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Swartbmore lecture.

a religious experience. The tide of anti-religious" enlightenment " that from France overflowedcontinental Europe was dammed in the Anglo-American world, owing to the Methodist revival.Methodism, democratic through and through,established the largest of all the free Churches ;but its influence was even greater by permeatingthe Anglican Church and the older denominations,the Baptists as well as the Quakers, who hadentered on their " quietest " period. For the pro-gressive minds of the Anglo-American World,democracy became again what it had been in theseventeenth century, a religious experience.

So Gladstone's whole life centred on religionfrom the days of his youth when he had been underthe influence of the evangelical movement. Hebecame England's grand old man as he developedfrom a Tory to a Liberal and even to a Radical.Protagonist of democracy he believed in free insti-tutions as God 's own way to educate the nationsof the world to self-control and self-determination.The same applies to America . So Toqueville inhis famous book " La Democratic en Amerique "(1837) could report to his astonished countrymen :" In America, the freest and most enlightenedcountry in the world, the Christian religion exertsa greater influence over the souls of men than inany other land in the world. I do not knowwhether all Americans believe in their religion—for who can see into the human heart ? But I amwell assured that they regard religion as necessaryfor the just maintenance of their republican insti-tutions. Such is the opinion not of one class or