I too believe, with Jean Calder, in the movement of the Holy Spirit in history (The Argus, April 16).

Eighteenth-Century society was very similar to our own.

The Royal Family was profligate, the landed gentry worse and the masses brutalised, exploited and drink-sodden.

Then, the Holy Spirit moved and men such as John Wesley and George Whitfield went about preaching the good news of Jesus and his love. The result was a transformation of society. "Born again" men and women began to love one another and reform society, moved by the Holy Spirit.

In the 19th Century, it inspired William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army and Florence Nightingale, mother of modern nursing.

The movement of the Holy Spirit in the Welsh Revival in 1905 profoundly affected Welsh society. Crime was reduced, drunkenness checked and the mining communities given hope and purpose.

Many of the early Labour leaders and men such as George Thomas, late speaker of the House of Commons, were products of that movement of the Holy Spirit. As Tony Benn once said: "The Labour Party owes far more to Methodism than to Marxism."

The Holy Spirit is still at work in history and in this century and transformed men and women are having an impact on society.

One thinks of the work of St Patrick's Night shelter and Off The Fence and the good work they are doing among the homeless and those who are virtually social outcasts.

The work of the Holy Spirit will continue until the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom.

-Rev John Webster, Hove