CHAPTER 8 TWO SPEECHES ON
GREAT ASSOCIATION DAYS
Speech in the Holyhead
Association, 1824 - Another speech on a similar occasion
In the Associations,
whenever there was anything to be said to the people, any word of
advice to be given, or thanks to be offered for kindness received
during the days of the Association, it was generally the custom to
ask Mr. John Elias to do it. In the one that was held at Holyhead in
the beginning of October, 1824, in the service at ten o'clock in the
morning, after Mr. Owen Jones, of Gelli, had preached, and before Mr.
William Morris, Cilgeran, commenced, John Elias rose to exhort the
people to behave themselves well during the intervals of the
services. Thus: "Are there drunkards here? I am afraid there
are. Let me entreat you at least to control your- selves for to-day.
If you do not fear God nor the laws of your country, and if you have
no respect for yourselves, I beg of you, for our sake, to be sober
and well-behaved for this day. By coming into these meetings to get
drunk and to conduct yourselves disorderly, you are breaking our
character. Our enemies have not yet all vanished from the land. They
are ready to make a tool of everything against us. And we have
nothing but our character to fall back upon. We are not wealthy, we
are not learned ; we are not highly gifted ; we have no grand titles
; and we have no men amongst us in very high authority. But we have
our character of which we think a great deal. We are for keeping our
character, and we will not let any one break it. But these drunkards
of our Associations break our character. And it is after us poor
Methodists that they are coming. What shall we do with them,
brethren?" (one of the preachers on the stage replied, "Form
them," referring to the sermon they had just heard upon the
words, "This people have I formed for myself" Isa. Xliii.
21)
Then, with a quick
impulse and a sudden start, he said, "I feel inclined to put
them all up for sale." And he shouted, with out-stretched arm,
"Who will take them? Church people, will you? Not likely ; for
we in our baptism profess to leave the devil and all his train.
Independents, will you? What? Have we not left the Church of England
generations ago, because of her corruptions? Baptists, will you have
them? Never, for we baptize our people in pure water, to show that we
want but pure lives. Wesleyans, will you? No, no! Good works are
essential with us, and we cannot take them in." Then again,
stretching forth his arm, and shouting at the highest pitch of his
voice, he cried, "Who will have them? Who will have them? Who
will have them?" Then, in great excitement, and with fire in his
eye, he turned his face towards the left, and looked in the direction
of his elbow, and, lowering his voice, said, "I can almost hear
some terrible whisper at my elbow, as if it came up from hell, or
from the lips of a devil - 'Strike them down to me, I am ready to
take them.'" He gazed up to heaven, as if he expected a voice
from the sky, and again looked with great earnestness upon the
congregation, and said not a word for a moment. Then with the finger
of his right hand directed towards his left elbow, and, shaking it
nervously once, twice, thrice, he shouted, "I was going to tell
thee, devil, that thou shouldst have them, but, but - looking up
again towards heaven, and lifting his hand - I hear a voice coming
from Jesus: 'I will take them; I will take them as they are, to wash
them in My own blood.”
"It is not difficult
to imagine the effects of this upon the people. The commotion of
feeling was so great that the service that morning could not be
carried on any further. And it left a lasting effect upon many a
drunkard. ("Biography of John Jones, Talsarn” pp. 861-862. By
Dr. O. Thomas)
Here follows an occasion
of a similar kind. The Association in Anglesey was the great meeting
of the year. On the occasion to which we are now referring there was
not less than 10,000 present. The Rev. Richard Lloyd, Beaumaris,
counted the two sides of the square on the field, and, multiplying,
he found them to be 12,000. As they did not form a complete square,
we are within the mark when we say there were 10,000 present. The
first service is held on the field at five o'clock in the evening.
There are two preachers to conduct it, and John Elias is to address
the multitude at the close. After the two sermons are over, he rises,
and steps to the desk in front of the platform. He looks upon the
vast throng, and then points with his finger to one or two spots
where the people are not yet perfectly still. Then a pleasant smile
appears on his face, and he begins to speak: —
"I have a word or
two to say before any one moves out of his place. It is not yet more
than a quarter past seven o'clock, no one need hurry, and we have the
long days of summer. I have understood a long while from your faces
that you all feel to-night as if heaven were near. The servants of
the Most High are in the hands of their Master. It is clear that they
have already been clothed with power from on high. The trumpet call
of the King is in our camp. We have seen and heard things that are
almost incredible. We have heard the walls of Jericho crack ; and we
may reasonably hope to see them down in a ruinous heap before
to-morrow night. And, surely, we shall see this, unless there be
something in us, or in the behaviour of the people, or in the town,
to grieve the Holy Spirit. Therefore, for the value of souls that are
now in the labour of birth, I beseech you all to be on your guard. I
would swear every man here present to be more sober than ever before.
God forbid that any of us should be guilty of sending the heavenly
dove away. For the love of souls, let not a single drunkard be seen
on the streets to-night. May there be nothing in the conduct of any
one, in or out, to offend the feelings of any magistrate or civil
official, more than the preacher or ordinary believer. We expect the
morals of this multitude to be without blemish to-night ; if not,
this is the last Association that shall ever come into this town!
There are thousands of strangers to be entertained in the
neighbourhood to-night ; let every one go to the place he is invited
: it would not be much, this kind of weather, to go a distance of
three miles if necessary. Let every man be faithful and thankful for
the entertainment he gets. And you that entertain the strangers, open
your doors with a hearty welcome.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers.' Avoid trouble and expense :
all we ask is a bed free from damp and safe, a morsel of bread and a
drop of water. Value this coming of strangers under
your roofs. It is to-night, perhaps, that your hearths will be
anointed for the first time with the tears of the saints; it is
to-night, perhaps, that your roofs will be consecrated for the first
time by the prayers of the faithful. Remember that some of the old
pilgrims, by faith, entertained strangers unawares, and that they
feasted happily with them. Who knows but that you also to-night shall
entertain good men in the invisible company of the angels of
heaven! And you that make the arrangements, see that a man of prayer
is sent to every house.
"Let all observe
that family worship is to be held to-night in every family, exactly
at nine o'clock. Heaven has already smiled upon us. An active
intercourse has already been carried on by the angels between this
field and the throne of God; and at nine o'clock we hope that Jacob's
ladder will be full of angels ascending and descending, and that the
prayers of this region for a compass of six miles will be so powerful
that they will draw heaven down to earth, and lift earth so near
heaven that the tabernacle of God will be with men, and that this
Association will be the great subject of talk in the councils of
heaven." (“Reminiscences
of John Elias” pp 16-17. By the Rev. R. Parry).
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