The last century witnessed the Protestant Church at its lowest ebb.  We thankfully acknowledge that God did not leave Himself without holy men as living witnesses in every branch of that Church.  And we record, with deepest gratitude, how, more than in any other country, He preserved in our own country both individual and congregational life, with orthodox standards of faith.  Still, taken as a whole, the Protestant Church was in a dead state throughout the world; while, during the same period, infidelity was never more rampant, and never more allied with philosophy, politics, science, and literature.  It was the age of the acute Hume and learned Gibbon; of the ribald Paine, and of the master of Europe, Voltaire; with a host of literati who were beginning to make merry, in the hope that God’s prophets were at last to be destroyed from the earth.  Rationalism triumphed in all the Continental Churches.  Puritanism in England became deeply tainted with Unitarianism.  The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers had, to a large extent, embraced the same creed in America.  The Established Churches in England and Scotland, though preserving their Confessions, and having very many living men in the ministry, suffered, nevertheless, from that wintry cold which had frozen the waves of the great Reformation sea, and which was adding chill to chill.  The French Revolution marked the darkest hour of this time; yet it was the hour which preceded the dawn.  It was the culminating point of the infidelity of kings, priests, and people; the visible expression and embodiment of the mind of France, long tutored by falsehood and impiety; the letting loose of Satan on earth, that 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.