Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

W$t Christian ^iatt&ariL Vol. i. No. 10, APRIL, 1892. Price One Penny. THE REV. DANIEL ROWLANDS, M.A. (TRANSLATED FROM " CRONICL DIRWESTOL CYMRU.") ^^«RB. BOWLANDS was born at Llangefin, Anglesea, in nil the year 1827. He was educated at the National <|fpilL School along with other Nonconformist children, and compelled to attend the Parish Church on Sundays, in the vain hope of making him a churchman. Like many another of the benefactors of Wales, he had to fight his way through numberless difficulties in order to qualify him for the national service, upon which his heart was early fixed. In the year 1848 he entered the Welsh Methodist College at Bala, where he remained fer three years, after which he matriculated at the Edinburgh University, where he graduated as Master of Arts in the year 1855. Upon leaving the University, he settled as pastor of the Welsh Methodist Church at Llanidloes, where he laboured successfully for ten years, and then, upon the death of the Bev. John Phillips, who had done so much towards the Normal College at Bangor, he was appointed the Principal of that institution, a position which he occupied with honour till the year 1891, when he resigned in favonr of the lighter duties of acting secretary. He will be known and revered by his fellow- countrymen as an accepl"able minister, an enlightened educa¬ tionist, an accomplished writer, and a warm friend fco temperance and every other good cause. In the year 1881 he was Moderator of the North Wales Quarterly Association, and in the year 1890-1 of the General Assembly. His valedictory address at Mor- riston, in May of last year, when resigning the chairmanship, was one of the best ever delivered fromt he Moderator's chair. He began his career as a writer when young. When leaving Bala College he was urged by the late Dr. Lewis Edwards to write an article on " Milton " for the Methodist periodical, and gave such satisfaction that he was further requested to write on the prose works of Milton, his production appearing in two articles inthe Traethodydd, of which quarterly Dr. Lewis Edwards and the Bev. Boger Edwards were the joint editors. He subsequently became a regular contributor, and from the Nazarite from his birth, and he himself remembers with interest that he signed the temperance pledge when he was between eight and nine years of age, and took part in the year 1865 to the present has acted as the sole editor of that foremost of Welsh Periodicals, which now is a bi¬ monthly, and not a qnarterly serial as when originally started. He has been worthily supported by the most capable writers of all the denominations, and has succeeded by the articles published, comprising as they do the various subjects of theology, biblical criticism, philosophy, history, general literature, poetry, and political economy, in maintain¬ ing for the Traethodydd the foremost position amongst Welsh periodicals. The reader is also regularly supplied with reviews of the best Welsh and English books, as well as with many original articles by the editor, all of which are written in chaste and forcible Welsh, and in a style at once lively and pure. It is well known that Mr. Bowlands has been a^ enthusiastic temperance demonstrations of those days' Some years after this, when he had become a power, he manfully held his ground in the total abstinence cause, and had the pleasure of seeing many who were slaves to the doctor's advice and the respectability of bitter beer declaring themselves the champions of temperance. His articles upon various aspects of the temperance question which have appeared in the Traethodydd are among the richest produc¬ tions of Welsh literature. In 1872, he wrote to the Ooleuad advocating the use of unfermented wine at the Lord's table, and by this means disturbed a veritable hornets' nest of slander and abuse. He renewed the attack in a masterly investi¬ gation of the whole subject, the result of which appeared in the Traethodydd in 1873, en¬ titled, •« The Wines [of the Bible." And now it is interesting to note that many of his opponents, who were most violent in their objec¬ tions, have outstripped him in zeal upon his favourite topic. Another article appeared in 1874. entitled, " A Call to Arms," in 1876 on "Temperance." He also wrote on recent diseases, review¬ ing Dr. Bichardson's position with regard to the effects of alcohol upon the human constitu¬ tion. In 1879 appeared an article on " The Lords' Committee on Temperance," and another on " Commercial Distress;" in 1880, on " Mr. J. Boberts' Sunday Closing Measure." In 1881 he published a paper read at the Temperance Jubilee in London on " The Origin and Early His¬ tory of the Temperance Cause in Wales ; " in 1835, " The Tem¬ perance Jubilee in Wales ; " in 1888, on Mr. Bitchie's "Licens¬ ing Scheme; " in 1889, on " The Boyal Commission on Sunday Closing Act; in 1890, on "The Beport of the Commissioners; " and, in 1891. on " The Gutenburg Scheme" and " The Traffic in Trouble." Besides the foregoing articles, there are valuable hints in his reviews of books on the subject in his literary notices. In these articles, as in all his compositions, he has a thorough mastery of facts, and his arguments lock together like the solid arch of a bridge. He maintains a courteous spirit, and sometimes writes in a vein of pleasantry and humour. He frequently advocates his favourite cause of temperance both on the platform and in the pulpit, and is ever ready for any good work, and, though bold as well as gentle, he lives in the affection of all to whom he is personally known. —♦♦— No man can complain that his calling takes him off from religion; his calling itself, and his every worldly employ¬ ment in honest trades and offices, is a serving of God ; and, if it be moderately pursued, and according to the rules of Christian prudence, will leave void spaces enough for prayers and retirement of a more spiritual religion. - Taylor.