should preach until he had received academical training. Of this law Mr. Davies was afterwards heard to complain; saying, it had deprived his church of the two greatest men it had ever produced, namely, Christmas Evans and the Rev. David Davies, afterwards a minister at Mynydd-bach, near Swansea, eminent for his eloquence and zeal, the publisher of a useful edition of the bible in Welsh, with brief notes appended to each chapter. These two young men commenced preaching within a week of each other, their first sermons being delivered in a cottage occupied by a tailor, in the parish of Llangeler, Caermarthenshire. Christmas preached frequently on both sides of the Teivy, and received considerable encouragement from the Rev. Mr. Perkins, then independent minister at Pencader, who frequently put him in his pulpit and evinced a kindly sympathy with the friendless and aspiring young man. His recollections of this period are perfectly characteristic of the man, and expressive of the tenderness of conscience, and the care and solicitude of his preparations for the pulpit, which distinguished him to the end of his life. He candidly confesses that his first sermon was taken from Beveridge's "Thesaurus Theologicus," borrowed, probably, from his pastor. A Mr. Davies, an intelligent man, a farmer, heard it, and was much surprised to hear such a sermon from a poor boy. In a week's time, however, Mr. Davies had seen the book, and the sermon in it; and Christmas Evans's reputation was gone. Still," the good man charitably added, "I have some hope of the son of 'Samuel the shoemaker,' because the prayer was as good as the sermon." This gave Christmas Evans no great assistance, for he had actually taken that also from a collection of prayers by the celebrated clergyman Griffith Jones of Llanddowror. Such and so humble was the commence ment of that ministry, which afterwards became so mightily influential and proved of such extensive and enduring advantage to the churches of Wales. In after life no man disapproved plagiarism more than he; that is to say, the wholesale appropriation of other men's labours; but the use of all good and striking thoughts, wherever heard or read, was what he constantly and earnestly urged upon his younger brethren. During these earliest years of his preaching, he was in frequent agony of mind in reference to his own condition before God. This is, we apprehend, to be traced, in some degree, to the "uncertain sound" given forth by the ministry he had most attended. The tendency of that ministry to induce self-righteousness was constantly counteracted by his own consciousness of guilt and corruption. He frequently considered himself, he says, “a little hell," while he had the highest opinion of other Christians, and especially of every minister. He was thus, he gratefully records the fact, preserved from the indurating influences of the low and legal Arminianism that prevailed amongst his first religious connexions. During this period he occasionally heard the celebrated David Morris, father of the still more celebrated Ebenezer Morris, both very eminent ministers of the Calvinistic methodist connexion, and he acknowledges his great obligations to Mr. Morris's preaching. One can conceive how the clear and unmistakeable manner in which these great men preached the doctrine of justification, must interest, instruct, and expand the mind and heart of the young presbyterian. The itinerating ministry of the Rev. Peter Williams, Jones of Llangan, and T. Davies of Neath, he also attended upon, and with the same happy result, as often as opportunity occurred. During the same period he became acquainted with certain members of the baptist church in the village of Llandysul; and to his intercourse with them he always referred with marked gratification and thankfulness. They, by the simplicity of their spirit and the richness of their scriptural knowledge, strongly attracted his attention to the great doctrines of the gospel, and prepared him for the change in his connexions and position which soon ensued. A man named Amos, a member of the church at Llwynrhydowain, who had recently left that communion and joined the baptist church at Aberduar, visited Christmas Evans; the latter, with his usual simplicity, says, "I had always regarded the baptists as anabaptists, as re-baptizing, and from my infancy had always heard them called anabaptists, nor had I ever understood that any man of my condition had searched the bible for himself to ascertain what baptism it enjoined. In the controversy with my old friend I was pressed severely, so that I was beaten ; but this I attributed to my ignorance; I therefore carefully examined the scriptures to mark down every passage that mentioned infant baptism, for I believed there were hundreds of such there. But after a careful perusal, I was terribly disappointed to find none of that character there. I met with the circumcision of children, the naming of children, the nurture and admonition of children in the fear of the Lord, and gracious promises to call children princes in the stead of their father; but not one verse about the baptizing of infants. While, on the other hand, I met with about forty passages all giving their obvious suffrages in favour of baptism on a profession of repentance and faith. These passages spoke to my conscience, and convinced me of the necessity of obedience to the baptism ordained by Christ, who called upon me to give him personal obedience; when, after some contest between flesh and spirit, obedience and disobedience, I applied to the church at Aberduar, where I was in due time received. I was then about twenty years and six months old. "There was a great revival in Aberduar at this time; scores were added to the church, and there was much excitement in the public services. This greatly astonished me, for I had known little of religious enjoyment. I had felt something of the kind once by preaching in company with a Methodist who was kind to me, and that freshness of spirit had remained some time upon me. But now with my new friends I looked at myself as 'a speckled bird,' as I did not feel what they seemed to feel, and I was filled with most depreciatory thoughts of myself. I was brought soon to preach in company with other preachers, and I found them altogether better and godlier preachers than I was; I could feel no influence, no virtue in my own sermons. It occurred to me that this might be owing to my habit of committing my sermons carefully to memory, and that I thus superseded the divine aid; while I supposed other preachers had theirs direct from heaven. I accordingly changed my plan, and would take a text and preach from it without preparation, saying whatever would come uppermost at the time; but if it was bad before, it now was still worse, for I had neither sense, nor warmth, nor life; but some weakly intonation of voice that affected no one. It was painful to me to hear my own voice in prayer or in preaching, as it seemed to proceed from a hard heart. I travelled much in this condition, thinking every preacher a true preacher but myself; nor had I any confidence in the light I had upon scripture. I considered everybody to be before myself, and was frequently tortured with fears that I was still a graceless man. I have since seen God's goodness in all this, for thus was I kept from falling in love with my own gifts, which has happened to many young men, also on account of the old feelings of and has been their ruin." despondence and fear which yet occasionally troubled me; still I was obliged to believe, and it was wondrous in my eyes." He arrived in this neighbourhood about the middle of the year 1789, and early in 1790 he was ordained to the pastoral office; this took place at meeting-house called Salem, and the officiating ministers were Messrs. John Evans of Roe and Thomas Morris of Anglesea. During the same year he was united in marriage to Catherine Jones, a member of the church under his care. She was a young woman of strong mind, with much aptitude for theology, and proved herself a helpmeet to him for many years. His labours here, amongst a very poor people and extended over a large neighbourhood, calling him out in all weathers and keeping him out from his home, night after night, and for a remuneration that barely sufficed to procure him and his wife the veriest necessaries of life, were abundantly blessed. A special benediction rested upon him; "a breeze from the New Jerusalem," he writes, many years afterwards, "descended upon me and on the people, and many were awakened to eternal life." During the first year he baptized fifty persons, and not less than eighty sought for church-membership, as the result of his ministry in the course of the second. In his twenty-third year he attended an association meeting at Maesyberllan in Breconshire, where he met several ministers from North Wales, and especially Messrs. Thomas Morris and John R. Jones of Ramoth. These brethren represented to him the great necessity there was for additional preachers in the north, and earnestly besought him to accompany them thither. This, with much fear he consented to do; and behold him leaving his native district for the first time, and "going forth, not knowing whither he went." "I went," he says, "with them through Merionethshire, and then proceeded into Caernarvonshire, and preached wherever I might, till I got down into the extreme corner of the country called Lleyn. The baptists there were few and poor; they, however, besought me to spend some time amongst them, which I did. Immediately I experienced a remarkable change in my views and feelings: this referred to these particulars confidence in prayer; a care for the cause of Christ; and new or additional light on the plan of salvation." In a note on the margin of his MS. he adds, exegetically, "I then felt that I died to the law; abandoned all hope of preparing myself to apply to the Redeemer; and realized the life of faith and dependence on the righteousness of Christ for my justification." The happy consequence was that he experienced a strange facility and power in his ministry, while his own doubts and fears were dispersed, giving way to repose and assurance, and finding "peace and joy in believing." He found it difficult to believe the testimony of those who applied for membership when they attributed their conversion to his ministry, "because," he observes, "I had been for three years preaching and had never received any intimation that one sinner had been converted, and The success of the first year was not continued; that of the second year was, in good part, lost to his connexions by the addition, from under his ministry, made to the Methodists. This discouraged him considerably. He was not satisfied with the character and spirit of the leaders of his own congregation; and all these things combined, he felt himself prepared to leave. One John Jones of Nantglyn, in Anglesea, came to Lleyn to invite Mr. Evans to that island; and this the latter regarded as a providential intimation. | divisions, to cry for mercy and the "I and my wife went to Anglesea," he records, "on a day of heavy snow, about Christmas time:" this would be in the year 1792. It should, perhaps, be recorded that the pecuniary temptation to go to Anglesea was "a promise of seventeen pounds a-year!" This he mentions in his MS. without any remark; appearing to think it was all that, at the time, the people could give him; and this is, probably, the truth. The sentence has a significant close; he says that Mr. John Jones promised him seventeen pounds a-year "for serving Anglesea;" i. e., the whole island; meaning, of course, all the baptists of the island. They were not numerous, separated into several small societies, and maintaining an intimate connexion with each other. They thus invited him to take the pastoral charge of the whole; as also their ministerial charge, with such helps as the few preaching brethren amongst them might afford. To Christmas Evans, and in the history of the baptist denomination in Anglesea, this was an important epoch, and in respect to the latter, its consequences are still far from being exhausted. His crossing the Menai Straits on the Christmas day of 1792 appeared, at the time, a most trivial event; but it was one link in a chain that was to embrace multitudinous occurrences of vast interest and grave issues, involving the consolidation and extension of the cause of Christ, and the conversion of many souls to God. Thus it is that "the smallest thing rises into consequence when regarded as the commencement of what has advanced, or is advancing, into magnificence." He found the state of things in his new charge to be of the most discouraging nature. His first step was very characteristic: he exhorted all the members to keep a day of fasting and prayer, to humble themselves before God on account of the sin of their restored light of his countenance. A meeting of this character was held at Llanerchymedd. "After that meeting," he observes, "it pleased the Lord to bless us, to increase our hearers, and to bring many to Christ." Mr. Evans then divided the island into four districts, so that by preaching at three places every Lord's day, he might be able to visit every little band of disciples, and hold a sabbath service once a month. To this he added untiring labours during the week :-visiting the people at these great distances, keeping church-meetings, attending to all the church affairs, and, soon afterwards, looking out for sites for places of worship; getting money-borrowing it, of course-to erect these "houses of prayer," and burdening himself with much of the labour connected with the superintendence of such work, and with all the care. "The burden of the day" he resolutely bore, and "the heat thereof" he as courageously endured, satisfied, yea, more than satisfied, when the Head of the church vouchsafed to smile upon his spirit, and make his labours a blessing. His poverty was at this time great, so great that he distinctly specifies the necessity he was under to print a small pamphlet occasionally, that he might get a few pounds for his inevitable expenses, and then to go from home to sell his little book. "It pleased God," he piously observes, "to bring two benefits out of my poverty; one was the extension of my ministry, so that I became almost as well known in one part of the principality as the other; and secondly, he gave me the favour and the honour to be the instrument of bringing many to Christ, through all the counties of Wales, from Presteign to St. David's, and from Cardiff to Holyhead.” In 1794, during Christmas Evans's journey through the south, he attended the association at Velinfoel, in Caermar thenshire. All bodies of dissenters in On such occasions very large congregations would frequently assemble, the preacher would have to address thousands of human beings; it is keeping quite within compass to say, that John Elias, Ebenezer Morris, William Williams, Christmas Evans, and other excellent men, their contemporaries and coadjutors, many times addressed congregations varying from two to fifteen thousand. This was always at the very beginning of the summer, with the green sward under foot, and the blue heavens above! In this instance, at Velinfoel, Mr. Evans was to preach at the morning meeting, which commenced at ten o'clock. The day was very sultry, and two good brethren were to preach before him; the second in English. The latter was long, or seemed to be long; and when Mr. Evans was to begin his discourse the people seemed wearied and jaded. His subject was the return of the prodigal son; as he proceeded, one man, who had sat down on the grass, got up here, another there; the people closed in together about the platform, looked hard at the preacher, nodded approvingly to each other, wondered, felt, wept, wept aloud, at once with joy and sorrow; powerful emotions were produced that continued through all the remaining services, and remained in many hearts for their everlasting salvation. This was his first introduction to South Wales of so prominent a character; and it made the name of Christmas Evans, "the one-eyed man," common "as household words." the principality hold annual meetings, which they call associations. Among the independents and baptists these are unions of a certain number of churches; and the annual meeting has the double purpose of transacting business in conference, members of churches and ministers alone being present; and of preaching to the inhabitants of that particular neighbourhood. The preaching is always in the open air, if the weather permits. A large scaffolding is erected in a field, or on the mountain side; on this the officiating preacher stands, surrounded by the other ministers who attend and other friends; and thence he addresses the congregation. The feeling formerly induced by the approach of such a meeting in the locality where it was to be held, was thoroughly jubilant; and assiduous preparations were made so as to be able to abstain from labour during the two days of the association, and "to entertain strangers." These hospitalities were not confined to the members of the particular denomination whose forces were to assemble, but cheerfully exercised by persons of all communities and of none. It was a common thing for the clergyman of the parish to have open house, and readily to entertain those that were sent to him. A truce was now given to all religious differences; and I have been once and again told by a kindly officious brother, directing me to my lodgings, Please to remember that your host is a pædobaptist," lest I might inconsiderately introduce the disputed question! To be concluded next month. RESULT OF FIFTY YEARS' LABOUR IN BENGAL. PART II, ADDRESSED TO THE ASSOCIATED CHURCHES BY THE RESIDENT MISSIONARIES. FROM the preceding remarks, we would hope, dear brethren, that you are now prepared to receive some practical sug gestions, in reference to your carrying on the cause of the Redeemer in this land. First, then, we will speak of what |