thew Henry, and Flavel--by the "Imitation of Christ,"
and Bishop Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying," and by such writers as
Doddridge, Watts, and Jonathan Edwards of the last century. This lay at
the foundation of the whole structure, giving it strength, solidity,
earnestness, and power. (2.) But it was modified by the so-called
Evangelical element, which marked large sections of the Church of
England and most of the Dissenting bodies in Great Britain during
the last half of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth
century. The writings of John Newton, Richard Cecil, Hannah More, Thomas
Scott, Cowper, Wilberforce, Leigh Richmond, John Foster, Andrew Fuller,
and Robert Hall--not to mention others--were widely circulated in New
England and had great influence in its pulpits and its Christian homes.
Their admirable spirit infused itself into thousands of lives, and
helped in many ways to improve the general tone both of theological
and devotional sentiment. (3.) But another element still was the new
Evangelistic spirit, which inaugurated and still informs those great
movements of Christian benevolence, both at home and abroad, that are
the glory of the age. Dr. Payson's ministry began just before the
formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
and before his death mission-work had come to be regarded as quite
essential to the piety and prosperity of the Church. The Lives of David
Brainerd, Henry Martyn, Harriet Newell, and others like them, were
household books. (4.) Nor should the "revival" element be omitted in
enumerating the forces that then shaped the piety and religious thought
of New England. The growth of the Church and the advancement of the
cause of Christ were regarded as inseparable from this influence. A
revival was the constant object of prayer and effort on the part of
earnest pastors and of the more devout among the people. Far more stress
was laid upon special seasons and measures of spiritual interest and
activity than now--less upon Christian nurture as a means of grace, and
upon the steady, normal development of church life. Many of the most
eminent, devoted, and useful servants of Christ, whose names, during the
last half century, have adorned the annals of American faith and zeal,
owed their conversion, or, if not their conversion, some of their
noblest and strongest Christian impulses, to "revivals of religion."
(5.) To all these should perhaps, be added another elem