This state of things prevailed during three-fourths of the seventeenth century, when a movement began, opening the way to consequences which ever since have been unfolding themselves. At present, the vast number of our religious societies--some in slender connection with churches, some in no connection with them at all--form phenomena worth the study of social philosophers; and the rise of them may be distinctly traced in those combinations for certain purposes, just before and during the reign of William III., which are now to be described. The outburst of zeal at that time has received much less notice than its importance deserves. It was about the year 1678--sixty years after the first establishment in Paris of the societies by St. Vincent de Paul--that a few young men in London, belonging to the congregations of Dr. Horneck, the popular preacher at the Savoy, and of Mr. Smithies, an impressive lecturer at St. Michael’s, Cornhill, came under one of those inspirations which mark epochs of revival. They agreed to meet weekly for religious conference, prayer, and scripture reading. When, under James II., signs of Papal outgrowths were visible, they sought to check returning superstition, and promoted the use of daily common prayer at the church of St. Clement Danes, as a sort of protest against the use of daily mass at the Chapel Royal. Feeling a more than ordinary desire for the Communion, they frequented the Lord’s-table whenever they had an opportunity, and stimulated clergymen to celebrate, not only upon Sundays but upon holidays; and on the vigils of feasts they met for preparation at one another’s houses. They thus fell in with a current of sacramental feeling, which became prevalent and powerful at the opening of the eighteenth century--promoted by the writings of Robert Nelson and others, and by the example of distinguished persons amongst both Clergy and Laity.[446] They also raised money for the payment of clergymen who read prayers, for the relief of the poor, for the support of schools, and for the spread of Christianity abroad and at home. They laid down rules of conduct, drawn from their own religious and ecclesiastical principles, “To love one another; when reviled not to revile again; to speak evil of no man; to wrong no man; to pray, if possible, seven times a-day; to keep close to the Church of England; to transact all things peaceably and gently; to be helpful to each other; to use themselves to holy thoughts on coming in and going out; to examine themselves every night; to give every one his due; to obey superiors, both spiritual and temporal.” Controverted points of Divinity were banished from discussion, no prayers were used but those in the Prayer-Book, or sanctioned by clergymen; the strong Church element in these societies further manifesting itself in careful abstinence from a lay use of absolution. Resembling in some respects, in others differing from, Young Men’s Christian Associations, they must