a courage, a
joy, and an enthusiasm positively marveUous. Their
letters, reports and biographies furnish as real and
thrilUng a piece of adventure and romance as can be
met with anywhere. Apart from the spiritual destitu
tion of the country, it was a time of almost over
whelming difficulty for such work. For several years
the world was occupied, this country in particular, with
the endeavour to break Napoleon's attempt to win
world power ; and the other part of the period was the
aftermath of the war, often, as we are now proving,
as difficult and perilous as the war itself. It is indeed
interesting to note that the story of that time corre
sponds almost exactly with our own ; history does

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 31
repeat itself. One writes of it as foUows : " After the
great struggle was over, and peace had been perman
ently restored, there was leisure to count the cost and
to make an estimate of the position. The pecuniary
sacrifices exacted had been enormous. From two
hundred millions, the National Debt, in spite of the vast
amounts raised by taxation, had advanced to above
eight hundred miUions, involving a yearly outlay of
above thirty mUlions for interest to pubUc creditors
alone. Trade was in a depressed state ; the manu
facturers were overstocked, and the foreign markets to
a large -extent closed against England by prohibitive
tariffs. The great numbers of men thrown out of
employment by that discontinuance of the war, and
unable to obtain work, were further exasperated by the
high price of bread, which had been produced they
declared by the prohibition on foreign com, in the
interests of the great landlords, who thus throve amid
the general distress. The ignorant and suffering men
attributing their misfortunes to the substitution of
machinery for hand labour, attacked the manufactories
and Luddite Riots were again rife." Yet this was the
time chosen for that great enterprise, the pressure of
the need refusing to wait for "a more convenient
season." With that magnificent audacity, which
characterized early Christianity and Foreign Missionary
enterprise, the worst, most difficult, and most benighted
places also were often selected as the first centres of
operation. The Itinerants had all kinds of dangers to
face; they traveUed roads which were almost im
passable, and in dark nights especiaUy were exceedingly
perilous and lonely ; they crossed rivers swooUen by
rains ; faced ignorance made dangerous by supersti
tion ; were roughly handled by fanatical and angry

32 CONGREGATIONALISM
mobs ; and frequently stood in real jeopardy of Ufe.
We read of one who met with " a degree of persecution
that would disgrace the character of a savage," and
who was obliged to seek " legal protection against his
ferocious enemies, from whose fury he has at times been
almost miraculously preserved." In another case the
windows of the house where he preached were broken,
his bridle and saddle cut to pieces, and he himself was
feUed to the ground by a blow which disabled him from
walking and for a whUe threatened his life. Another
had his premises set on fire and the chief part of his
property consumed. Respecting another we read : " On
many a wUd night he and his pony had to struggle
with the tempest and only reached home at midnight,
drenched with rain and benumbed with cold." In
relation to yet another it is said that " Persecution
was common, and sometimes his life was seriously
endangered by the bitterness and malice of his op
ponents " ; whUst he himself writes : " Dark nights and
bad roads make my journeys home unpleasant, but
whUe the people are wUling to attend I hope I shaU
find pleasure in spending my legs and my lungs in the
service of their precious souls." This sort of thing
might be multiplied to almost any extent and it relates
to the whole of the country. The Itinerants covered
immense areas. In Lancashire, for example, we read
of one taking into his sphere of operations, Newton-
le-WUlows, Hindley, Ashton - in - Makerfield, Thatto
Heath, Tarbuck, Haydock, and Leigh. The Itinerary
of another took in Edge Green, Westhoughton, Chowbent,
Lowton, Hurst MiU, and Astley Green. Another had
Caton, Hornby, Wray, Warton, Burton, Milnthorpe,
LowgiU, Bentham, and Arkholme. One had Southport,
Blowick, Crossens, Ormskirk, Bickerstaffe, Rufford,

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 33
Bretherton, Leyland and Eccleston ; and yet another
Emmott Lane, Mosshouses, Barrowford, Fence, Rough
Lee, Lower Colne, Twiston, Newby and GiU. In
Cumberland, Mr Gouge of Aspatria, is said to have
succeeded in introducing the Gospel into nine viUages ;
in . Westmorland Mr Selbie is given as having twelve
preaching places, one of which was the county tovm.
Cheshire had one station with seven preaching places ;
Devonshire two stations, one with thirteen preaching
places and the other with seven ; Durham had three
stations, one with five preaching places, another with
twelve and the third with ten ; Norfolk had two, one
with eleven preaching places and the other with five ;
Somerset had two, one with nine preaching places and
the other with seven ; Staffordshire had two, one with
ten preaching places and the other with seven ; Sussex
had two, one with nine preaching places and the other
with four ; Wiltshire had two, one with thirteen preach
ing places and the other with fifteen ; Worcestershire
had one with seven preaching places ; Yorkshire one
with eighteen preaching places ; Bucks one with four
preaching places ; Hereford one with eight preaching
places ; Lincolnshire one with four preaching places';
Oxfordshire one with five preaching places ; Rutland
shire one with seven preaching places ; and Warvnckshire
one with five preaching places. In the pursuit of their
mission they were frequently away from home days
together. In a letter, dated 24th November, 1829, Mr
Alexander humorously refers to these Itineraries in the
foUowing terms : " Two years ago I took up the trade
of a travelling Scotchman (you know there are many in
this country). About once a month I take a tour of
about thirty miles and sometimes forty. I go from
house to house, read, pray, and converse with the
c

34 CONGREGATIONALISM
famUies and give or rather lend them tracts. This
occupies three or four days. I preach in the evenings
and sometimes in the afternoons also." He frequently
journeyed to Liverpool, some twenty mUes from his
station, and generaUy went on foot, usuaUy halting on
the way at two or three viUages, where he would hire
a cottage at a small charge for the purpose of preaching
to the people. These services he called his " restings."
The cottage, the barn, the viUage green, the open field
were their preaching places. Simple, unlettered men
who had never been inside a college, and whose English
was not always faultless, many of them were. Others
were the product of the little academies, which were
quite a feature of eighteenth and early nineteenth
century Congregationalism. Such were J ames McQuhae's
of Blackburn, and WiUiam Roby's of Manchester,
which prepared the way for the Blackburn Academy,
eventuaUy to become the Lancashire CoUege ; WiUiam
Vint's of Idle and James Scott's of Heckmondwike, now
represented by the Yorkshire United CoUege ; Newport
PagneU, with Mr BuU as tutor ; Western, and previously
Axminster, with a dozen others in various parts of the
country. What these institutions did, through the men
they trained and sent forth full of Evangelistic zeal, to
help the Evangelical Revival and give modem Congre
gationalism its present position, it is not possible to say.
Trained and untrained alike, those simple Itinerant
preachers went to their task with an enthusiasm that
compeUed success. Their salaries were smaU, never
more than £80 a year, often not half that amount, and
frequently they had considerable families to rear upon
it. Some of the names of these true Christian heroes
have fortunately been preserved.
William Alexander, for example, has already been

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 35
mentioned several times. When quite young he came
to Lancaster from Stoneykirk, in Wigtownshire,
Scotland, was a member of the High Street Con
gregational Church, and whUst there began to preach
in the viUages Is^ing around the town. He was
fixed for a time at Prescot and then at Leigh, subse
quently labouring at Churchtown, aU in Lancashire.
His son was the Rev. John Alexander, so long the
distinguished minister of Princes Street, Norwich.
WiUiam Alexander died on 23rd January, 1854, at the
age of ninety two years, and was laid to rest in South-
port Cemetery.
George Greatbatch has also been repeatedly named.
He preceded Mr Alexander at Churchtown and removed
thence to Southport. He has been deservedly caUed
"the Father of Congregationalism" in Southport and
district. After a long and honoured life he "feU on
sleep" in 1864, and also rests in the Cemetery at
Southport. Joseph Cockin may be cited for Yorkshire. His Life,
written by his son, John, also in the Congregational
ministry, is marveUously interesting reading, as are most
of those old biographies. One, indeed, sometimes feels
that a real service might be done to the cause of reUgion
and to Congregationalism especially, if some of these old
biographies lying unopened on bookshelves and scattered
about in second hand book shops could be coUected,
large extracts from them put together, and issued in
book form. Joseph Cockin was one of James Scott's
students of Heckmondwike Academy, and in his
Evangelistic fervour and zeal he may be regarded as
tj^ical of the men trained there. , His Ufe was Uved in
less rural districts than some. He settled first at
Kipping and afterwards at Square Church, Halifax, but

36 CONGREGATIONALISM
his enthusiasm for the spread of reUgion widened the
sphere of his labours far beyond th^se places. "After
preaching at home in the moming and afternoon on the
Sabbath day," says his biographer, "he has ridden to
Skipton to preach that night, a distance of seventeen
mUes. It must be observed that the afternoon service
began earlier and the evening service later than they
do now, and, therefore, the interval between them was
longer than it is at present. Bingley with its neighbour
hood and the parishes of Keighley, and Haworth became
the frequent scenes of his exertions ; Booth, lUingworth,
and Northowram were often favoured with his occa
sional services ; Hipperholm, Wibsey, and Brighouse
experienced the benefit of his ministrations. In short,
the readiest way to teU aU his posts of service and
scenes of exertion, would be to enumerate every town,
viUage, and hamlet around Kipping ; for it may be
fairly questioned whether there is one at which he
never preached, and at most of them he preached very
often. . . . His ruling motives in all were gratitude to
God, love to men, and zeal for the cause of Christ. As
to fee or reward, in these itinerant labours, he neither
had it, nor expected it." Largely through his influence
an Itinerant Society for Yorkshire was formed at
Heckmondwike on i8th August, 1811 ; and a vivid
account is given of an Itinerary undertaken by himself
and others, when he was fifty six years of age, which
practicaUy covered the Craven district. "We begin
our labours," says he, " at Keighley on Monday evening,
proceed about thirty-five miles up into the country,
preach every evening and finish our course at Addingham
on the Thursday evening of the next week. On Tuesday
we travel to Thornton, which is fourteen mUes from
Keighley, where about eighty persons attended the

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 37
services in a room in a house. Gisburn, which is about
eight mUes distant, is our station on Wednesday. Here
we occupy two rooms, which are usuaUy fiUed to excess.
About seven mUes from Gisburn and near Tosside
CI apel, is Sandysyke, where the people highly value the
Gospel. On these rugged heights we stop on Friday
morning ; the whole scene is waste and wUd ; and, from
these dreary abodes of the children of the Kingdom, we
descend through a rough country to Settle, which is
about eleven miles distant, where are a few steady
friends greatly attached to the cause. The utmost
extent of our journey is Bentham, which is eleven mUes
from Settle, and to which we go on Saturday and preach
that evening and twice on the ensuing Sabbath. On
Monday we come to Long Preston, which is four miles
from Settle, and where there are people of various re
ligious sentiments. BeU-Busk, our station on Tuesday,
is a rural place and thinly inhabited. Gargreave comes
next. When seven o'clock comes a room is furnished
with benches, candles, and musical instruments, and
about sixty people attend. The last station is Long
Addingham, about eleven miles from Gargreave. Here
we cease from our labours, direct our course homewards,
and add our fervent prayers that God would bless the
Word preached and make it effectual to salvation. This
account indicates that we have retained much favour
and that we have encountered much opposition; that
our labours have been arduous and that our success
has been considerable ; that our progress caUs for
thankfulness and that our prospects excite pleasing
hopes." The mere physical strain involved in such
an Itinerary must have been very great, and we need
not be surprised to read towards the end : " Our
Itinerant by this time is nearly worn out," and his

38 CONGREGATIONALISM
"languid frame" has had to be nursed and his
"drooping spirits" cheered; and it aU represents the
free, loving service of a man who was aU aglow with
enthusiasm for the salvation of men.
John Scott was engaged by the Home Missionary
Society in Weardale, in the county of Durham,
where he had, at least, six places under his care. He
was a native of London, trained at Hackney CoUege,
and settled at Hexham in 1809. " In season and out
of season," says his biographer respecting this period,
' ' by the regular labours of the pulpit and by extra
ordinary services abroad in cottages and in fields, in
fairs and racecourses, in Sabbath schools and on the
platform he fulfflled his high vocation." The interests
at Haydonbridge, Corbridge and Brampton mainly owe
their existence to his exertions. In 1821 be became
the agent of the Home Missionary Society, and for five
years laboured unceasingly in the Weardale area.
Subsequently he was at Parkhead, Cumberland, and
Sidmouth, Devon ; and, in 1824, he returned to Hexham.
Owing, however, to physical weakness he was unable
to resume pastoral work ; but, when his strength per
mitted, he preached in his own house. He died at
Hexham on 19th January, 1851, at the age of sixty five
years. William Joseph was stationed at Market Deeping in
Lincolnshire, and, along with this, he served Etton,
Glinton, and Peakirk. OriginaUy a Wesleyan, he
eventuaUy joined the Church at Birmingham, of which
the Rev. Jehoiada Brewer was minister. Accepted by
the Home Missionary Society, he was ordained pastor
of the Church at Market Deeping. Suffering from ague,
a more genial climate was sought, and later he laboured
at Worksop, Earl ShUton and ColeshiU. He died at

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 39
Edgbaston on 25th July, 1867, at the age of seventy four
years. William Hood was one of the first agents of the
Home Missionary Society. He received some training
for the ministry from the Rev R. M. MiUer of Ather-
stone, of which place he was a native. He was fixed
at Wroxton, near Banbury, and had some fopr or five
places associated with that station. At thC period it
is said that he preached seven times in a week and
walked more than fifty mUes. In his journal he thus
writes : "On the Sabbath day I walk twelve miles
and preach twice at Bourton and once at Wroxton ; on
Monday I walk fourteen miles to preach at Clayton ;
on Tuesday seven miles to preach at Bairstow ; on
Wednesday six mUes to preach at Wroxton ; and on
Thursday ten mUes to preach at King's Sutton ; in
addition to which I have many excursions connected
with my missionary work." He removed to SoUhuU
after a short time, and this became "a missionary
station the centre of the numerous dark and destitute
viUages in the neighbourhood." Later he was at
Oldbury in Staffordshire, West Bromwich, and Armitage,
near Lichfield. He died at West Bromwich on 27th
December, i860, at the age of sixty six years.
William Selbie was appointed by the Home Mis
sionary Society to labour in Teesdale, in the county of
Durham. Here he had charge of ten preaching places.
He was a native of Aberdeen, and after some preliminary
training was sent by the Edinburgh Missionary Society
to Astrakan, but, this station being abandoned after
about three years, he came to England and, having been
accepted by the Home Missionary Society, he was sent
to itinerate in the county of Durham. Later he was at
Aspatria in Cumberland, Great Thurlow in Suffolk, and

40 CONGREGATIONALISM
Great Horwood and Whaddon, Bucks. He retired in
1870, and died at the last named place in December 1877,
at the age of seventy three years.
J. Gouge was sent by the Home Missionary Society
to Aspatria, in Cumberland, where he had TaUentire,
West Newton, and Dearham also under his care. It is
described as "a dark and benighted place." He was
a native of Kent, originaUy an Episcopalian, but
eventuaUy accepting CongregationaUsm, he gave himself
heartUy to Sunday School work and village preaching.
He laboured in Cumberland " amidst much opposition " ;
and, in June 1832, ' ' his health having faUed from over
whelming engagements," he removed to Polesworth in
Warwickshire. Later he was at Dittisham, Devon, and
again at Polesworth. He died here on 4th May, 1870,
at the age of eighty four years.
John Ball was for some time stationed at EccleshaU
in Staffordshire. He was bom at Gloucester, in 1780,
being among the first scholars in the Sunday School
founded by Robert Raikes. He was originaUy a local
preacher among the Wesleyans, but his Calvinism led
to his suspension from that body. Next he was sent
by Lady Ann Erskine to preach at Zion Chapel, White-
chapel, and afterwards as a supply to Sudbury in
Suffolk. Subsequently he laboured about a dozen
years at Newark in Nottinghamshire. In 1815 he
removed to London, where he opened a Day School at
Clapham ; but, on the formation of the Home Missionary
Society, he became one of its first agents, being sent for
a short time to the neighbourhood of Banbury. Thence
he was removed to EccleshaU, where he had some eight
preaching places attached to his station. In 1835 he
was appointed to Southam in Warwickshire, where,
amidst much bodUy weakness, he laboured some three

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 41
and a half years. He died on 27th July, 1838, at the
age of fifty eight years.
John Bishop was a native of London, on his mother's
side descended from the Scottish Covenanters. At the
age of eighteen years he joined the Surrey Church, of
which Rowland HUl was minister, and, even in those
Ccirly years, is said to have been much in request as
"viUage workhouse and prison preacher." The great
destitution of many of the viUages deeply affected him,
and it is recorded that he impressed many " other
minds with th'^'- great need for a Home Missionary
Society," such as afterwards came into being. Accept
ing an invitation from that Society, he was sent to
Wisborough Green in Sussex, where he had nine preach
ing places attached to his station. Four times on the
Sunday and five times during the week he was in
the habit of preaching, very often riding forty or
more mUes for the purpose. He was subsequently at
Lewes, Newport (Isle of Wight), Chard, Bridgwater
and Axminster. He died at this place quite suddenly
on 9th March, 1862, at the age of sixty eight years.
Henry Larter was one of the first agents of the
Home Missionary Society, being sent by it to Highworth,
in Wiltshire, where he had thirteen preaching places
under his care. He was originaUy a member of the
Church at Homerton, and in 1816 his intimate friend,
David Darling, having been accepted by the London
Missionary Society and sent to the South Seas, his mind
was directed to Christian work, and he joined the London
Itinerant Society, "under whose sanction he preached
in most of the viUages within ten mUes of London. On
the Sabbath he not infrequently walked twenty six
miles and preached twice." He remained at Highworth
about twenty seven years and then removed to Maiden

42 CONGREGATIONALISM
Newton in Dorsetshire, being later at Langford in
Oxfordshire. He died here, in October 1862, at the age
of seventy years.
Thomas Sharp was born at Hull, but he early became
an errand boy in Manchester, where he " learned to vrate
and was introduced into the Excise." He lost his
situation here through petitioning for an increase of
wages at the suggestion of his fellow clerks, and removed
to London, where he eventually won considerable success
in business. He joined the Church at SUver Street
under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Newton. The
moral condition of the peasants of Devonshire led him
to relinquish business and retire thither, so that he
might work among them. He settled in the vicinity of
Barnstaple, ' ' studjdng by day and going out to the lanes
and back streets to gather the poor into cottages and
rooms that he might pray with them and exhort them
to turn to the living God." In 1809 he assumed the
pastoral charge of the Church at Chumleigh. " He took
a house and farm," writes his biographer, " thinking
thereby to support himself and family and to preach
the Gospel without charge. By dishonesty of servants,
and by fire, he lost aU his property and became de
pendent on his labour for maintenance. He laboured
incessantly both in and for mUes around Chumleigh.
Four times on the Sabbath he preached, and nearly
every night in the week witnessed his self denying
labours. He was the means of accomplishing much
good and of laying the foundation for future congrega
tions." Mr Sharp was asked by the Home Missionary
Society to be one of its first missionaries in Devon, and
taking Chumleigh as his centre, he had associated with it
twelve other preaching places. He remained in this work
untU 1847, when he removed to North Lawton, where

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 43
he died on 7th February, 1858, at the age of eighty seven
years. Two other names may be included in this list, though
they represent very different men frorn those already
mentioned. The first is that of Captain Jonathan
Scott. His main life was lived somewhat anterior to
the period, with which we are more particularly con
cerned ; but he is much too interesting a character to
be omitted, and he serves as a link directly connecting
the Evangelical Revival with the Itinerant preachers of
the opening years of the nineteenth century. He was
a Shropshire man, being born near Shrewsbury, and
for some time foUowed a mUitary life ; but, after his
conversion, he became associated with Whitefield and
did much to help forward the Evangelical Revival in
its great work. He was ordained " a minister at large "
at Lancaster, on i8th September, 1776 ; and Preston,
Elswick, Garstang, Ulverston as well as Lancaster, all
in Lancashire, owe much to his labours. In Shropshire,
Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire also he itinerated
considerably ; indeed, as one reads the story of Con
gregationalism in those five counties, one incessantly
meets with his name, and many of the Congregational
interests in them can be traced to his work. It is said
that he frequently traveUed from " eighteen to twenty
mUes on the Lord's Day " ; devoted his wealth as well
as himself to the Master's service ; that his preaching
was " fearless and forcible, somewhat rugged, altogether
unadorned, but powerful to the pulling down of the
strongholds of Satan." At the age of seventy two years
he died on 28th May, 1807, and was buried in a vault in
Queen Street Chapel, Chester.
The other name is George Burder. He was pre
eminently a man fuU of the missionary spirit. Lancaster,

44 CONGREGATIONALISM
Coventry, and London were the spheres in which he
exercised his ministry, and in aU these places he was
"in labours more abundant" in his desire to extend
the Redeemer's Kingdom. The Memoirs by his son,
Dr H. F. Burder, is wonderfuUy iUuminating in this
respect ; and in reference to his life in Lancaster we
read :
" 1777. During this winter Mr Gibbons and I
preached alternately in Lancaster and Ulverstone, each
of us in general two Sabbaths in turn. I had some very
dangerous journeys across the sands when the tide was
out between those places (twenty-one miles) and went
through considerable fatigue, but was mercifuUy
preserved. " I used to go a little circuit east of Lancaster, towards
the borders of Yorkshire, on the Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday about every other week. In some of these
places I had most miserable accommodation, and some
times endured much from the weather, bad beds, and
other annoyances. There were also some viUages near
Lancaster where I used to preach occEisionaUy, and also
some in the neighbourhood of Ulverstone. . . .
" 1779. On a review of my journeys, I find I have
ridden on horseback this year about 2,500 mUes and
have preached 254 times, besides a variety of exhorta
tions at prayer meetings and church meetings. Lord, I
desire to give Thee the glory of aU the strength, health,
and abUity enabling me so to do.
" 1780. I continued to make my preaching circuits
frequently to Bootle, Kirksanton, Broughton and Kendal
northward; and to Settle, Mewith, etc., in other
directions. " 1781. Monday, 12th March. Preached out of
doors at Shiffnal in the afternoon. Here a drummer

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 45
came, hired on purpose, and beat his drum directly
before me, so I was obliged to desist. The same evening
I preached at Sheriff-Hales ; on Tuesday at Dra5d;on ;
on Wednesday at Wem ; and on Thursday at Wrexham.
This was the only time I preached in Wales ; the people
seemed aU alive, and sang so loud that it shook the
pulpit. Friday I preached at Nantwich, and on
Saturday evening at Burslem.
" On Lord's Day morning I preached at Burslem in a
house, and in the afternoon out of doors at Hanley to
a very large and attentive congregation. This was the
beginning of the preaching there ; where, afterwards,
a long room was taken, and then the Tabernacle built.
Hanley was thought the central place of the pottery,
and best situated for a Chapel. In the evening I
preached at Newcastle.
" March 19. Evening. Preached to a great number,
more than the house could contain, at ShiffnaU ; many
came in consequence of the drummer's opposition the
week before. Thank the drummer.
" April 2, 1781. But two days since I returned from
a preaching journey of 500 mUes. I was in company
more than once with Mr John Wesley. I heard him
four times ; twice I liked him much, a few things
excepted." During this time Mr Burder was the minister of the
High Street Congregational Church, Lancaster ; and, in
November 1783 he removed to Coventry, having ac
cepted the unanimous invitation of the West Orchard
Church. Here he was much what he had been in
Lancaster in the matter of missionary work. The
reader may be referred with advantage to Independ
ency in Warwickshire by the Revs. John Sibree and
M. Caston. Very striking are the pictures there

46 CONGREGATIONALISM
sketched of the sad moral condition of that county
in the period in question, and of the brave attempts to
win it for Christ by men whom no persecution, suffering,
peril, or threat could turn from their purpose. Pro
minent among these are Captain Jonathan Scott and
George Burder, who saw much of Scott and was on
terms of intimacy with him. Referring to the fact that
Mr Burder was largely responsible for the formation of
the Warwickshire Association of Ministers in 1793,
whose purpose was the ' ' spread of the Gospel both at
home and abroad " ; also to his being one of the founders
of the London Missionary Society, the authors of the
History say : "He laboured indefatigably amidst much
opposition and violence, to introduce the Gospel into
the destitute towns and viUages of the county." After
twenty years there, he removed to Fetter Lane, London,
and here as in Lancaster and Coventry he was the
missionary enthusiast. Along with his pastoral work
he served the London Missionary Society as " gratuitous
Secretary " for nearly twenty four years. In the
eightieth year of his age, he died on 29th May, 1832 ;
his remains were laid in the family vault in Bunhill
Fields on 5th June, "the eightieth anniversary of his
birth." These and many others, whose names have perished,
were the men who gave themselves to the difficult but
magnificent work of winning England for Christ a
century ago. To say that they were great men is
scarcely sufficient. A large proportion of their work
was purely voluntary, their aim always being to widen
wherever possible the sphere of their operations ; and
at best they were badly paid and often must have been
face to face with real privation and want. They sent
their reports regularly to the various bodies that em-

ENGLAND FOR CHRIST 47
ployed them, but we never read of any pressure from
these bodies for more and better service. They met
with difficulties and perils without number, but nothing
ever checked their zeal or damped their enthusiasm.
To enter their presence, even at this distance of time,
and through the printed word, is Uke meeting a fresh
and deUghtful breeze from the heavenly hiUs. One feels
that they were under the influence of a tremendous urge,
the urge of a Divine passion, the passion of the Cross,
and that they found their joy and life in teUing its
story to the ignorant and benighted people around
them, whose souls they intensely loved and whom, if
unsparing service could do it, they were resolved to
secure for Christ.

Chapter IV
RESULTS AND LESSONS
What has been the result of the endeavour to evangelize
England a century ago, with which the preceding
pages are occupied ? Has there been any result at
all commensurate with the heroic effort then made ?
At the present moment there is abroad a considerable
amount of pessimism in relation to religion. It has been
repeatedly said, even by responsible religious leaders,
that organized Christianity has seriously failed and that
in recent days the Churches have given evidence of most
lamentable weakness. The difficulties of the time ap
pear for some to have obliterated all memory of Christi
anity's great past, and to have overlaid the future with
deep and impenetrable shadow. The answer, in part at
least, to aU this, is the contrast between the England
of our day and that of a hundred years ago. It is not
for a moment suggested that all is well with it to-day.
In town and city, viUage and hamlet alike, it is easy to
discover much that is most undesirable ; in some areas
much more so than in others ; but in aU enough to fiU
with anxiety and sorrow any, to whom the Kingdom
of Christ is a matter of real concern. But when that
has been admitted, it has to be said that the trans
formation which has taken place during the last century
has been enormous. It may be thought that the picture
painted in the previous chapter is overdone, that
the colours are much too sombre ; but it is far other-
48

RESULTS AND LESSONS 49
wise, the reaUty was vastiy more tiagic and sad than
any description could possibly represent. We stand
to-day at an immense distance from those who pre
ceded us in life's way, and nothing is to be gained
by closing our eyes to the fact ; on the contrary, that
fact shoifld be set in the fuUest and clearest light, that
it may hearten and encourage for future endeavour. It
is not, of course, claimed that the change has been
wrought by Congregationalism alone. Other Churches
have, doubtiess, contributed greatiy in that direction ;
but no Denomination has done more than Congregation
alism ; indeed, I think facts would quite justify one in
sajing that no one has done so much.
Consider also the debt which modem Congregationalism
owes to that effort. Not a few of our Churches have
magnificent histories behind them. They reach back to
Ejection times ; thej- have bome faithful witness to great
Christian principles through long, dark days of difficulty
and peril, and we hold them in high and deserved
honour. Some of our Churches of the latter half of
the eighteenth century represent secessions from the
older Nonconformist foundations, which had drifted into
Unitarianism. A remnant holding to the Evangelical
faith, strengthened and encouraged doubtiess by the
great Revival, whose beneficent results were everywhere
before their eyes, took themselves off and foimded a
Church along more distinctiy Congregational lines. But
many of the others may be claimed as the result, direct
or indirect, of the work of those Itinerant preachers
referred to in the previous chapter. We know, for
example, that in great centres like Southport, Blackpool,
Burnley and Oldham, the Gospel was directiy intro
duced by those men, and, in the CongregationaUsm of
those great LancashUe towns to-day, we have the friut
d

50 CONGREGATIONALISM
of their labours. And what is true of Lancashire wUl
be found to be not less true of other counties, when
the story of Congregationalism in them comes to be
examined. A glance at the Congregational Year Book
is exceedingly significant in this respect, and the foUow
ing figures will help the reader to appreciate the position.
Some of the dates in the Year Book may not be quite
correct — indeed, I am sure that some are not — ^but they
are sufficiently so for my purpose. I have taken the
Unions in the order in which they appear in the book,
omitting London and restricting the inquiry to English
Unions. The Ejection Period includes all up to the end
of the Seventeenth Century; the Eighteenth Century
all up to 1790 ; the Itinerant Period all from 1790 to
about 1825 ; and the rest fall under the Nineteenth
Century. Bedfordshire Union
Ejection . . . . i
Eighteenth Century 2
Itinerant ... 8
Nineteenth Century . . 14
Berks, South Oxon, and South Bucks Union
Ejection .... 10
Eighteenth Century . 5
Itinerant . . 26
Nineteenth Century . . 4687
Buckinghamshire (North) Union and North Oxon
Ejection .... 4
Eighteenth Century . 3
Itinerant . . 20
Nineteenth Century . . 24
51

RESULTS AND LESSONS 51
Cambridgeshire Union
Ejection .... 8
Eighteenth Century . 3
Itinerant .... 14
Nineteenth Century . . 2853.
Cheshire Union
Ejection .... 3
Eighteenth Century . . 8
Itinerant .... 16
Nineteenth Century . . 72 99
Cornwall Union
Ejection .... 3
Eighteenth Century . . 4
Itinerant .... 10
Nineteenth Century . . 3
20
Derbyshire Union
Ejection ... 6
Eighteenth Century . . 10
Itinerant . . . . 10
Nineteenth Century . . 33

Devon Union

5i

Ejection .... 19
Eighteenth Century . . 9
Itinerant .... 32
Nineteenth Century . . 69

120

52 CONGREGATIONALISM

Dorset Association

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant ....

17 3
13

Nineteenth Century

24

51

Durham and Northumberland Union

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant

I
4
10

Nineteenth Century

55

70

Essex Union

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant
24 7
26
Nineteenth Century
105
162
Gloucester and Hereford Union
Ejection .... 15
Eighteenth Century . . 15
Itinerant
30
Nineteenth Century . . 114
174
Hampshire Union
Ejection .... 16
Eighteenth Century . . 5
Itinerant .... 20
Nineteenth Century . . 82
123
RESULTS AND LESSONS 53
Channel Islands District
Ejection .... 0
Eighteenth Century . . 0
Itinerant .... 9
Nineteenth Century . . 3
12
Hertfordshire Union
Ejection .... 9
Eighteenth Century . . 8
Itinerant .... 22
Nineteenth Century . . 26
Huntingdonshire Union of Independent and
Baptist Churches
Ejection .... 5
Eighteenth Century . . i
Itinerant .... 4
Nineteenth Century . . 20
30

Kent Association and County Missionary Society

Ejection ....

10

Eighteenth Century

10

Itinerant ....

24

Nineteenth Century

89

133

Lancashire Union

Ejection ....

II

Eighteenth Century

16

Itinerant ....

40

Nineteenth Century

254

321

54 CONGREGATIONALISM
Cumberland, now included in Lancashire

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant ....
Nineteenth Century

653
i8

32

Leicestershire and Rutland Union

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant ....
Nineteenth Century

10 I
12
37

6o

Lincolnshire Union

Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant ....
Nineteenth Century

I
6
IO19

36
Norfolk Union
Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant
Nineteenth Century
83
14 20
45
Northamptonshire Association
Ejection ....
Eighteenth Century
Itinerant ....
Nineteenth Century
i6 97
24
56
RESULTS AND LESSONS 55
Nottinghamshire Union
Ejection .... 4
Eighteenth Century . . i
Itinerant .... 7
Nineteenth Century . . 193i
Shropshire Union
Ejection .... 3
Eighteenth Century . . 5
Itinerant .... 15
Nineteenth Century . . 37

Somerset Union

60

Ejection .... 12
Eighteenth Century . . 7
Itinerant .... 20
Nineteenth Century . . 41 80
Staffordshire Union
Ejection .... 4
Eighteenth Century . . 10
Itinerant . . . . 18
Nineteenth Century . . 44 26
Suffolk Union
Ejection .... 19
Eighteenth Century . . 9
Itinerant .... 12
Nineteenth Century . . 52

56 CONGREGATIONALISM Surrey Union
Ejection .... 13
Eighteenth Century . . i
Itinerant .... 20
Nineteenth Century . . 97
131
Sussex Union and Home Missionary SoCiety
Ejection . . . . o
Eighteenth Century . . 7
Itinerant .... 21
Nineteenth Century . . SS
116
Warwickshire Union
Ejection .... 3
Eighteenth Century . . 7 ,
Itinerant . . . . 24 ' '
Nineteenth Century . . 54

Wilts and East Somerset Union
Ejection .... 10
Eighteenth Century . . 21
Itinerant .... 23
Nineteenth Century . . 20
21
Worcestershire Union
Ejection .... 3
Eighteenth Century . . i

Itinerant

7

Nineteenth Century . . 23
34

RESULTS AND LESSONS 57
Yorkshire Union
Ejection .... 21
Eighteenth Century . . 28
Itinerant .... 70
Nineteenth Century . . 195
3^4
For All Unions
Ejection .... 295
Eighteenth Century . . 243
Itinerant .... 577
Nineteenth Century . . 1849
2964
The Churches founded during the Itinerant Period
are therefore about one fifth of the total number. It
is not claimed that these figures are more than approxi
mately correct. I imagine, for example, that in most
places there are more Churches belonging to the Ejec
tion Period than those actuaUy given. So again the
Eighteenth Century Churches appear to be comparatively
few, and I do not claim to have the local knowledge
which enables me to say how each one originated,
though I imagine that most owe their origin to the
Evangelical Revival. Yet again, it may be that aU
under the Itinerant Period do not belong to it; but,
directiy or indirectly, I am persuaded that most do, and
it will be seen that the number is very considerable.
Of course, the largest number belong to the Nineteenth
Century ; but it needs to be remembered that, whUst
for these nearly a century has been aUowed, for the
Itinerant Churches there are only about thirty five years.
Whichever way, therefore, the matter is viewed, the debt
to that period is exceedingly great ; Congregationalism

58 CONGREGATIONALISM
won a magnificent triumph through the untiring labours
of those worthy men.
What now may be learned from that story ? The
value surely of the Spiritual in religion and in Con
gregationalism especially. The Church has always seen
its greatest days -when it has been most faithful to its
spiritual ideals. The Puritanism of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, as the name would suggest, was
pre-eminently a spiritual movement, and how much it
achieved the pages of history record. The Evangelical
Revival obtained its power to do the wonderful things,
which everywhere attended it, from the spiritual Gospel
which its great leaders everywhere proclaimed ; and
the Itinerant preachers of a hundred years ago found
their power to achieve in the same Gospel. The
point is one which caUs for serious consideration at
the present time. The demand to-day is that the
Church shaU be more " human," that its attitude
towards the social life of the people shaU cease to be
one of reserve and aloofness, and that it shaU look
upon the amusements of the time with a different eye
from the one it has been accustomed to use. AU this
sounds well enough ; but may there not be concealed
within it a temptation of the utmost seriousness ? Is
the Church always wise in bending to the demand of
the age ? What is the age ? It is distinctly material
istic in its character. It may, of course, be objected
that that is the sort of commonplace statement that
is made about every age ; but no one can seriously deny
that materialism is the one outstanding perU at the
present moment, and if the Church yields to the demand
of such an age, without the most solemn and prayerful
inquiry, it takes tremendous risks. It is not easy to
pronounce in relation to some questions which here arise,

RESULTS AND LESSONS 59
nor indeed is it necessary for the present purpose to do
so ; aU that needs to be said is that whatever obscures,
imperils, weakens the Spiritual in the Church stands
thereby condemned. Is not the question appropriate at
the present moment : " What shdl it profit the Church,
whose mission and witness are spiritual, whose power is
spiritual, if it gain the whole world of social, economic
and inteUectual greatness and lose its own soul ? "
Nor can it be denied that those iUustrious men had
unbounded faith in Congregationalism. Their aim was
to win England both for Christ and Congregationalism,
a quite laudable ambition. In saying this it is with
no idea of depreciating the efforts which are being
made to bring the various Churches nearer together.
There may be such a coining together without in any
way weakening one's loyalty to one's own denomina
tional position. It is generaUy admitted that there is
among us to-day a distinct weakening of denominational
sentiment. It was recently said by one, who has
abundant opportunities of judging, that many of our
ministers, deacons, and leading Church officials care very
little for our " ism." One marked proof of this is our
lack of a reUgious organ for our work. We are the only
reUgious body of any size that is content to be in such
a condition. It is aUeged by some that our need is
met by the two weekly papers already in existence ;
but, without in the least depreciating their value, our
work, as a great reUgious body, caUs for something more
and different. In these days, in particular, when Con
gregationaUsm is undergoing considerable change, the
need is aU the greater, and yet we seem to be content
with the situation as it is. If this were due to an
increased care and passion for the larger things of the
Kingdom, it might give no cause for serious concern, but

6o CONGREGATIONALISM
no one can honestly say that it is. The weakening of
denominational interest coincides, in point of time, with
a real weakening of the great spiritualities of religion,
and our history shows that it has invariably been so.
Those great times of spiritual achievement, like the one
with which this book is mainly concerned, were times
when people believed in Congregationalism with a faith
akin to that with which they believed in the Gospel.
There is no room in religion for a faith loosely and
lightly held ; to-day it is less so than ever ; and if, as
a religious body, we are to make any impression upon
the age, we must make it feel that our denominational
heritage, which has been bought at a great price, is
valued by us as a vital part of our life. Nor, I repeat,
does this loyalty to our own Denomination carry with
it the suggestion of indifference towards the claims of
the larger Church. Whatever the future may bring in
the way of Reunion, a strong and living Congregational
ism wiU be all the better to share in it ; and if, mean-
whUe, we can catch the spirit, faith, enthusiasm and
daring of those simple Itinerant preachers of a century
ago, Congregationalism to-day, with its larger numbers,
its greater command of wealth, its inteUectual .equip
ment and its more perfect organization, in spite of the
difficulties, which confront it in common with aU religious
bodies, may again write a great chapter in the religious
history of England.

INDEX

Academies, The, 34
Alexander, John, 35
Alexander, William, 25, 33, 35
Armitage, 39
Ashton-in-Makerfield, 32
Aspatria, 33, 40
Associations, County, 18
Atherstone, 39
Ball, John, 40
Barnstable, 42
Barrowford, 27, 33
Baxter, Richard, 12
Bedfordshire, 18
Bennett's History of Dissenters, 24
Berkshire, 18, 29
Bingley, 36
Birmingham, 28
Bishop, John, 41
Bootle, 44
Bretherton, 33
Blackpool, 24, 49
Brampton, 38
Brewer, Jehoiada, 38
Bridgwater, 41
Brighouse, 36
Buckinghamshire, 18, 33, 40
Bull, William, 34
Burder, Dr H. F., 44
Burder, George, 43, 44
Burnley, 27, 49
Burslem, 45
Calvin, John, 12
Carey, William, 19
Caston, M., 45
Cheshire, 18, 30, 33, 43
Chester, Queen St. Chapel, 43
Chowbent, 32

Christian Reunion 14, 60
Chumleigh, 42
Churchtown, 25, 35
Churches of the Ejection Period,
SO. 57
Churches of the Eighteenth
Century, 50, 57
Churches of the Itinerant Period,
SO. 57
Churches of the Nineteenth
Century, 50, 57
Churches in various Unions, 50
Clapham, 40
Cockin, John, 35
Cockin, Joseph, 35
ColeshiU, 38
Colne, 27, 33
Congregationalism, Distinctive
Principle of, 14, 18
Congregationalism, Heroic Age
of, 22
Congregational Year Book, 19,
5°
Cook, Captain, 19, 20
Cornwall, 18, 30
Coventry, 44, 45
Cromwell, Oliver, 17
Cumberland, 28, 33, 38, 39, 40
Dale, Dr, 14, 24
Darling, David, 41
Denominational Paper, Need of,
59
Denominational Sentiment,
Weakening of, 59
Derbyshire, 43
Devonshire, 28, 33, 38, 40, 42
Dorsetshire, 30, 42
Durham, 28, 33, 38, 39 61

62

CONGREGATIONALISM

East, Timothy, 28
EccleshaU, 40
Edgbaston, 39
Edinburgh Missionary Society, 39
Egede, Hans, 16
Ejection of 1662, 22, 49
Eliot, John, 16
Elswick, 43
England a Century Ago, 23,
30
Erskine, Lady Ann, 40
Evangelical Revival, The, 9, 13,
14
Flower, J. E., 23
French Revolution, The, 13
Fylde, Condition of, 26
Garstang, 43
Gibbons, Daniel, 44
Gouge, J., 33, 40
Gloucestershire, 23
Greatbatch, George, 25, 35
Great Horwood, 40
Hacking, William, 26
Hackney College, 38
Halifax, Square Church, 35
Hanley, 45
Haydock, 32
Heckmondwike Academy, 34, 35
Herefordshire, 28, 33
Hexham, 38
Highworth, 41
Hill, Rowland, 41
Home Missionary Society, 19, 23,
28, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Homerton, 41
Honeywood, William, 26
Hood, William, 39
Home, C. S., 10, 14, 20
Individualism ofthe Eighteenth
Century, 18
Isle of Wight, 41
Jesuit Missions, 16
Joseph, William, 38

Keighley, 36
Kendal, 44
Kent, 23
Kipping, 35
Lady Huntingdon's Chapels, 29
Lancashire, 24, 28, 32, 33, 43,
46
Lancashire College, 34
Lancaster, High St. Church, 35,
45
Langford, 42
Larter, Henry, 41
Leigh, 33
Lichfield, 29
Lincplnshire, 33, 38
London Itinerant Society, 41
London Tavern, The, 23
Luddite Riots, 31
Luther, Martin, 12
Manchester, 42
Market Deeping, 38
Mayflower, The, 19
McQuhae, James, 34
Miller, R. M., 39
Milnthorpe, 32
Milton, John, 12
Missionary Spirit, The New, 15,
16, 19, 21
Missionary Society, Baptist, 1 7
Missionary Society, Church, 17
Missionary Society, London, 17,
20, 41, 46
Missionary Society, Wesleyan,
Missions, Moravian, 17
Montesquieu, 13
Nantwich, 45
Napoleon, 30
Newark, 40
Newport PagneU Academy, 34
Newton-le-WiUows, 32
Newton, John, 42
Norfolk, 30
North Lawton, 42
Northowram, 36

INDEX

63

Northumberland, 28 '
Nottinghamshire, 40
Oldham, 26, 49
Ormskirk, 32
Oxfordshire, 18, 29, 33, 42
Parkhead, 38
Pilgrim Fathers, The, 17
Polesworth, 40
Preaching Friars, 16
Prescot, 27, 35
Preston, 43
Puritanism, 58
Raikes, Robert, 40
Results of Itinerant Preaching,
48
Robinson, John, 12
Roby, William, 34
Rousseau, 12
Rutlandshire, 33
Scott, James, 34, 35
Scott, John, 38
Scott, Jonathan, 43, 46
Scottish Covenanters, The, 41
Selbie, William, 33, 39
Settle, 37
Sharp, Thomas, 42
Shrewsbury, 43
Shropshire, 29, 43
Sibree, John, 45
Sidmouth, 38
Skipton, 36
Society, Bible, The, 17
Society, Religious Tract, The, 17
SolihuU, 39
Somersetshire, 29
Southport, 24, 25, 32, 49

Spiritual Ideals, Influence of, 58
Staffordshire, 29, 33, 39, 40,
43
Sudbury, 40
Suffolk, 39, 40
Surrey, 23
Sussex, 33, 41
Tallentire, 40
Thompson, Thomas, 23
Thornton, 36
Tosside, 37
Ulverston, 43, 44
Unions, County, i8
Unitarianism, 49
Vint, WiUiam, 34
Voltaire, 13
Waddington, Dr, 24
Warwickshire, 29, 33, 40, 46
Wem, 45
Wesley, John, 10, 11, 12, 45
Western Academy, 34
West Bromwich, 39
Westhoughton, 32
Westmorland, 33
Whitefield, George, 10, II, 12,
20, 43
Wycliffe, John, i6
WiUshire, 29, 33, 41
Worcestershire, 28, 33
Worksop, 38
Wrexham, 45
Wroxton, 39
Yorkshire, 28, 33, 36
Yorkshire Itinerant Society, 36
Yorkshire United College, 4

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