Hannah More
Series: Steadfast in Faith
Speaker: Ruth Lukabyo
Date: 26th January 2025
Passage: 1 Peter 4:7-14
00:00:00 --> 00:00:12 Good morning. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak today, and especially on somebody that I really love.
00:00:12 --> 00:00:19 Steve said I could choose whichever woman I wanted to, and it's a pleasure to choose Hannah Moore.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:27 I know you've had a series, so you've had Mary first, and I want to call her a woman of faith.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:35 Lady Jane Grey, I think she's a woman of courage, and Elizabeth Saunders, a woman of compassion.
00:00:36 --> 00:00:42 This week we're going to look at Hannah Moore, and I want to say she's a woman of words, of words.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 So Hannah Moore, one of the reasons I love her was she's not like other women.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:56 She's not like the other women of her day who have children and stay at home and do embroidery and play the piano.
00:00:57 --> 00:00:58 And do some singing.
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 She was actually really different.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 She was single.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:04 She was independent.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:10 And apparently it was said she had a smart pen and a smart tongue.
00:01:10 --> 00:01:14 So there are times where she could be quite sarcastic and quite brutal in what she said.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:21 Hannah was born in 1745 in England.
00:01:21 --> 00:01:25 It was a trade town called Bristol where she was born.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:30 She was one of five sisters, and all of them remained single all of their lives.
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 She was the sort of young one who was protected and coddled.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:41 Because she was so clever, everyone recognised that, and because her health was not good.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:46 But she wasn't just clever, she had a fantastic imagination.
00:01:47 --> 00:01:51 And she composed her first poem, apparently, when she was four years old.
00:01:53 --> 00:02:00 Her father had been a teacher, and the sisters decided to follow his example, and they set up a school.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:07 The older sisters were teachers, and the younger ones went to the school and grew up to be teachers as well.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:13 When Hannah was only 22, she got engaged to a landowner.
00:02:14 --> 00:02:15 His name was William Turner.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:20 It seemed that they were a good match, because they were quite good friends.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:28 She was often at his estate, and she took over the design and the gardens around the estate.
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 So she spent a lot of time doing that with him.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:38 And when the wedding day came closer, he put off the date.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:45 They kept on being engaged, then he put off the date again.
00:02:46 --> 00:02:50 Then they're engaged for six years.
00:02:50 --> 00:02:51 Can you imagine?
00:02:51 --> 00:02:52 Six years.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:59 And then finally, the last wedding date, the ceremony starts, and he leaves her at the altar.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:02 After six years.
00:03:02 --> 00:03:03 Isn't that terrible?
00:03:05 --> 00:03:07 You would think this is devastating.
00:03:08 --> 00:03:14 But there was, in that time, if you were engaged to someone, it was a really big commitment.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:18 And he was actually legally liable to then look after his fiancée.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:24 So he gave her a generous yearly income each year for the rest of her life.
00:03:24 --> 00:03:30 And it surprised me, too, that later on they were reconciled and became very close friends.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32 I'm not sure that I could do that.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:33 So is it?
00:03:34 --> 00:03:39 Hannah did not become bitter, even though this has happened in her life.
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 But she really trusted God's plans for her.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:47 And in fact, it's interesting that because she didn't get married,
00:03:47 --> 00:03:53 opportunities for her opened in a way that wouldn't have been open if she was a married woman.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:59 So Hannah moved to London.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:06 And she wanted to develop, you know, she wanted to be a woman of words to write.
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 So she wrote plays for the theatre.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:11 And she published poetry.
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 And she became actually very successful.
00:04:15 --> 00:04:16 And she made some money.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:22 She started to hang out with the rich and the powerful and the educated in their salons,
00:04:22 --> 00:04:27 where they used to have, you know, evenings where they would have music and poetry.
00:04:29 --> 00:04:34 She had grown up in an Anglican sort of traditional church.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 And we're not exactly sure when she was converted.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:39 But we've got a few little hints.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:46 There was, at one stage, she wrote a, she read a book, sorry, by John Newton.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 And she was really struck by it.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 So she then visited this minister's church.
00:04:54 --> 00:05:00 When she was so fascinated that she started talking to him a lot about faith.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 And I think that's when she was converted.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:09 She did say that evangelicalism was a vital, experimental religion.
00:05:10 --> 00:05:14 And by that she meant it wasn't just the head, but it was the heart.
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 Later on, John Newton, some of you might have heard of him.
00:05:20 --> 00:05:20 Have you heard of him?
00:05:21 --> 00:05:27 The most famous thing about him is that he wrote Amazing Grace, the song Amazing Grace.
00:05:27 --> 00:05:33 He became very involved in the abolition of slavery movement.
00:05:34 --> 00:05:38 And part of the reason was that he had been involved in the slave trade himself.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 He had been on slave ships.
00:05:42 --> 00:05:47 He had seen the slave trade for what it was and the evil that was there.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:53 And when he became a Christian, he wrote this song, recognizing what he had done in the past,
00:05:54 --> 00:05:59 but celebrating the grace of God that had led to his forgiveness, the gospel.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:09 So Hannah became quite close to John Newton, but he also met another famous man, William Wilberforce.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:13 And again, probably some of you have heard of him, some not.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:20 Soon they became close friends and they would work together as reformers in England.
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 William Wilberforce was a very wealthy man.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 He was also a member of the English Parliament.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 And like Hannah, he had a conversion experience.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 And I love the connections.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 He too had gone to John Newton.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:40 Newton became a mentor of his as well.
00:06:42 --> 00:06:48 And Wilberforce, because he had been so struck by the gospel,
00:06:48 --> 00:06:52 he thought that perhaps he should give up his privileged position
00:06:52 --> 00:06:55 and perhaps be a minister himself.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 But when he went to Newton, Newton gave him this advice.
00:06:59 --> 00:07:00 He said,
00:07:00 --> 00:07:06 Stay at your post and neither give up work nor throw away wealth.
00:07:06 --> 00:07:15 Wait and watch for occasions, sure that he who put him at his post would find him work to do.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:25 So Wilberforce's work became to begin to lead the campaign for the abolition of slavery.
00:07:27 --> 00:07:31 Wilberforce did lots of other things that Hannah got involved in too.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:41 He, in the Parliament, put up laws and laws to try and change what was happening with the slave trade in England.
00:07:41 --> 00:08:00 He was also behind sending evangelical chaplains to New South Wales for us.
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 So there's a connection with Australia as well.
00:08:02 --> 00:08:13 The most significant society, though, that they're involved with was the Society for Affecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:25 Before the slave trade, I want to tell you about...
00:08:25 --> 00:08:28 I'm missing some slides here.
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 Can I go back to the beginning?
00:08:32 --> 00:08:39 Stuck.
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Ah, thank you so much.
00:08:44 --> 00:08:45 The Sunday schools.
00:08:46 --> 00:08:53 The work that Wilberforce first encouraged Hannah to do to use her time and her wealth were Sunday schools.
00:08:53 --> 00:09:02 This links in really well with the YouthWorks College, you know, the ad and the promotion.
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 And I had to put this in because I love kids and youth ministry.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:11 In 1789, Wilberforce visited Hannah at her home.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 And he went for a walk around the villages around her house.
00:09:15 --> 00:09:23 When he saw the poverty of the villages that were there, he was really quite distressed.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:27 And he came home and he said, you know, we have to do something about this.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 The children cannot read or write.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33 They don't know about Jesus.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:36 There were hardly any ministers there to care for their spiritual life.
00:09:37 --> 00:09:45 And then he took Hannah and his sister, her sister Patty, to come and see what the villages were like.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:47 Hannah was troubled too.
00:09:48 --> 00:09:51 And she said, there was but one Bible in all the parish.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:54 And that was used to prop up a flower pot.
00:09:57 --> 00:10:03 So she was, you know, this didn't seem a place that knew anything about the gospel.
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 The women didn't know at first what to do.
00:10:09 --> 00:10:12 But they did hear about this new movement called the Sunday School Movement.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:17 And the Sunday schools, they were not like our schools.
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 They were actually church on a Sunday.
00:10:22 --> 00:10:28 They were real schools where the children of the lower class, who perhaps couldn't read or couldn't write,
00:10:28 --> 00:10:32 they met in the morning, sort of at the church, like we are here today.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 And they learnt reading, writing, arithmetic.
00:10:36 --> 00:10:44 And then in the afternoon, they learnt to memorise the Bible and to memorise the catechism,
00:10:44 --> 00:10:48 which was kind of a summarising of what Christians believed.
00:10:48 --> 00:11:02 In the Sunday schools, the children who got good marks and were well behaved, won prizes like coins and books and Bibles and even combs and clothes.
00:11:02 --> 00:11:06 They also had picnics, Sunday school picnics.
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 Has anyone been to a Sunday school picnic?
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 It sort of shows my age that I went to Sunday school picnics.
00:11:12 --> 00:11:20 It's sort of, when they did it was a big time of a feast at a rich person's house in the gardens.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:26 And they used to feed people cake and roast beef and plum pudding.
00:11:27 --> 00:11:33 In Australia, I read somewhere that the children had been given sugared wine as well.
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 So, back in the day, interesting.
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 I wouldn't do that today in your Sunday schools, Ash.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 These picnics were community events.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:47 So, the parents came along, friends came along, people in the community came along.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:57 In one of Hannah and Patty's Sunday schools, 517 children came to the feast, to the picnic.
00:11:57 --> 00:12:01 And there were 4 parents and friends watching on.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:08 So, these Sunday schools grew from these little villages and spread out because of the work of Hannah and her sister.
00:12:11 --> 00:12:12 Sunday schools.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:16 The other work that Hannah did was through her writing.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:18 She wrote many books.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 She was a woman of words.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:26 Early in her life, I said before, she wrote plays and poetry.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:32 But she was encouraged by her friends to think about other ways to use this gift.
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 And write short Christian stories instead.
00:12:37 --> 00:12:41 She wrote stories about ordinary people and their lives.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44 And stories that kind of had a moral at the end, a Christian moral.
00:12:46 --> 00:12:50 They were also produced very cheaply, so poor people could read them.
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 They were called the cheap repository tracks.
00:12:53 --> 00:12:57 And Hannah wrote over 100 stories.
00:12:58 --> 00:13:06 Stories like The Apprentice's Monitor, The Carpenter, or The Danger of Evil Company, The Gin Shop.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:11 And her most popular book was The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain.
00:13:13 --> 00:13:18 She was trying to influence and bring the gospel to both children and their parents.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 And actually, she made a lot of money from these tracks as well.
00:13:23 --> 00:13:28 And used the money for the evangelical societies that she and her friends were setting up.
00:13:28 --> 00:13:31 And also for supporting ministers as well.
00:13:35 --> 00:13:39 So she used her gifts to write these books and to do her writing.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:45 But also, she became very involved in the movement for the abolition of slavery with William Wilberforce.
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 So that's him on the screen.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:52 Now, the slave trade was an evil trade.
00:13:52 --> 00:13:58 Our slaves were transported from West Africa to the colonies.
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59 And sold there.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:04 And many of the slave trips were British.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:10 Apparently, Britain was responsible for one-fifth of the slave trade.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:21 Slaves also grew and produced goods like cotton and sugar and rum in the Americas and in the Caribbean.
00:14:22 --> 00:14:26 And then these goods were imported back to England.
00:14:28 --> 00:14:34 There were a lot of slaves in Britain itself, which I actually didn't realise until I was researching this.
00:14:35 --> 00:14:43 Between 1690 and 1807, there were around 1.8 slaves that were brought to England.
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 And Bristol was a big centre of slavery.
00:14:47 --> 00:14:53 The 500 of these slaves were brought to Bristol, where Hannah had grown up.
00:14:56 --> 00:15:02 William Wilberforce and Hannah, they were part of a small group of evangelical friends called the Clapham sect.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:07 And it wasn't a sect like we think of a sect.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:11 It was just a group of friends that met at the little village of Clapham.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:20 Hannah, apparently she was the only woman in this group, which shows how distinctive she was in the first place.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:27 Wilberforce's friends convinced him that he needed to do something, and he used his position in the parliament.
00:15:27 --> 00:15:33 Meanwhile, Hannah and other friends worked really hard to shape public opinion.
00:15:36 --> 00:15:42 They gathered evidence about how terrible the slave trade was, evidence and testimonies,
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 and went to different...
00:15:45 --> 00:15:51 You know, the rich and the educated went into their living spaces and explained what was happening in the slave trade,
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 because many people just didn't know.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:54 They didn't realise.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:59 They organised a public boycott on sugar.
00:16:00 --> 00:16:05 So people said, no, we're not having this sugar because it's produced by slaves.
00:16:06 --> 00:16:10 I think this was really hard in England, because you know they're addicted to tea,
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12 and they had sugar in their tea.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:20 Another way is that the reformers tried to convince people of the evil of the slave trade was...
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 You can see this in this picture.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:34 They took this picture around to different people and showed a slave ship with 500 people packed side by side in chains.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:41 You know, it's a really shocking picture to show this is what happens on one of those slave ships.
00:16:43 --> 00:16:46 Hannah also used her writing skills in their campaign.
00:16:46 --> 00:16:57 She wrote stories about slaves, such as The Black Prince, A True Story, and True Stories of Two Good Negroes.
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 You know, forgive the language.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:04 And Babé, A True Story of a Good Negro Woman.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:11 She also wrote a poem called Slavery.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:18 In this poem, it was really powerful because it actually affected people's hearts, their emotions.
00:17:18 --> 00:17:26 She wanted them to think about, what if you were a mother and your children were taken away from you?
00:17:26 --> 00:17:30 What if you were part of a family and the family was torn apart?
00:17:31 --> 00:17:36 What about if you experienced the suffering and the evil that these slaves feel?
00:17:37 --> 00:17:41 So I want to read the poem because it's so beautiful and so good.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 This is the end of the poem.
00:17:43 --> 00:18:13 Slavery is no more.
00:18:13 --> 00:18:21 The dusky myriads crowd the sultry plain and hail that mercy long invoked in vain.
00:18:22 --> 00:18:23 This is the vision.
00:18:24 --> 00:18:31 Victorious power, she bursts their twofold bands and faith and freedom spring from Britain's hands.
00:18:31 --> 00:18:39 And thou, great source of nature and of grace, who of one blood didst form the human race,
00:18:39 --> 00:18:46 look down in mercy in thy chosen time, with equal eye on Africa's suffering clime.
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 Disperse her shades of intellectual night.
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 Repeat thy behest.
00:18:52 --> 00:18:53 Let there be light.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 Bring each benighted soul, great God, to thee.
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 And with thy wide salvation, make them free.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 It's beautiful, isn't it?
00:19:05 --> 00:19:06 And it was very popular.
00:19:08 --> 00:19:12 A lot of people were horrified and were shaped by this beautiful poem.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:21 Hannah said, and she insisted, that slaves were human beings, just like white people,
00:19:22 --> 00:19:28 with families and children and dreams, and they were people made in the image of God.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 She called them one blood.
00:19:31 --> 00:19:32 Remember that from the poem?
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 A really important phrase, one blood.
00:19:34 --> 00:19:42 This actually was an important phrase used by many Christians and even used in Australia.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:53 Christians used it to, when they wanted to object to the treatment of indigenous people here in Australia.
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 They said, these people are one blood with us.
00:19:56 --> 00:20:04 So after all this campaigning, all the writing, all the boycotts,
00:20:05 --> 00:20:11 finally, in July 26, 1883, slavery was abolished in the British Empire.
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 Wilberforce's life object was achieved.
00:20:16 --> 00:20:17 He died three days later.
00:20:19 --> 00:20:23 And Hannah died two months later, after Wilberforce.
00:20:23 --> 00:20:28 So, this is her when she's older.
00:20:29 --> 00:20:30 What can we learn from Hannah Moore?
00:20:32 --> 00:20:37 As I said before, many people have heard of William Wilberforce, but not of Hannah Moore.
00:20:38 --> 00:20:42 And like many women in history, her story is not often told,
00:20:43 --> 00:20:46 although she achieved so much, just like Wilberforce did.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 So what can we learn from her?
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52 She had plans for her life that were disappointed.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 She had wanted to get married, and she didn't.
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 But God had opened other ways that she could serve him.
00:21:02 --> 00:21:05 Because she was single and financially comfortable,
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 she was able to use the gifts that God had given her
00:21:08 --> 00:21:11 in a way that she couldn't have if she had been married.
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 Her writing and her love of words had an incredible impact.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 You know, maybe she wasn't in full-time ministry,
00:21:21 --> 00:21:27 but she was able to do good in her country and helped build the church.
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 In the reading that we had today from Peter,
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36 the Apostle Peter encourages us to do the same.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:41 To use your gifts to do good and to build the church.
00:21:41 --> 00:21:46 I want to read part of you, part of it.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:50 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others
00:21:50 --> 00:21:55 as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
00:21:56 --> 00:22:00 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:05 If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 so that in all things God may be praised.
00:22:09 --> 00:22:14 Through Jesus Christ, to him be the glory and the power forever and ever.
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15 Amen.
00:22:17 --> 00:22:21 So in God's providence, where has God placed you?
00:22:22 --> 00:22:23 Are you married?
00:22:24 --> 00:22:25 Are you single?
00:22:26 --> 00:22:26 Use your gifts.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:29 Do you have the gift of writing?
00:22:30 --> 00:22:31 Then write.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:34 Do you have the gift of speaking?
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 Then speak the words of God.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:40 Can you serve here at St. Paul's?
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 Then serve.
00:22:43 --> 00:22:48 As Peter said, we should use whatever gifts we have been given to serve others,
00:22:48 --> 00:22:52 just as Hannah did, and did it for the honour and glory of God.
00:22:53 --> 00:22:54 Amen.
00:22:55 --> 00:22:58 Let me just pray before we finish.
00:23:01 --> 00:23:05 Father God, we thank you for the life of Hannah Moore
00:23:05 --> 00:23:08 and all the other Christians who have lived before us.
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 Thank you for the example they are to us,
00:23:12 --> 00:23:15 of people who believe the gospel and it changed their life,
00:23:16 --> 00:23:18 and they served you with a heart of passion
00:23:18 --> 00:23:23 and with perseverance through the ups and downs of their lives.
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 We pray that we might be like them,
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 for your honour and glory.
00:23:27 --> 00:23:28 Amen.
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 Thank you.
00:23:30 --> 00:24:00 Thank you.