For the converting and vitalising power of the Holy Spirit knows no limit.  Let us take another, but no less telling example.  At the beginning of the 19th century the Church of England was seemingly dead.  The general appearance of most churches was dirty and slovenly: the chancels were ill-kept and everything connected with the altars was mean and grubby.

In most parishes the Holy Communion was celebrated only three times a year – Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.  And even then in the year 1800 at St Paul’s Cathedral, “…there were but six communicants at the only celebration on Easter Day”. (1)

The state of the Church at that time and for some 30 years after, has been aptly summed up in the words, “…the Church of England…was folding its robes to die with what dignity it could”. (2) As Dr Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School, said in 1833, “The Church as it now is, no human power can save”. (3)