Sermons of Christmas Evans. Evans Christmas
proceeds, and by what means it has been procured; – has it been expensive to some one, seeing it is free for us?”
Once more: —
“I compare such preachers to a miner, who should go to the quarry where he raised the ore, and taking his sledge in his hand, should endeavor to form bars of iron of the ore in its rough state, without a furnace to melt it, or a rolling-mill to roll it out, or molds to cast the metal, and conform the casts to their patterns. The gospel is like a form or mold, and sinners are to be melted, as it were, and cast into it. ‘But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you,’ 10 or into which you were delivered, as is the marginal reading, so that your hearts ran into the mold. Evangelical preachers have, in the name of Christ, a mold or form to cast the minds of men into; as Solomon, the vessels of the temple. The Sadducees and Pharisees had their forms, and legal preachers have their forms; but evangelical preachers should bring with them the ‘form of sound words,’ so that, if the hearers believe, or are melted into it, Christ may be formed in their hearts – then they will be as born of the truth, and the image of the truth will appear in their sentiments and experience, and in their conduct in the church, in the family, and in the neighborhood. Preachers without the mold, are all those who do not preach all the points of the gospel of the grace of God.”
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 associational 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 constitution; 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, multitudes claimed him as their father in Christ. “In his day the Baptist associations acquired their great popularity, and in his day arose a number of the most respectable ministers ever known in the principality.” 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. 11 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, illustrative of his views, not only of the right kind of pulpit ministration, but also of the injurious influence and tendency of the principal theological controversies which during his day agitated the Baptist churches in the principality 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 class 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 distinguishing 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 passes the field; and towards Merionethshire, they will inquire, ‘Dost thou know any thing about Sandemanianism?’ and in other districts they will ask, ‘Dost thou know something about Williamsism 12 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 embarrassed by two circumstances:
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 compass 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 assembly. 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 illustration; 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 publishing 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, constitute a sufficient guarantee for the general correctness of the following translation. It lays no claim to perfection, though it
Rom. vi. 17.
The eighteenth.
Dr. Edward Williams, of Rotherham, author of some abstruse inquiries on the Divine Sovereignty.