Christmas Evans Pt.5 | Particular Pilgrims

[music] You are listening to Particular Pilgrims. Stories from Reformed Baptist History with Commentary. I'm your host, Ron Miller, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church of Clarksville, Tennessee, and a longtime student and collector of Particular Baptist History. This is brought to you by Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. After returning from Sandamanianism to the refreshing grace of full biblical Calvinism, Christmas Evans saw the blessing of God on his labors. He spent decades in Anglesy, preaching and praying. His economic poverty was hard, but his spiritual blessings were many. Hundreds were converted on the island. Chapples were built or expanded. He was respected and useful in both North and South Wales. His sermons were in Welsh as were his publications. He wrote in response to attacks on truth as he perceived it. And so published works on believers baptism, particular redemption, and other subjects. He worked from his thirties through his fifties with the diligence that is hard to grasp. His wife Catherine was always supportive, but in the early 1820s she became seriously ill. For two years she battled pain and doubts, but entered into her rest with the repeated words, "Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me." The date was October 22, 1823, the day before their 34th wedding anniversary. Evans was nearing 60 in this grief were heavily on him. He felt the pressure of chapel debts, the constant pastoral concerns, and a weakening body. I trouble plagued him and he was almost blinded. He spent many months in a hospital recovering and was, of course, unable to be near his home and people and preaching. With the success granted by God to Evans preaching came another problem. Remember that there was just one Baptist church on the island, but it had grown to include about 20 meeting locations. There were hundreds of members and Evans was effectively serving as a kind of bishop over a Baptist diocese. He had trained men to be preachers, and 28 of them were ordained by the church. Together they led the one church. Evans inherited this arrangement, but now thought the time had come for it to change. So he proposed that the church be divided into four churches, or alternatively, that every two or three locations should unite and call a pastor. Since he had been their pastor for decades, he wanted to "retain a measure of control over the new bodies," as one man has put it, and so he recommended specific men to be these churches ministers. But neither the churches, nor Evans, nor the preachers could agree on a congregational polity or who would go where. Contention rapidly spread in the church. Evans felt disrespected while many thought him too heavy-handed. Reading the accounts of the controversy shows that there was plenty of sin on everyone's part, attempts at reconciliation using a delegation of local Baptists even failed. Evans' influence and health waned together on Anglesy. Unity could not be achieved. He spent a year in prayer asking God for specific direction and help on what to do, and in 1826 he decided that it was best for him to leave the island where he had spent himself for his Savior. His spiritual children had largely turned away from him in a manner reminiscent of Jonathan Edwards being removed from his pastorate in Northampton, Massachusetts, 76 years earlier. Evans was even owed about two years of wages, which had been repeatedly promised, but did not come. It was then, in Evans' 60th year, that he received a call to a Baptist church in South Wales, in Carefilly, near the nation's capital of Cardiff. People were shocked to learn that Wales' most famous pastor was leaving his long-time field, but he arrived, and almost immediately the Lord poured out blessings among them. Here is how Evans himself described the first months after arriving. "I have never been as comfortable as I am since having arrived here." "There's great excitement throughout the whole forest. We have received seven backsliders and 36 new converts into membership. There are sixteen in the fellowship meeting waiting to be baptized the next time and signs of many more. The breeze is blowing in Carefilly, village, and the bedwas vicinity." The older brothers and the old sisters are as though they have been anointed with the choice's to oil, and remember those special days of the Almighty 25 years ago. There is no jumping or overt rejoicing, but quiet weeping and much singing. The meeting house has become much too small these last months, especially. I have never seen such time as this. You see, within six months, 140 members were added to the church. When a year later, some of his friends in Anglesy invited him to return there, he told them I could never contemplate leaving this tranquil place in which the Lord has provided so many seals to my ministry, and set out into the bay of Biscay. We have a church here of two hundred members of whom many are gifted in prayer. They hold meetings throughout the locality, not like so many dry doctors, but like those who have experienced the things of heaven. So many lives were changed, that it was said that the drinking establishments complained of a loss of revenue. Carefilly paid him more salary and gave him a house to live in and a small field for his horse, and he married again. At 62, he wed Mary Jones, 35, a friend from his Anglesy ministry. Listen to how Evans describes his new marital situation. I have no desire to return to Anglesy. Mrs. Evans has renewed her youth and is full of her first love. She sings as in the days of old. She talks of spiritual things all day long and never tires. But a church-polity issue was to raise its ugly head again. The Baptist congregation in Carefilly was ruled by its officers, the deacons. They had hired Evans not to be over them or lead them, or even be involved in any practical way in the life of the church. They hired him only to preach. This was unscriptural, of course, in a waste of Evans' spiritual wisdom, but he didn't want to fight this time. And so he took another pastorate in Cardiff. The deacons there hoped he would bring revival as in Carefilly, and the church desperately needed it. The previous pastor was guilty of immorality and disgraced the name of Christ. Inexplicably, this man stayed in town and even continued attending the church. After getting acquainted with the man and his character, Evans concluded he wasn't a believer. He seems to have only been concerned for outward religion. Evans pastored for four years, and 80 were added to the church. But several wealthy and influential members gave him great trouble. And so he moved once again by advice of the Baptist Association to his last church in Karnarfun. This was back in North Wales just across the street from Anglesy. In many ways it was a joyful return, but the church body was small. They had disputes, and the building was under a large debt. So what was Evans to do? He labored well for six years, but when the debt came due, he decided to go on a preaching tour in the south. Of course, traveling with his wife and a young minister friend, he set off on a busy preaching schedule. At age 71, he was speaking almost daily for several months in a variety of places. He began to fail, and at times had a rest for days from the exertion. In July, he reached Bethesda Church in Swansea, and there he preached twice on the Lord's Day. The next evening, he preached in English, which naturally was not his favorite method. He struggled, and it was reported that when he descended the steps from the pulpit, he murmured, "This is my last sermon." Indeed it was. For his weakness turned to illness, and on July 19, 1838, Christmas Evans entered the presence of the Christ he loved. He was buried in the church yard there. And though that church no longer meets, and it is deserted, his stone is still able to be found. Jeffrey Thomas reports that his wife Mary, when destitute later in life, was financially cared for personally by CH-spergion. Many lessons could be taken from Christmas Eve in life. Some of them were obvious, are, one, God's grace can overcome every obstacle, not only for salvation, but for usefulness in his church. Lack of education, loss of an eye and poverty are no impediment for God. 2. We learn the value of education for the Christian ministry. Evans's doctrinal troubles might have been avoided with an opportunity for focused study before entering the ministry. An opportunity, of course, which he did not have. His great gift of drawing pictures in his preaching was blessed in part because it was filled with sound truth through his immense efforts at self-taught reading and education. And his people's illiteracy and proneness to divisive feuds could have benefited from more Christian education also. A third lesson is what a great gift spirit and powered preachers are. Hundreds came to salvation through the proclamation of the gospel by Evans, and of course we need more men like this. A fourth lesson is the importance of proper church polity, errors on all side divided men and impeded revival. And fifth and finally, we ought to follow Evans's example of humility and self-sacrifice. They are surely most Christ-like. Thank you for listening today. This is Ron the Baptist, wishing you grace and peace.