This article originally appeared in Protestant Saints by Ernest Gordon, published by Zondervan in 1940. The book has been edited and reprinted by Ralph I. Tilley under the title Evangelical Saints. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE was saturated with a rationalistic deism. It was the era of the Enlightenment—of Bolingbroke, Semler, Voltaire, the Encyclopaedists. The churches of the Reformation were paralyzed by its infiltration. Then came, at the century’s close, great changes and renovations as when the sap rises in the tree trunks in springtime. Revival broke out in all lands, and the religious life of Europe was profoundly changed. In England, the … Continue reading “Charles Simeon (1759-1836)”