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very far less lewd, less coarse, less violent and offensive, than 
the language, the morals, the manners which prevailed in the 
days of Swift and Bolingbroke among the profligate classes 
of fashionable life in St. James’-street and Mayfair. And as 
to all sections of reputable society to-day — the better artisans, 
the middle classes, the higher ranks — who can doubt the im- 
measurable advance and improvement which has taken place ? 
Nor would the contrast of to-day with former times be 
greatly less striking if the comparison were taken with the 
eai’ly years of the present century instead of the first half of 
the last century, with the age of Fox and of the famous 
Westminster elections, the period preceding the wider de- 
velopment of the Evangelical movement in the Church of 
England and the matured influence of Wilberforce and his 
fellows. Infidelity, vice, and intemperance were at that time 
fearfully prevalent in English society. 
We seem, indeed, to be living comparatively in a new world. 
Let us think of the world surrounding Walpole ; let us think 
of Jack Wilkes and his times ; or, again, of the moral and 
social aspects of the Regency and of the ten years preceding ; 
and then consider the progress of the last fifty years, and 
the Christian tone and aspect of the present age. There are 
many drawbacks now — there is much inconsistency, there is 
flagrant immorality, there is not a little daring unbelief ; but 
yet, as a whole, how immeasurably superior is the present 
time ! I have referred already to the contrast between the 
Parliament of to-day and the Parliament of those former 
periods. Now, among our foremost statesmen, on either side 
of either House, how many are there of the highest Chris- 
tian character, men of Christian profession, Christian zeal and 
activity, Christian life and spirit. Let us only think of the 
three men who in succession have held the great seal of the 
kingdom. Three successive Lord Chancellors have been 
earnest, devout, and active Christians; two of them having 
been engaged for more than one generation in such works of 
lowly and practical Christian service as, in the case of men of 
such position and accomplishments, best represent the example 
of Him, who, in stooping down to wash His disciples’ feet, left 
to His followers the injunction that they should do to others as 
He had done to them. 
Perhaps there is no fruit of the complex civilization of our 
age which so fully, so faithfully, with such delicate accuracy 
of representation, reflects the character of the age, as our 
leading journalism. Judged by this test, as there is no 
country in the world which, measured by a Christian standard, 
can compare with our own, so there has never been an age to 
