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
“In reading the 91st Psalm, I perceive that he who dwelleth in the
secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty; and that is so safe a place, and so impenetrable a
protection, that the arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence
that walketh in darkness, with the sting of the serpent, the asp, and
the viper, cannot hurt or injure him who hath made it his refuge. It
is by faith, I hope, that I have gathered together all my jewels, and
placed them under the shadow of safety that is in God. I have given
my name anew to Christ, my body, my talents, my facility in
preaching,—my name, and character as a man, a Christian, and as a
preacher of the Gospel; my time, the remainder of my preaching
services, my success, my wife, and all my friends, and helpers in the
cause of the Lord, for whom I earnestly pray that they may be blessed
in Anglesea, Caernarvonshire, Caerphilly, Cardiff, and all the
churches in Wales, many of which have helped me in my day.”
CHAPTER X.
_CAERNARVON AND LAST DAYS_.
Leading a Forlorn Hope again—More Chapel Debts—A Present of a Gig—Jack,
_bach_!—The One-eyed Man of Anglesea once more—The Old Man’s Reflections
in his Journal—Characteristic Letters on Church Discipline—Threescore
Years and Twelve—Starts on his Last Journey to liquidate a Chapel Debt—An
Affecting Appeal to the Churches—Laid up at Tredegar—Conversations—In
Swansea—This is my Last Sermon—Dying—Last Words—“Good-bye! Drive on!”
The last field of the great, good man’s pastorate was Caernarvon; thither
he removed when about sixty-seven years of age. It might be thought,
that after such a hard, and exhausting life of travel, and toil, some
plan might have been devised, by which his last days should be passed in
restfulness, and peace; but it was not to be so: throughout his life, his
had been up-hill work, no path of roses, no easy way; and, indeed, we
usually know that such spheres are reserved for men who can carry nothing
with them but the weight of dignified dulness. Of every sphere, from his
first settlement at Lleyn, we read, that the cause was in a prostrate
condition; and so, here, Christmas Evans appears to have been invited to
take the charge of the Caernarvon church because it consisted of about
thirty members, chiefly of the lowest class, of course quarrelling, and
disunited. The dissolution of the church was advised. There was a
fairly respectable place of worship, but it was £800 in debt, apparently,
to us, in these days, not a very large sum, but a sum of considerable
importance in Wales, and especially in that day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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