CONTENTS. LIST OF EXETER HALL LECTURES, 1845-1864, PAGE ANCIENT ROME AND MODERN LONDON: INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE THE HISTORY OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF LONDON. MAN'S AN'S extremity is God's opportunity. His most wondrous exhibitions of mercy have ever been brought into strong relief by the dark background of crime and shame, or by the miserable manifestations of human weakness and sorrow, upon which they have been illustrated; while, in the darkest times of the Church's unfaithfulness and corruptions, He has not left Himself without witness, but has ever and anon called into existence, independently of the ordinary channels of Divine communication in the public ministry of His Word and ordinances, some agency which has been the means of uniting the faithful few" that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name," and of making their testimony influential for the reformation of manners, the revival of pure religion, and the salvation of precious souls. Such a work of religious revival in a region of great darkness, though surrounded by much light, attended the organization of the Young Men's Christian Association in London in 1844. As this Association was not, however, the first of the kind in England, it may be dutiful as well as instructive to notice its predecessors, and to remark in them the exemplification of the same principle of a special Divine interposition, leading to cooperation of believing men in efforts for good without the Church, but in most loyal relation thereto. Mr. Pattison, in his deeply interesting work, The Rise and Progress of Religious Life in England,1 says, "The similarity 1 London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder. 1864. of religious action in all times may be discerned in the first formation of Young Men's Christian Associations. In 1632, a number of London apprentices, having no other opportunity for religious conversation, save the Lord's day, united together to meet at five o'clock on Sunday mornings for an hour's prayer and religious conversation, and at six o'clock attended the morning lecture at Cornhill or Christ Church. In the life of Dr. William Harris, we find mention of a similar Association meeting once a week for prayer, reading, and religious conversation; for the mutual communication of knowledge; and with a view of strengthening each other against the solicitations of evil company.' He quotes, for these facts, Wilson's History of London Dissenting Churches. An Occasional Paper of the Church of England Young Men's Society for 1848-49, thus describes some of these movements a little later on : Few, probably, are prepared to hear of the formation in London, during a period of such abounding iniquity as the latter portion of Charles II.'s reign, of associations of young men, for the purpose of mutual edification in godliness. Such, however, Gospel is, in is the interesting fact. The preaching of the every age, "the power of God unto salvation ;" and amid the wide-spread licentiousness of England's corruptest day, He did not leave Himself without faithful witnesses. About the year 1678, several young men of the Church of England, living in London and its environs, were awakened to serious concern for the soul's eternal interests. Some of them were such as had fallen in with the immoralities of those grossly immoral times; the greater number, however, had not only received a religious education, but were leading moral lives at the time of their awakening. The rousing sermons of Dr. Anthony Horneck, Prebendary of Westminster, and a Mr. Smithies, Sunday morning lecturer at Cornhill, were mainly instrumental in producing these altered views and feelings. Bishop Burnet associates the honoured Beveridge (at that time a city clergyman) with Horneck, as chief promoters of this interesting movement. Beveridge was appointed to the rectory of St: Peter's, Cornhill, in 1672. The alarm, doubts, and perplexities with which these young men were tried, leading them to seek the counsel of their spiritual pastors, it not unfrequently happened that the same individuals met time after time on the same errand at the clergyman's house; this, together with the similarity of their state, drew them towards one another in little fraternal knots. Dr. Horneck, and other clergymen, were so often busied with these applications, that at length they advised, "That since their troubles arose from the same spiritual cause, and that their inclinations and resolutions centred in the same purpose of a holy life, they should meet together once a week, and apply themselves to good discourse, and things whereby they might edify one another. And for the better regulation of their meetings, several rules and orders were prescribed to them, being such as seemed most proper to effect the end proposed." Here we learn what led to the first formation of these religious associations. The advice of their pastors was soon put into practice. The original design was simply to afford each other "mutual assistance and consolation in their Christian warfare," that they "might the better maintain their integrity in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation." Deeply impressed, however, with a sense of the value of the soul, they soon began to desire the welfare of others. The careless and unconcerned amongst their friends and acquaintances took their special attention; their labours in this interesting field were greatly blessed; and hereby new accessions were continually being made to their ranks. "Upon this (says the Rev. Josiah Woodward, Incumbent of Poplar, who published an account of the rise and progress of these Societies) they made a private order at one of |