LOW 400 LOW
tion was resented, the adherents of the transformed His second period Bishop Moule names the Shafi«s-
party churning to be colled, as their deacmdants do bury period, after the tnil^ venerable noblcniBD who
sdll. Evangelicals. The name, however, has attached devoted his life to the protection and elevaiion of the
to tnem, and is applicable in so far as they share the poorer claHsea. He was a fervent Evaneelical, and as
doctrine about the Church which has been described, a great layman bore to the party someUung of tjie re-
The Evangelicals of the eighteenth century insisted lation which William Wllberforce had borne to it in
that they were not introducing any new doctrines into the earlier part of the century, its members in their
their Church but only calling on people to take its doo- tum_ co-operating with him energetically in his many
trines to heart and apply them seriously to their lives, charitable undertakings. Through his mfluence with
Still thcrewcrepointsof doctrine to which they gave a Lord Falmerston he obtained the promotion of scveml
construction of their own, and on which they laid conspicuous Evangelicals to posts of responsibility,
special stress. It is by these that their party is char- Thus Villiera, Barmg, Waldegrave, Wigram, and Fel-
acteriied. They insisted on the total depravity of ham were promoted to bishoprics, and Close to the
human nature in God's eyes as the consequence of the deanery of Carlisle. Other names of note during tJiis
Fall; on the vicarious, sacrifice of Christ as the subeti- period were John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canter-
tute for fallen man; on the imputed righteousness of bury, Edward Bickersteth, John Charles Ryle, Hugh
Christ as the sole formal cause of justification; on the McNeile, Hugh Stowell. This too was the flourishing
necessity of a conscious conversion to God which must period of the May_ meetings held annually at Exeter
be preceded by conviction of sin (not of sinsonly), and Hall, and it was in 1876 that the Keswick conven-
which involves a species of faith whereby the tund is, tions, which have since become annual events, were
as it were, stretchcii out with firm assurance to appro- first commenced. His third period, to which lie a»-
priatethe justification offered, the witness of the Spirit ngns the last two decades of the nineteenth century,
whereby the soul is interiorly certified that it is in a Bishop Moule calls the Church Itlissionary Society pe-
state of salvation, and the commencement of a process riod, m view of the immense advance wnich that pet
<A interior sanctification wrought in the heart by the child of the party has made during recent years. As
Holy Spirit. This doctrine, which in its earliest form did Evangelicalism to the old Low Church ideas, so
is traceable to Luther, is in reality due to a false anal- has Tractarianism, which rose up in the middle of
yais of some fundamental Catholic truths, and it is this the nineteenth century, given a new interpretation to
intermixture of truth with error which renders intelli- the old High Church views, which since then have lieen
^ble the rich harvest of edifying conversions and holy carried in the direction of Catholic doctrine far beyond
hves. chequered, however, by not infrequent instances what the old Caroline divines ever dreamt of. This
erf regrettable extravagances, which marked the begin- movement has also struck root in the country, and has
nings of the new spiritual movement. The foremost aoextendeditself that of late years people have begun
name among its leaders was that of John Wesley, who, to ask it the Evangelical party is not dying out.
it must be remembered, if somewhat restive to its dis- There are, indeed, appearances which may seem to
dpline, never himself forsook the Anglican communion, point that way, but as an evidence to the contrary the
though the main body of his followers did shortly Evangelicals may reasonably point to their Qhurch
after nis death. Missionary Society, which is supported entirely by
But siile by side with the Wesleys and Whitefield, their contributions. Its annual income of late has
the Anf;1ican Church of that time had other leaders in fallen little short of £400,000, which is more than
whom the same species of spiritual impulse was active, double that of the society that comes next to it.
but in whom it was kept freer from emotional ex- Surely it is a fair inference from this impressive fact
cesses and manifested no tendency to stray oS into that EvanKeticalism is still a living force of great
separatism. It is these who must be recognized as the power; and it must be added that, though this is not
trucFathersofthemodem Low Church or Evangelical bvan;^ means it^ exclusive privilege, it can still as of
puty. William Romaine may be regarded as thetr old point to numberless bright examples of holy living
forerunner, but he was soon followed by Henry Venn amongthose who take its teaching U> heart.
n followed by Henry Venn amongthose who take its teaching U.
erf Huddersfield, John Newton of OIney, William Cow- Hiaiuiu la u—TAi prindptca o/ Loa-Churiji-Mcn fairly rcp-
per, the poet, with their younger colleagues, Thomas ""^ ""^ f^S^^- j^" ? '"W""" "™"y'j' ""wmmo 'o
&t, tirc«n,me.Ut«,, J~Ph Miher thar hij 'SSiTt^'^^ISkSkiSf.^'ZSriiil.'il
t«>rian, and Isaac Miloer his brother, also Richard ^reUMop Tan (tandon, 1BS8>: Otehton, Thr Evajierlifal
Cewl, their intellectual chief. These were the leaders R«™^ « «• ?«™™* «^"* t'™J " Cre'ohtoi.. E^rh>a/
in the second half of the eirfiteenth century .In the ^-^J'^ gSl7^f S^lf^Jfl^Vir-tSS^
nineteenth century Bishop Handley Moule, their most Mmrmmti of RrKj/ioiu TViouoW ui Bnelatia during Ihe Nine-
.B»th™peri<xj.o(Ev.n„lio.ll,rkorr Of th« ':SJS^^S;?S£f^lASi^i^rSS-Jt
the Iir:<t lasted till about the middle of the century, tiaaical Biographg (ljiadaa.lS49t-. Stock, UiitirrvvfchrChvrh
He names it the period of Simeon and Wllberforce, af- .Jf«i»a™.5on^ (London, ispoj; Heath, rt* Waning aj
ter the cleric anj the kyman whose influence contrib- nJ^RoSeX J? bSU^ESSL rfSS;»^iMj '
uted the most of all to its progress and development. Doctnxtiu.' r-tnt Dbvotionu.— Vimk. Tkt CampUr Du^ of
At the commencement of this period one remarkable '^'HSl'.^,'!^ "^H'^ «bMnii»it edlttoiu)! WiLBERrDH<;K,
<„., II .1 : .C I t T-r ii. A fhwdml Vita a/ O^prrpatlnv nltinout ivirm «/ rmfe'trd
effect of their intimate association with one another Yo«, 1909),
was seen in the important works to which their leat sydnbt F. Suith. Bive birth. They fouwied the "Christian Observer"
(for three-quarters of a ccnturj-, the organ of their Low Soilday, the first Sunday after E^ter. The
party), of which Joeiah Pratt and Zachary Macaulay origin of the name is uncertain, but it is apparently iu-
werc the first editors. The v were mainly instrumental tended to indicate the contrast between it and the
in founding the Church Stissionary Society in IT99, great Easter festival immediately preceding, and also,
had much to do with the founding of the Bible Society perbapSj to signify that, being the Octavo Day of
in 180t, and collaborated actively, to their eternal Easter, it was considered part of that feast, though in
credit, with Wilberiorce and Henry Thornton in their a lower degree. Its liturgical name is iJomiitiea tn
Baceeaaful crusade agaiast the slave trade. aUrii deporitia, derived from the fact that <ai it the
