l clergy, but, on
the contrary, was on terms of the closest intimacy with many of them,
and always used the commanding influence which his position gave him in
their favour. He threw himself heartily into all their philanthropical
schemes--the promotion of Sunday-schools, the agitation for the
abolition of negro slavery, and the newly reawakened zeal for foreign
missions. But he never so far committed himself as to incur the reproach
of Methodism; he did not bear the brunt of the battle as the
Evangelicals did, and therefore can hardly be reckoned among their
number.

Hitherto, our attention has been turned mainly to the _clergy_ who took
part in the Evangelical movement. But this sketch would be very
imperfect if it failed to notice the eminent laymen who helped the
cause. The two Thorntons, father and son, William Wilberforce, Lord
Dartmouth, Lord Teignmouth and others, who regularly or occasionally
attended the ministry of John Venn, the worthy Rector of Clapham, were
called in derision, 'the Clapham sect.' The phrase implies a sort of
reproach which was not deserved. These good men had no desire to form a
sect. They were all, in their way, loyal sons of the Church of England,
content with her liturgy, attached to her doctrines, and ready to
conform to her order. Perhaps, like most laymen who take up strong
views on theological subjects, they were inclined to be a little narrow.
None of them had, or professed to have, the slightest pretensions to be
called theologians. Still, they learned and practised thoroughly the
true lessons of Christianity, and shed a lustre upon the Evangelical
cause by the purity, disinterestedness, and beneficence of their lives.

Of the two Thorntons little need be said, except that they were wealthy
merchants who in very truth looked upon their riches not as their own,
but as talents entrusted to them for their Master's use. The princely
liberality of these two good men was literally unbounded. It has been
seen that the Evangelical clergy were almost to a man debarred from the
emoluments of their profession, and lived in very straitened
circumstances. The extent to which their lack was supplied by John and
Henry Thornton is almost incredible. John Thornton regularly allowed
Newton, during the sixteen years the latter was at Olney, 200_l._ a year
for charitable purposes, and urged him to draw upon him for more when
necessary. Henry Thornton, the son, is said to have divided his income
int