With a hope that carries us through the dark night of Good Friday, Saints Gone Before starts a new reading today. From our first female author for the show, the text is a compilation known as Essays on Various Subjects, all written by 18th century English writer and philanthropist Hannah More. Ms. More is known not only for her writing in general, but her influence on the influential of English culture in the late 18th and early 19th century. A good friend of William Wilberforce, she worked to end slavery in the United Kingdom. But the reading we’re about to begin deals with a variety of subjects. This collection of essays was designed for young ladies, according to More’s own subtitle on the text; and it gives this individual an added texture of evangelical moralist. We hope you enjoy today’s first episode, the introduction to Hannah More’s Essays on Various Subjects. Requests for readings: churchhistorypodcast (at) gmail (dot) com, or @OralHistoryPod on Twitter, or "An Oral History of the Church" on Facebook. Reader: Adam Christman Saints Gone Before created by Jonathan McCormick and Adam Christman Produced and edited by Adam Christman