The Christian Leaders of the Last Century

epee HE volume now injthe readers hands requires a few

prefatory sentences of explanatio&. I should be
., °
sorry if there was any mtstake as to its nature and

intention..;

It consists of a series of biographical papers, contributed to a well-known and most valuable monthly periodical durivg the years 1866 and 1867.* My object in drawing up these papers was to bring before the public in a comprehensive form the lives, characters, and work of the leading ministers by whose agency God was pleased to.revive Christianity in England a hundred years ago. I had long felt that these great men were not sufficiently known, and their merit in consequence not, sufficiently recognized. I thought that the Church and the world” ought to know something more than they seem to know about such men as Whitefield, Wesley, Romaine, Rowlands, Grimshaw, Berridge, Venn, Toplady, Hervey, Walker, and Fletcher. For twenty years I waited anxiously for some worthy account of these mighty spiritual heroes. At last I became weary of waiting, and resolved to take the pen in my éwn hand, and do what I could in the pages of a periodical. These papers, in compliance with the wishes of friends, are now Lrought together in a portable form.

How far my attempt has been successful, I must now leave

* The Family Treasury.

iy PREFACE. the public to judge. To literary merits the volume can lay no claim. Its chapters were written from month to month in the midst of many ministerial engagements, under a pressure which none can, understand but those who write for periodicals. To expect such a volume to be a model of finished: composition would be absurd. I only lay claim to a tolerable degree of accuracy about historical facts. I have been careful to make no statenent for which I could not find some authority.

The reader will soon discover that I am an enthusiastic admirer of the men whose pictures I have sketched in this volume. I confess’it honestly. I am a thorough enthusiast about theni. I Uelieve firmly that, excepting Luther and his Continental contemporarieseand our own martyred Reformers, the world has seen no such men since the days of the apostles. I believe there have been none who have: preached so much clear Scriptural truth, none who have lived such lives, none who have shown’ such courage in Christ’s service, none who have suffered so much for the truth, none who have done so much good. If any one can name better men, he enoes more than I do.

I now send forth this volume with an earnest prayer that God may pardon all its defects, use it for his own glory, and raise up in his Church men like those who are here described. Surely, when we look at the state of England, we may well say, “Where is the Lord God of Whitefield and of Rowlands, of Say and of Venn? O Lord, revive thy work!”

‘
StRapBROKRK VEARAGR, August 10, 1868.

P.S. — I think it right to say that the chief substance of the biography of “Whitefield,” in this volume, was originally delivered as a lecture in London in 1852. It now appears remoulded and enlarged. The other ten biographies were preparéd expressly for the Family Treasury.

Importance of the History of the Righteenth Century — Political and Financial Position of England- — Low State of Religion both in Churches and Chapels — Testimonies on the subject — Defects of Bishops and Clergy — Poverty of the Printed Theology — Wretched Condition of the Country as to Education, Morals, and popular Literature — The “Good Old Times” a mere Myth..

Keateei HE subject I propose to handle in this volume is partly v8 historical and partly biographical. If any reader LORY expects from the title a fictitious tale, or something partly drawn from my imagination, I fear he will be disappointed: - Such writing is not in my province, and I have no leisure for it if it was. Facts, naked facts, and the stern realities of life, absorb all the time that I can spare for the press. I trust, however, that with most readers the subject 1 have chosen is one that needs no apology. The man who feels no interest in the history and biography of his own country is surely a poor patriot and a worse philosopher. “Patriot” he cannot be called. True patriotism will make an Englishman care for everything that concerns England. true patriot will like to know something about every one who has left his mark on English character, from the Venerable Bede down to Hugh Stowell, from Alfred the Great down to Pounds, the originator. of Ragged Schools.

“Philosopher” he certainly is not. What is philosophy but history teaching by examples? To know the steps by which England has reached her present position is essential to a right understanding both of our’ national privileges and our national dangers. To know the men whom God raised up to do his work in days gone by, will guide us in looking about for standard-bearers in our own days and days to come.

I venture to think that there is no period of English history which is so thoroughly instructive to. a Christian as the middle of last century. It is the period of which we are feeling the influence at this very day. It is the period with. which our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were immediately connected. It is a period, not least, from which.we may draw most useful lessons for our own times.

Let me begin by trying to describe the actual condition of England a hundred years ago. A few simple facts will suffice, to make this plain..

The reader will remember ‘that I am not going to speak of our political condition. 1 might easily tell him that, in the days of Sir Robert Walpole, the Duke of Newcastle, and the elder’ Pitt, the position of England -was very different from what it is now. Great statesmen and orators there were among us, no doubt. But our standing among the nations of the earth was comparatively poor, weak, and low. Our voice among the nations of the earth carried far less weight than it has since obtained. ‘The foundation of ‘our Indian Empire had hardly been laid. Our Australian possessions were a part of the world only just discovered, but not colonized. At home there was a strong party in the country which still longed for the restoration of the Stuarts. In 1745 the Pretender and a Highland army marched from Scotland to invade England, and got as far as

Derby. Corruption, jobbing, and mismanagement in high places were the rule, and purity the exception. Civil and religious disabilities still abounded. The test and corporation Acts were still unrepealed. To be a Dissenter was to be regarded as only one degree better than being seditious and a rebel. Rotten boroughs flourished. ‘Bribery among all classes was open, unblushing, and profuse: Such was England politically a hundred years ago.

The reader will remember, furthermore, that I am not going to speak of our condition in a fixancial and economical point of view. Our vast cotton, silk, and linen manufactures had hardly begin to exist. Our enormous mineral treasures of coal and iron were scarcely touched. We had no sfeam-boats, no locomotive engines, no railways, no gas, no electric telegraph, no penny post, no scientific farming, no macadamized roads, no free-trade, no sanitary arrangements, and no police deserving the name. Let any Englishman imagine, if he can, his country sta any of the things that I have just mentioned, and he will have some faint idea of the economical and financial condition of England a hundred years ago.

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