CHAPTER 11 CHARACTER OF HIS PREACHING (continued)
The sources of his power — Meditation and prayer — Great solemnity — Person and mode of delivery — Description of his preaching by Dr. Owen Thomas — Not always powerful — Sermon in Bangor — Clear- ness and power of expression— Lack of humour — Great self-assertion — Severe aspect of his preaching
If we inquire into the sources of the power which this man possessed in the pulpit, they are not difficult to find. John Elias, though he read extensively, made the Bible his chief book. He was with it every day, and would even bring it down with him to his meals ; other books were but helps ; they were never allowed to trespass upon the place or time due to the Bible. At that time in Wales, and also in England, newspapers and serials were uncommon enough ; what papers there were, were few and far between ; very few new books were published ; and there was no great stir about this and the other new thing. The preachers of that age could devote the time they had mostly to the Bible, if so inclined ; and this was the case without exception with the great preachers of the day ; and one main reason, no doubt, why the preaching of our age is weaker, is that our energies are spread over a wider field. We have our papers, our reviews, our serials, our new books, &c. And many are not satisfied without knowing something about everything. We will have our smattering at least, and there is amongst some a mania or "foppery of universality." But our powers are not greater than those of our fathers, therefore our preaching suffers. We have not the same strong grasp of Gospel truth as they had ; we are not moved to the same depth of soul and spirit as they were ; and there are some wise men that tell us that the age of preaching is gone ; a fallacy of non- observation and mal-observation of facts. It is a false and groundless generalization to say that great preachers will arise no more, simply because we have not seen many during the last fifty years ; or, indeed, because some have not seen any such phenomenon in the Church they happen to be members of. To say that the diminished influence of the preaching of our age is due to the spread of education, and the different circumstances of our time, is to mistake the cause altogether. Man's relations to God will be still the same, whatever the state of education may be. This decay of preaching can be much better accounted for in another way. The minds of the preachers, and of the people, have been to a great extent drawn away from the Gospel. This is especially the case with very many ; their powers are squandered and not concentrated. The Bible is the pabulum of souls ; but the men of our time do not feed so much upon it ; it was ambrosia and nectar the gods fed upon ; it was the Bible that these preachers of the Gospel fed upon. They found the words of the Lord, and they did eat them, and they were unto them sweeter than honey, and than the honey-comb, and it was the joy and rejoicing of their heart. The preachers of the present age do not feed so much upon this kind of food, but often upon withered leaves and wild herbage on the way- side. The age of the megatherium, the mastodon, and the giants, is gone say they. Not at all ; let them but feed upon the pabulum of giants, and that age is yet to come.
It is clear that John Elias spent much of his time in the study in communion with God. A servant that was in his employ said of him that he would often come out of it with his tears flowing profusely over his face, his soul full of heavenly fire; and he could not restrain himself from telling his family of the deep heavenly feelings he enjoyed. Another servant of his, that was in his employ for a long period, said that she could never forget the tears which she often found upon the chair in his study on which he was accustomed to sit, and by which he knelt before God. And she said of him that his face appeared to shine many a time when he came out of his study.
After his death, Mrs. Jones, the wife of the Rev. John Jones, Talsarn, went to visit Mrs. Elias in her affliction. The study was locked, and no one had ventured into it since John Elias left it. Mrs. Elias unlocked the door, and they went in together with great sadness and solemnity. Mrs. Elias then said, pointing to the ground, where the carpet had been quite worn out: "This is the place where he bent his knees to pray; I often came to call him to breakfast and found him on his knees. And on this very spot I frequently wiped away a flood of tears. I saw him many a time with the tears flowing in streams down his face; and from mere awe and reverence I was not able to say a word. I remember going with him once to the Association at Bangor. We were driving in a small phaeton. My husband had the reins. But when we were drawing near to the town, and when some of the buildings of the city appeared in the distance, he suddenly threw me the reins, and fell down on his knees, praying fervently, and the tears flowing down his cheeks upon the bottom of the car. And in great agony of mind he cried out, 'Who is sufficient for these things?'"
His mode of ascending the pulpit was peculiar. Watch this in the case of any preacher — it will not be difficult to say whether he has a message from God or not. John Elias ascended the pulpit with the gravity of a man that had just come from immediate communion with God. He was a man that always felt the solemnity of his position. The remark has been made, and it is true, that every preacher should have an atmosphere of reverence around him, which should make frivolity impossible in his presence. If any man lived in this atmosphere of reverence, John Elias did. He was always grave, but that gravity assumed greater solemnity still in the pulpit. He never condescended to tell any amusing anecdotes ; he always avoided everything which would tend in any way to put the people in a light mood. All lightness and laughter, frivolity and vanity, withered away under the blighting influence of his presence.
He was erect and tall, a man of about five feet ten; thin and bony, complexion dark, his eyes grey and intensely penetrating, high cheek bones, lips compressed. His looks, though not defiant, betokened a man not to be awed by anything, and of the most determined boldness. His voice was clear, penetrating, and strong, devoid of music, however, until it ex- pressed the pathetic love of the Gospel. He held a perfect mastery over it, and could modulate and vary it at will. John Elias had a certain peculiar explosion of voice at times, which was very effective ; which he had taken up and utilised from the old preacher, John Jones, Bodynolwyn. In addition to this, he was a man of great energy and passion. His utterance was clear and defined from the beginning of his discourse ; but as he advanced in his theme, he seemed to acquire new impulses and new accelerations of force. The flow of his emotions became deeper, and the warmth steadily advanced to an intense heat. Dr. Owen Thomas, who knew him well, and heard him often, writes of him: —
"He commences his sermon with a few apt and clear remarks which naturally arise from the text, or from some special connection with the context; remarks common and trite enough, but from his lips clothed with new freshness, and leading naturally to the text he has taken up. Then he expounds the meaning of it with great skill, showing its relations to the context, dwelling especially upon the meaning of particular words. He often refers to various translations, to Eastern rights and customs, to Jewish lore and tradition, and to the relations of the Jewish nation to the nations around. He mentions, perhaps, the views of Ainsworth, Pool, Lightfoot, Lowth, Horsely, Campbell, Macknight, Owen, or Leigh. He rejects one view altogether, though supported by great names ; he hesitates as to two other views which to accept ; finally, he brings reasons, critical or expository, theological or historical, for the one he considers the right, until his hearers, to a man, are convinced that that is the right view and no other ; and until that verse is henceforth perfectly familiar to them. In fact, between the exposition of the text, and the sermon which follows, that text is for ever indelibly impressed upon their minds. Whenever his old hearers to the present day hear or read many a verse in Scripture, they invariably associate them with the sermons of John Elias. After he has fully explained his text, he divides it, and draws out before his hearers the subjects of his remarks. . . . We remember him preaching in the Carnarvon Association in the year 1836, upon James i. 21, upon receiving ' the engrafted word,' when he spoke upon 'engrafting' with such light, propriety, and effect, that one man in leaving the field after the sermon, said, ' Well, whatever other good I may have received in this Association, I know now how to engraft! 'But though the subject he has lies in his text, he ranges over all things in heaven and earth for elucidating materials. He speaks distinctly, powerfully, effectively. The congregation is in his hand, and the eyes of all are upon him ; no one sleeping, no. one smiling, no one inattentive. Thus he advances till he finishes with the first head. And when that is done, the conviction remains in the minds of all that that matter is settled. Touch it not ; there let it rest for ever. And, above all, re- member its inevitable and awful relation to your personal self Again, with perfect self possession, he goes on with the second head. He still keeps to the words of his text, but he draws out of them a meaning which has never come to the mind of any one there before. He holds it before his hearers with such light, that he carries the sanction of every mind and con- science in the place. He speaks clearly, strongly, authoritatively. Soon there appears in himself a strange agitation of feeling. His emotions are on fire ; his eyes flash ; his voice acquires somewhat of an unearthly tone and a supernatural force. By this the external appearance of the preacher has undergone a great change ; he seems to be several inches taller than before. His body writhes in convulsion backwards and forwards by the upheaving power of the volcanic fire hid in his breast. At times he looks amazed, terror-stricken, and in dismay ; he draws in his cheeks in a peculiar manner, compresses his lips ; he seems to be gazing upon an awe-inspiring vision, and unable yet to grasp the meaning of it, and to describe it properly. But, after a pause, he stretches forth his hand, the forefinger of which plays as if it had an independent life of its own ; the idea flashes forth like the lightning ; the crash of the thunder follows ; the pattering rain falls ; the people feel like Israel at the foot of Sinai ; the shrieks of many are heard, — like that man in Brynsiencyn, who, on an occasion of the kind, suddenly said 'Oh! for Evan Richards, (A very sweet and evangelic preacher) Carnarvon, or some one for a single moment, lest we die! ' — and the sighing, the groaning, and the weeping becomes general, and the terrors of God penetrate the place. But with that, however, comes a change over the preacher, and the greatest love and tenderness beam in his countenance, his voice becomes pathetic, and he declares the Gospel of redemption in all its riches — the Saviour who died that the guilty might live — and this with such an unction and with such a conviction in the minds of his hearers that he himself had experienced it, that hope dawns again upon the most despondent in the place; the black and threatening clouds are dispelled ; the sky becomes clear ; the sun rises, and the shadow of death itself is turned into the dawn of day. He closes by prayer, and gives out a hymn as appropriate to go John Elias. the subject of the sermon as if it had been composed purposely for the occasion, and all the people return to their homes under the deepest convictions, some of them saved to eternal life, having passed through from death into life." ("Life of John Jones," pp. 865—868).
It appears, however, that John Elias, like others, was not always powerful. He was preaching in Bangor, a little before Whitsuntide, 1835, on his way to Liverpool, Manchester, and the Bala Association. His text that night was Isa. vi. 9, 10, the same text as for the great sermon which he preached on the Green at Bala with such effect a few weeks later. Dr. Owen Thomas was there, and he commenced the service by reading and praying. The sermon that evening, however, was, as far as could be seen, altogether ineffective. Every one considered it " hard," and John Elias himself. After it was over, he was asked when he would come again. He replied, " The first Sunday evening after the Bala Association, on my way home. Mr. Rowland, Llangeitho, advised a young preacher, if he preached very happily in a place, not to hasten there again; but, if the service was a hard one, to go there again the first opportunity. I had here to-night, not a hard service simply, but a very hard one ; I shall come here again that Sunday, to see if I can get a better one." Dr. Owen Thomas says that this was the most powerful occasion he ever experienced in his life. The text was Heb. vi. 7, 8 : " For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God ; but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned." The effects were indescribable. He preached for an hour and twenty-five minutes ; and the effect was so great upon his own constitution that he could not venture to preach again for nearly a month. Dr. Thomas remembers looking during the sermon upon the pillars which supported the gallery, to see if they were really there as usual.
He had an extraordinary power of expression and utterance. Such commanding authority he had when he said anything, that no one could think of saying it better. His articulation and utterance of the Welsh language was complete and perfect. David Cadwaladr* had heard him preaching in a Monthly Meeting when he was a young man, and when some one asked him what kind of meeting they had had, he said, "Well, there was a young weaver from Carnarvonshire who has just commenced preaching, and they put him to preach in the meeting. May the Lord keep him from error, for the people must believe what he says!"
John Elias was wanting in humour. At least, we have been able to see in him but few traces of that noble quality. His mind was altogether bent to the solemn aspects of truth; his eyes were turned to the stern realities of the other world; with difficulty could he turn his eyes to the imperfections of this earth. He was like another John the Baptist, who had spent his time in the wilderness without having seen much of the beauty of nature. He was as if he had spent much of his life on the rugged sides of Snowdon, or under the overhanging rocks of Eryri; as if he had been cradled and nurtured on the slopes of the everlasting mountains, without ever having seen the lovely glens and valleys, the green fields and the lilies. But, if he had not seen these, he had seen the great ocean, and delighted to look at the mighty billows that wash the feet of these everlasting mountains; and he often left the rugged slopes for the level shore and the loud- sounding sea. It was the great and grand, the awful and sublime, that he made his home with; the pleasant, the delightful, and the lovely he had no eye for. His house was built on the rocks of law, justice, and eternity, in sight of the ocean of everlasting love. But, if he did not delight his hearers with his humour, &c., he brought into their bosoms joy unspeakable and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. There was abundantly more of the pleasant and delightful in Christmas Evans and Williams Wern; and they were greatly his superior in the possession of the quality of humour.
In boldness and self-assertion he was not unlike the Danton of the French Revolution ; and it requires no keen observer to see in him the majesty and greatness of Lord Chatham, devoid of all the love of theatrical effect so prominent in him. The language of both was often awe-inspiring, and the cast of the eye transfixing as lightning. He also was a terrible antagonist ; for when he defended a position he brought down the legions of the other world. The dramatic power of John Elias was equal to that of Lord Chatham, and always accompanied with the idea of simplicity and of no effort, together with the most solemn earnestness.
The preaching of John Elias was of a stern Puritan type and would undoubtedly fall under the condemnation of the high literary authority, Mr. Matthew Arnold. And we must admit that the preaching of John Elias did assume a sterner aspect from the reaction that took place in Wales after the advent of Arminianism, in the beginning of this century. As a defender of the faith, there was a tendency in him to extreme Calvinistic views. In fact, in the year 1814, he fell into the same error as Mr. Christmas Evans ; for he composed a sermon on the limits of the Atonement, taking the same view of equivalence. He preached this sermon in several places, and at last came to Denbigh with it, where the Rev. Thomas Jones lived. Mr. Jones, as we have seen (p. 180), was utterly opposed to such narrow views. Mr. Elias lodged in his house that evening. The result of the talk they had together was, that Mr. Elias was perfectly convinced of his error, and promised never to use those expressions again. Such views were also recognized by the Calvinistic Methodist Association as a departure from those of the founders of the Body, as well as those of the Church of Christ in all ages. Though in theorizing about the plan of salvation, John Elias, at one time especially, had a tendency to extreme views, yet, even then, there was no difference between him and the rest of his friends in presenting the Gospel to a lost world j and never did any preacher leave a deeper impression in the minds of his hearers, that, if lost, the responsibility would rest altogether upon themselves.
According to Mr. Matthew Arnold, "under the eyes of this generation, Puritan Dissent has to execute an entire change of front, and to present us with a new reason for its existing," He means that the doctrines of election and justification by faith cannot be maintained and preached now as they were years ago. '"I hold,' says White field, in the forcible style which so took his hearers' fancy, ' I hold that a certain number are elected from eternity, and these must and shall be saved, and the rest of mankind must and shall be damned.' A Calvinistic Puritan now-a-days must be either a fervid Welsh Dissenter or a strenuous Particular Baptist in some remote place in the country, not to be a little staggered at this sort of expression. (See Preface to Mr. Matthew Arnold's "St. Paul and Protestantism.")
Whitefield, like many others in their day, gave undue and unjustifiable prominence to the doctrine of election ; and they spoke as if they knew all about it, and exhibited far too much of that want of reverence which Paul writes of in the epistle to the Romans. But nothing can be more unfair than to select a single sentence like the above, and condemn on its account all the preaching of Whitefield and the Puritans. It was not election nor justification that George Whitefield preached, but a crucified Saviour ; and all the success which followed his preaching was due to that. What is true of George Whitefield is true of the preaching of John Elias. The preaching which Mr. Arnold would condemn most in Wales was the preaching of Daniel Rowlands in the first few years of his ministry, when he was not a Dissenter, but a clergyman of the Church of England ; together with that of John Elias. We are not aware that the preaching of the others would be liable to any such objection, when rightly understood ; neither ought that of Daniel Rowlands and John Elias to be. If Mr. Arnold had known anything about Welsh preaching, beside hearsay, he would certainly not have made the above remarks. Whatever preaching of law and justice and human depravity even John Elias indulged in, was only preparatory to the preaching of Christ, both in the sufficiency of His life, death, and intercession, and in all His " mildness and sweet reasonableness."
The best way of meeting the assertions of Mr. Matthew Arnold about the Puritans is by a bold denial. To preach the doctrines of election, justification by faith, &c., is not Puritanism. This belongs to churches that are not considered Puritan, quite as much as to them. This is not even essential to Puritanism. What is it, then ? Simply an accident that happened to Puritanism. Great prominence was given by several preachers to these doctrines. Nor does it owe its success to the preaching of these doctrines. The preaching upon which depended the prosperity of Puritanism was the preaching of Christ as a Saviour of sinners. Theorizing and dwelling inordinately upon dogmas has not been successful amongst Puritans more than Anglicans. In fact, it is in proportion to its departure from the simple preaching of Christ as Saviour, and the prominence given to the preaching of dogmas, that Puritanism has failed. We speak more especially of Wales, though it is true of England and other countries. In the beginning of this century, when the Wesleyans appeared in Wales, and when, consequently, all the Calvinistic bodies fell upon the defensive, and gave undue prominence to the preaching of special dogmas, it is a well-known fact that from that very moment a deadly chill passed over the churches, the intense anxiety of the preachers for the salvation of men was lost, and the hearers fell off by thousands. See e.g. the remarks which have preceded upon the effect in Anglesey on the Baptists alone (pp. 170-1). It was in so far as they did not preach dogmas, but the truth of Christ as Saviour, that they succeeded. It was in proportion to the degree in which preachers and hearers forgot these doctrines, which Mr. Arnold makes the pillars and centres of Puritanism, that Puritanism was followed in Wales with such an overwhelming success that to-day the Nonconforming bodies, Puritan almost to a man, have about 1,100,000 adherents in the Principality, the rest consisting of Anglicans and those who go nowhere at all, to the number of about 474,000. Never, we say, in any country, was preaching followed by a greater departure from iniquity. Instead of the darkness, cruelty, persecution, crime, and immorality of former days, we have now, on our hills and in our valleys, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control, the fruits of the Spirit of God. And of all the preachers of Wales, no one left a deeper and more lasting effect upon the characters and lives of Welshmen than John Elias.
*Dafydd Cadwaladr was born in the year 1752. He learned to read by observing the letters upon the mountain sheep. When there was a rumour in the country of the spread of Popery, and that the Bible would be again in danger, he determined to put a good portion of it in his memory, beyond the reach of the Church of Rome. Thus he learnt out by heart all the New Testament, and the greater part of the Old. He became a preacher, and very well known throughout Wales, because he travelled often from one part of the country to the other for the long period of fifty years.
It is clear that John Elias spent much of his time in the study in communion with God. A servant that was in his employ said of him that he would often come out of it with his tears flowing profusely over his face, his soul full of heavenly fire; and he could not restrain himself from telling his family of the deep heavenly feelings he enjoyed. Another servant of his, that was in his employ for a long period, said that she could never forget the tears which she often found upon the chair in his study on which he was accustomed to sit, and by which he knelt before God. And she said of him that his face appeared to shine many a time when he came out of his study.
After his death, Mrs. Jones, the wife of the Rev. John Jones, Talsarn, went to visit Mrs. Elias in her affliction. The study was locked, and no one had ventured into it since John Elias left it. Mrs. Elias unlocked the door, and they went in together with great sadness and solemnity. Mrs. Elias then said, pointing to the ground, where the carpet had been quite worn out: "This is the place where he bent his knees to pray; I often came to call him to breakfast and found him on his knees. And on this very spot I frequently wiped away a flood of tears. I saw him many a time with the tears flowing in streams down his face; and from mere awe and reverence I was not able to say a word. I remember going with him once to the Association at Bangor. We were driving in a small phaeton. My husband had the reins. But when we were drawing near to the town, and when some of the buildings of the city appeared in the distance, he suddenly threw me the reins, and fell down on his knees, praying fervently, and the tears flowing down his cheeks upon the bottom of the car. And in great agony of mind he cried out, 'Who is sufficient for these things?'"
His mode of ascending the pulpit was peculiar. Watch this in the case of any preacher — it will not be difficult to say whether he has a message from God or not. John Elias ascended the pulpit with the gravity of a man that had just come from immediate communion with God. He was a man that always felt the solemnity of his position. The remark has been made, and it is true, that every preacher should have an atmosphere of reverence around him, which should make frivolity impossible in his presence. If any man lived in this atmosphere of reverence, John Elias did. He was always grave, but that gravity assumed greater solemnity still in the pulpit. He never condescended to tell any amusing anecdotes ; he always avoided everything which would tend in any way to put the people in a light mood. All lightness and laughter, frivolity and vanity, withered away under the blighting influence of his presence.
He was erect and tall, a man of about five feet ten; thin and bony, complexion dark, his eyes grey and intensely penetrating, high cheek bones, lips compressed. His looks, though not defiant, betokened a man not to be awed by anything, and of the most determined boldness. His voice was clear, penetrating, and strong, devoid of music, however, until it ex- pressed the pathetic love of the Gospel. He held a perfect mastery over it, and could modulate and vary it at will. John Elias had a certain peculiar explosion of voice at times, which was very effective ; which he had taken up and utilised from the old preacher, John Jones, Bodynolwyn. In addition to this, he was a man of great energy and passion. His utterance was clear and defined from the beginning of his discourse ; but as he advanced in his theme, he seemed to acquire new impulses and new accelerations of force. The flow of his emotions became deeper, and the warmth steadily advanced to an intense heat. Dr. Owen Thomas, who knew him well, and heard him often, writes of him: —
"He commences his sermon with a few apt and clear remarks which naturally arise from the text, or from some special connection with the context; remarks common and trite enough, but from his lips clothed with new freshness, and leading naturally to the text he has taken up. Then he expounds the meaning of it with great skill, showing its relations to the context, dwelling especially upon the meaning of particular words. He often refers to various translations, to Eastern rights and customs, to Jewish lore and tradition, and to the relations of the Jewish nation to the nations around. He mentions, perhaps, the views of Ainsworth, Pool, Lightfoot, Lowth, Horsely, Campbell, Macknight, Owen, or Leigh. He rejects one view altogether, though supported by great names ; he hesitates as to two other views which to accept ; finally, he brings reasons, critical or expository, theological or historical, for the one he considers the right, until his hearers, to a man, are convinced that that is the right view and no other ; and until that verse is henceforth perfectly familiar to them. In fact, between the exposition of the text, and the sermon which follows, that text is for ever indelibly impressed upon their minds. Whenever his old hearers to the present day hear or read many a verse in Scripture, they invariably associate them with the sermons of John Elias. After he has fully explained his text, he divides it, and draws out before his hearers the subjects of his remarks. . . . We remember him preaching in the Carnarvon Association in the year 1836, upon James i. 21, upon receiving ' the engrafted word,' when he spoke upon 'engrafting' with such light, propriety, and effect, that one man in leaving the field after the sermon, said, ' Well, whatever other good I may have received in this Association, I know now how to engraft! 'But though the subject he has lies in his text, he ranges over all things in heaven and earth for elucidating materials. He speaks distinctly, powerfully, effectively. The congregation is in his hand, and the eyes of all are upon him ; no one sleeping, no. one smiling, no one inattentive. Thus he advances till he finishes with the first head. And when that is done, the conviction remains in the minds of all that that matter is settled. Touch it not ; there let it rest for ever. And, above all, re- member its inevitable and awful relation to your personal self Again, with perfect self possession, he goes on with the second head. He still keeps to the words of his text, but he draws out of them a meaning which has never come to the mind of any one there before. He holds it before his hearers with such light, that he carries the sanction of every mind and con- science in the place. He speaks clearly, strongly, authoritatively. Soon there appears in himself a strange agitation of feeling. His emotions are on fire ; his eyes flash ; his voice acquires somewhat of an unearthly tone and a supernatural force. By this the external appearance of the preacher has undergone a great change ; he seems to be several inches taller than before. His body writhes in convulsion backwards and forwards by the upheaving power of the volcanic fire hid in his breast. At times he looks amazed, terror-stricken, and in dismay ; he draws in his cheeks in a peculiar manner, compresses his lips ; he seems to be gazing upon an awe-inspiring vision, and unable yet to grasp the meaning of it, and to describe it properly. But, after a pause, he stretches forth his hand, the forefinger of which plays as if it had an independent life of its own ; the idea flashes forth like the lightning ; the crash of the thunder follows ; the pattering rain falls ; the people feel like Israel at the foot of Sinai ; the shrieks of many are heard, — like that man in Brynsiencyn, who, on an occasion of the kind, suddenly said 'Oh! for Evan Richards, (A very sweet and evangelic preacher) Carnarvon, or some one for a single moment, lest we die! ' — and the sighing, the groaning, and the weeping becomes general, and the terrors of God penetrate the place. But with that, however, comes a change over the preacher, and the greatest love and tenderness beam in his countenance, his voice becomes pathetic, and he declares the Gospel of redemption in all its riches — the Saviour who died that the guilty might live — and this with such an unction and with such a conviction in the minds of his hearers that he himself had experienced it, that hope dawns again upon the most despondent in the place; the black and threatening clouds are dispelled ; the sky becomes clear ; the sun rises, and the shadow of death itself is turned into the dawn of day. He closes by prayer, and gives out a hymn as appropriate to go John Elias. the subject of the sermon as if it had been composed purposely for the occasion, and all the people return to their homes under the deepest convictions, some of them saved to eternal life, having passed through from death into life." ("Life of John Jones," pp. 865—868).
It appears, however, that John Elias, like others, was not always powerful. He was preaching in Bangor, a little before Whitsuntide, 1835, on his way to Liverpool, Manchester, and the Bala Association. His text that night was Isa. vi. 9, 10, the same text as for the great sermon which he preached on the Green at Bala with such effect a few weeks later. Dr. Owen Thomas was there, and he commenced the service by reading and praying. The sermon that evening, however, was, as far as could be seen, altogether ineffective. Every one considered it " hard," and John Elias himself. After it was over, he was asked when he would come again. He replied, " The first Sunday evening after the Bala Association, on my way home. Mr. Rowland, Llangeitho, advised a young preacher, if he preached very happily in a place, not to hasten there again; but, if the service was a hard one, to go there again the first opportunity. I had here to-night, not a hard service simply, but a very hard one ; I shall come here again that Sunday, to see if I can get a better one." Dr. Owen Thomas says that this was the most powerful occasion he ever experienced in his life. The text was Heb. vi. 7, 8 : " For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God ; but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned." The effects were indescribable. He preached for an hour and twenty-five minutes ; and the effect was so great upon his own constitution that he could not venture to preach again for nearly a month. Dr. Thomas remembers looking during the sermon upon the pillars which supported the gallery, to see if they were really there as usual.
He had an extraordinary power of expression and utterance. Such commanding authority he had when he said anything, that no one could think of saying it better. His articulation and utterance of the Welsh language was complete and perfect. David Cadwaladr* had heard him preaching in a Monthly Meeting when he was a young man, and when some one asked him what kind of meeting they had had, he said, "Well, there was a young weaver from Carnarvonshire who has just commenced preaching, and they put him to preach in the meeting. May the Lord keep him from error, for the people must believe what he says!"
John Elias was wanting in humour. At least, we have been able to see in him but few traces of that noble quality. His mind was altogether bent to the solemn aspects of truth; his eyes were turned to the stern realities of the other world; with difficulty could he turn his eyes to the imperfections of this earth. He was like another John the Baptist, who had spent his time in the wilderness without having seen much of the beauty of nature. He was as if he had spent much of his life on the rugged sides of Snowdon, or under the overhanging rocks of Eryri; as if he had been cradled and nurtured on the slopes of the everlasting mountains, without ever having seen the lovely glens and valleys, the green fields and the lilies. But, if he had not seen these, he had seen the great ocean, and delighted to look at the mighty billows that wash the feet of these everlasting mountains; and he often left the rugged slopes for the level shore and the loud- sounding sea. It was the great and grand, the awful and sublime, that he made his home with; the pleasant, the delightful, and the lovely he had no eye for. His house was built on the rocks of law, justice, and eternity, in sight of the ocean of everlasting love. But, if he did not delight his hearers with his humour, &c., he brought into their bosoms joy unspeakable and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. There was abundantly more of the pleasant and delightful in Christmas Evans and Williams Wern; and they were greatly his superior in the possession of the quality of humour.
In boldness and self-assertion he was not unlike the Danton of the French Revolution ; and it requires no keen observer to see in him the majesty and greatness of Lord Chatham, devoid of all the love of theatrical effect so prominent in him. The language of both was often awe-inspiring, and the cast of the eye transfixing as lightning. He also was a terrible antagonist ; for when he defended a position he brought down the legions of the other world. The dramatic power of John Elias was equal to that of Lord Chatham, and always accompanied with the idea of simplicity and of no effort, together with the most solemn earnestness.
The preaching of John Elias was of a stern Puritan type and would undoubtedly fall under the condemnation of the high literary authority, Mr. Matthew Arnold. And we must admit that the preaching of John Elias did assume a sterner aspect from the reaction that took place in Wales after the advent of Arminianism, in the beginning of this century. As a defender of the faith, there was a tendency in him to extreme Calvinistic views. In fact, in the year 1814, he fell into the same error as Mr. Christmas Evans ; for he composed a sermon on the limits of the Atonement, taking the same view of equivalence. He preached this sermon in several places, and at last came to Denbigh with it, where the Rev. Thomas Jones lived. Mr. Jones, as we have seen (p. 180), was utterly opposed to such narrow views. Mr. Elias lodged in his house that evening. The result of the talk they had together was, that Mr. Elias was perfectly convinced of his error, and promised never to use those expressions again. Such views were also recognized by the Calvinistic Methodist Association as a departure from those of the founders of the Body, as well as those of the Church of Christ in all ages. Though in theorizing about the plan of salvation, John Elias, at one time especially, had a tendency to extreme views, yet, even then, there was no difference between him and the rest of his friends in presenting the Gospel to a lost world j and never did any preacher leave a deeper impression in the minds of his hearers, that, if lost, the responsibility would rest altogether upon themselves.
According to Mr. Matthew Arnold, "under the eyes of this generation, Puritan Dissent has to execute an entire change of front, and to present us with a new reason for its existing," He means that the doctrines of election and justification by faith cannot be maintained and preached now as they were years ago. '"I hold,' says White field, in the forcible style which so took his hearers' fancy, ' I hold that a certain number are elected from eternity, and these must and shall be saved, and the rest of mankind must and shall be damned.' A Calvinistic Puritan now-a-days must be either a fervid Welsh Dissenter or a strenuous Particular Baptist in some remote place in the country, not to be a little staggered at this sort of expression. (See Preface to Mr. Matthew Arnold's "St. Paul and Protestantism.")
Whitefield, like many others in their day, gave undue and unjustifiable prominence to the doctrine of election ; and they spoke as if they knew all about it, and exhibited far too much of that want of reverence which Paul writes of in the epistle to the Romans. But nothing can be more unfair than to select a single sentence like the above, and condemn on its account all the preaching of Whitefield and the Puritans. It was not election nor justification that George Whitefield preached, but a crucified Saviour ; and all the success which followed his preaching was due to that. What is true of George Whitefield is true of the preaching of John Elias. The preaching which Mr. Arnold would condemn most in Wales was the preaching of Daniel Rowlands in the first few years of his ministry, when he was not a Dissenter, but a clergyman of the Church of England ; together with that of John Elias. We are not aware that the preaching of the others would be liable to any such objection, when rightly understood ; neither ought that of Daniel Rowlands and John Elias to be. If Mr. Arnold had known anything about Welsh preaching, beside hearsay, he would certainly not have made the above remarks. Whatever preaching of law and justice and human depravity even John Elias indulged in, was only preparatory to the preaching of Christ, both in the sufficiency of His life, death, and intercession, and in all His " mildness and sweet reasonableness."
The best way of meeting the assertions of Mr. Matthew Arnold about the Puritans is by a bold denial. To preach the doctrines of election, justification by faith, &c., is not Puritanism. This belongs to churches that are not considered Puritan, quite as much as to them. This is not even essential to Puritanism. What is it, then ? Simply an accident that happened to Puritanism. Great prominence was given by several preachers to these doctrines. Nor does it owe its success to the preaching of these doctrines. The preaching upon which depended the prosperity of Puritanism was the preaching of Christ as a Saviour of sinners. Theorizing and dwelling inordinately upon dogmas has not been successful amongst Puritans more than Anglicans. In fact, it is in proportion to its departure from the simple preaching of Christ as Saviour, and the prominence given to the preaching of dogmas, that Puritanism has failed. We speak more especially of Wales, though it is true of England and other countries. In the beginning of this century, when the Wesleyans appeared in Wales, and when, consequently, all the Calvinistic bodies fell upon the defensive, and gave undue prominence to the preaching of special dogmas, it is a well-known fact that from that very moment a deadly chill passed over the churches, the intense anxiety of the preachers for the salvation of men was lost, and the hearers fell off by thousands. See e.g. the remarks which have preceded upon the effect in Anglesey on the Baptists alone (pp. 170-1). It was in so far as they did not preach dogmas, but the truth of Christ as Saviour, that they succeeded. It was in proportion to the degree in which preachers and hearers forgot these doctrines, which Mr. Arnold makes the pillars and centres of Puritanism, that Puritanism was followed in Wales with such an overwhelming success that to-day the Nonconforming bodies, Puritan almost to a man, have about 1,100,000 adherents in the Principality, the rest consisting of Anglicans and those who go nowhere at all, to the number of about 474,000. Never, we say, in any country, was preaching followed by a greater departure from iniquity. Instead of the darkness, cruelty, persecution, crime, and immorality of former days, we have now, on our hills and in our valleys, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control, the fruits of the Spirit of God. And of all the preachers of Wales, no one left a deeper and more lasting effect upon the characters and lives of Welshmen than John Elias.
*Dafydd Cadwaladr was born in the year 1752. He learned to read by observing the letters upon the mountain sheep. When there was a rumour in the country of the spread of Popery, and that the Bible would be again in danger, he determined to put a good portion of it in his memory, beyond the reach of the Church of Rome. Thus he learnt out by heart all the New Testament, and the greater part of the Old. He became a preacher, and very well known throughout Wales, because he travelled often from one part of the country to the other for the long period of fifty years.
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