The religious world displayed Author:Robert Adam Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RELTGIOUS SOCIETIES. , The pious zeal of many members of a great proportion of the religious bodies now considered, has led to the formation of numerous socie... more »ties, expressly instituted for the purpose either of the propagation of the Gospel abroad or of the maintenance and extension of religion at home. Of these, the four following, (three of them conducted by members of the United Church of England and Ireland, and the fourth connected with the Church Establishment in Scotland), deserve particular notice. 1. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. This Society is usually known by the name of the " Bartlett's Buildings'Society;" and is one which possesses,and beneficially exerts,, very extensive means of usefuluess. Its rise may be dated as far back as 1699, when a few individuals of elevated station and eminent piety, both among the clergy and laitv, formed themselves into a voluntary society for advancing the knowledge of true religion by such methods as appeared to them most conducive to that end. From this small beginning it " has received continually progressive accessions of numbers and influence, and has been, in its various undertakings, eminently favoured and blessed by Divine ProviDence." The object of this institution is expressed in its name ; and the general designs in which it is now engaged, are. First, The superintendence and support of charity schools in and about the metropolis. In this department, a very important channel, for extending still further its benefits, was opened by the institution of the "National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church," in 1811. About 1790 schools are already in union with this institution ; und it is computed, that the whole number of children who benefit by the nati...« less