Excerpt from The Church in Earnest
Danger? Of what? Not indeed of the downfall of either Christianity or Protestantism. What believer in the truth of revelation, or what follower of the doctrines of the Reformation, has a moment's solicitude on that point? I, for one, feel not a single trepidation for the safety of either of these. I have no doubt of the final, complete, and glo rious triumph of truth over error, and good over evil. Not withstanding the vicissitudes of human affairs, and some of them disastrous ones too, I am a firm believer in the onward course of events. The way of Providence does not resemble one of our modern railways, but is more like a noble river, which is ever winding in its channel, and which, though, amidst its many convolutions, it seems sometimes rolling back upon its source, is ever flowing towards the ocean. In such an age as this, when it would look as if a destroying angel were passing over the despotisms of all Europe, and' making way for the sudden, unexpected, and universal reign of liberty, to doubt which way the current is flowing, betrays a deplorable ignorance of the tendencies of events, and of the designs of the great Ruler of the nations. But are liberty and religion identical? Are the downfall of tyranny and of infidelity sure to be contempo raucous? Will a false and seductive philosophy necessarily and immediately wither in the light and air of freedom?
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John Angell James was an English Nonconformist clergyman and writer, born at Blandford Forum. After seven years apprenticeship to a linen-draper in Poole, Dorset, he decided to become a preacher, and in 1802 he went to David Bogue's training institution at Gosport in Hampshire. A year and a half later, on a visit to Birmingham, his preaching was so highly esteemed by the congregation of Carrs Lane Independent chapel that they invited him to exercise his ministry amongst them; he settled there in 1805, and was ordained in May 1806. For several years his success as a preacher was comparatively small; but he became suddenly popular in about 1814, and began to attract large crowds. At the same time his religious writings, the best known of which are The Anxious Inquirer and An Earnest Ministry, acquired a wide circulation.
He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance and of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Municipal interests appealed strongly to him, and he was also for many years chairman of Spring Hill (afterwards Mansfield) College. He was also an ardent slavery abolitionist.
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