Part 7 (1/2)

Christmas Evans was in labors more abundant than any of his Welsh contemporaries. We have stated in the memoir, that while in Anglesea, he frequently preached five times a day, and walked twenty miles. During his ministry, he made forty journeys from North to South Wales, and preached one hundred and sixty-three a.s.sociational sermons. It is wonderful that his extensive travels and arduous labors did not hurry him to the grave before he had lived out half his days. But he had a firm and vigorous const.i.tution; and having borne the burden and the heat of the day, the Master sustained him in the vineyard till the setting of the sun.

And his labors were as successful as they were extensive. ”The sound of heaven,” remarks his friend ”was to be heard in his sermons. He studied his discourses well; he 'sought to find out acceptable words, even words of truth;' and the Holy Ghost attended his ministry in an extraordinary manner.”

Few men of modern times have had a more numerous spiritual family than he. Wherever he went, throughout all Wales, mult.i.tudes claimed him as their father in Christ. ”In his day the Baptist a.s.sociations acquired their great popularity, and in his day arose a number of the most respectable ministers ever known in the princ.i.p.ality.” Some of them were his own converts, and many of them had their talents inspired and their zeal inflamed under his powerful ministry. ”Life and evangelical savor,”

said one of them, ”attend Christmas Evans, wherever he is.” ”None of us,” said another, ”understand and comprehend the full extent of his usefulness.” The celebrated Robert Hall mentioned his talents in terms of high commendation, and ranked him among the first men of his age. A Congregational clergyman, who was well acquainted with him, speaks of him as follows:-

”He is a connecting link between the beginning and the ending of this century. {74} He has the light, the talent, and the taste of the beginning, and has received every new light that has appeared since.

He was enabled to accompany the career of religious knowledge in the morning, and also to follow its rapid strides in the evening. In this he is unlike every other preacher of the day: the morning and evening light of this wonderful century meet in him. He had strength to climb up to the top of Carmel in the morning, and remain there during the heat of the day, and see the fire consuming the sacrifice and licking up the water; his strength continued, by the hand of the Lord, so that he could descend from the mount in the evening, and run without fainting before the king's chariot to Jezreel.”

We conclude this brief and somewhat imperfect portraiture with the following characteristic paragraph from the pen of Mr. Evans, ill.u.s.trative of his views, not only of the right kind of pulpit ministration, but also of the injurious influence and tendency of the princ.i.p.al theological controversies which during his day agitated the Baptist churches in the princ.i.p.ality of Wales:-

”I consider that a remarkable day has begun upon Wales. The dawn of this day was with Vavasor Powell and Walter Caradork; the former amongst the Baptists and the latter amongst the Independents (Congregationalists). Several churches were gathered in both denominations in the twilight of morning. But when Rowlands and Harris rose-it was the sunrising of this revival day. Mr. Jones, of Pontypool, was one of the sons of the sunrising. About ten or eleven o'clock, a host of Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists, and Congregationalists, arose; and among this cla.s.s I had the honor of entering the field. The day was warm-the sermons and prayers were short, and the doctrine was evangelical. But I have reached the evening, and the day is greatly cooled. Power, tenderness, and the cross of Christ, marked the sermons in the morning; but length and tediousness are the distinguis.h.i.+ng features of the prayers and sermons in the evening. It was too warm to preach two hours in the heat of the day. It appears, also, that talents are become much weaker and more effeminate as the evening spreads its shades. Beyond a doubt, the preaching of intricate points-something like questions concerning the law, and endless genealogies, have been the means of cooling the work and the workmen in the evening of the day. They will now lift up their heads and talk to every traveller that pa.s.ses the field; and towards Merioneths.h.i.+re, they will inquire, 'Dost thou know any thing about Sandemanianism?' and in other districts they will ask, 'Dost thou know something about Williamsism {75} and Fullerism?' and in consequence you may see young doctors many, springing up, talking like learned Lilliputians. 'Some say that Christ died for all, and others that it was for his church he died; but the truth is this,' said the Lilliputians: 'he did not die for any man, _but for the sin of all men_.' I was there also on the great platform of this period, but I dared not condemn all systems by a sweeping sentence of infallibility, and take the bagpipe under my arm, as some were disposed to do, and cry down every new voice without proving it. 'Prove all things.'”

SERMONS OF CHRISTMAS EVANS.

A New translation from the Welsh.

INTRODUCTION.

IN presenting to the public a selection from the sermons of Christmas Evans, we find ourselves embarra.s.sed by two circ.u.mstances:

First.-It is impossible to exhibit on paper the peculiarly forcible elocution of the author. Some of the most effective discourses ever delivered seem comparatively powerless when perused afterward in private.

This observation is verified in the case of the two most remarkable pulpit orators of modern times, George Whitefield and John Summerfield.

Their spoken eloquence was like the breathings of the seraphim, but their printed sermons are of no very extraordinary character. Like them, Mr.

Evans was much indebted, for his success, to a very popular and powerful delivery. His appearance in the pulpit was fine and commanding; his voice, one of unrivalled compa.s.s and melody; his gesticulation, always easy, appropriate, and forcible; and when he warmed under the inspiration of his theme, his large bright eye shot fire through the a.s.sembly. But the sermons are now divested of all these auxiliary accompaniments; and without the prophet before us, we may wonder at the effects attributed to his message. The following selections will give the reader at least a tolerable idea of Mr. Evans' modes of thought and ill.u.s.tration; but if he would have any adequate conception of the splendid phantasmagora in process of exhibition, he must imagine the burning lamp within the scenes.

But the greater difficulty is the impossibility of a perfect translation.

Genius is proverbially eccentric. Mr. Evans' style is altogether unique.

The structure of his sentences is very original. None of his countrymen approximated his peculiar mode of expression. It would be exceedingly difficult for any man, however well qualified to translate other Welsh authors, to render him into English, with the preservation, everywhere, of his spirit. The writer at first thought of publis.h.i.+ng a selection from his sermons as translated by J. Davis; but upon examination, that translation was found so faulty, that it was deemed expedient, if possible, to produce a new. In pursuance of this purpose he obtained the aid of a friend, whose excellent literary taste, and accurate acquaintance with both languages, const.i.tute a sufficient guarantee for the general correctness of the following translation. It lays no claim to perfection, though it is at least free from the most obvious and glaring faults of Mr. Davis' version. Some of the nicest shades of thought are inevitably lost, and many of the startling metaphors and splendid allegories have doubtless suffered some diminution of their original force and beauty; but the writer trusts that enough of the author's spirit is retained to furnish a pretty correct idea of his talents, and render the book acceptable to the reader.

With these apologetic remarks, we commit the sermons of Christmas Evans to the press; praying that they may be accompanied with something of the same Divine unction, as when, in their original delivery by the author, they ”set the land of Cambria on fire.'”

JOSEPH CROSS.

_Philadelphia_, May 30, 1846.

SERMON I.

THE TIME OF REFORMATION.

”_Until the time of reformation_.”-Heb. ix. 10.

THE ceremonies pertaining to the service of G.o.d under the Sinaic dispensation were entirely typical in their character; mere figures of Christ, the ”High-priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands;” who, ”not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, has entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Sustaining such a relation to other ages and events, they were necessarily imperfect, consisting ”only in meats and drinks, and divers was.h.i.+ngs, and carnal ordinances,”

not intended for perpetual observance, but imposed upon the Jewish people merely ”until the time of reformation,” when the shadow should give place to the substance, and a Greater than Moses should ”make all things new.”

Let us notice the time of reformation, and the reformation itself.

I. Time may be divided into three parts; the Golden Age before the fall, the Iron Age after the fall, and the Messiah's Age of Jubilee.

In the Golden Age, the heavens and the earth were created; the garden of Eden was planted; man was made in the image of G.o.d, and placed in the garden to dress and to keep it; matrimony was inst.i.tuted; and G.o.d, resting from his labor, sanctified the Seventh Day, as a day of holy rest to man.