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
The few glimpses we are able to obtain of the life and ministry in
Anglesea, assure us of the supreme influence obtained by Christmas Evans,
as was natural, over all the Churches of his order throughout that
region. And in a small way, in a circle far removed from the noise of
ideas, and the crowds and agitations of the great world, incessant
activity was imposed upon him,—so many Societies under his care, so many
meeting-houses to be erected, and funds to be procured for their
erection, so many cases of Church discipline, so many co-pastors
appointed, and set apart to work with him—who, however, were men mostly
in business, had their own domestic affairs to manage, and for all the
help they could give, needed helping and guidance; who had to receive
instructions from him as to what they were to do, and whither they were
to go,—so that, in fact, he was here, in Anglesea, a pastor of pastors, a
bishop, if ever any pastor deserved that designation; an overseer of many
Churches, and of many ministers. And hence, as a matter of course, in
all ministerial meetings, and other smaller gatherings, he was usually at
once not merely the nominal president, but the presiding spirit.
Rhys Stephen suggests a good many ludicrous aspects to the monthly
meetings, and other such gatherings; indeed, they were of a very
primitive description, and illustrative of what we should call a very
rude, and unconventional state of society. Order was maintained,
apparently, very much after the patriarchal or patristic fashion. All
the preachers he called by their Christian names, and he would certainly
have wondered what stranger happened to be in the place had any one
addressed him as Mr. Evans; “Christmas Evans,” before his face and behind
his back, was the name by which he was known not only throughout all
Anglesea, but, by-and-by, throughout the entire Principality.
Affectionate familiarity sometimes pays the penalty in diminished
reverence, and in a subtraction from the respect due to a higher gift or
superior position. Christmas appears to have been equal to this dilemma,
and to have sustained with great natural dignity the post of Moderator,
without surrendering his claim upon the affection of his colleagues. In
such a meeting, some humble brother would rise to speak a second time,
and, perhaps, not very pointedly, to the question; then the Moderator in
the pulpit, gathering up his brows, would suddenly cut across the speaker
with, “William, my boy, you have spoken before: have done with it;” or,
“Richard, _bach_, you have forgotten the question before the meeting:
hold your tongue.”
On one occasion, a minister from South Wales, although a native of
Anglesea, happening to be present, and rising evidently with the
intention of speaking, Christmas, who suffered no intrusion from the
south into their northern organizations, instantly nipped the flowers of
oratory by crying out, “Sit down, David, sit down.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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