Quotation Revival

“We don’t have revival because the church does not feel the need for revival as it should .... Is it not more reasonable to ask how any of us can read and hear the Word of God without its having any effect upon us? It may be answered: Because we do not consider that it is the Word of God. Because we do not believe that they are words about real things, and not falsehoods and fables.”

Quotation Unction

I'm not sure where this is from . I found it here.

Ministers seem often satisfied with having freedom to speak, and seeing many hearing them with attention and delight; but alas! without experiencing the effects of the power promised to attend the ministry of the gospel, the power necessary to produce a saving change in the sinner. The ministry neither alarms, terrifies nor disturbs ungodly persons who sit under it .... No experimental, thoughtful Christian can deny that God has withdrawn Himself from us, as to the particular operations of His Spirit and the especial manifestation of His grace.

Quotation Bible Reading

From here

A selection of a letter by Rev. John Elias, written to his daughter, Phoebe. He always encouraged her in the things of the Lord in his letters. This letter was written on August 8, 1834:

I am moreover glad that you have pleasure in reading the Bible. It is the tree that sweetens, under God’s blessing, the bitter waters of Marah. The consolation had in the Scriptures, is far superior to any other; there is a well of joy that never fails like others. Strive to look up to Christ by perusing the Bible, in hearing sermons, and in prayer; and run, as the chief of sinners, to him.

John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays, by Edward Morgan,

the Banner of Truth Trust, 1773, p. 201.

Critical review 02

This is the rest of the critical review of Morgan's biography from 1845:

Among the class some of whom we have thus briefly noted, John Elias stood forward in acknowledged, though by no means in such transcendent and indisputable pre-eminence as a preacher, as big exclusive fame in England would seem to imply. In other qualities of character, necessary for a leader and ruler of the people, he was greatly inferior to several of those whose names we have mentioned. We make these remarks, not to deprecate the worth of this great and good man, but to correct a misconception which this volume is adapted to create, - that Mr. Elias was a sort of giant among dwarfs, a solitary form of grandeur and devotion, around which all his brethren, - as if they were at best only men of clever mediocrity, are to be grouped and arranged, in a position of quite submissive and secondary importance. This error of the work has been already kindly rebuked, in an able Welsh periodical, conducted by a number of gentlemen exclusively connected with that body of Christians of which Mr. Elias was so conspicuous an ornament.

With this abatement, however, we have no exceptions to take to the language of eulogy and admiration, in which the subject of this memoir is spoken of throughout its pages. He was indeed a man of whom any country might well be proud - nor is it easy to overrate the importance of the services he rendered to his native land - a man whose name will long be a word of magic significance to the pious mountaineers of Wales. We must refer our readers to the volume before us, for a fuller account of his life and character.

The author of this memoir is a worthy and pious clergyman of the Established Church, whose great simplicity of mind, and catholic liberality of sentiment, cannot fail to commend his labours to our respectful estimation. The anxiety which Mr. Morgan has shown, to rescue the memory of several of his illustrious countrymen from obscurity, is deserving of all admiration; and the zeal, diligence, and conscientiousness, with which he has discharged his biographical duties, are everywhere obviously apparent. Nor can we overlook the utter absence of all sectarian bitterness or bigotry, by which he is distinguished, at a time when so many of his brethren are almost beside themselves with the intoxicating fumes of spiritual and official arrogance. Beyond this, however, our commendations cannot go. We should do violence to our own critical conscience, if we allowed it to be supposed, that Mr. Morgan's other qualifications for the task he has undertaken are equal to his pious ardour and good intentions. - But they are by no means so; and we sympathise, we confess, with the fears, which we know many of our Welsh brethren entertain, that this book will not only convey a very imperfect impression of Mr. Elias's character and preaching to the English public, but will also tend to perpetuate rather than correct the false conception as to the nature of Welsh preaching in general, which we apprehend prevails very extensively in this country. The fact is, that though Mr. Morgan is a most excellent man, and is actuated by the best motives and spirit, he seems to us singularly deficient in faculty, and especially that kind of faculty requisite to apprehend and delineate such a character as John Elias. To transfer to the pages of a book anything like a living picture of a great popular orator, is one of the most difficult of tasks, and rendered, of course, still more so, when it is to be done through the medium of another language. It requires that there should exist between the subject and his biographer at least such points of similarity, as would bring the two minds into some degree of sympathy. But Mr. Morgan's mind, on the contrary, appears to be, in almost all respects, the exact antipode of Mr. Elias's. The contrast, indeed, is almost ludicrous, between the tame, creeping, common-place style of the memoir, and the daring, vehement, fiery spirit of the man whom it professes to commemorate. It is as if one saw the patient, ponderous, slow-paced ox, yoked with the war-horse, whose neck is clothed with thunder, who paweth in the valley and saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha. Mr. Morgan's attempts, therefore, to describe Mr. Elias's preaching and character, consist of little more than vague and impotent exclamations of wonder and admiration, and the specimens he has given of his manner of speaking are both ill-chosen, and most imperfectly represented. As a sample, both of the style and strain of sentiment in which the work is written, we may take the first few sentences of the volume.

"I feel, in entering upon this very important work, my inadequacy and insufficiency. I have frequently, while composing it, sought the Lord's aid and direction. I trust that he has heard my petitions, and favoured me with the guidance of his Spirit, - a blessing which was so much enjoyed by the subject of this memoir. May the following pages be attended with the Divine blessing to the reader! Great and remarkable men have appeared in every period of the Christian church, filling important situations and becoming eminently useful. The Lord is sovereign in thus placing and endowing his servants, as well as in every other work. Very few have been so gifted by him as Elias. He was indeed a rare monument of the Lord's providential care; he was favoured with extraordinary qualifications for the ministry, and made very useful in his day and generation. The memory of the wise, the pious, and the useful, especially such a man as Elias, is truly blessed, and ought to be preserved and made known for the benefit of the present and future generations."

And so twaddles the good Mr. Morgan, through several pages of this book. Happily, however, the volume contains contributions from several pens far better qualified to do justice to the subject, than that of the worthy biographer himself. Especially is there a most spirited and graphic sketch by Mr. Thomas, a gentleman who has gained great celebrity, by winning several high prizes in the Bardic contests of his country.

With all its imperfections, therefore, we venture to recommend the volume to our readers, as being the best because it is the only formal attempt made to convey to the English public some idea of the nature of Welsh eloquence. We trust, indeed, the time is not far distant, when some one competent to the task, will undertake to supply this desideratum, as we have a profound and deliberate conviction, that the art of popular preaching is incomparably better understood and practised among the Welsh, than among ourselves.

Critical review 01

This critical review of Morgan's book on Elias appeared in The Congregationalist in 1845. It begins

A Memoir of the Rev. John Elias. By the Rev. E. Morgan, A.M. Vicar of Apton, Leicestershire, and Author of the Life of the Rev. T. Charles, of Bala, fyc. With an Introductory Essay by the Rev. J. K. Foster, late President of Cheshunt College. 12mo. pp. 216. London: Hughes.

The subject of this memoir was, in many respects, a very remarkable man, and represents a class of remarkable men, with whom, we cannot help wishing, that the English churches had a more intimate and accurate acquaintance. We refer to the great Welsh preachers, the immediate successors of the early Methodists in Wales, whose ministry has, for the last sixty or seventy years, so powerfully stirred the national mind of the Principality, and wrought so extraordinary a change in the moral condition and aspect of their country. We know not, indeed, where to look, at least in modern times, for so convincing an illustration of the power of the pulpit, as an engine of influence over the popular mind, as is presented in the history of the labours and successes of these excellent men. And yet the names of most of them have never been heard in this country. Of those who were the means of commencing that happy reformation in Wales, such as Howel Harris, Rowlands of Llangeitho, Charles of Bala, and other pious clergymen of the Establishment, the English public has occasionally heard. But the permanence and extension of the movement which they originated were secured, not by successors of their own class, who, even when they were pious and evangelical men, rather employed their influence to repress and retard it, because they saw it was diverging at too acute an angle from that model of ecclesiastical decorum, and clerical supremacy, to which they were so fondly wedded, but by a body of men, "chosen out of the people," whose minds were more thoroughly in sympathy with the great bulk of the community, and who, in other respects, were admirably qualified to carry on and perfect the work so happily begun. Shaking themselves free from those trammels of official fastidiousness, to which the clerical leaders of Methodism clung to the last, and overleaping at a single hound the narrow pale of prejudice within which it was thought for a season to restrict their labours, they threw themselves, in perfect freedom of thought and action, and with the whole strength and energy of their character, into the great work of evangelising their country. They went forth into the highways and hedges, and their voices, proclaiming in clear, powerful, trumpet-tones, the message of truth and mercy, were every where heard awakening the echoes of their native mountains, while the people thronged in eager and excited multitudes to listen to that wild and thrilling eloquence. Results the most decisive and gratifying soon became apparent. Powerful revivals, not the product of forced, artificial, mechanical means, but springing from profound and spontaneous spiritual impulses, were seen to heave and agitate whole neighbourhoods, as if shaken with an earthquake. Large churches were gathered where none had previously existed. Rustic sanctuaries sprang up in every corner of the land. A great religious organisation was created, which spread itself over the whole country, and continues to this day to bless, with spiritual irrigation, the mountains and valleys of Wales. It need hardly be remarked that those who were instrumental in accomplishing such results as these, were no common men : we believe them, indeed, to have been most richly and rarely endowed with all qualifications - mental, moral, and spiritual - for the work they were appointed to fulfil: men of massive minds, of eminent piety, of transparent and irreproachable character, of undaunted zeal and courage; and moreover endowed with that contagious earnestness of soul, and commanding power of utterance, which so admirably fitted them to way the minds and thrill the hearts of the vast multitudinous assemblies which they were so often called to address. Such men were Robert Roberts, whose brief and brilliant career was prematurely quenched by an early death, but of whose singular and almost seraphic eloquence the elder people in the Principality still talk with an admiration amounting to rapture; David and Ebenezer Morris, father and son, men of lion hearts, whose presence and voices, even when they stood up amid turbulent and menacing crowds, "wielded at will that fierce democracy;" David Charles, a man of profound and original intellect, not possessing indeed such learning and extended reputation as his more illustrious brother of Bala, but admitted by all who knew them to be naturally of a much higher order of mind ; Ebenezer Richard, who, combining great powers of persuasive and pathetic eloquence, with that native authority of character, and aptitude for government, which give such ascendency over the minds of others, did perhaps more than any other man to organise and consolidate the great Methodist body in South Wales ; William Williams, the wise, large-hearted, noble-minded apostle of Independency in Wales; and Christmas Evans, whom our Baptist brethren had the honour of producing, with his rugged energy, and untamed imagination, weaving its materials sometimes into the wildest and most fantastic combinations, but withal "of wondrous power to chasten and subdue." These and others (a few still living) of scarcely inferior celebrity, have their memories embalmed in the profoundest veneration and gratitude of their countrymen, and their names throughout the whole extent of the Principality, are

"Familiar in men's mouths as household words."

Let not our readers smile to hear men thus spoken of, whose names may perhaps now for the first time meet their eye. Let them believe that wide-spread fame is a matter of accident, at least quite as much as of desert. And if we do not absolutely accept the dictum of the poet that " the world knows nothing of its greatest men," certain it is that in all ages there have been men far more worthy of perennial commemoration than many who have contrived to perk their small reputation into the face of the world, whose names have been hid in comparative obscurity and neglect, carent quia vale sacro.

(To be continued)

Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales

The Banner of Truth have now published the never before translated Tadau Methodistaidd. These two massive volumes narrate the wonderful story of the amazing spiritual transformation that affected Wales between 1735 and 1850. Of particular value is the use the authors make of eye-witness accounts preserved in contemporary diaries, journals and letters. A truly exhilarating read!

The dust wrapper reads:

It was the French novelist Anatole France who, when feeling tired and discouraged, said, “I never go into the country for a change of air and a holiday. I always go instead into the 18th Century.” For an entirely different purpose, the great Welsh preacher, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, frequently borrowed France’s words when speaking to his fellow Gospel preachers: “Go to the 18th Century! In other words read the stories of the great tides and movements of the Spirit experienced in that century. It is the most exhilarating experience, the finest tonic you will ever know. For a preacher it is absolutely invaluable … There is nothing more important for preaching than the reading of Church history and biographies.” His own biographer, Iain Murray, says that for “sheer stimulus and enjoyment there were no volumes which he prized more than Tadau Methodistiaid … the lives of the fathers of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. They were constantly in his hands.”

These stimulating and enjoyable volumes narrate the exciting story of how Wales was spiritually transformed and the men whom God used to accomplish that great work. “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it” (Ps 68:11). In this first volume, which focuses on the revivals experienced in South Wales, we meet the well-known figures of Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris, William Williams of Pantycelyn; but within these wonderful pages are portraits of many lesser-known preachers such as Griffith Jones of Llanddowror, Howell Davies, Peter Williams, and David Jones of Llan-gan. What soon becomes evident in reading this fascinating history is the power of the Holy Spirit over congregations. From small beginnings in homes and farmhouses to great open-air gatherings of many thousands, the sermon became the foremost influence in the life of the nation. Whole neighbourhoods were turned upside-down and whole towns were subdued by the sense of God’s presence. The greatest concern of all at that time was the state of one’s soul before God. The great value of these volumes is the way they take up the words of those most involved in these remarkable events. In journals, diaries, letters and Association minutes they describe a wide range of Christian experience – conviction, repentance, faith and assurance, joy in the Holy Spirit, witness and testimony, conflict with sin and backsliding, restoration and perseverance – all are encountered and described with transparent honesty and humility. Preachers will also greatly value the many experiences here recounted in the work of preaching the gospel – above all the “demonstration of the Spirit and power”.

The first volume deals with South Wales and the second North Wales. In the Second volume two chapters (41 and 42, see pages 633-753) are given over to Elias. There are also a number of illustrations.

The English speaking world is indebted to John Aaron for his massive efforts in translating these fascinating volumes.

Hymn Ai am fy meiau i

I discovered the following hymn here. At first I thought it was by Elias himself and then by a namesake but having looked again I think it is by the man himself. I have attempted a translation. The tune recommended is Cranbrook. it is under the section of the hymn book considering "Angau Crist a'i effeithiau" - Christ's death and its effects.

Ai am fy meiau i
Dioddefodd Iesu mawr,
Pan ddaeth yn ngrym ei gariad Ef
O entrych nef i lawr?

Cyflawnai 'r gyfraith bur,
Cyfiawnder gafodd iawn;
A'r ddyled fawr, er cymaint oedd,
A dalodd Ef yn llawn.

Dioddefodd angau loes,
Yn ufudd ar y bryn;
A'i waed a ylch yr Ethiop du,
Yn làn fel eira gwyn.

Bu 'n angau i'n hangau ni,
Wrth farw ar y pren;
A thrwy ei waed y dygir llu,
Trwy angau, i'r nefoedd wen.

Pan grymodd Iesu ei ben,
Wrth farw yn ein lle,
Agorodd ffordd, pan rwygai 'r llen,
I bur drigfannau 'r ne'.

Gorchfygodd uffern ddu,
Gwnaeth ben y sarph yn friw;
O'r carchar caeth y dygir llu,
Trwy ras, i deulu Duw.

Did he for my mistakes,
Great Jesus, face such plight,
When, in power, his love came down
To earth from heaven's height?

The law so pure he kept
To justice true he stayed;
The massive debt, although so great,
In full he now has paid.

Obedient on the hill,
He suffered death in woe;
His blood the black Eth-iop-ian cleans
As pure as pure white snow.

His death it is our death,
Through his work on the cross;
A legion, because of his blood,
Through death to glory pass.

When dying in our place
He, Jesus, bowed his head,
A way he made, through the rent veil,
To heaven's pure abode.

He conquered a black hell,
The serpent's head he bruised;
Through grace, from jail, to join God's own,
He brought a legion loosed.

On the Roman Catholics

The following is found in Edward Morgan's 'Valuable letters, essays and other papers' of Elias from 1847, the items printed at the close of his biography reprinted by the Banner of Truth in recent years. For some reason this piece is omitted from the latter work.

ON THE ROMAN CATHOLICS
The cause of the Roman Catholics was a matter of great grief to our esteemed friend. He had witnessed a great deal of the evil of Popery in his travels. The consideration of the delusion those poor people laboured under, and the awful situation they were consequently in, must be productive of great distress to such a mind as that of Elias. A letter which he wrote to his son, whilst in London, bears much on the Roman Catholic question. It seems that he went one evening to the House of Commons, and heard much there on this subject, which was of vital importance to him. The letter is dated, London, April 26th, 1826, and will be found at page 46 of this volume (see below). I recommend the re-perusal of it here. It will be seen by this letter how keenly Elias felt on account of Popery; knowing the evil of it, and being convinced that it is the anti-christ mentioned in Scripture, he could not view its existence and progress in this kingdom, but with painful feeling and alarm. There were many good people in and out of Parliament then, who imagined that if the Roman Catholics had the claims granted them, for which they were so anxious, they would be quiet and satisfied; but they found themselves, to their great mortification, mistaken on this, subject; for the Papists became more turbulent and insolent than ever, after obtaining the boon. Elias perceived how the case would be, and could not agree in allowing them to have those liberties, which would enable them to do more mischief, and to increase in the kingdom. His apprehensions have, in this respect, been alas fully verified. Elias was, therefore, much concerned at seeing these measures carried through Parliament: whatever ministry advocated their cause, met with his opposition in that respect. It was the alarm arising from this view of the case that induced him to take an active part on that side of politics which opposed the Hydra of Popery. He had a strong apprehension that they would again prevail to a certain extent. There was nothing of a political nature that distressed him more than the passing of the emancipation bill. When we consider what evils were perpetrated once by Roman Catholics in this kingdom, we cannot but shudder at the facilities granted them for the reassumption of power. How much did they resemble wolves and tigers in their treatment of the sheep of Christ. What a contrast was there between them and those harmless flocks of Christ, which they butchered!

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC QUESTION

London, April 26th, 1825

The Lord kindly continues his support to me; and the Word is attended with some effect. Two females entered the society this week; and there is some stir in the church also; the prayer-meetings are multiplying.
You have seen in the newspaper that there is a great probability that the Papists will gain their point! There are twenty-seven more votes this time in favour of the second reading of the Bill! But who knows from whence deliverance may yet come; it is not even now too late with God. Israel were delivered although the day of their destruction was appointed, and the letters and powers for that end were sealed with the king’s seal! And Mordecai was saved, notwithstanding the gallows were made ready for him. Let us confide in our Lord for ever.
The Duke of York made a remarkable speech yesterday evening, in the House of Lords, against the Papists. I was last night in the House of Commons till near midnight, yet they had not finished when I left: there was a great debate on the Roman Catholic question. Some want all the poor ignorant Papists to have the power of voting for 82 member of parliament. The greatest zeal I ever witnessed, was manifested on both sides of the house: I had some grounds to hope they shall yet be confounded. Those on the side of the Catholics were unable to argue together on the subject. Brougham went on with such a zeal, and became so warm and passionate that the Speaker was obliged to desire him twice to desist; and Plunket, one of the greatest orators in favour of the Papists, told Brougham that there was no sense in his speech, that he had been excited and confused by too much zeal, and that he did more harm than good to the cause, by trying to plead for it. There was such vehemence and excitement in the house, sometimes this side, and sometimes that, that it was fearful to be there.
I was today in a very different place, in a church hearing Mac Neil, a clergyman from Ireland; it was delightful: - he preached a very excellent sermon on Isa. lix. 19. It was a sermon for the Hibernian Society, and it was suitable for the circumstances of the times. He said some remarkable things of Satan, the great enemy, raising up and employing instruments against the church of God ever since the fall of man, - that the Papists have been his chief agents for a long time. Then he dwelt on their false religion, their deceitfulness, and their wrath in Ireland, especially their anger against the truth, against the Bible society, against schools on Bible instructions, and preaching the gospel, and every good on right principles. Then he shewed, to the great joy of the believer, that the spirit of the Lord was promised to put him to flight. I have no time to add. You ask for a long letter, but you do not know how much work your poor father hath to do. I was this week much engaged in a committee of the Bible Society, it was very large; some of them persons of very high rank. I also met the directors of the London Missionary Society another day; they were both very good meetings: and we had delightful news from abroad.

Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge, from Anglesey, engraving by Henry G Gastineau (1791-1876) Published in London - 1829/31

Bala

Llyn Tegid or Lake Bala, engraving by Henry G Gastineau (1791-1876)

Published in London - 1829/31

Church Abererch

Parish Church, Aberererch, where Elias was baptised and attended with his grandfather

Anecdote 2

John Elias once, in conversation with the late Rev. Matthew Wilks, when a Welsh minister was about engaging to deliver the annual missionary sermon, at Surrey Chapel, London, and when consulting about the manner of its delivery, whether it should be read frоm notes or spoken from memory, when Mr. Wilks intimated that he might adopt either, but, by all means, he recommended him to give "as much Welsh fire as was possible." To this remark Mr. Elias replied, "Fire cannot be carried in paper!" This he knew well from his own experience and practice.

On hymn singing

This is an English translation from Edward Morgan of Elias's preface to a book of hymns by Richard Jones Wern that he edited.

Dear Reader

Here is a portion that one of Christ's servants, now in heaven, has left thee. It may be a great inheritance, not only to thee, but also to the Welsh nation for ages. The author served his generation laboriously and faithfully during his life, and he left these godly songs as testamentary gifts for them to enjoy after him.
The work shews the disposition and habit of the author's mind, that he lived near to the Lord, and that his meditations were often engaged with spiritual and eternal things. There are some excellences in poetry that exalt it in some respect above prose composition. It is well adapted to set forth the flights of the mind in meditation, especially on things that engage the affections. Poetical compositions on substantial and useful subjects are profitable to the reader. They are likely to impress the mind and affections, and to cleave to, and remain in the memory. A great portion of the holy Scriptures was composed in a poetical form; which proves that it is proper to compose observations and meditations on parts of of Scripture in the same way, if we take care that they are according to the analogy of faith, and that their tendency is evangelical and godly.
Many of these hymns now presented to the reader are worthy to be sung in divine worship, both public and private. Though we have abundance of godly songs in our language already, yet there is plenty of room for these too. The subjects of praise are so numerous, and the circumstances and experiences of Christians are so various, that it is very desirable to have a variety of spiritual songs, containing words of praise suitable to various subjects and circumstances. This book contains hymns and songs on many subjects, and explanations of many parts of Holy Scripture; it suits the experience of the Christian, in various circumstances - afflictions or deliverances. We find herein songs on various subjects -on God and his perfections; on creation, providence, and salvation; Christ in his person, offices, humiliation, adn exaltation; the Holy Spirit in his work of applying salvation, his grace and gifts in his saints.
I hope tht this book will, under the blessing of God, be of great benefit to the nation for generations; and that many will have joy and edification and God the glory due to his name, by the singing of the excellent hymns contained in this volume. It is the particular duty of every Christian to sing praises to God. It is likely that there is more singing of psalms and hymns in our country in these days than ever there was before. But every one ought to examine himself whether he praises God by singing.
We ought to attend to three things in singing - the tune, the words, and the state of our minds.

(1) The tune, and the proper manner of harmonious singing. In order to sing in unison, and with melody in a congregation, tunes and a proper manner of managing the voice ought to be acquired. We should, in order to sing the praises of God, choose those tunes which are the most suitable to cherish sober and devotional dispositions in the mind, and engage all the powers of the soul. The praise is not contained in the voice and tunes, yet both ought to be adapted to the service of God.

(2) The words of praise; we cannot sing the praises of God in every kind of words. The expression employed to set forth love, reverence, and gratitude to God, which animate the soul, ought to be proper and suitable. The words we use in singing to God's glory, whether in the form of psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs, should be all according to the analogy of faith,agreeing fully with the Word of God; and those who sing the praises of God, ought, at least, to consider and understand the words they sing.

(3) The state of our minds in singing - 'Singing with the Spirit', 'singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord'. It is as necessary to sing to the glory of God, in spirit and truth, as in performing any other part of God's service.
It is evident that the respected author of these hymns lived much in meditation on the subjects of which he sang so delightfully, He is now in heaven, understanding and enjoying those things in a manner we cannot now fully apprehend. May those that read or sing these hymns be led to live more with their affections and meditations on spiritual things, and then they will not, in death, be separated from the subjects of their affections and meditations.
Let us think and sing in the words and take care that the disposition of the mind be suitable to the tenor of the words that the expressions may set forth the melody that is through grace in our hearts to the Lord.

Wikipedia

This article is based on the Wikipedia one.

John Elias was a Christian preacher in Wales in the first half of the 19th Century, as part of the Welsh Methodist revival. His preaching was noted as being exceptionally powerful, "as if talking fire down from heaven". On one occasion it is said he preached to a crowd of 10,000 people. He was a strict High-Calvinist. He came to be known as Y Pab Methodistaidd (The Methodist Pope) because of his forthright views. Despite wide interests, he was a religious conservative opposed to all forms of political radicalism or the popular idea that "the voice of the people was the voice of God".

Brief biography
John Elias was born at Abererch near Pwllheli on May 6, 1774 as John Jones.
For much of his early life he was brought up by his grandfather, and possessed the rare ability at the time to read both Welsh and English from an early age. He was able to read the Welsh Bible when 4 or 5. On Sundays they attended the parish church in the morning, and in the afternoon they would walk long distances together in order to hear Methodist preachers.
The religious impressions of his younger days were deepened by a visit to an association meeting in Bala in 1792. The preaching there persuaded Elias to pursue the things of God. He left home and stayed with Griffith Jones at Penmorfa, Caernarvon, a weaver by trade and also a local preacher. Some weeks before being received into church-fellowship, he conducted family prayers during the absence from home of his master. The news of this spread abroad and caused a stir in the religious circles of the neighbourhood. They marvelled that he should pray in public. Griffith Jones commented "His penetration and importunity in his prayers made us all marvel greatly."
"A day to remember," he wrote, "was that one day - Christmas Day in the year 1794 - when I was received a member of the Monthly Meeting, and permission was given me to preach the Gospel of Christ. I was then only twenty years and six months old, and only one year and three months old as professor of religion."

His progress as a preacher was very rapid. He proved himself to be a gifted young man, a born speaker. His passion also for work was intense. With all his might he laboured night and day in order to make amends for what was lacking in former days.
He was received into the Caernarvonshire Presbytery of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists at Christmas 1794.
Soon after New Year's Day 1799 he moved to Anglesey. On February 22 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Broadhead of Llanbadrig, Anglesey. The couple were happy, loving and deeply sympathetic with one another, they enjoyed a life of sweet companionship for over 29 years, until her death on April 2, 1828. They had four children. Two died in infancy; two survived their father.
In 1830 following his second marriage he moved to Llangefni, where he lived until the day of his death, June 8, 1841. He is buried at Llanfaes Churchyard. A celebrated clergyman of the Church of England wrote in his diary,

"To-day, June 15, was buried the greatest preacher in Wales, and, perhaps, the greatest in the kingdom. May the Lord have mercy upon his church, and favour her again with such a minister as Elias was, like a flaming seraph in the pulpit." Some 10,000 are estimated to have attended his funeral.

Writings
John Elias was the author of numerous works in Welsh, all on theological themes. He contributed regularly to the early Calvinistic Methodist periodical Y Drysorfa and wrote an autobiography, which was published long after his death. His most influential works in his day were Traethawd ar y Saboth (1804) and Golygiad Ysgrythurol ar Gyfiawnhad Pechadur (1821). See here.


Bibliography
Edward Morgan (1973). John Elias - life, letters and essays. Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh. ISBN 0-85151-174-0.
Nigel Clifford (1994). Christian Preachers. Evangelical Press of Wales. ISBN 1-85049-114-3.

R. Tudor Jones (1975). John Elias: Prince among Preachers. Bridgend.
John Elias (2006). in Owen Milton: The Experimental Knowledge of Christ and Additional Sermons of John Elias (1774–1841), Iain Murray, Reformation Heritage Books. ISBN 1-89277-777-0. — includes a biographical introduction by Iain Murray

Epitaph

This is Elias's epitah as recorded on p 184 of the Banner edition of his Life and Letters. Edward Morgan says it was composed by Rev T Phillips as requested by Mrs Elias.

IN THIS SACRED SPOT
are deposited, at his own request,
the remains of
THE REVEREND JOHN ELIAS
late of Llangefni in this county,
who, during the long period of forty-seven years,
laboured with singular diligence and success
as a minister of the Gospel,
in connection with the Calvinistic Methodists.
He was a Christian of the highest order,
an ‘Israelite indeed in whom was no guile.’
in the several relations of life,
he was upright, friendly, and affectionate.
Endowed with extraordinary graces and gifts,
he became, among his own countrymen,
the most attractive preacher of his day.
Institutions aiming at the promotion of religious
or charitable objects,
found in him a powerful advocate.
But his highest distinction was
the holy influence diffused by his character and spirit,
wherever he came.
Zealous for truth in doctrine, and purity in life,
he fought ‘the good fight of faith,’
seeking not his own honour, but the good of souls,
and resting all his hope on the cross of Christ;
in this hope
he finally triumphed over death,
and slept in Jesus,
on the eighth day of June, 1841;
in the sixty-eighth year of his age.