3.3 Anglican Evangelicals

Whitfield and Wesley quickly moved outside the sphere of normal parish church life. Partly this was due to opposition on the part of incumbents, and partly due to the enormous crowds they gathered.

However the revival also touched ordinary churchmen.  As the century wore on, more and more clergy of the Church of England were brought to an evangelical renewal and a new preaching of the old reformation doctrines. This third stream existed alongside Wesley and Whitfield. There were some strong bonds of fellowship, but the parish clergy affected by the renewal were less inclined to follow the methodist way in practice. One reason was that the evangelical clergy came more slowly  to their evangelical convictions. In 1769 Wesley knew of 50-60 clergy in London who preached salvation by faith. He wrote to them inviting some cooperation. Only three replied. He called them a "rope of sand".

These evangelical clergy were influenced by the puritan heritage, especially Baxter, Alleine, Bunyan. Some stayed in their parishes, others moved around as itinerant preachers.  The group included many godly parish clergy, including famous names such as John Newton, the former slave trader; Charles Simeon who had a long ministry at Cambridge amongst ordinands and undergraduates; Henry and John Venn at Clapham; William Romaine, a scholar who had produced a revised edition of Calasio's Hebrew Lexicon, who was touched by the revival and established one of the first evangelical lectureships in London; William Cowper who wrote hymns at Olney along with Newton; and Thomas Scott who at first tried to convert Newton to Unitarianism but was forced back to his Greek New Testament, to evangelical orthodoxy,  and ultimately produced a famous Bible Commentary.

It was from within the Church of England that the Eclectic Society arose. Formed in 1783 by John Newton, Richard Cecil, Henry Foster and Eli Bates, the group met fortnightly in London to discuss various matters which the members raised. As well as its founders, the group included at various times, Charles Simeon, the great Cambridge preacher and evangelical leader, Josiah Pratt, the first secretary of the Church Missionary Society, John Venn,  Rector of Clapham (centre of the "Clapham Sect"), and later included visitors such as Richard Johnson and Samuel Marsden, chaplains in NSW.

The Eclectic Society was instrumental in forming the Church Missionary Society and earlier had posed the question, "What is the best method for planting the gospel in Botany Bay?". A question which led them to lobby for an evangelical chaplain on the First Fleet. Richard Johnson was appointed and another evangelical, Samuel Marsden followed.

The "Clapham Sect" was a nickname given by Sidney Smith in the Edinburgh Review, to a group of laymen who lived in Clapham and who were part of the congregation of John Venn. These included members of the House of Commons, such as Henry Thornton,  a banker and financier; William Wilberforce, whom Pitt and Burke claimed was the greatest orator of his day; Charles Grant, Chairman of the East India Company; and James Stephen a famous barrister; Zachary Macaulay, former Governor of Sierra Leone, and Lord Teignmouth a former Governor General of India.

This loose friendship circle not only lived a practical Christian life of integrity and help to the poor, but became the base for the opposition to the slave trade.

The evangelicals in the Church of England were scattered throughout England as well as London. They grew slowly but eventually had a significant impact on the national and church life.

4. TWO CROPS

From the various trees of this revival, a number of long-lasting crops grew.

4.1 Social reform

The abolition of the slave trade was one of the most notable social reforms bred by the awakening. Slavery was a common and accepted part of European life. It had been legalised by an Act of Parliament in 1698. During the century before 1786 Britain alone transported two million Africans to the New World. In 1787 the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed with Macaulay and Wilberforce prominent members. William Pitt raised the matter in the House of Commons in 1788 but it was not until 1807 that the slave trade was made illegal in England, and not until 1834 was slavery itself abolished in all British territories.  Wilberforce was the major force in this significant social reform.

Hannah More was a prominent social and literary figure. After her conversion she wrote "Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society" in 1788. This had some impact on social customs. However Wilberforce directed her attention to villages in the Mendip Hills where the labourers were ignorant, poor and oppressed, and clergy were lazy and didn't care. She and her sister established schools, at first for children and then for adults, amidst strong and prejudiced opposition. Gradually with some set-backs and finance from Thornton and  Wilberforce, they helped change the character of the region round about.

Earlier, in 1780 Robert Raikes, the editor of the Gloucester Journal, began his first Sunday School. He was a wealthy evangelical, a friend of Wesley and Whitfield but a committed churchman. His Sunday Schools were an attempt to provide basic education and some discipline to the many young street children. The children attended from ten in the morning until five thirty at night with a break for lunch. They had instruction in reading, writing, the catechism and attended church. Raikes employed others to do the teaching, but was himself involved with the children. The Sunday Schools flourished and other evangelicals took up the idea in their own area.

4.2 Missionary Societies

The Church Missionary Society was formed in 1799 as a direct result of discussions in the Eclectic Society.

The Religious Tract Society was formed in 1799 to develop the work which Hannah More had begun and to distribute her writings, many of which became very popular.

The British and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804 after attempts by some to have the Welsh Bible reprinted and distributed by SPCK. The decision to form a  Bible Society arose in discussions of the Religious Tract Society. When the Society was founded it was the men of Clapham who were behind it. Lord Teignmouth was President, Wilberforce Vice-President, Thornton Treasurer and Pratt the secretary of CMS one of the secretaries. The Bible Society was interdenominational and included non-conformist clergy.

In 1809 the London Jews Society was formed. In the following years various other societies were formed to bring the gospel to the colonies.