“Of all methods for diffusing religion, preaching is the most efficient. It is to preaching that Christianity owes its origin, its continuance, and its progress: and it is to itinerating preaching (however the ignorant may undervalue it) that we owe the conversion of the Roman world from Paganism to primitive Christianity; our own freedom from the thralldom of Popery, in the success of the Reformation; and the revival of Christianity at the present day from the depression which it had undergone, owing to the prevalence of infidelity and of indifference.” Douglas’s Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion (Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, 189)
