So they went together to the chapel, and during an eminently prosy sermon began to rock on their seats, to moan and utter exclamations. The influence spread, and presently the whole congregation swayed and cried out, “Glory be to God!” at the preacher’s platitudes. Then, little by little, the agitation of spirits affected him--his voice rose to a cry, and sank and thrilled; he flamed, he flung about his arms; finally, he howled. Thenceforth all was animation and unction in Bethesda. We may doubt whether the Catholic Church ever gained as firm a hold over the Welsh people as it did over the English. The best benefices were generally given to English or to foreign ecclesiastics who did not understand a word of the vernacular of the people, and the poor cures were cast to hedge-priests who were both ignorant and immoral; such livings as were in Welsh hands were very indifferently served, as the churches belonged to several people, in or out of Orders, as has been already shown. The Reformation did not at all mend matters. During the Tudor period, it is true, the Church did hold the affection of the Welsh people, and was, for upwards of a century, ruled by bishops who were Welsh in name and tongue. But evil days followed. Bishoprics and livings were given to Englishmen who did not know Welsh, and who often were nonresident. The revenues of the Church were drained into the pockets of English pluralists and men who ostentatiously neglected their duties. With the Methodist Revival the Welsh found themselves masters of their own religion; they could form communities for themselves, invent their own creeds, and accommodate the worship to their own idiosyncrasies. Although the Welsh are an emotional people, they are a clear and hard-headed people as well. They have passed through the period of hysterical religion, and a preacher who is acceptable must be one who is worth listening to because he has something to say. He must be, not a man of frothy eloquence, but one who has read and thought. One of the drawbacks of the Church in Wales is that ministers who have proved themselves to be more or less failures in their sects have been too much in the habit of coming over to the Church and seeking ordination, in the hopes of being coddled and applauded as “‘verts,” and being put into benefices; and the bishops have shown too ready a disposition to receive them.