Christmas Evans, the Preacher of Wild Wales: His country, his times, and his contemporariesHood, Edwin Paxton
History
Christmas Evans, the Preacher of Wild Wales: His country, his times, and his contemporaries
Hood, Edwin Paxton
Evans, Christmas, 1766-1838
Few things we know of are more sad than this story. “It was an affecting
sight,” says Mr. William Morgan, quoted by Mr. Rhys Stephen in his
Memoir, “to see the aged man, who had laboured so long, and with such
happy effects, leaving the sphere of his exertions under these
circumstances; having laboured so much to pay for their meeting-houses,
having performed so many journeys to South Wales for their benefit,
having served them so diligently in the island, and passed through so
many dangers; now some of the people withheld their contributions, to
avenge themselves on their own father in the Gospel; others, while
professing to be friends, did little more; while he, like David, was
obliged to leave his city, not knowing whether he should ever return to
see the ark of God, and his tabernacle in Anglesea again. Whatever
misunderstanding there was between Mr. Evans, and some of his brethren,
it is clear that his counsels ought to have been received with due
acknowledgment of his age, and experience, and that his reputation should
have been energetically vindicated. I am of opinion, I am quite
convinced, that more strenuous exertions should have been made to defend
his character, and to bear him, in the arms of love, through the archers,
and not to have permitted him to fall in the street without an advocate.”
The whole aim of Mr. Evans’s life, as far as we have been able to read
it, was to get good from heaven, in order that he might do good on earth.
Clearly, he never worked with any hope of a great earthly reward for any
personal worthiness; perhaps there arose a sense that he had always been
unjustly remunerated, that burdens had been laid upon him he ought not to
have been called upon to bear; and now the sense of injustice sought, as
is so frequently the case, to vindicate itself by ingratitude. It seems
so perpetually true, in the sad record of the story of human nature, that
it is those who have injured us who seek yet further to hurt us.
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 Daughter—His Preaching characterised—The
Power of the Refrain in the Musician and the Preacher, “Unto us a Child
is born.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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