THE CHURCHMAN OCTOBER, 1879. ART. I. THE EVANGELICAL SCHOOL. 1. The Evangelical Movement: its Parentage, Progress, and Issue. By the Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE. (The British Quarterly Review for July, 1879.) 2. History of the Eighteenth Century. By W. E. H. LECKY. 3. The English Church in the Eighteenth Century. By the Rev. C. J. ABBEY and Rev. J. H. OVERTON. 4. Religion in England under Queen Anne and the Georges. By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D. 5. Essays on Ecclesiastical Biography. By Right Hon. Sir JAMES STEPHEN, K.C.B. IF [F the concurrence of independent testimony can establish any matter of opinion, the prevalent influence of the Evangelical School on the thought and feeling of the Church of England must be accepted as an established fact. All the writers above named concur in asserting it-the statesman, the philosopher, the clergyman, the Nonconformist, and the lawyer form the same general estimate. They differ widely, indeed, from each other as to the period at which the predominance of the School was reached, and as to the causes to which it is to be ascribed, but as to the fact they are unanimous. Mr. Gladstone affirms that by infusion it profoundly altered "the general tone and tendency of the preaching of the clergy." Mr. Lecky asserts that before the close of the eighteenth century "the Evangelical movement had become dominant in England, and it continued the almost undisputed centre of religious life till the rise of the Tractarian movement in 1830." Mr. Abbey, in the introduction to the valuable work with which his name is associated, states VOL. I.-NO. I. B that the Evangelical movement did good even in quarters where it had been looked upon with disfavour, and attributes to its influence "better care for the religious education of the masses, an increased attention to Church missions, the foundation of new religious societies, greater practical activity and improvement in the style of sermons." Mr. Overton declares that the Evangelical leaders were "the salt of the earth" in their day, and concludes his history of the Evangelical revival with the declaration that "every English Churchman has reason to be deeply grateful to them for what they did." Dr. Stoughton, in his introduction, speaking of the "outburst of religious zeal which took place under George II., both within the Church of England and without it," describes it as "a wonderful movement," "which developes into large and still larger dimensions as time rolls on." Towards the close of his second volume he states that the revival of Evangelical religion, with the religious machinery to which it gave rise, "penetrated efficaciously into the depths of society, so as to render the continuance of certain existing evils almost impossible. . . . . And beyond all this, multitudes were converted to the faith and practice of the Gospel, so as to live in virtue and benevolence, and die in the hope of eternal life." Sir J. Stephen, in his Essay on the Evangelical succession, declares that its members "accomplished a momentous revolution in the national character." If it may be permitted to combine all these statements into one, they cover the whole life of Evangelicalism from its revival in the eighteenth century down to the present day. They constitute a splendid eulogy; and those who can trace their religious genealogy back to Simeon, Scott, Newton, and Venn, have cause to be proud of their spiritual inheritance. The fact must, therefore, be held to be established that the Evangelical School, more than any other, has moulded the religious character of the English nation. It is not simply that a 1 Note in Lord Macaulay's Life, vol. i. pp. 67, 68.-Macaulay writing to one of his sisters in 1844, says, "I think Stephen's Article on the Clapham Sect the best thing he ever did. I do not think with you that the Claphamites were men too obscure for such delineations. The truth s, that from that little knot of men emanated all the Bible Societies, and almost all the Missionary Societies in the world. The whole organisation of the Evangelical party was their work. The share which they had in providing means for the education of the people was great. They were really the destroyers of the slave-trade and of slavery. Many of those whom Stephen described were public men of the greatest weight. Lord Teignmouth governed India at Calcutta. Grant governed India in Leadenhall Street. Stephen's father was Percival's righthand man in the House of Commons. It is needless to speak of Wilberforce. As to Simeon, if you knew what his authority and influence were, and how they extended from Cambridge to the most remote corners of England, you would allow that his real sway in the Church was far greater than that of any Primate." |