Owen Jones on Elias 09

CHAPTER 9 INTERESTING FACTS

At school with Rev. Evan Richardson ; cured of a bad habit — Keeping his promises — A capital reader — A great theologian — Religion in the family — Training his children — Services in the house — The shop.

While in the school with Mr. Richardson John Elias would often be found making his sermons. The teacher once came behind the desk where he was sitting, and found him busy at the composition of a sermon. The master at once withdrew, lifted up his hand, with the tear in his eye, and said, "It is of little use; preaching is like a fire burning in his bones."

While in this school with Mr. Richardson, John Elias was cured of a very bad habit he had, of making a peculiar noise in his throat, by taking his breath after every sentence. The young man had preached on the Sunday, and Mr. Richardson had heard him. Monday morning came, the teacher touched the young disciple on the shoulder and called him aside. He said, "Dear John, you were blundering a deal yesterday in your sermon." "What blunders did I make, dear Mr. Richardson?" "Well, you said many times that Jesus Christ was ugly; you said, ' lesu hyll,' " i.e., he had taken his breath at the end of the sentence, and when that ended with Jesus, it sounded hyll, ugly. The Welsh ll is a very peculiar sound, somewhat similar, it is said, to the Spanish ll. John Elias needed no other lesson on that point; he stopped that ll breathing for ever. It is made through the sides of the mouth, and between the tongue and the palate.

A Russian prince had come over from Dublin to Holyhead; a friend accompanied the prince to the house of John Elias to ask him to go with them to see the copper works of Mynydd Paris. The preacher was, however, on the point of starting for a preaching tour, and could not go ; but he sent a letter to the overseer, and the prince had his desire. On another occasion John Elias was appointed, together with others, by the Anglesey Presbytery to deliver an address to King George IV., when he paid a visit to the island, on his way to Ireland, in the year 1822. However, the day on which the address was to be presented he had promised to preach in a certain place ; and as the friends were unwilling to release him, he kept his premise and preached.

John Elias was an excellent reader of Scripture ; he always read with pith and light. Some would come to his house purposely to hear him read. He was also a most clear expounder of the Bible. The exordium of his sermons was full of the most lucid expositions. He preached a long series of sermons upon John xvii. The people who heard him knew beforehand the book and the verse where his text would be. It was upon texts from this chapter that he preached some of the most powerful sermons of his life. The notes he made are, however, altogether lost. The man referred to above, working in the smithy, who afterwards became a preacher himself, having heard the wonderful thoughts of John Elias upon that chapter, became convinced that the Testament he used was different from his own; and one day he left the smithy, and walked the three miles to Llanfechell to see it with his own eyes.

In this smithy men congregated together in those times to talk of Christ, and to expound verses of Scripture. "What thinkest thou of that verse to-day, Rees?" "Well, I am quite of the same opinion as I was before, William." "Thou art altogether in the wrong, Rees; what is thy opinion, Ned?" "I shall not be satisfied till we go to Llanfechell, and hear John Elias on the subject." Some one came every week on this errand to the house of John Elias. Thus the Cemlyn smithy was a model smithy to all the land.

John Elias was a great theologian. This was the chief field of his study. Dr. Owen, John Howe, Jonathan Edwards, &c., were his chief authors; though, as we have seen before, he enriched his mind well from other fields of learning. He was more of a theologian than Christmas Evans, and Williams of Wern. In the composition of his sermons, he took great care to consult the greatest and best expositors. And in the first twenty minutes of his discourse, he presented a clear, lucid, and masterly exposition of the text and the context.

Religion was conspicuous in his family. It was not simply a matter of inner consciousness, or a deeper undercurrent overflowed by the various busy matters of daily life, as it is with many. It was the chief thing of all; it was the great theme of family conversation. The worship in the family was as solemn as the worship in the house of God, or in the field, on the great day of assembly. He often conducted family worship with such fervour that, according to the testimony of a servantmaid, she could hardly speak to him for hours afterwards. Nothing was allowed to interfere with this sacred duty ; and when he returned in the evenings from a distant journey, tired and fatigued, after holding services in the country, he would still hold the services in the family all the same. They were held twice a day, and during that sacred time, the doors were closed to prevent all interruptions.

There was once some work to be done on the roof of John Elias's house. A man was engaged to do it. He procured a ladder to ascend to the top of the house, and placed this ladder over against the window of the great man's study. He climbed the ladder, and as he came up to the study window, he could see the great pulpit orator prostrate on the floor. He passed and ascended the roof, and finished the work. It took him, however, about an hour to complete it Then he descended; and in coming down the ladder, he could not help, from curiosity, looking in again through the study window. He was astounded to see the great orator again prostrate on the floor, .exactly in the same position. Thinking he was dead, or stricken with paralysis, or some other fatal disease, he quickly descended, and called the servant, and told her what he had seen; when she calmed his fears, and told him he was praying.

He was exceedingly careful in the training of his children. His son said that his father was very strict in his home discipline. When he happened to do anything wrong, for the first offence, he should be warned ; for the second, he should surely be punished, unless his mother or some friend interfered, and prayed for pardon ; but, if caught in a third offence, the punishment was sure and inevitable. His mother also was exceedingly careful in matters of discipline ; and whenever she punished her son she, with rod in hand, took him upstairs ; but before administering punishment, she went on her knees to pray for the blessing of God upon what' she was about to do.

Fairs were held three times a year in Llanfechell; and in these fairs the youth of the country around would congregate, and there was often great frivolity and wickedness. On these occasions John Elias carefully sent his children away into the country, far from the reach of the temptations of the day. A servant that was in his employ for three years said of him, that "all the family felt the warmest love for him, and the greatest reverence towards him as a man whose piety was of the most exemplary type."

His daughter said of him, "To live in his family was to a great degree heaven upon earth. I can never forget the light that followed our family worship, and the pleasure and edification we found in conversations. And never can I forget the tears I saw on the chair in his study by which he bent his knees; though nothing was heard, we were well aware that he was pouring out a profusion of tears in his secret prayers. Many times did I observe him coming out from his chamber, like Moses coming down from the mountain, with so much of the image of God upon his countenance that no one could look him in the face. The simplicity, the tenderness, the humility of his countenance almost compelled men to worship God when they saw him."

In the house of John Elias, at Llanfechell, preaching services were frequently held. The study was next the kitchen, with merely the wainscotting between. That study had a bed in it, and was full of books. The services were held in the kitchen; there the people assembled together, sitting or standing as they could find room. The preacher remained in the study with closed door until the time came for commencing the service; then, some one knocked the study door to tell him that the time was up, and the preacher came out with the Bible in his hand, and often with the light of heaven in his face, and took his stand upon the stairs. After the sermon was over the people would often remain behind to talk together of the great things of God. Many a delightful service was held in this house, and many of the joys of heaven were experienced.

Four children were born to John Elias, of which two died at birth. On the stone above their grave is carved the lines —

"They died, for Adam sinned.

They live, for Jesus died."

Mrs. Elias kept the shop, and undertook all the care connected with it. Her son says (see Drysorfa 1874, p. 453) she never spoke of the troubles and cares of the shop to his father. If the traveller was to arrive the following day, and the money in the till was short, she would bid her son be sure not to tell his father. "He has something more important on his mind," she would say. On such occasions her son noticed her many a time going up into the bedroom; he knew well for what purpose, viz., to lay her cares before the Lord; and many a time did he see the answer coming, as if by express, from heaven, and the people flocking into the shop the following day, until the till was quite full by the time the traveller arrived.

She used to go to Wrexham fair in order to buy things for the shop. She stayed with a friend in the town. But she always went on her knees with all her transactions. The goods she bought were once sent in a ship from Liverpool, a new ship, the Marchioness of Anglesea ; and this was lost, with all on board, and all the goods bought went into the deep. But she mentioned not a word about it to John Elias, so that he was not hindered in the slightest with his work. She trans- acted all the business ; and her name was on the sign above the door.