When it is too late for a nation to change
For the pessimists and the optimists in a most pessimistic situation – I think it is a good title. This article is to give hope to the pessimists – even those who will try their utmost not to be swayed to be optimistic about anything. This is especially for you.
The situation in England in 1770-1790
England was in a shocking condition. The stream of living water provided by the Reformation had dried up after two centuries. Some historians claim that people had become more savage than could be imagined since the creation of the world. Some men sold their wives at auction in the cattle market. Immorality was so rampant that most birth registers were filled with illegitimate births. Gambling had escalated into an obsession. Drunkenness was so common that even five-year-olds could be seen lying drunk in the gutters. Public houses famously advertised: “Guaranteed drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pennies, clean straw for nothing.”
High society exhibited low morals. From the throne to the House of Lords and the House of Commons, many men openly kept mistresses and had children with them. The King, the Prime Minister, and the Prince of Wales were all living in open adultery. Sex shows, with immorality blatantly displayed, could be seen in the courts and high society as well as on the streets. Cruel amusements included cockfighting, bullfighting, bear-baiting, and the torture of animals for fun.
The country was crippled by depression, with tens of thousands unemployed. Church services were sometimes disrupted by cursing, profanity, and spitting; colleges were burned down, and it seemed as if there was no hope for society.
In one London district, 506 of the 2,000 houses operated a “gin shop”, a place where alcohol was sold. According to the offences listed in the Statutes Book, there were 253 offences for which one could be hanged. People were hanged for minor crimes, such as spitting over the wall of a nobleman, while more egregious atrocities went unpunished. King George III went mad. Children as young as eight were hanged in public. Such hangings were referred to as “festivals” and were social events for all classes of society. In those days, there was no drop for hanging, so the poor victims—whether man, woman, or child—writhed in agony at the end of the rope for half an hour or more before expiring. Sometimes, friends would break through the crowd to pull on their legs and hasten their deaths.
The wealthy “young bloods’ known as Mohocks terrorised London society. These criminal gangs engaged in their activities “for the sheer hell of it.” Ruthless and self-centred men roamed the cities and countryside—stealing, killing, and making life unbearable. They were reputed not only for stealing money but also for putting old women in barrels, rolling them down hills, and for slitting men’s noses or cutting off their hands – for fun. The force of law was unable to restrain them, and people travelled in fear, unwilling to go out at night.
The Spiritual Condition of the Church
In his book, When God Breaks In: Revival Can Happen Again (2014),theologian Michael Green wrote about the Church of the time: “To what extent was the Church salt and light in a society as corrupt and demoralised as this? The answer must be, not at all.” The Church was like the Laodicean church rebuked in the Book of Revelation: ‘neither hot nor cold.’ Rationalism and absenteeism seem to have been its outstanding characteristics. The educated clergy despised ‘enthusiasm’ and believed in God as an entirely rational being. They paid little attention to Scripture and seemed to care nothing for Jesus, instead encouraging an anaemic and tolerant morality. The lawyer Blackstone is reputed to have heard most of the preachers in London and claimed that none of the sermons he heard contained more Christianity than the writings of Cicero.
Not only did the clergy lack belief, but they were also rarely to be found in their parishes. They often lived comfortable, wealthy lives and farmed their lands. Rectors did not usually reside in their parishes, and many held several benefices, which they never visited. Instead, their curates rode out on a Sunday morning to gabble through a service and then rode on. The sexton would mount the tower on a Sunday morning, and when he saw the clergyman coming, he would ring the bell to gather the congregation.
Many churches did not even own a Bible or a prayer book and had only one service a month. There was no pastoral care, as the curate would mount his horse immediately after taking the service and go off to the next parish. The church buildings often fell into disrepair, with shattered windows and broken roofs, but nobody cared. The rectors enjoyed their salaries but not their work. The country was coarse, drunken, and lawless, while the Church was complacent, decayed, and spiritually dead, to all intents and purposes. The Frenchman Montesquieu, on visiting England, remarked, “In England, there is no religion, and the subject, if mentioned in society, excites nothing but laughter.” The most intellectual cleric of the day, the able philosopher-theologian Bishop Butler, wrote, “It has come to be taken for granted that Christianity is not so much a subject for enquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious.”
Churches were vandalised, desecrated, and even burnt down. The philosophy of Deism permeated society, leading to efforts to make Christianity ‘reasonable’ and a rejection of any divine revelation purporting to explain its origin. Deists, for instance, discounted the belief that Christ is God incarnate. The theology of Latitudinarianism gained popularity—an inclusive approach that accepted and tolerated all doctrines and church practices, regardless of denomination. Among the clergy, there was very little concern for the salvation of their countrymen’s souls.
To summarise, as one observer wrote: “Rampant materialism melted all the distinctions of party, religion, sex, character, and circumstances.” The nation was morally, financially, and spiritually bankrupt. This was the setting for the Evangelical Revival.
BUT God was still on the throne
There were Christians in England, and more and more churches began to pray on Monday evenings for revival in England and around the world. From 1780 onwards, churches initiated ‘concerts of prayer’—a specific format where people agreed to pray in unity, especially for revival. After about seven years of organised, dedicated, and desperate prayer during these meetings, a revival began to break out in the late 1780s in local congregations, communities, and towns. From 1792 onwards, the revival came in power and continued in many places until 1810, with intervals. Extraordinary outbreaks of revival continued until 1814. A qualified historian described one such revival in a particular region as “one of the most remarkable and extensive revivals of religion ever known anywhere in the world.”
Large numbers of people were converted. The revival touched the whole of Britain: England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Often, crowds of 5,000, then 10,000, and even up to 20,000–30,000 attended meetings. The revival had a huge impact on missions and many facets of society.
“The Second Great Awakening” in the Colonies began in Britain, not America. It changed Britain and, to some extent, the world. John Wesley and George Whitefield preached to the masses for some fifty years, resulting in hundreds of thousands being saved. Their ministries prepared the way for the Second Great Awakening. When the revival gained momentum from 1790 to 1810, many new churches were planted in various locations, and church membership doubled and tripled, sometimes within two or three years. Large numbers of men became ministers, and thousands left Britain for foreign mission fields in Africa and India.
The evangelists and many other men and women prayed, preached, and worked for social renewal at all levels of society. In many cases, they were pioneers of social reformation in areas where it was desperately needed. It is simply not true that evangelical revivals are only concerned with personal salvation and holiness. Any study of the effects of revivals on society will prove, without exception, that they always lead to social transformation. James Edwin Orr provides well-documented proof of this in his book, The Eager Feet.
Historians are largely unanimous that the Evangelical Revival in Britain was the main reason England did not suffer the chaos and destruction experienced by France during the French Revolution. It also brought significant social and moral change to the nation. The country began to prosper, and large numbers of people started to lead respectable lives. During this period, William Wilberforce was converted and began his ultimately successful campaign to abolish slavery. The concept of Sunday school began in 1786.
