THEOPHOBIA: ITS CAUSE 33 



getting the Oxford Movement, but, important as 

 that was and is, in its earlier years it was almost 

 entirely confined to clerical circles, exercising 

 comparatively little influence on the laity and 

 practically none at all on that great middle class 

 which had been so much affected by the Wesleys, 

 Whitefield, Scott, Newton, and the other pundits 

 of Evangelicanism. Take the characteristic novel 

 of the movement, if novel it should be called, 

 Newman's Loss and Gain : I do not remember 

 a single male character in it who is not in Holy 

 Orders or on the way thereto. Hence, so far as 

 religious influences are concerned, it is to the 

 Evangelical Movement that we have to look. 

 Now, though in my opinion it was the parent of 

 many evils, there is no doubt that there was in it 

 real fervour ; intense devotion ; a genuine desire 

 to know and do God's will ; a burning love for 

 our Lord ; coupled with all which were the most 

 distorted and distorting ideas of what was and 

 what was not sin ever conceived by any brain. 

 Of this creed I can speak from personal knowledge, 

 for I was brought up in it and know it from bitter 

 experience. 



The exponents of these views were never tired 

 of instilling into their pupils the need for con- 

 version, which was supposed to be a sudden opera- 

 tion. I have heard persons name the exact 

 moment by the clock and the day on which theirs 

 took place, and it was often effected by a single 

 text. I have seen the Bible of an eminent leader 

 in this line which contains a number of texts 

 painted round with colours, each of which was 



3 



