• DAY 3 MORNING PSALM 15-17
• DAY 3 EVENING PSALM 18
Before the Methodist revival began in 1738, England in the first half of the eighteenth century was in deep trouble. It was ‘ in a period of moral disorder.The prime minister for the twenty years 1722-1742 Sir Robert Walpole, lived in undisguised adultery with his mistress Maria Skellett, whom he had installed at the Old Lodge at Richmond Park. The amusements of the day were lewd and indecent and the nation found itself enmeshed in the twin snares of drink and gambling. The passion for gin-drinking began to affect the masses of the population around 1724 and 'spread with the rapidity and the violence of an epidemic' until it was ‘irrevocably implanted in the nation. Meanwhile the statistics of violent crime soared alarmingly, and hangings became so frequent that Dr Johnson ironically expressed his fear that the navy might run short of ropes.’
The low moral standards resulted from an indifference to the claims of the Christian faith. Thomas Secker, the Bishop of Oxford, said ‘an open and professed disregard of religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the age.’ Goldsmith said that sermons ‘from the pulpit are generally dry, methodical and unaffecting; delivered with the most insipid calmness, so that should the peaceful preacher lift his head over the cushion, he might discover his audience, instead of being awakened to remorse, actually sleeping over his mechanical and labored composition.’
Today we too are in a period of moral disorder. Every day in Britain at least 507 babies are aborted, 190 women are raped, there are 322 divorces, and 85 teenage pregnancies. Drug addiction, and alocoholism are rampant and pornography is a multibillion £ industry which some have described as a plague among our young people. As a nation we have drifted a very long way from our strong Christian heritage. In yesterday’s newspaper 2nd October it was reported that the texts that once every school pupil knew by heart such as the Lord’s prayer and 10 commandments are so unfamiliar that the Church of England is introducing a course to teach the basic tenets of Christianity, ‘The pilgrim course’. Britain needs waking up again.
•Lord as a nation we have abandoned our Christian heritage . Wake us up! You moved powerfully in the 18th century through Wesley attacking those same evils of license and moral decay, through the preaching of repentance and conversion. Breathe on the foundations of our nation again Lord. Lay them bare. Expose the valleys of the sea, Lord. Rebuke the evils of our day. Awake the church out of its lethargy. Send another awakening to our nation Lord. Breathe on us again we pray!
REFERENCES
Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart John Wesley: Evangelist,Cliff College Publishing, 9-14
Department of Health abortion statistics, 2012
www.gov.uk/government
www.ons.gov.uk
www.pilgrimcourse.org/the-course
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