In the spring of 1820, however, Manchester, with other parts of western New York, was swept by a wave of religious revival. Religious revivals were not uncommon in the century that is past. The people of the Christian world were then more susceptible to religious emotion than they are today. Those of the American frontier were especially very generally devoted to the cause of religion. They read the Bible prayerfully, and they attended to the worship of God on the Sabbath day. But they did not, of course, understand perfectly the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Disputes arose often among them--disputes on questions of doctrine between the votaries of the various denominational sects. For then, as now, there existed an unauthorized number of differing creeds. And these disputes led often to unfortunate defections. Truly, the house of God should not be a house of turmoil; when strife and confusion arose, it is no wonder that many, who looked for peace and order, should become indifferent to the affairs the Church. When there was but one accepted Christian church, and that one universal in its authority, it was still sufficiently difficult to secure faithful observance of church ritual. When the Christian world became broken into hundreds of contending sects--and no one of them nearly universal in its authority--it became measurably more difficult to hold the religious interest of the people. It was, then, when there occurred a kind of apostasy from spiritual things that religious revivals were held such as that which came to Manchester in the spring of 1820. The revival movement of that year seems to have originated with the Methodists in the winter of 1819. Rapidly, however, it spread from sect to sect, and from village to village, until every denomination in western New York was affected by it. The ministers--most prominent among whom were the Reverend Mr. Stockton of the Presbyterian church and the Reverend Mr. Lane of the Methodist church--united in the effort to bring about a spiritual awakening. They did what lay in their power to do to inspire religious enthusiasm. They professed that they cared not with what sect a man might later ally himself, so only he "got religion" and became "converted." Thus, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and all other denominations there represented, seemed to co-operate unitedly, and in love, to bring about the greatest good for the people concerned.