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CHRISTMAS EVANS: The Preacher of Wild Wales.
CHRISTMAS EVANS: The Preacher of Wild Wales.
HIS COUNTRY , HIS TIMES , AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES . BY THE REV. PAXTON HOOD, AUTHOR OF “THE THRONE OF ELOQUENCE,” “WORLD OF PROVERB AND PARABLE,” “THE WORLD OF ANECDOTE,” “ROBERT HALL,” ETC. THIRD EDITION . London: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXVIII. [ All rights reserved .] Hazell Watson and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury...
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TO THE REV. JOHN DAVIES, OF BRIGHTON.
TO THE REV. JOHN DAVIES, OF BRIGHTON.
My Dear Friend ,—I believe there is no man living to whom I could so appropriately inscribe an attempt to give some appreciation of the life and labours of Christmas Evans as yourself. Your revered father and he were taken on the same evening into Church fellowship in the old communion of Castell Hywel, and within a week of each other they preached their first sermons from the same desk; after this their ways diverged, Evans uniting himself with the Baptist Communion, your father joining the In
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CHAPTER I. SOME GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH PREACHING.
CHAPTER I. SOME GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH PREACHING.
Wales, the Country and the People—Individuality of the Welsh Pulpit—St. David—The Religious Sense of the People—Association Meetings—Gryffyth of Caernarvon—Bardic Character of the Sermons—A Repetition of Sermons—Peculiarities of the Welsh Language—Its Singular Effects as Spoken—Its Vowels—Its Pictorial Character—The Hwyl —Welsh Scenery—Isolated Character of the Old Chapels—Plain Living and High Thinking—Ludicrous Incidents of Uncertain Service—Superstitions of Heathenism—Fondness of the People f
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CHAPTER II. EARLY LIFE UNTIL HIS ENTRANCE INTO THE MINISTRY.
CHAPTER II. EARLY LIFE UNTIL HIS ENTRANCE INTO THE MINISTRY.
Birth and Early Hardships—Early Church Fellowship—Beginning to Learn—Loses an Eye—A Singular Dream—Beginning to Preach—His First Sermon—Is Baptized—A New Church Fellowship—The Rev. Timothy Thomas—Anecdotes—A Long Season of Spiritual Depression—Is ordained as Home Missionary to Lleyn—Commencement of Success as a Preacher—Remarks on Success—Marries—Great Sermon at Velinvole—A Personal Reminiscence of Welsh Preaching. Christmas Evans is not the first, in point of time, in the remarkable procession
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Covenant with God.
Covenant with God.
I. I give my soul and body unto Thee, Jesus, the true God, and everlasting life; deliver me from sin, and from eternal death, and bring me into life everlasting. Amen.—C. E. II. I call the day, the sun, the earth, the trees, the stones, the bed, the table, and the books, to witness that I come unto Thee, Redeemer of sinners, that I may obtain rest for my soul from the thunders of guilt and the dread of eternity. Amen.—C. E. III. I do, through confidence in Thy power, earnestly entreat Thee
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“The World as a Graveyard.”
“The World as a Graveyard.”
“Methinks,” exclaimed the impassioned preacher, “I find myself standing upon the summit of one of the highest of the everlasting hills, permitted from thence to take a survey of the whole earth; and all before me I see a wide and far-spread burial-ground, a graveyard, over which lie scattered the countless multitudes of the wretched and perishing children of Adam! The ground is full of hollows, the yawning caverns of death; and over the whole scene broods a thick cloud of darkness: no light fro
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“The Hind of the Morning.
“The Hind of the Morning.
“It is generally admitted that the twenty-second Psalm has particular reference to Christ. This is evident from His own appropriation of the first verse upon the cross: ‘My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ The title of that Psalm is ‘ Aijeleth Shahar ,’ which signifies ‘A Hart, or the Hind of the Morning.’ The striking metaphors which it contains are descriptive of Messiah’s peculiar sufferings. He is the Hart, or the Hind of the Morning, hunted by the Black Prince, with his hell-hou
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The Demoniac of Gadara.
The Demoniac of Gadara.
The text he announced was—“ Jesus said unto him , Go home unto thy friends , and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee , and hath had compassion on thee .” The introduction was very simple and brief; but, before long, the preacher broke loose from all relations of mere comment and explanation, and seemed to revel in dramatic scenery, and pictorial imagination, and, as was so usual with him in such descriptions, increasing, heightening, and intensifying the picture, by making eac
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“The Four Methods of Preaching.
“The Four Methods of Preaching.
“He beheld,” he said, “such a one as Lazarus lying in the cave, locked in the sleep of death; now how shall he be raised? how shall he be brought back to life? Who will roll away for us the stone from this sepulchre? First came one, who went down to the cave with blankets, and salt, to rub with the fomentations of duty, to appeal to the will, to say to the sleeping man, that he could if he would; chafing and rubbing the cold and inert limbs, he thinks to call back the vital warmth; and then re
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“Seeking the Young Child.”
“Seeking the Young Child.”
We have remarked before that the preacher’s descriptions of Oriental travel were always Welsh, and this could not arise so much from ignorance, for he was fairly well read in the geography, and, perhaps, even in the topography, of the Holy Land; but he was quite aware that Oriental description would be altogether incomprehensible to the great multitude of his auditors. He described, therefore, the Wise Men, not as we, perhaps, see them, on their camels, solemnly pacing the vast sandy desert, wh
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Satan Walking in Dry Places.
Satan Walking in Dry Places.
The preacher appears to have been desirous of teaching the beautiful truth, that a mind preoccupied, and inhabited by Divine thoughts, cannot entertain an evil visitor, but is compelled to betake himself to flight, by the strong expulsive power of Divine affections. He commenced, by describing Satan as a vast and wicked, although invisible spirit,—somehow, as Milton might have described him; and the preacher was not unacquainted with the grand imagery of the “Paradise Lost,” in which the poet d
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“To Be Accursed From Christ.
“To Be Accursed From Christ.
“‘For I could wish that I were accursed (anathema) from Christ for my brethren,’ etc. (Rom. ix. 3). Many things, most incredible to me, have been said in exposition of this passage; and principally, I think, from not observing that the word ‘anathema’ is used in two senses,—the one good, and the other bad. Barclay analyses into four acceptations; and, according to the first, it signifies that which is devoted, or set apart, to God, in a good sense. According to Parkhurst, it signifies, in Luk
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CHAPTER V. CONTEMPORARIES IN THE WELSH PULPIT—WILLIAMS OF WERN.
CHAPTER V. CONTEMPORARIES IN THE WELSH PULPIT—WILLIAMS OF WERN.
The Great Welsh Preachers unknown in England—The Family of the Williamses—Williams of Pantycelyn—Peter Williams—Evan Williams—Dr. Williams—Williams of Wern—The immense Power of his Graphic Language—Reading and Thinking—Instances of his Power of Luminous Illustration—Early Piety—A Young Preacher—A Welsh Gilboa—Admiration of, and Likeness to, Jacob Abbot—Axiomatic Style—Illustrations of Humour—The Devils—Fondness for Natural Imagery—Fondness of Solitude—Affecting Anecdotes of Dying Hours—His Daugh
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CHAPTER VI. CONTEMPORARIES—JOHN ELIAS.
CHAPTER VI. CONTEMPORARIES—JOHN ELIAS.
Fire and Smoke—Elias’s Pure Flame—Notes in the Pulpit—Carrying Fire in Paper—Elias’s Power in Apostrophe—Anecdote of the Flax-dresser—A Singular First Appearance in the Pulpit—A Rough Time in Wales—The Burning of the Ravens’ Nests—A Hideous Custom put down—The Great Fair of Rhuddlan—The Ten Cannon of Sinai—Action in Oratory—The Tremendous Character of his Preaching—Lives in an Atmosphere of Prayer—Singular Dispersion on a Racecourse—A Remarkable Sermon, Shall the Prey be taken from the Mighty?—A
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CHAPTER VII. CONTEMPORARIES—DAVIES OF SWANSEA.
CHAPTER VII. CONTEMPORARIES—DAVIES OF SWANSEA.
Traditions of his Extraordinary Eloquence—Childhood—Unites in Church Fellowship with Christmas Evans, and with him preaches his First Sermon—The Church of Castell Hywel—Settles in the Ministry at Frefach—The Anonymous Preacher—Settles in Swansea—Swansea a Hundred Years Since—Mr. Davies reforms the Neighbourhood—Anecdotes of the Power of his Personal Character—How he Dealt with some Young Offenders—Anecdote of a Captain—The Gentle Character of his Eloquence—The Human Voice a Great Organ—The Power
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CHAPTER VIII. THE PREACHERS OF WILD WALES.
CHAPTER VIII. THE PREACHERS OF WILD WALES.
Rees Pritchard, and “The Welshman’s Candle”—A Singular Conversion—The Intoxicated Goat—The Vicar’s Memory—“God’s better than All”—Howell Harris—Daniel Rowlands at Llangeitho—Philip Pugh—The Obscure Nonconformist—Llangeitho—Charles of Bala—His Various Works of Christian Usefulness—The Ancient Preachers of Wild Wales characterised—Thomas Rhys Davies—Impressive Paragraphs from his Sermons—Evan Jones, an Intimate Friend of Christmas Evans—Shenkin of Penhydd—A Singular Mode of Illustrating a Subject—
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“The Trial of the Witnesses.
“The Trial of the Witnesses.
“The enemies of Christ, after His death, applied for a military guard to watch at His tomb, and this application for a military guard was rested on the fact, that the ‘impostor’ had said, in His lifetime, that He would rise again on the third day. Without a doubt, had they found His body in the grave, when the time had transpired, they would have torn it from the sepulchre, exhibited it through the streets of Jerusalem, where Jesus had preached, where He had been despitefully used, and scourged
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“The Internal Evidences which prove the Gospel to be of God.
“The Internal Evidences which prove the Gospel to be of God.
“God’s perfections are, in some sort, to be seen in all He has done, and in all He has spoken. He imprints some indication of His character, on everything that His hand forms, and that His mouth utters, so that there might be a sufficient difference between the work, and the speech of God, and those of man. The Bible is the Book of books, a book breathed out of heaven. It was easy enough for John to determine, when he saw the Lamb, with the seven horns, and the seven eyes, in the midst of the
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“Their Works do Follow them.
“Their Works do Follow them.
“In this world, every man receives according to his faith; in the world to come, every man shall receive according to his works. ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.’ Their works do not go before them, to divide the river of Jordan, and open the gates of heaven. This is done by their faith. But their works are left behind, as if done up in a packet, on this side of the river. John saw the great white throne, descending
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“Second Covenant with God.
“Second Covenant with God.
“While returning from a place called Tongwynlâs, over Caerphilly Mountain, the spirit of prayer descended, very copiously, upon me. I wept for some hours, and heartily supplicated Jesus Christ, for the blessings here following. I found, at this time, a particular nearness to Christ, as if He were close by me, and my mind was filled with strong confidence that He attended to my requests, for the sake of the merits of His own name. This decided me in favour of Cardiff. “I. Grant me the great f
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“Letter to a Brother Minister on Church Discipline.
“Letter to a Brother Minister on Church Discipline.
“ Beloved Brother ,—I write to you, August 5th, 1836, in the seventieth year of my age, and in the fiftieth of my ministry, after conversing much with ministerial brethren, earnestly desiring to see our Associational Union brought into action, by representatives of the churches, with a view to promote a determination,—1. To bear each other’s burden more efficiently, in the denomination to which we belong. I lament the deficiency in this point, and ardently wish to see it effectually remedied.
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“Value of Industry.
“Value of Industry.
“I am an old man, my dear boy, and you are just entering the ministry. Let me now, and here tell you one thing, and I commend it to your attention, and memory. All the ministers that I have ever known, who have fallen into disgrace, or into uselessness, have been idle men . I never am much afraid of a young minister, when I ascertain that he can, and does, fairly sit down to his book . There is Mr. —, of whom we were talking just now, a man of such unhappy temper, and who has loved, for many
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“The Gospel Mould.
“The Gospel Mould.
“I compare such preachers to a miner, who should go to the quarry where he raised the ore, and, taking his sledge in his hand, should endeavour to form bars of iron of the ore in its rough state, without a furnace to melt it, or a rolling mill to roll it out, or moulds to cast the metal, and conform the casts to their patterns. The Gospel is like a form, or mould, and sinners are to be melted, as it were, and cast into it. ‘But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was deli
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“Saul of Tarsus and His Seven Ships.
“Saul of Tarsus and His Seven Ships.
“Saul of Tarsus was once a thriving merchant and an extensive ship-owner; he had seven vessels of his own, the names of which were—1. Circumcised the Eighth Day; 2. Of the Stock of Israel; 3. Of the Tribe of Benjamin; 4. A Hebrew of the Hebrews; 5. As touching the Law, a Pharisee; 6. Concerning Zeal, persecuting the Church. The seventh was a man-of-war, with which he one day set out from the port of Jerusalem, well supplied with ammunition from the arsenal of the Chief Priest, with a view
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“The Misplaced Bone.
“The Misplaced Bone.
“Let every one keep his own place, that there be no schism in the body. There arose a fierce contention in the human body; every member sought another place than the one it found itself in, and was fitted for. After much controversy, it was agreed to refer the whole matter to one whose name was Solomon Wise-in-his-own-conceit. He was to arrange, and adjust the whole business, and to place every bone in its proper position. He received the appointment gladly, and was filled with joy, and conf
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“The Man in the House of Steel.
“The Man in the House of Steel.
“A man in a trance saw himself locked up in a house of steel, through the walls of which, as through walls of glass, he could see his enemies assailing him with swords, spears, and bayonets; but his life was safe, for his fortress was locked within. So is the Christian secure amid the assaults of the world. His ‘life is hid with Christ in God.’ “The Psalmist prayed, ‘When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.’ Imagine a man seated on a lofty rock in the
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“The Parable of the Church as an Ark among the Bulrushes of the Nile.
“The Parable of the Church as an Ark among the Bulrushes of the Nile.
“I see an ark of bulrushes, daubed with slime, and pitch, placed on the banks of the Nile, which swarmed with fierce crocodiles. Pharaoh’s daughter espies it, and sends her maidens to find out what there can be in it. Little Moses was there, with a face of miraculous beauty, to charm the princess of Egypt. She determined to adopt him as her son. Behold, a great wonder. On the brink of the river, where the three great crocodiles—the Devil, Sin, and Death—have devoured their millions, there l
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“The Handwriting.
“The Handwriting.
“When Adam sinned, there was issued against him the writ of death, written by the finger of God in the book of the moral law. Adam had heard it read before his fall, but in seeking to become a god, by eating of the fruit of the tree, had forgotten it. Now God read it in his conscience, and he was overwhelmed with fear. But the promise of a Redeemer having been given, Mercy arranged that sacrifices should be offered as a typical payment of the debt. When God appeared on Sinai, to enter into c
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“Death as an Inoculator.
“Death as an Inoculator.
“Death may be conceived of as a gigantic inoculator. He carries about with him a monstrous box, filled with deadly matter, with which he has infected every child of Adam. The whole race of man is doomed by this law of death. But see! This old inoculator gets paid back in his own coin. The Son of Man, humbling Himself to death, descends into the tomb, but rises immortal. He seized death in Joseph’s grave. But, amazing spectacle! with the matter of His own immortality He inoculated mortalit
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“Time.
“Time.
“Time, considered as a whole, is the age of the visible creation. It began with the fiat, ‘Let there be light;’ and it will end with the words: ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father,’ and ‘Go, ye cursed.’ Each river, and mountain, town, and city, hovel, and palace, every son, and daughter of Adam, must undergo the change, pass away, for whatever is seen is only for a time. The time of restoration, by the presence of the glory of Christ, will be the morning of judgment, and resurrection. That mornin
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“The Timepiece.
“The Timepiece.
“You may move the hands on the dial-plate this way, and the other, and finger as you please the machinery within, but if there be no mainspring there your labour will be in vain. So the ‘hands’ of men’s lives will not move, in holy obedience, at the touch of the law, unless the mainspring be supplied by God through the Gospel; then only will the whole life revolve on the pivot of the love of Christ, as upon an imperishable diamond. It is not difficult to get the timepiece to act well, if the i
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“Parable of the Birds.
“Parable of the Birds.
“A gentleman kept in his palace a dove, a raven, and an eagle. There was but little congeniality, or friendship amongst them. The dove ate its own proper food, and lodged in the aviary. The raven fed on carrion, and sometimes would pick out the eyes of an innocent lamb, and had her nest in the branches of a tree. The eagle was a royal bird; it flew very high, and was of a savage nature; it would care nothing to eat half-a-dozen doves for its breakfast. It was considered the chief of all bir
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“Parable of the Vine-tree, the Thorn, the Bramble, and the Cedar.
“Parable of the Vine-tree, the Thorn, the Bramble, and the Cedar.
“The trees of Lebanon held a council to elect a king, on the death of their old sovereign, the Yew-tree. It was agreed to offer the sovereignty to the Cedar; at the same time, in the event of the Cedar’s declining it, to the Vine-tree, and then to the Olive-tree. They all refused it. The Cedar said, ‘I am high enough already.’ The Vine said, ‘I prefer giving forth my rich juice to gladden man’s heart.’ In like manner, the Olive was content with giving its fruit, and would receive no other h
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“The Resurrection of our Lord.
“The Resurrection of our Lord.
“Let us now consider the fact of our Lord’s resurrection, and its bearing upon the great truths of our holy religion. “This most transcendent of miracles is sometimes attributed to the agency of the Father; who, as the Lawgiver, had arrested, and imprisoned in the grave the sinner’s Surety, manifesting at once His benevolence, and His holiness; but by liberating the prisoner, proclaimed that the debt was cancelled, and the claims of the law satisfied. It is sometimes attributed to the Son Himse
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“‘They drank of that Rock which followed Them.’
“‘They drank of that Rock which followed Them.’
“Having spoken of the smiting , let us, now , look at the result , the flowing of the waters; a timely mercy to ‘the many thousands of Israel,’ on the point of perishing in the desert; shadowing forth a far greater mercy, the flowing of living waters from the ‘spiritual rock,’ which is Christ. “In the death of our Redeemer, we see three infinite depths moved for the relief of human misery: the love of the Father, the merit of the Son, and the energy of the Holy Spirit. These are the depths of w
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SERMON I. The Time of Reformation.
SERMON I. The Time of Reformation.
“ Until the time of reformation .”— Heb . ix. 10. The ceremonies pertaining to the service of God, under Sinaitic dispensation, were entirely typical in their character; mere figures of Christ, the “High-priest of good things to come, by a greater, and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands;” who, “not by the blood of goats, and calves, but by His own blood, has entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Sustaining such a relation to other ages, and even
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SERMON II. The Purification of the Conscience.
SERMON II. The Purification of the Conscience.
“ How much more shall the blood of Christ , who , through the eternal Spirit , offered Himself without spot to God , purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God .”— Heb . ix. 14. The Hebrew Christians, to whom the Apostle wrote, were well acquainted with the laws of ceremonial purification by the blood of beasts, and birds, for by blood almost everything was purified in the service of the Temple. But it is only the blood of Christ that can purge the human conscience. In speak
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SERMON III. Finished Redemption.
SERMON III. Finished Redemption.
“ It is finished .”— John xix. 30. This exclamation derives all its importance from the magnitude of the work alluded to, and the glorious character of the Agent. The work is the redemption of the world; the Agent is God, manifested in the flesh. He who finished the creation of the heavens, and the earth in six days, is laying the foundation of a new creation on Calvary. Four thousand years He has been giving notice of His intention to mankind; more than thirty years He has been personally up
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SERMON IV. The Father and Son Glorified.
SERMON IV. The Father and Son Glorified.
“ Howbeit , when He , the Spirit of Truth , is come , He will guide you into all truth ; for He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever He shall hear , that shall He speak ; and He will show you things to come . He shall glorify me : for He shall receive of mine , and shall show it unto you . All things that the Father hath are mine ; therefore , said I , that He shall take of mine , and shall show it unto you .”— John xvi. 13–15. The wonderful Providence, which brought the children of Isr
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SERMON V. The Cedar of God.
SERMON V. The Cedar of God.
“ Thus saith the Lord God : I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar , and will set it ; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one , and plant it upon a high mountain and eminent ; in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it : and it shall bring forth boughs , and bear fruit , and be a goodly cedar ; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell ; and all the trees of the field shall know th
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A Sermon on the Welsh Hills.
A Sermon on the Welsh Hills.
He once preached from the text, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” “Oh, my dear brethren,” he said, “why will you pay no attention to your best Friend? Why will you let Him stand knocking, night and day, in all weathers, and never open the door to Him? If the horse-dealer, or cattle-drover came, you would run to open the door to him, and set meat, and drink before him, because you think to make money by him—the filthy lucre that perishes in the using. But when the Lord Jesus stands kn
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