THE CHURCH IN QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1582, 25 March 1887, Page 3

THE CHURCH IN QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN.

It is a popular but grievous error tr> sunposo that the whole of the <vf!'u r y wis, from a religious point of view, a period of inertness apart from the Evangelical Revival. On the contrary' it would be difficult to find a period of greater activity than the fir«t fourteen years of tliat century. Thei it was that our two oldest Church socieies for spreading Christian at home and abroad were floated. It is true that the earlier society [S.P.C. K.] was founded bjforo the 17th century closed, but it was not till the ISth ce-itu r y that it began to make its influence felt. Then it was that the first i<ch?ine on any great scale for providing a education for the poor was established in the shape of charity scho ils. Then it was that a real effort was made forjrelieving the crying poverty of the great mass of the clergy through the influence, brought to bear upon the bountiful Queen Anne. Then it was that the largest and most English, and, we may now add, one of the most practically useful of our national temples— St Paul's, London —was completed. Then it was that a scheme was projected for keeping pace with the growing wants of the Metropolis in the provision of means of gracp; and at the time of which we are speaking as much progress was made in the carrying out of that schema as could reasonably be expected. Then church bells rang for Divine service almost as frequently as thpy do in ou' 1 own active day. Then the religious societies for young m-n and the societies for the reformation of manners (a more questionable schema), which were founded in the preceding century, were most flourishing. Then the Church had so strong a hold uoon the people that her bitt rest foes were obliged to veil their real meaning, or to adopt an apologetic tone, and profess that they were writing in her interests, in order to obtain a hearing at all. — Epochs of Church History.