of it;" and he would talk no more on the subject. He soon induced a good minister of the neighbourhood, the late Mr. Davies of Argoed, to take his horse and go to Anglesea for his old and faith-bers of the church. About one hundred ful servant Mary Evans, whom he in a short time married, and who paid him the most untiring and affectionate attentions to the last moment of his in and about the village; and not a few of the most determined votaries of pleasure submitted themselves to the authority of Christ, and became mem life. He had scarcely commenced his ministry at Caerphilly before very unusal effects were produced. The neighbourhood was at once subjected to deep religious attention and concern. Eloquent and mighty as Mr. Evans's preaching had always been, those who had heard him oftenest, and were best fitted to form a sound opinion, thought he now surpassed himself at any former period. By preaching every Lord's day to the same congregation—a hard task to begin with at his age-he was committed to extraordinary labour, which, however, he resolutely encountered and successfully achieved. It now became apparent, contrary to a pretty prevalent opinion, that his good preaching was not confined to a few sermons, slowly prepared and often repeated; but that he was quite capable, from week to week, to get up discourses quite equal to his greatest and most celebrated single efforts. At this time persons might be seen, every Lord's day morning, wending their way across the surrounding hills, in all directions, towards the quiet village of Caerphilly, to hear Christmas Evans. On their return they detailed to their neighbours the wonderful things they had heard; and, throughout a large portion of the counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth, Christmas Evans's sermon in the morning would be the subject of conversation in hundreds of houses, at great distances, on the same evening. The power of his preaching was especially felt by the young people and forty persons were, in a short time, added to the number of the disciples; while confidence, buoyancy, and joy,were infused into the whole community. When he had spent about two years at Caerphilly, he put into execution his purpose of leaving, and accepted an invitation to take the oversight of the Welsh baptist church at Cardiff, in the same county, whence in 1832 he removed to Caernarvon. At the end of his first year at Caernarvon, Christmas Evans writes:"I have much cause to thank God for his grace to me in this place. Many things are better than they were twelve months ago. All was then a desolate wilderness-yea, the dwelling-place of dragons, [where they took their rest, day and night, Sunday and holyday. I know not what the Lord may be pleased to do here again for the praise of the glory of his grace. The sin of drunkenness and the spirit of strife have been the greatest hindrances that I have met with in the town. Oh, it is most difficult to raise again a fallen cause! for Satan has a double advantage in this casegathering disgrace from the immorality of professors, and thence manufacturing continuous objections to the discredit of religion." Again, with the low state of the church, came the interminable annoyance of the debt on the meeting-house. Though, by almost a miraculous effort, Mr. John Edwards, sent forth by the church, collected £400; finding a "specimen of Welsh eloquence" which he carried with him, a ready introduction to all descriptions of persons; still there was the remainder, a burden which the church could not bear, and for which Mr. Jones of Liverpool was now solely and personally responsible. With charac- | against him. The fleet of the enemy teristic ardour Mr. Evans determined was strong and well manned; he had on another visit to South Wales in this but some twelve steamboats. What! behalf. wilt thou, O Jesus, attack the enemy with those few boats of thine?' 'Yes, I will.' The action commences: the boats take their place alongside of the men-of-war; actually throw their grappling-irons on board-desperately attaching themselves to the mighty fourdeckers. Fearful cannonading ensues; all is smoke, darkness, and confusion. Hark! you only hear some agonizing Accordingly, on the 10th day of April, Mr. Evans, with his wife and young friend, a preacher, Mr. Hughes, left Caernarvon; and he safely reached South Wales. A few days afterwards he was taken ill at Tredegar, and was laid up for a week at the house of Mr. Thomas Griffiths. the clouds disperse, and the light of heaven breaks in fully on the amazing scene; and-infinite amazement ! miracle of wonders!-the small boats have taken three thousand prisoners in this one engagement ! " "At Jerusalem, Lord?' 'Yes.' 'Why, Lord, there are the men who crucified thee: we are not to preach it to them?' 'Yes, preach it to all.' 'To the man that plaited the crown of thorns, and placed it on thy head?' 'Yes; tell him that from my degradation he may attain a crown of glory.' Mr. Evans left Tredegar and proceeded through Caerphilly, Cardiff, Cow-groans; the firing has ceased. Behold, bridge, Bridgend, and Neath, arriving in Swansea on Saturday, July 14. He and Mrs. Evans became the very welcome guests of the Rev. D. Davies, pastor of the Welsh church in the town. He preached on the Lord's day at the Welsh chapel, twice, with great power, though he was evidently suffering much from indisposition. On Monday afternoon he went out and took tea with Mr. David Walters, a gentleman whom he had long known, and who was always proud to see and entertain him. On the same evening he preached in English at Mount Pleasant Chapel, in the pulpit then occupied by the writer. His text was Luke xxiv. 47. He was very feeble, and, with the difficulty he always felt in preaching English, he seemed much tried in this last attempt. Still a few gleams of his usual brilliance shot athwart the congregation, and vastly interested it. 'Beginning at Jerusalem.' Why at Jerusalem? The apostles were to begin there because its inhabitants had been witness to the life and death of Christ. There he had preached, wrought miracles, been crucified, and rose again. Here, on the very spot of his deepest degradation, he was also to be exalted. He had been crucified as a malefactor, he was now to be exalted in the same place as a king. Here were accorded to him the first-fruits of his resurrection. On the day of Pentecost all Jerusalem was 66 6 Suppose we meet the very man that nailed thy sacred hands and feet to the cross-the very man that pierced thy side-that spat in thy face?' 'Preach the gospel to them all; tell them all that I am the Saviour; that all are welcome to participate in the blessings of my salvation; that I am the same Lord over all, and rich unto all that call upon me.'” In the act of coming down the pulpit stairs, he said, loud enough to be heard by many present, and in English, "This is my last sermon.' And so it proved. He was taken very ill in the course of the night, was worse throughout the following day. On Wednesday he seemed better, but all favourable symptoms had given way to the pressure of disease on Thursday, and he at last consented to send for medical assistance. When the surgeon came, Mr. Evans asked him earnestly when he thought he might be able to commence his work again. About two o'clock the next morning, Mr. Davies and Mr. Hughes were called to him. He thanked the former for the kind attention paid by him and Mrs. Davies; and then said, "I am leaving you; I have been labouring in the sanctuary for fifty-three years, and my confidence and consolation, at this crisis, is, that I have not laboured without blood in the vessel. Preach Christ to the people, brethren. Look at me in myself, I am nothing but ruin; but look at me in Christ, I am heaven and salvation." He added, in a joyous strain, four lines of a Welsh hymn; then, waving his hand, he said in English, "Good bye!drive on!" and sunk into a calm sleep, awaking no more. This was on Thursday morning, July 19th, 1838. Thus died, full of years, labours, and honours, and on the high places of the field, Christmas Evans,-a prince in Israel, a captain of the hosts of the living God. He had fought a good fight, had finished his course, and had kept the faith: henceforth he rests from his labours, and his works do follow him. ON THE BEATITUDES. BY THE REV. J. J. DAVIES. HAVING in a former paper noticed some of the circumstances connected with the delivery of the sermon on the mount, we propose now to offer a few general observations on that part of the sermon which contains the beatitudes. 1. Our Lord commences this discourse by directing us to the path of bliss. His first word is "blessed." How characteristic of the Redeemer, and how expressive of the nature and object of his mission! Happiness is the first and great desire of the human mind. And man was evidently made for happiness. This desire is an instinct of his nature; and it cannot be supposed that God has not provided means for the gratification of those desires of which he is himself the author. This were to suppose that he had not provided for the accomplishment of his own purposes. Man, therefore, may be happy;-he ought to be happy; this is one great end for which he was made; and the universe abounds in means for the attainment of it. And yet, alas! how rare an attainment is happiness in this world! How many inquire, where is it? who will show it to us? or who will point out the path which leads to it? There are but few who say, "I have found it." The promises of the various systems of philosophy and religion which have obtained amongst men, and have professed to solve the problem how man may be happy, have proved delusive; they have been found miserable comforters; bruised reeds which could afford no support; clouds without rain, exciting expectations which were doomed only to be disappointed; broken cisterns, which could hold no water; painted fires, which could yield no warmth. The world was as wretched when Jesus appeared in it as it had ever been. Though many nations had attained to the highest pinnacle of power, and to the utmost refinements of civilization, they were, generally, as far from happiness as the most barbarous or degraded of their neighbours. It was necessary, therefore, that the Divine Teacher should point out to men the path of bliss; and though there were many in his day who professed to teach men how they might be happy, it was not the less necessary for him to show the more excellent way. He accordingly commences this discourse, which may, perhaps, be regarded as a specimen of his mode of teaching during this period of his ministry, by declaring to us who are blessed, and by showing us how real blessedness may be attained. 2. The path of bliss pointed out to us by our Lord differs essentially from those paths which men in general have pursued, and in which they have expected, but in vain, to find happiness. The principles inculcated by the Redeemer in this discourse are diametrically opposed to the maxims and habits of the world. The ideas which then prevailed, not only amongst the Gentiles, but also amongst the Jews, were such that when our Lord first delivered this discourse his hearers must necessarily have been astonished; they must have felt that this was altogether a new doctrine. No preceding teacher had anticipated him in any of his views; and yet every man whose heart was not thoroughly corrupted must have been conscious of something in himself that responded to them all. And to this day they approve themselves to our inner man as the true sayings of God. And yet, alas! how far we are from realizing the instructions of our Lord! Even now, in this professedly Christian land, and towards the middle of the nineteenth century, not only infidels and pagans, but the professed disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus, pronounce the rich, the prosperous, the great, happy. These are the men whom we at once admire and envy; whose smiles we court and whose circumstances we covet. The men on whom Jesus pronounces woes we pronounce blessed. Even while the plaintive and solemn tones in which he said, "Woe unto you that are rich; for ye have received your consolation; woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger; woe unto you that laugh, for ye shall mourn and weep;❞—while these plaintive and solemn tones are yet in our ears, we say, “Would that I were rich! Would that I had enough of this world's good! I should then be happy!" The poor, the mourners, the meek, the persecuted, whom our Lord pronounces blessed, his professed disciples too often despise. We are much the creatures of sense. We are prone to place our happiness in the state of things without us; to seek it in circumstances of ease, prosperity, and splendour; and we are almost sure to pronounce those who are placed in such a position-happy. Of him who, without any intellectual worth or moral excellence, attains to affluence, and rank, and power, we are ready to exclaim, What a fortunate, what a happy man! We seem to think it impossible that he can be wretched. But Jesus pronounces a different judgment; he makes happiness to depend, not on the state of things without us, but on the state of things within us; he bids us look for it, not in the material and the outward, but in the inward and the spiritual; it is to be found, not in the circumstances in which we are placed, but in the spirit of the mind, the state of the heart; and the spirit which he pronounces blessed is the opposite of that which, for the most part, is cherished, inculcated, and applauded in the world. We commend, at least practically, the proud, the haughty, the imperious; we call him who is quick to suspect and impatient to resent an injury, a man of spirit. But Jesus pronounces the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the peace-makers, happy; and he is right. Such have ever been the dictates of true wisdom: "He that is slow to anger is better"in every sense, better, wiser, happier"than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." 3. Our Lord, in this discourse, connects happiness with the possession of separate virtues and graces; but we are not to suppose from this that if we cultivate one of these we may safely neglect the rest. In the faith which worketh by love, and which is their grand characteristic as Christians, the truly blessed ones, possess the germ of all the virtues and the root of all consolation and joy. From this primal root grow all the flowers of paradise with their sweet fragrance and their beauteous hues, and all the fruits of the Spirit which have ever adorned the Christian character. tion. But we often witness them in a higher degree in some domestic animals than we do in men. Without being justly liable to the charge of misanthropy, some men calculate far more confidently on the fidelity of a favourite dog than on that of the most attached of their friends. How numerous and touching are the instances of gratitude to his benefactors, of gentleness and forbearance under wrong, of faithfulness to his master, of disinterested devotion to his human friend, even to the willing sacrifice of life, which have been recorded of that humble animal! These are excellent points, but in the absence of real excellence; these are virtues if you please, but without the root, the principle of all moral worth. The possession of this is the grand peculiarity of a moral agent, the characteristic of a holy being. Through constitutional tendency, or the influence of education and mental discipline, an individual may possess some virtues in a state of high cultivation, while, at the same time, he is altogether destitute of others which are no less necessary to the formation of Religion is a complete whole. In the a noble and perfect character. He may true Christian you have the fundamental have large benevolence without con- principle of universal excellence. In scientiousness; or he may have strict him you have the root of all the virtues, integrity without generosity and kind- the stem out of which all the graces of ness. Nay, he may even have some the spirit grow: his mind is in harmony virtues in close connexion with degrad- with the mind of God. As a Christian ing vices and immoralities; he may grace, no man can possess one excellence have much kindness and generosity, and be entirely destitute of others; he and, at the same time, be the slave of must, by the very constitution of his intemperance and licentiousness. In renewed mind, be in sympathy with all that is good. Not that there is perfect uniformity of character amongst Christians. There may be uniformity amongst the things that are dead; but life asserts its own claims, and amongst the living there must be individuality. As in the apostolic age there were diversities of gifts, all proceeding from the same Spirit and tending to the same end, so there have ever been varieties in the graces by which holy men have been distinguished. this case, we say, he may have many good qualities, but he has not real goodness; he may have many excellent points, but he is destitute of real excellence. He lives in the lower region of the instincts; he does not rise to the eminence of pure morality and real worth. He may be compared with brutes, he can be contrasted only with holy beings. Yea, and when compared with some of the inferior orders of creation he does not appear to any great advantage. Thus Abraham was emiDoes he speak of gratitude, gentleness, nent for faith; Moses for meekness; generosity, faithfulness, disinterested Job for patience; David and Elijah for devotion? These are virtues; and we zeal; John for love; Peter for boldness; can never witness them without admira- | Paul for self-denying, untiring devoted VOL. X.-FOURTH SERIES. U |