_CONTEMPORARIES IN THE WELSH PULPIT—WILLIAMS OF WERN_.
The Great Welsh Preachers unknown in England—The Family of the
Williamses—Williams of Pantycelyn—Peter Williams—Evan Williams—Dr.
Williams—Williams of Wern—The immense Power of his Graphic
Language—Reading and Thinking—Instances of his Power of Luminous
Illustration—Early Piety—A Young Preacher—A Welsh Gilboa—Admiration of,
and Likeness to, Jacob Abbot—Axiomatic Style—Illustrations of Humour—The
Devils—Fondness for Natural Imagery—Fondness of Solitude—Affecting
Anecdotes of Dying Hours—His Daughter—His Preaching characterised—The
Power of the Refrain in the Musician and the Preacher, “Unto us a Child
is born.”
WE pause here for a short time, in our review of the career, and
character, and pulpit power of Christmas Evans, to notice some of those
eminent men, who exercised, in his day, an influence over the Welsh mind.
We will then notice some of those preachers, of even the wilder Wales,
who preceded these men. So little is known of many of them in England,
and yet their character, and labours, are so essentially and excellently
instructive, that we feel this work, to those who are interested, to be
not one of supererogation. The men, their country, the people among whom
they moved, their work in it, the singular faith in, and love for
preaching, for the words these men had to utter,—they must seem, to us,
remarkable, and memorable. In this time of ours, when preaching, and all
faith in preaching, is so rapidly dying out, that it may be regarded,
now, as one of the chief qualifications of a candidate for the pulpit,
that he cannot preach a sermon, but can “go to those who sell, and buy
for himself”—this study of what was effected by a living voice, with a
real live soul behind it, must seem, as a matter of mere history,
noteworthy. And first among those who charmed the Welsh ear, in the time
of Christmas Evans, we mention Williams of Wern.
It is not without reason, that many eminent Welshmen can only be known,
and really designated after the place of their birth, or the chief scene
of their labours. The family of the Williamses, for instance, in Wales,
is a very large one—even the eminent Williamses; and William Williams
would not make the matter any clearer; for, always with tenderest love
ought to be pronounced the name of that other William Williams, or, as he
is called, Williams of Pantycelyn—the obscure, but not forgotten, Watts
of Wales. His hymns have been sung over the face of the whole earth, and
long before missionary societies had been dreamed of, he wrote, in his
remote Welsh village,
“O’er the gloomy hills of darkness;”
and he has cheered, and comforted many a Zion’s pilgrim by his sweet
song,
“Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah!”
He was born in 1717, and died in 1791. This sweet and sacred singer
ought to receive more than this passing allusion. Little is known of him
in England; and it is curious that Mr. Christopher’s volume on “Hymn
Writers and their Hymns” neither mentions his hymns, nor his name.
A writer in the _Quarterly Review_, evidently not very favourable to that
denomination of religious sentiment which Williams represented, has
spoken of the “unmixed pleasure” his name and character awakens: “He was
a man in whom singular purity of sentiment added grace to a truly
original genius.” “His direction to other composers was, never to
attempt to compose a hymn until they feel their souls near heaven. His
precept, and his practice, in this respect, have been compared to those
of Fra Angelico.” Would that some competent Welsh pen would render for
us, into English, more of these notes of the sweet singer of Pantycelyn.
William Williams came from the neighbourhood of Llandovery, the parish of
Pritchard of the “Welshman’s Candle;” he was, as his hymns would
indicate, well educated; he studied for, and entered upon the medical
profession; but, converted beneath the preaching of Howell Harris, in
Talgarth churchyard, he turned from medicine to the work of the ministry.
He was a member of the Established Church; he sought, and received
ordination, and deacon’s orders, but, upon application for priest’s
orders, he was refused. He then united himself with the Calvinistic
Methodists, but still continued to labour with the great Daniel Rowlands,
at Llangeitho. His sermons were, like his hymns, often sublime, always
abounding in notes of sweetness. During the forty three years of his
ministry, it is said, he travelled about 2,230 miles a year, making in
all 95,890 miles! He wrote extensively, also, in prose. There is a
handsome edition of his works in the Welsh language, and an English
edition of some of his hymns. Among the most beautiful, our readers will
remember—
“Jesus, lead us with Thy power
Safe into the promised rest.”
This was William Williams of Pantycelyn.
Then, there was Peter Williams, a famous name in the Principality, and of
about the same period as Williams of Pantycelyn. No man of his time did
so much to cultivate religious literature in Wales. He was a great
preacher, and an exemplary man; when a minister within the Church of
England, he was persecuted for his opinions, and practices; and, when he
left that communion, he suffered even a more bitter persecution from his
Methodist brethren. His life, and his preaching, appear to have been
full of romantic incidents.
Then there was Evan Williams, who is spoken of as a seraphic man, and
whose life appears to justify the distinctive designation, although he
died at the age of twenty-nine, very greatly in consequence of ill-usage
received in persecution.
Then, in England, we are better acquainted with Daniel Williams, the
founder of what is called Dr. Williams’s Library; and who, in addition to
this magnificent bequest, left sums of money to Wales for schools,
endowments of ministers, annual grants of Bibles, and religious books,
and for widows of ministers; by which Wales has received since, and
receives now, the sum of about £700 a year. His ministry, however, was
in London, at Hand Alley, Bishopsgate Street, nearly two hundred years
since. His works are contained in six octavo volumes; but he scarcely
falls beneath the intention of these pages.
Besides these, there are many others; so that, as we said above, the name
of Williams represents, not only a large family, but a family remarkable
for Christian usefulness in Wales. But, in this catalogue of eminent
preachers, Williams of Wern, among those of his name, is singularly
eminent. He had that power, to which we have referred, of using his
language in such a manner, that people, in a very awful way, realized the
scenes he described. Dr. Rees mentions of him, that when preaching on
the resurrection of the dead, from the window of Ynysgan Chapel, Merthyr
Tydvil, he so riveted the attention of the vast multitude, who were on
the burying-ground before him, that when he reached the climax, all the
crowd moved together in terror, imagining that the graves under their
feet were bursting open, and the dead rising. Yet Williams was a
singularly quiet preacher; these effects were wrought by the power of
that language, so wonderfully fitted to work on the emotions of a very
imaginative people, and which he knew how to play upon so well.
This great preacher had quite as remarkable an individuality as either of
the eminent men, whose characters we may attempt faintly to portray.
Christmas Evans, we have seen, led his hearers along through really
dramatic, and pictorial representations. Davies was called the “Silver
Trumpet” of Wales; his voice was an instrument of overwhelming compass,
and sweetness. Elias was a man of severe, and passionate eloquence,—all
the more terrible, because held in the restraint of a perfect, and
commanding will. Williams differed from all three; nor must it, for a
moment, be said that he “attained not to the first three.” His eminence
was equal to theirs, and, in his own walk, he was quite as highly
esteemed; but his department of power was completely different. Perhaps,
he was less the vehicle of vehement passion than either Elias, or Davies;
and it was altogether apart from his purpose to use the amazing imagery
of Christmas Evans. His mind was built up of compacted thought; his
images were not personifications, but analogies. So far as we are able
to form a conception of him, his mind appears to have moved in a pathway
of self-evidencing light.
Thus, if we were to speak of these four men as constituting a quartette
in the harmony of the great Welsh pulpit, we should give to John Elias
the place of the deep bass; to Davies, the rich and melting soprano; to
Christmas Evans the tenor; reserving, for Williams of Wern, the place of
the alto. His teaching was eminently self-evolved. None of the great
Welsh preachers dealt much with pen, and paper. They wrought out their
sermons on horseback, or whilst moving from place to place. With
Williams it was especially so. Two ministers called upon him in 1830.
One of them was something of a bookworm, and he asked him if he had read
a certain book which had just been published. Williams said he had not.
“Have you,” continued his friend, “seen so-and-so?” naming another work.
“No, I have not.” And, presently, a third was mentioned, and the answer
was still in the negative. “I’ll tell you what,” said Mr. Williams, “you
read too much; you do not think sufficiently. My plan in preparing
sermons is to examine the connection of a passage, extract its principle,
and think it over in my own mind. I never look at a Commentary, except
when completely beaten.”
It has often been said that, in the very proportion in which eloquence is
effective, and commanding in delivery, in the degree in which it is
effective as _heard_, it is impossible to be _read_; and, with some
measure of exception, this is, no doubt, true. Williams, certainly, is
an illustration of this general principle; yet he was, perhaps, one of
the most luminous of speakers; only, this alone, without accompanying
passion, does not make the orator. Take the following as an illustration
of his manner. On ejaculatory prayer:—
“Ejaculatory prayer is the Christian’s breath; the secret path to his
hiding-place; his express to heaven in circumstances of difficulty,
and peril; it is the tuner of all his religious feelings; it is his
sling, and stone, with which he slays the enemy, ere he is aware of
it; it is the hiding of his strength; and, of every religious
performance, it is the most convenient. Ejaculatory prayer is like
the rope of a belfry; the bell is in one room, and the handle, or the
end of the rope which sets it a-ringing, in another. Perhaps the
bell may not be heard in the apartment where the rope is, but it is
heard in its own apartment. Moses laid hold of the rope, and pulled
it hard, on the shore of the Red Sea; and though no one heard, or
knew anything of it, in the lower chamber, the bell rang loudly in
the upper one, till the whole place was moved, and the Lord said,
‘Wherefore criest thou unto me?’”
This is luminous preaching. Unfortunately, as with others, we have very
little—scarcely anything, indeed—left of Williams’s pulpit talk.
William Williams was born in the year 1781, at Cwm-y-swn-ganol, in
Merionethshire. There his parents occupied a farm, and were much
respected. It seems, to us, an odd thing that their name was not
Williams, but Probert, or Ap-Robert. He received his name of Williams
from the singular practice, then prevalent in many parts of Wales, of
converting, with the aid of the letter S, the Christian name of the
father into the surname of the son. His father, although an orderly
attendant upon Divine Worship, never made a public profession of
religion; but his mother was a very pious, and exemplary member of the
Calvinistic Methodist connexion.
The decisive hour of real religious conviction came to the youth when he
was very young—only about thirteen years of age. Impressions deep, and
permanent, were made on his mind, and heart, and at fifteen he was
received into Church fellowship; but he suffered greatly from diffidence.
Although it was expected of him, he could not pray either in the family,
or in public, because, as he used to say, he would then be required, by
all his acquaintance, to conduct himself like a perfect saint. But one
night, when all the family, with the exception of his mother, and
himself, had retired to rest, she engaged in prayer with him, and then
said, “Now, Will, dear, do you pray,” and he did so; and from this moment
dated the commencement of his courage, and confidence.
It was in his twenty-second year that he entered Wrexham Academy. He was
a thorough Welshman—a monoglot. He made some progress in the acquisition
of English, and Greek; but he could never speak English fluently, and was
advanced in life before he knew a word of it; and he used to say, “When I
violate English, I am like a child that breaks a window; I do not go back
to mend it, but I run away, hoping I shall not be seen.” As linguists,
most of his fellow-students outshone him; in the pulpit, from his very
first efforts, he not only outshone them all, but it was soon seen that
he was to transcend most of the teachers, and speakers of his time.
Perhaps his example will not commend itself to some of our modern
writers, as to preparation for the ministry; for when he was recommended
to continue longer under tuition, he said, “No—no; for if so, the harvest
will be over while I am sharpening my sickle.” Young as he was, he took
a singular view of the leadings of Providence, which, however, eminently
marks the character of the man. He received a most unanimous invitation
from a large, and influential Church at Horeb, in Cardiganshire, and was
just about accepting the invitation, when the smaller, and, in
comparison, quite insignificant sphere of Wern was put before him, with
such commendations of the importance of the work as commanded his
regards. He declined Horeb, and accepted Wern.
His field of labour appears to have comprehended a cluster of villages,
such as Llangollen, Rhuabon, and Rhosllanerchrugog; and in this region
the greater number of his days were passed, excepting that brief period,
towards the close of his life, when he became the minister of the great
Welsh tabernacle in Cross Hall Street, Liverpool. But he left Wales with
a heavy heart, amidst the pretty distinctly expressed dissatisfaction of
the people of the Principality, who, however, still insisted on giving
him his designation of Williams of Wern. Nor was he away from them long.
His old Church continued unsettled, and after three years’ ministry in
Liverpool, he returned to Wern, to close his active, and useful life.
His pastorate consisted, really, of three places—Wern, Rhos, and Harwood.
It was a singular circumstance, that whilst large crowds thronged round
him at the first two places, and while his name was becoming as a sharp
arrow through the whole Principality, he made little impression on
Harwood. He used to say that Harwood had been of greater service to him
than he had been to it; for it was “the thorn in the flesh, lest he
should be exalted above measure;” and if he ever felt disposed to be
lifted up when he saw the crowds gathering round him at other places, he
had only to go over to, or think about Harwood, and this became an
effectual check to the feelings of self-inflation, in which he might have
been tempted to indulge. It was so, whilst other places, Churches, and
congregations, “waited for him as for the rain, and opened their mouths
wide as for the latter rain;” whilst upon other fields his “doctrine
distilled as the dew,” his stubborn Harwood appears to have been a kind
of Welsh Gilboa, upon which no dew fell.
He was claimed as a kind of public property, and Churches at a distance
seemed to think they had a right to his services, frequently very much to
the irritation of his own people, to whom he might have given the
consolation he once administered to a brother minister; “I understand
that your people complain a good deal because you so often leave them.
Well, let us be thankful that the reverse is not the case; for our own
people might have tired of us, and be pleased to hear strangers, and
preferred our absence, regarding us as ‘a vessel wherein is no
pleasure.’” Unfortunately, in such cases, congregations do not take the
matter as philosophically as the old Scotchwoman, who, when she met a
neighbouring clergyman one Sabbath morning, wending his way to her own
kirk, expressed her surprise at meeting him there, and then. He
explained that it was an exchange of services. “Eh, then,” said the old
woman, “_your_ people will be having a grand treat the day.”
Something of the nature of Williams’s mind, and his method of
ministration, may be gathered from his exceeding admiration of Jacob
Abbot, and especially his work, “The Corner Stone.” “Oh! what a pity,”
he said, “that we cannot preach as this man writes.” But, so far as we
have been able to judge from the scanty means we possess, he did preach
very much after the manner of Jacob Abbot’s writings. His words appear,
first, to have been full of strong, seminal principles, and these were
soon made clear in the light of very apt illustrations. Truly it has
been said, that, first, the harper seizes his harp, and lays his hand
firmly upon it, before he sweeps the strings. In an eminent manner,
Williams gave to his people the sense, as soon as he commenced, that a
subject was upon his heart, and mind; and he had a firm grasp of it, and
from his creative mind each successive stroke was some fine, apt, happy
evolution.
Illustration was his _forte_, but of a very different order from that of
Christmas Evans; for instance, illustrating the contests of Christian
creeds, and sects with each other, “I remember,” he said, “talking with a
marine, who gave to me a good deal of his history. He told me the most
terrible engagement he had ever been in, was one between the ship to
which he belonged, and another English vessel, when, on meeting in the
night, they mistook each other for a French man-of-war. Many persons
were wounded, some slain; both vessels sustained serious damage from the
firing, and, when the day broke, great was their surprise to find the
English flag hoisted from the masts of both vessels, and that, through
mistake, they had been fighting all night against their own countrymen.
It was of no avail, now, that they wept together: the mischief was done.
Christians,” said the preacher, “often commit the same error in this
present world. One denomination mistakes another for an enemy; it is
night, and they cannot see to recognise each other. What will be their
surprise when they see each other in the light of another world! when
they meet in heaven, after having shot at each other through the mists of
the present state! How will they salute each other, when better known,
and understood, after having wounded one another in the night! But they
should wait till the dawn breaks, at any rate, that they may not be in
danger, through any mistake, of shooting at their friends.”
The Welsh language is, as we suppose our readers well know, especially
rich in compact, proverbial, axiomatic expressions. The Welsh triads are
an illustration of this. The same power often appears in the pulpit.
The latter, and more recent, languages are unfavourable to the expression
of proverbs. Williams we should suppose to have been one of the most
favourable exemplifications of this power. General tradition in Wales
gives him this kind of eminence—poem, and proverb united in his
sentences. We have not been able to obtain many instances of this; and
we fear it must be admitted, that our language only in a clumsy way
translates the pithy quaintness of the Welsh, such as the following: “The
door of heaven shuts from below, not from above. ‘Your iniquities have
separated, saith the Lord.’” “Of all the birds,” he once said, “the dove
is the most easily alarmed, and put to flight, at hearing a shot fired.
Remember,” he continued, “that the Holy Ghost is compared to a dove; and
if you begin to shoot at each other, the heavenly Dove will take wing,
and instantly leave you. The Holy Spirit is one of love, and peace, not
of tumult, and confusion. He cannot live amongst the smoke, and noise of
fired shots: if you would grieve the Holy Spirit, and compel Him to
retire, you have only to commence firing at one another, and He will
instantly depart.” “The mind of man is like a mill, which will grind
whatever you put into it, whether it be husk or wheat. The devil is very
eager to have his turn at this mill, and to employ it for grinding the
husk of vain thoughts. Keep the wheat of the Word in the mind; ‘keep thy
heart with all diligence.’”
Some of his words seem very odd, although he was a most grave, and
serious man. Thus; “Our prayers often resemble the mischievous tricks of
town-children, who knock at their neighbours’ houses, and then run away;
we often knock at Heaven’s door, and then run off into the spirit of the
world: instead of waiting for entrance, and answer, we act as if we were
afraid of having our prayers answered.” Again: “There are three devils
which injure, and ravage our Churches, and congregations,—the singing
devil, the pew-letting devil, and the Church officers’ appointment devil:
they are of the worst kind of devils, and this kind goeth not out but by
prayer, and fasting.” “The old ministers,” he used to say, “were not
much better preachers than we are, and, in many respects, they were
inferior to us; but they had a success attendant upon their ministry that
can now seldom be seen. They prayed more than we do. It was on his
knees that Jacob became a prince; and if we would become princes, we must
be more upon our knees. We should be successful as our fathers, could we
be brought to the same spirit, and frame of mind.”
But Williams is like Elias in this; we have had none of his sermons
rendered into English, and, therefore, the descriptions we have are
rather tantalizing. Mr. Parry, the Congregational minister of Llandudno,
a man well fitted to judge—himself one of the most distinguished living
poets in the Welsh language, and who has carried many prizes from the
Eisteddfodd—says of him: “I shall never forget his eloquence. It poured
forth like a swollen torrent. I cannot help referring to a sermon he
preached at an annual Association at Llanerchmedd, Anglesea. The meeting
was, as usual, held in the open air. The weather was very sultry; the
congregation seemed drowsy. His manner, before preaching, showed
considerable restlessness, and when he came to the desk, he looked rather
wild. It was evident his spirit was on fire, and his mind charged
brimful with ideas. He read his text in a quick, bold tone; ‘But now
they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly.’ He poured forth such
a flood of eloquent description, that he completely enchanted our
feelings, and made us imagine we felt the field move under our feet. He
himself thought this occasion one of the most remarkable in his life; for
I spoke to him about the sermon years after. I believe it served to
raise our Churches throughout the whole land.”
He was a more extensive reader than any of his brethren in the ministry;
a keen observer, too, in the departments of natural history, and natural
philosophy. It was, indeed, much like his own method, and it illustrated
the reason of his great admiration for Jacob Abbot’s “Corner Stone,” when
he very prettily says, “The blessed Redeemer was very fond of His
Father’s works.” He used to say, “If we understood nature better, it
would help us to understand the Bible better. The kingdom of nature, and
the kingdom of grace, are very like each other. There is a striking
resemblance between the natural principles of the one, and the moral
principles of the other.” He entered with a kind of joy into the sublime
moods of nature; was fond of watching the play of the lightning, and
listening to the voice of the thunder. “Jesus,” he used to say, “loved
to look at the lily, and to listen to the birds; to speak upon the
mysteries of the seed, and to draw forth principles from these things.
It was no part of His plan to expound the laws of nature, although He
understood them more perfectly than any one else; but He employed nature
as a book of reference, to explain the great principles of the plan of
salvation.”
A clergyman writes of him, that “his appearance when preaching was very
remarkable, and singularly beautiful. When standing in a great crowd,
every soul seemed agitated to its centre, and cheeks streaming with
tears. It is but justice that every one should have his likeness taken
when he appears to the greatest advantage; and so Williams. His picture,
on such an occasion, would be an honour to the country which reared him,
a treasure to the thousands who heard him, and a name to the painter.”
The likeness is before us now, and in the firm, composed thoughtfulness,
a kind of sad, far outlook in the eyes, and the lips which seem to wait
to tremble into emotion—we think we can well realize, from the inanimate
engraving, what life must have been in the speech of this extraordinary
man. His mind was cast in a sweetly meditative mould. He was fond of
retreating by himself among the trees, and walking beneath their shadows,
as they formed a canopy over his head. He said of one such place, “I
think I must love that spot through all eternity, for I have felt a
degree of heaven there.”
And thus he died. He had lost his wife some time before. It is very
affecting to read the account of himself, and his daughter, dying
together in different rooms of the same house. As he said to her, one
day, “We appear to be running, with contending footsteps, to be first at
the goal.” They spent much time in talking together, with unruffled
composure, of death, and heaven, and being “absent from the body, and
present with the Lord.” Every morning, as soon as he was up, found him
by the bedside of his daughter.
Once he said to her, “Well, Eliza, how are you this morning?”
“Very weak, father.”
“Ah!” said he, “we are both on the racecourse. Which of us do you think
will get to the end first?”
“Oh, I shall, father. I think you must have more work to do yet.”
“No,” he said; “I think my work is nearly over.”
“It may be so, father; but, still, I think I shall be the first to go.”
“Perhaps,” he said, “it is best it should be so, for I am more able to
bear the blow. But,” he continued, “do you long to see the end of the
journey?”
“Oh, from my heart!” she replied.
“But why?”
“Because I shall see so many of my old friends, and my mother; and, above
all, I shall see Jesus.”
“Ah, well, then,” he said, “tell them I am coming! tell them I am
coming!”
She died first. Her last words were, “Peace! peace!” He followed her
shortly after—on the 17th of March, 1840, in the fifty-ninth year of his
age.
Amongst the great preachers of Wales, not one seems to have won more upon
the tender love of those who knew him. Dr. Raffles said of him, “What he
was as a preacher, I can only gather from the effects he produced on
those who understood the language in which he spoke, but I can truly say,
that every occasion on which I saw him only served to impress me more
with the ardour of his piety, and the kindness of his heart. He was one
of the loveliest characters it has been my lot to meet.”
High strains of thought, rendered into the sweet variety, melting
tenderness, and the grand strength of the language of Wales, seem to have
been the characteristics of the preaching of Williams of Wern; tender,
and terrible, sweetness alternating with strength. We have already said
how much Welsh preaching derived, in its greatest men, from the power of
varying accent; the reader may conceive it himself if ever listening to
that wonderful chorus in Handel’s “Messiah,” which Herder, the great
German, called truly the Christian Epos; but the chorus to which we
refer, is that singular piece of varying pictorial power, “Unto us a
Child is born,” repeated, again and again, in sweet whispered accents,
playing upon the thought; the shepherds having kept watch over their
flocks by night in the fields, and having heard the revelation voices of
the angels say it—“For unto us a Child is born;” and then rolls in the
grand thunder, “And His name shall be called Wonderful;” and then, you
return back to the sweet silvery accents, “For unto us a Child is born;”
and the thought is, that the Wise Men are there offering their gifts; and
then roll in, again, the grand, overwhelming words, “And His name shall
be called Wonderful;” and yet again that for which we waited, the tender,
silvery whisperings, “Unto us a Child is born;” until it seems as if
flocks, and herds, and fields, shepherds, and wise men, all united with
the family of Jesus, beneath the song-singing through the heavens in the
clear starry night, “Unto us a Child is born, and His name shall be
called Wonderful.” Those who have listened to this chorus, may form some
idea of the way in which a great Welsh preacher—and Williams of Wern as a
special illustration—would run his thought, and its corresponding
expression, up and down, through various tones of feeling, and with every
one awaken, on some varying accent, a fresh interpretation, and
expression. Perhaps, the nearest approach we have heard, in England, to
the peculiar gifts of this preacher, has been in the happiest moods of
the beloved, and greatly honoured Thomas Jones, once minister of Bedford
Chapel, London.