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
“Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. And when
he saw Jesus he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud
voice said, ‘What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God most
high? I beseech Thee, torment me not.’
“Here is the devil’s confession of faith. The devils believe and
tremble, while men make a mock of sin, and sport on the brink of
eternal ruin. To many of the human race, Christ appears as a root
out of dry ground. They see in Him neither form nor comeliness, and
there is no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. Some said He
was the carpenter’s son, and would not believe in Him; others said He
had a devil, and that it was through Beelzebub, the chief of the
devils, that He cast out devils: some cried out, ‘Let Him be
crucified;’ and others said, ‘Let His blood be on us and on our
children.’ As the Jews would not have Him to reign over them, so
many, who call themselves Christians, say that He is a mere man; as
such, He has no right to rule over their consciences, and demand
their obedience, adoration, and praise. But the devils know
better—they say, Jesus is the Son of God most high.
“Many of the children of the devil, whose work they do, differ very
widely from their father in their sentiments respecting the person of
Christ.
“Jesus commanded the legion of unclean spirits to come out of the
man. They knew that out they must go. But they were like
Irishmen—very unwilling to return to their own country. They would
rather go into hogs’ skins than to their own country. And He
suffered them to go into the herd of swine. Methinks that one of the
men who fed the hogs, kept a better look out than the rest of them
and said, ‘What ails the hogs? Look sharp there, boys—keep them
in—make good use of your whips! Why don’t you run? Why, I declare,
one of them has gone over the cliff! There, there, Morgan, goes
another! Drive them back, Tom.’ Never was there such a running, and
whipping, and hallooing; but down go the hogs, before they are aware
of it.
“One of them said, ‘They are all gone!’
“‘No, sure not all gone into the sea!’
“‘Yes, every one of them, the _black hog_ and all. They are all
drowned! the devil is in them! What shall we do now? What can we
say to the owners?’
“‘What can we say?’ said another; ‘we must tell the truth—that is all
about it. We did our best—all that was in our power. What could any
man do more?’
“So they went their way to the city, to tell the masters what had
happened.
“‘John, where are you going?’ exclaimed one of the masters.
“‘Sir, did you know the demoniac that was among the tombs there?’
“‘Demoniac among the tombs! Where did you leave the hogs?’
“‘That madman, sir—’
“‘Madman! Why do you come home without the hogs?’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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