Even though everything's different, nothing seems to change!

A friend of mine is reading a number of books and articles on the History of the Church and the Christian faith at present - he is doing some research for a conference.

He's been sending through 'tidbits' of insights and quotes as something 'sparks' him. I found the quote below both challenging and interesting. The following section describes Christianity and society in England in the 18th century.

First, a bit on English society:

In 1776 England was in such shocking state that some historians says that some people became more savage than any since the world began. Some men sold their wives by auction in the cattle market. Immorality was so rampant that most birth registers were filled with illegitimate births. Drunkennes was so common that even five year olds would be seen lying drunk in the gutters. Public houses advertised: Guaranteed drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence. Vulgar demonstrations were the order of the day. Sex shows with immorality openly displayed could be seen on the streets. High society had low morals, from the throne to the House of Lords and the House of Commons; many of these men kept mistresses openly and had children by them. Gambling was common among both rich and poor. Women wore such scanty dresses that one historian remarked: "She was as naked as a Greek sex goddess", at a ball where the king , who enjoyed the open flouting of convention by public showing, off women's bodies, was present. The country was crippled by depression, tens of thousands being unemployed. Sometimes church services were disrupted with cursing, profanity and sputum; colleges were burned down and it seemed as if there were no hope for society. People were hanged for the most minor crimes, like spitting over the wall of a nobleman, but for these otrosities, there was no condemnation. Children as young as eight were hanged.

Then some comments on the Church in the midst of this great social turmoil.

Commenting on England in the mid-18th century Ryle writes: "Corruption, jobbing and mismanagement in high places was the rule, and purity the exception. ... 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.... England seemed barren of all that is really good. How such a state of things could have arisen in a land of free Bibles and professing Protestantism is almost past comprehension. Christianity seemed to lie as one dead, ... Morality, however much exalted in pulpits, was thoroughly trampled underfoot in the streets. There was darkness in high places and darkness in low places - darkness in the court, the camp, the Parliament, and the bar - darkness in country, and darkness in town - darkness among rich and darkness among poor - a gross, thick, religious and moral darkness - a darkness that might be felt."

As to the churches of the time, Ryle says: "They were sound asleep .... Natural Theology, (without a single distinctive doctrine of Christianity), cold morality and barren orthodoxy formed the staple teaching both in church and chapel. Sermons everywhere were little better than miserable moral essays, utterly devoid of anything likely to awaken, convert or save souls. .... And as for the weighty truths for which Hooper and Latimer had gone to the stake, and Baxter and scores of Puritans had gone to jail, they seemed clean forgotten and laid on the shelf. When such was the state of things in churches and chapels, it can surprise no one to learn that the land was deluged with infidelity and scepticism. The prince of this world made good use of his opportunity. His agents were active and zealous in promulgating every kind of strange and blasphemous opinion. .... Of the utter incapacity of the pulpit to stem the progress of all this evil, one single fact will give us some idea. The celebrated lawyer, Blackstone, had the curiosity, early in the reign of George III, to go from church to church to hear every clergyman of note in London. He says he did not hear a single discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero, and that it would have been impossible for him to discover, from what he heard, whether the preacher were a follower of Confucius, Mohamed or Christ!"

Going on to comment on the clergy of the day, Bishop Ryle says: "They seemed determined to know everything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When they assembled it was generally to toast 'Church and King' and to build one another up in earthly mindedness, prejudice, ignorance, and formality. When they retired to their own homes it was to do as little and preach as seldom as possible. And when they did preach, their sermons were so unspeakably and indescribably bad that it is comforting to reflect that they were generally preached to empty benches." (J C Ryle: Christian Leaders of the 18th Century.)

It sounds so familiar! Corrupt leaders, bad sermons, a self obsessed Church.... Instead of getting the best persons to do the necessary work of Christ led renewal and transformation with courage and commitment they seemed to be saddled with lukewarm, halfhearted attempts at religion, rather than life changing faith!

Then Terhoven comments:

For more than 30 years John Wesley and George Whitefield preached to the masses. Hundereds of thousands were saved. Suddenly the whole of Brittain changed. The nation began to prosper, slavery was abolished, and people started to live respectable lives. (Breath from Heaven, Ken Terhoven)

Perhaps we need a few Wesleys and one or two Whitefields... I am reminded, once again, of John Wesley's exhortation to the early Methodists - "There his no holiness without social holiness..."

[the]... gospel of Christ knows no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness. 'Faith working by love' is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.

Faith working by love! Now that's something I can give my life to doing! Please see this post from my friend Rev. David Barbour.