all might see and
wonder at the Beast! That Revolution inscribed lessons in letters
of blood for the Church and for the nations of the world to learn.
Christians accordingly clung nearer to their Saviour amidst the
dreadful storm which shook and destroyed every other resting-place,
and were drawn to the throne of mercy and grace, thereby becoming
stronger in faith and more zealous in life. The indifferent were
roused to earnest thought by the solemn events which were taking
place around them. Speculative infidels even, became alarmed at the
practical results of their theories. Mere worldly politicians trembled
at the spectacle of unprincipled millions wielding power that affected
the destinies of Europe, and recognised the necessity of religion to
save the State at least, if not to save the soul. Men of property,
from the owner of a few acres to the merchant prince, and from no
higher motive than the love of their possessions, acknowledged that
religion was the best guarantee for their preservation. In countless
ways did this upheaving of society operate in the same direction with
those deeper forces which were beginning to stir the Churches of
Britain, and to quicken them into new life.

The history of Europe during the first part of the present century,
is a history written in blood. It is one of war in all its desolating
horrors, and also in all its glorious achievements and victories in
the cause of European liberty and national independence. Never was
war so universal. It raged in every part of the earth. For years, the
Peninsula was a great battlefield. Belgium and the plains of Germany
were saturated with blood. Allied hosts conquered France. Armies
crossed the Alps and ravaged Italy, and were buried beneath the snows
of Russia. The contest was waged from the Baltic to the Bosphorus. The
old battle-fields of Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, and
the Crimea, were again disturbed. War swept the peninsula of India to
the confines of Cashmere. It penetrated beyond the walls of China, and
visited the islands of the Eastern Archipelago; touched the coasts of
Arabia, and swept round Africa, from the Cape to Algiers. It marched
through the length and breadth of the great Western Continent, from
the St Lawrence to the Mississippi, and from Central to Southern
America. Every kingdom experienced its horrors _but our own_; every
capital was entered by the enemy _but our own!_ During all this
terrible period, ou