Mr. Evans’ preaching was highly evangelical. “Jesus Christ and him
crucified,” was the alpha and omega of his ministry. The character of
the following sermons fully justifies that remarkable saying upon his
death-bed: “I have never labored without blood in the basin.” Every one
of them is illustrative of some important point in the economy of
salvation. Every one of them tends to humble the sinner, and exalt the
grace of God. Every one of them abounds with lofty views of the Divine
Justice and Mercy.
“It is generally allowed,” observes his friend, “that the people who are
trained by a minister, and moulded by his instructions, are a good
evidence of the tendency of his doctrine and ministry. In this view
then, it is observed, the church where he more statedly labored in
Anglesea, and where the most of his care and efforts were bestowed, were
a people mighty in the Scriptures; that they would converse well and
readily on most of the doctrines of the Christian faith; that they
labored much to improve in knowledge, and were active in the cause of
religion. These nearly all were Mr. Evans’ own people; they were
nurtured by him, and upon his ministerial food they grew to be men, and
were wholly according to the mold of his doctrine. It has been remarked,
‘that if volumes upon volumes were written upon the subject of the
tendency of his ministry, it could never be exhibited to greater
advantage than has been done by himself, in those bright, clear, and
golden letters, which he has inscribed upon the people of his charge at
Llangevni.’”
The following extracts from Mr. Evans contain his views of the
evangelical over the legal style of preaching:—
“While a preacher inculcates duties in any way but with a view to the
promises of mercy, and of undeserved strength, he is more like to a
moral philosopher, than to the apostles and preachers that have been
a blessing unto men, such as Whitefield, and hundreds who have been
in a degree blessed in the same doctrine, and by the same Spirit. It
is not in the duties we are to rest, but in Christ. ‘Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord—that they may rest from their labors, _and
their works follow them_.’ It was not in reliance upon their works
they passed through the river of death, as if presumptuously on a
bundle of rushes, but their works will meet them in the judgment day;
to be weighed there in the balance of the faith and love of Christ;
and they will be there as witnesses on the part of the saints,
bearing testimony that the love of Christ constrained them to live to
him that died for them and was raised again.”
Again:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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