by Joseph Evans, Denbigh.
ELIAS, REV. JOHN, ANGLESEA, was for many years the most popular pulpit orator in Wales. No Welsh preacher, however eminent his abilities, would be hurt at finding that John Elias was considered his superior by far. Indeed, as a pulpit orator, he stood alone, like Saul, towering "higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upwards." He will, doubtless, ever occupy among the preachers of Wales the pre-eminence which Dr. Owen holds among the divines of England, and Bossuet among the orators of France. His name was a charm which would draw the largest congregations. On his preaching tours, multitudes would gather from a circle of many miles to his services. Were it known that he was to preach in a town, even on a fair day, as was once the case at Carmarthen, people would forsake the fair and all business, and attend his preaching services. He was the idol of his day in Wales; people who heard him once never tired of speaking of his wonderful power and charm.
He had no early educational advantages which can in any degree account for the ability he evinced in after years. In fact, so far as is known, he had not even a day's schooling in his youth, nor had he more than a few months training after he entered upon the work of the ministry. He must have been a born orator, and gradually trained himself by his own observation and effort. He acknowledged his obligation, especially to the Rev. Evan Richardson, Carnarvon, and Mr. Charles, who cured him of some faults of manner.
He was born May 6th, 1774, in a rural district of Carnarvonshire, at a place called Brynllwynbach, in the parish of Abererch, not far from
Pwllheli. His parents were of humble circumstances, and had not much sympathy with religion; his father was a weaver, and earned his living through plying the shuttle.
He spent the greater part of his boyhood however under the care of his grandfather, who was a sensible and pious man, and took special pains in nurturing in him a taste for reading, and training him in the ways of religion. He was thus taught to read whilst quite a child, which was considered a rare accomplishment in those days. Before he was seven years of age he had read the books of the Old Testament consecutively from Genesis to Jeremiah, which was a wonderful achievement for such a lad.
His grandfather encouraged him to read the Bible, and to avoid bad language and all sinful practices. One Sabbath, at Pentreuchaf, a number of people were standing about, waiting the expected preacher, who was long in making his appearance, so his grandfather came to John and said, "It is a pity that the people should be here standing idle, go to the pulpit and read a chapter from the Bible." This was the first time he entered the pulpit, though he had on previous occasions read to small knots of people on the roadside, whilst they were, as at this time, waiting for the preacher.
This took place when he was from nine to twelve years of age. He lost his grandfather when he was still young; which was for him an irreparable loss, and it may explain how he did not take up the yoke of Christ until a later period in life than might have been expected. From a sense of unworthiness and the lack possibly of any encouragement in the matter, he shrank from seeking membership in the church of Christ : and thus he entered upon young manhood without having joined the church. When sixteen years of age, he had a strong desire to visit Llangeitho to hear the renowned Daniel Rowland preach. Just then, he went one Sabbath morning to Pwllheli to hear a stranger who had been announced to preach. He got there too early for the service at which the stranger was to officiate, so he went to the Independent Chapel, where the minister, the Rev Benjamin Jones, preached from the text, 2 Samuel, iii. chap., 38th verse " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?" From the sermon, thus accidentally heard, he learnt that the great preacher of Llangeitho, whom he had so desired to hear, had passed away. His disappointment and grief were intense. In the year 1792, he joined a band of young people who were about to attend an Association at Bala. They were all religiously disposed, and the journey was undertaken for the nurture of their religious life. The influence for good exercised upon him by this short pilgrimage was great, and led him to resolve upon consecrating himself to God and His cause. He thought could he find employment, in his trade as a weaver, with a master who was a follower of Christ, that a way might be opened up for him to join the church. He heard of such a one Mr. Griffith Jones, Ynys-y-Pandy, near Tremadoc. After obtaining the reluctant consent of his parents to leave home, he entered the service of Mr Jones, and not long after he joined the church. His love of Christ, which had been for some time smouldering in his bosom, now burst into a flame that consumed his whole soul and shone with great splendour in his character. The weight of trouble that had pressed heavily upon him was removed, and he walked in the glorious freedom of the sons of God. This took place about September 1793, in the twentieth year of his age. A few months later, he began to preach, and at once became exceedingly popular. The demand for his services was great. The seriousness of his deportment, the earnestness of his ministry, the pathos of his voice, combined to make a deep impression upon the people. Sinners trembled when he spoke. The tokens of his being a servant of the Lord were evident to all.
But whilst he was thus popular and highly appreciated, he was himself conscious of his lack of knowledge and training for the work he had undertaken. An opportunity offered itself to him just then to go to Manchester, where, he thought, he might enjoy some advantages for self-improvement.
The small Welsh churches in that city offered to maintain him in return for his preaching services on the Sabbath. He was very anxious to accept
the proposal. But a strong opposition was raised against the scheme, on the plea that it was simply pride led him to wish for the training he desired; and the anti-educational feeling, which was widely prevalent in Methodist circles at the time, succeeded in preventing him from carrying out his desire. This was a great grief to him. He succeeded, however, afterwards, in going to the Rev Evan Richardson's school at Carnarvon. Mr
Richardson recognised his abilities, and helped him much.
But his stay there was only for a few months. He was called away to the harvest field just as he was beginning to learn how to sharpen his sickle. The demands for his services were loud and incessant, so that he had no peace.
In 1799 he was led to reside in Anglesea, through his marriage with Miss Broadhead, Tre'r gof, Llanbadrig, on February 22nd. Her father, who was a landed proprietor, was much opposed to the match, and refused to give her a dowry. In the emergency, she opened a small shop at Llanfechell; and upon his marriage, Elias removed hither, and continued to reside there until his wife's death in 1828. It should be stated, that though his father-in-law was displeased with the marriage at first, he afterwards relented, and became reconciled to his daughter, and was proud of his son-in-law. She took upon herself the whole care of the business, and thus her husband was able to devote his whole time to study and the preaching of the Gospel.
Through the business thus carried on, he was lifted up above being dependent upon the ministry for his support. This was a great matter, for the most popular preachers were in those days very poorly remunerated. Half-a-crown was considered handsome payment for a sermon, and five shillings for a Sabbath's services. John Elias, during his earlier years, often received this pittance. The shop, however, made him independent of the remuneration he usually received for his ministerial work: and he was able also to purchase books.
Mrs Elias was a true help-mate. She would not allow him to be disturbed during the time he set apart for study and preparation for the pulpit: and he was able to make long preaching tours through the country.
When he removed to Anglesea, feasts, football contests, cock-fighting, and such like things, were frequently held on the Lord's day. Darkness covered the land, and gross darkness the people. Mr Elias gave himself with much ardour to sweep away these evil practices, and to induce the people to follow after a better life.
He went to their feasts, and preached against the prevailing corrupt habits with much vehemence, eloquence, and power. He was bold as a lion, and he fearlessly raised up his powerful voice against the low, degrading practices prevalent. He laboured hard in this way, and he had the joy of seeing the works of darkness disappear before the light of the Gospel, and the cause of Christ win its way rapidly in the land. At times, he met with considerable opposition: indeed, on more than one occasion his life was in imminent danger, but he escaped from the hands of his foes, and obtained the victory in many a hard fought contest.
He did not confine his efforts to Anglesea. "At Rhuddlan, in Denbighshire," says the Rev Wm Williams, in his History of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, "there was an annual fair held on the Lord's Day in the season of harvest. It was chiefly for the sale of scythes, reaping hooks, rakes, etc., and for the hiring of labourers for harvest-work.
Elias went to the place to make a determined attack on this wicked assemblage. He stood on the horse-block by the 'New Inn' in the very thick of the fair, surrounded by the implements of husbandry brought for sale, and he began the service amid the sound of harps and fiddles. He prayed with great earnestness and many tears, and took for his text the Fourth Commandment. The fear of God fell upon the crowd, harps and fiddles were
silenced, and scythes, sickles, and rakes disappeared from the scene. The people stood to listen, and while they listened they trembled as if Sinai itself with its thunder had suddenly burst upon them. One man, who had purchased a sickle, let it fall to the ground, thinking in his heart that the arm which held it had withered, and was afraid to pick it up again lest the same thing should happen to the other. He lost his sickle, but on that day he found salvation. The Sabbath fair was never afterwards held, and many were brought, through that marvellous sermon, to seek the Lord. This happened in the year 1802, when the preacher was only twenty-eight years of age, and there were many such customs and such assemblages which received their death-blow from John Elias."
Elias thus was a great Reformer. But his greatest excellence was as a preacher of the Gospel. In this respect no one was comparable to him, either on the stage or in a chapel. He stood unrivalled among his brethren as a master of the assembly. Dr Owen Pughe remarked that he "never saw an orator that could be compared to him; every muscle was in action, and every movement that he made was graceful, and highly oratorical. I never heard Elias without regarding him as a messenger sent from God. I thought of the Apostle Paul when I listened to him, and as an orator I considered him fully equal to Demosthenes." His printed sermons would not now be considered profound or remarkable in any way: their power evidently lay not so much in the matter as in the manner of delivery: this was their crown and glory. The living voice and dramatic action gave power to the words spoken.
This, of course, has to be borne in mind, that much which is familiar and commonplace today was not so in Elias' time. The Rev D Charles, Carmarthen, says: "In all my journeys through Wales I have never heard of any other preacher whose ministry has been so widely blessed to the conversion of sinners as that of John Elias. Almost in every neighbourhood, village and town, some persons may be met with who ascribe their conversion to impressions received under one of his sermons."
He was among the first batch of preachers ordained at Bala in the year 1817. And if being used of God for the salvation of souls, and casting out devils from the hearts and habits of men, be any proof of a true servant of God, verily John Elias must be acknowledged to have "been such, though no bishop's hand ever touched his head. For, almost from the very start of his ministerial life, he was owned of God in a very marvellous degree. Indeed, even on his first visit to South Wales, which took place two years after he commenced to preach, he roused the whole country: it was felt everywhere that a great prophet had arisen who would exercise a mighty influence against the Kingdom of darkness and for God. For many years afterwards he visited South Wales every alternate year, and in rotation therewith he visited London, and seldom missed an Association in his own Province. After the death of the Rev Thomas Charles, in 1845 he became the leader of the association in North Wales. He was supreme in his influence by weight of character, ability, and fidelity. There were profounder thinkers, such as the Rev. David Charles, Carmarthen; and safer divines such as Rev. Thomas Jones, Denbigh; the Rev. Michael Roberts, also would occasionally have a more marvellous service, such as at Llanidloes in 1819. But take him all in all, he hardly had a compeer. He was a king among the ministers a king inclined at times to be masterful and imperious, and had to be resisted, as in the case of his views on the Atonement, and his strong action in regard to those who petitioned Parliament in favour of the Roman Catholics' Emancipation Bill. When heard on the stage preaching at the Association, all would be forgotten and forgiven, and his opponents as well as supporters would say, " Oh, king, live for ever !"
His wife died in April, 1828, after which sad event he at once retired from all connection with business, and devoted himself entirely to the work of the ministry. In February, 1830, he married again; his second wife being a lady of rank, the widow of Sir John Bulkeley, Bart., Presaddfed, Anglesea; and he removed to the Fron, near Llangefni, where he resided until his death. Through this change, the church at Llanfechell suffered a severe loss, for he was ever faithful at the church meetings at his home. These meetings, as conducted by him, were oftentimes extraordinary in spiritual power.
Two years after his second marriage, whilst proceeding, on the great day of the Association, to the services at Bala, he met with an accident of a serious character. He was being driven in a gig to Bala, and the horse took fright: at this Mr Elias leaped out, and received such injuries that his "life was in danger. After some time, however, he rallied, though it is doubtful whether "he ever afterwards regained his former energy, strength, and elasticity; but his pulpit influence remained unabated until his death, which took place June 8th, 1841, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He was buried in Llanfaes churchyard, near Beaumaris, amid signs of unparalleled mourning in the island. A handsome monument has been erected over his grave, and a fine
memorial chapel has been erected at Llangefni, at a cost of 5,000.
In his death, verily a great man and a prince had fallen, Wales, throughout its length and breadth,' felt the shock of the event: for though he was eminently a man of his own denomination, ever working for its prosperity and seeking the development of its institutions, educational and missionary, he was also a man of the Principality, reflecting honour upon the land of his birth, the people from among whom he had sprung and among whom he had laboured. There can be little doubt that he helped materially in imparting to the Association of North Wales much of that dignity which still belongs to it, and which secures for its decisions the greatest respect from the churches ; and he knit in loyal devotion to the denomination many families which, as the rose in social status through their increasing wealth and culture, would, were it not for his influence, probably have wandered to other folds, or to the wilds of the world. He is therefore esteemed highly for his work's sake, as well as for the fact of his having been the brightest ornament of the Welsh pulpit.
.jpg)
