Cylchgronau Cymru

February 5, 1892. THE WELSH WEEKLY. DR. DALE ON THE WELSH CALYINISTIC METHODISTS. An Address Delivered at an Induction Service in Birmingham. The induction meeting of the Rev. J. R. Evans, the n©w pastor of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, Gran¬ ville Street, Birmingham, took place on Wednesday evening, the 27th inst. There were present, beside the new minister, Dr. R. W. Dale, Mrs. Dale; Messrs. Wm. Owen, Wm. Jones, E. Evans, and Thos. Jones (deacons of the church); Rev. John Pritchard and Mr. \Vm. Thomas, of Hockley Hill Chapel (delegates from the Lower Montgomeryshire Monthly Meeting); Rev. Wm. Jamep, M.A. (representing Manchester Monthly Meeting) ; Rev. I. Davies, of Wolverhampton; Rev. Hywel Edwards, Welsh Congregational minister, Wheeler Street; Messrs. Richard Jarrett and Ellis Davies, deacons of Hockley Hill Chapel; and many other prominent Welsh friends, and a good con¬ gregation. Mr. Wm. Owen, the oldest deacon of the church, presided. The Chairman gave a short and interesting account of the commencement of the Welsh cause in Birming¬ ham. The first Welsh sermon ever preached in the town was by the eminent preacher, John Ellias o Fon, at Carr's Lane Chapel, kindly lent by the late saintly f&inister, John Angel James. The first Welsh chapel ha the town was in Peck Lane, since pulled down, and the place is now covered by the great New Street Railway Station. Many Welshmen were then in the town, working at the erection of the Town Hall. These people formed the nucleus of the Welsh cause ; and the late Edward Price was the mainstay of the acTios. Like Paul, he worked with his own hands, keep- wig himself and preaching the gospel for many years without earthly recompense. Mr. Wm. Jones said that the Rev. J. Angel James preached in the present chapel on May 22, 1842, and Dr. Lewis Edwards preached therein the same month. Mr. Jones then referred to the occasion of choosing Mr. Evans as their pastor. They had been without a resident minister for about two years ; and he was glad to say that the church has been thoroughly Unanimous in calling Mr. Evans. The Rev, Wm. James then addressed the meeting *n Welsh at considerable length, and said that Mr. Evans had been in connection with them at Manchester, and he was there to tell the church at Birmingham how glad he was, on the part of Manchester Monthly Meeting and on his own part, to bear testimony to Mr. Evans' good qualities. Then Dr. Dale delivered the following address :— Mr. Chairman and my dear friends, I am here this evening to express my personal regard for Mr. Evans, and my very earnest hope that his work, as the pastor pf this church, will be prolonged and successful. Tbis w not the first time that I have had the pleasure of Meeting him. I met him not long ago in that charming village on The banks of the Artro, , where, during the last two or three years, I have spent so many delightful weeks. In Llanbedr, Mr. Evans is very well known; his father, his mother, his brother, his sister are all there. They are among the strongest supporters of the Calvinistic Methodist church in the village, and they are regarded with Universal respect. It is always a felicitous thing for a man to be born into a devout family; and Mr. Evans has had that great advantage. I will not venture to say anything about his past ministerial work. I think it very possible that in the address to which you have just listened—which was obviously extremely in¬ teresting and impressive—Mr. James has told you something of it. May I venture to Bay that I trust Mr. Evans will come a little more closely into fellow¬ ship with the Evangelical Congregational churches of Birmingham than any of the previous ministers of this place. I venture to assure him that we will do him no harm. I am sure that he may do us some good. We are not likely—even those of us who have Wandered farthest from Calvinistic traditions—we are Hot likely to corrupt the soundness of his faith; and perhaps he may recall to us some of those great memories which we are at times in danger of for¬ getting. .1 am also here to express my hearty sympathy with the work of this churcb, and the religious society to which it belongs. During the last few years I have come to know a great deal about Calvinism in North Wales. I have met some of your distinguished men at the house of my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Davies, of Tre- horth. Not long ago, at their house, I had the delight Of seeing one whoBe earthly work has now been hrought to a close, than whom a more gracious and charming spirit never dwelt in the flesh— I mean the late Dr. Owen Thomas, of Liverpool. I met also Dr. Saunders and Dr. Lewis Edwards, and I also had the happiness °* the acquaintance of Principal Edwards, now of Bala. I have been present at a Sassiwn. I have preached at a Sassiwn, and I have never had so great a triumph as at a Sassiivn, for the congregation had heard four sermons before I preached, and yet they listened to *&©. (Laughter.) This, perhaps, was rather to the credit of the Welsh people than to the preacher. I have been present at a society meeting, and although it was conducted in Welsh, I succeeded in obtaining something of its meaning ; and I have seen—what every thoughtful person travelling through North Wales cannot help seeing—indications, in every valley and on every hillside, of the zeal, the courage, and generosity which you and your fathers have mani¬ fested in providing institutions of religious worship for your countrymen. In North Wales there is Only one real Established Church, the Calvinistic Methodist Church, which is established in the hearts of the people. And the work which you have achieved in the northern part of your native country during the last 150 years is so conspicuous and so noble, that every man who cares for the religious life of his race must regard those who led Calvinistic Methodism in past generations with pro¬ found reverence, and must watch with keenest solicitude those who have inherited the trust of those illustrious leaders. Here you are strangers in a strange land, and it may be asked why I, an English preacher, should be anxious for the maintenance, the power, and the prosperity of a Welsh congregation in the heart of this great city. It is quite clear you understand me more or less, that, although I was unable to follow Mr. James, you are able to follow me. Somebody, perhaps, may ask why I should desire that there should exist in an English city Welsh congregations like yours. In answering that question I have Some practical observations to make to the members of this Church and congrega¬ tion. I can imagine few conditions more trying to the faith and character of young Welshmen and Welsh¬ women, than to come from the farm on he side of some Welsh mountain to a great city like this, alto¬ gether among strangers. It is possible a young Welshman or Welshwoman may soon pick up know¬ ledge enough to catch the general drift of the meaning of an English preacher ; but how much he, how much she, misses at ordinary English services ! The hymns they are accustomed to listen to from childhood are heard no longer. In the prayer the expressions, the modes, have not the spell and the charm that belong to the words which have been heard first from a mother's lips, and are associated with all the recollec¬ tions of childhood. I believe it is a general impression that no man can preach who is not a Welshman born. (Laughter.) That is, forgive me for saying, A popular superstition in Wales. But there were preachers before Christianity found its way into that country, and there are some men who succeed more or less in preaching in other lands and in other tongues than yours. (Applause.) Thereis a special power and charm about Welsh preaching, but supremely for the Welsh nature. Why, you are in¬ vading our pulpits by the score in different parts of England. It is perfectly certain that the whole intellectual and ethical meaning of the Welsh preacher will reach the heart of the young Welsh man and woman as that of no English preacher can, and therefore it seems to me desirable that there should be, in a great city like this, Welsh congregations to which the young people can be drawn, where they will forget for a time all the miles that separate them from the farms on which they were born. I suppose you almost forget that you are in Birmingham. (Laughter.) Why on earth you should come to Birmingham puzzles me. Still, you come, and having come, in order to save the people—the young people above all—from the perils—and they are real and grave —to which they are exposed in a great city like this, such congregations as that which meets from week to week inthisplace should be established. And further, it is not merely the absence of the Welsh tongue and tradition in the ordinary services that must cause those services to produce less moral and spiritual effect than the Calvinistic Methodist services. Those who have been accustomed to the institutions of Calvinism at home must miss them when they leave Wales, and the absence of those institutions in this country is likely to have disastrous effects upon the moral and religious life. I wonder whether the members of this congregation are as faithful in their attendance at The society meeting as they should be. My own belief is that Calvinism would not have achieved its triumphs in Wales but for the society meeting in past generations. My belief is that as soon as the society meeting comes to be neg¬ lected by Calvinism, a large part of the power of the connexion will cease, and most of its most gracious influences will be paralysed. It is characteristic of the great branches of Method s m that they pro¬ vide means by which the ordinary hearers come nearer than in most other Churches to those who are charged with special responsibility in directing and controlling the life of the Church. I knew a minister who had retired from public preaching, but was accustomed to preach in his drawing-room, and he adopted this admirable plan : he examined his con¬ gregation on one Sunday upon the sermon they heard the Sunday before, and if they did not remember it he preached \t again. I do not think that is exactly the course which is adopted among Calvinistic Methodists, but the leader, deacon, or elder, has a chance in the society meeting of really coming to know how members of the society think about Christian matters. They are free to speak to him about difficulties by which they have been troubled, about perplexities they have been unable to solve. I am quite clear on this point, that among the strongest influences likely to keep in the right way those who are exposed to the pressure of great moral and religious difficulties in this city are the influences that would come upon you in this place, if the society meeting is main¬ tained with the vigour, devoutness, and earnestness which characterised it in the past times of your great connexion. I do not know what Mr. James has been saying to you about Your relations to your new minister, and how you are to fulfil those relations. It strikes me that there are a great many people who seem to suppose that sitting in chapel and listening to the* sermon is quite enough to secure the result which the sermon is intended to produce.] That is a great mistake. Why do you call Mr. Evans to the pastorate here ? No object can be greater, more solemn, more august. You believe that this frail life of yours is environed by eternity. You believe that, children of the dust as you are, you live in the immediate presence of the Supreme. You believe that your great concern in this present world should be to serve God, and to serve man in order that you may serve God. You have discovered how hard a fight you have to main¬ tain with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that you may live the life to which Christ has called you. You have called my friend that he may preach to you Sunday after Sunday concerning the method of the Christian life, and the great forces by which the Christian life is sustained. You imply by inviting him .that you believe he has a certain wisdom in these matters, that he has a certain knowledge of them, which you yourselves have not; and yet, if you are like a great many people who belong to other congre¬ gations, how little heed some of you give to the advice that he gives you if you are to live the Christian life to which you are called in Christ. If a doctor says to a man, " Now, if you want health you must go away and have rest for three months." The man goes away for three months if he is able to do so. Or if the doctor says to him, " If you are to maintain your health and strength you must give up this kind of food and that kind of drink." The man gives up that kind of food and that kind of drink. The doctor may not be in¬ fallible, but the man resolves to let the doctor have his chance at any rate. Nov/, suppose your minister says to one of you, " You are getting a great deal too much absorbed in your business, and if you want to save yourself from utter ruin you must go to the society meeting every week faithfully." You do not, I am afraid, give the same attention to that piece of advice as to your physician. Or if the minister says to you, " My friend, you are becoming a pros¬ perous man, and you are not giving in proportion to your income, as you should. If you want to be saved from the awlul sin of loving money more than God, you must begin to give very much more largely in proportion to your income." It is not quite clear to me that, as a matter of course, a man will take that advice as he takes the advice of his doctor. A Yery practical business. Now, I am here to remind you that Mr. Evans's business in this place is a very practical one. He is here to make you better men and better women, but he cannot do that unless you strive to help him and to walk in the way that he points out to you. Remember that, perhaps more than in the case of most congrega¬ tions, the success of all the work here depends not upon the minister merely, but upon every one of you. If the young Welsh people are to be kept loyal to the faith and lite of their fathers, you must be friendly with them when they come here. You must be on the look-out for them, you must make them feel when they come here how glad you are to see them. If you have any reason to believe that they are coming to Carr's Lane too often you can speak to them, and warn them. (Laughter.) Be friendly with them, try to surround them with ramparts of affection and solici¬ tude from which it will be impossible for them to escape. And how fathers and mothers in far-off homes will bless you when they hear of your kindness, which has gladdened the hearts of their children, and kept them true to the faith of their fathers! (Loud cheers.) Rev. John Pritchard and Mr. Wm. Thomas then spoke, and expressed their joy at such indications of a lasting happy union between Church and minister. They welcomed him among them on behalf of their Cyfar foci Misol. Revs. Hywel Edwards and I. Davies also addressed the meeting. The last hymn tune which the gifted and gentle Meta Scott played on her loved violin was Newman's exquisite " Lead Kindly Light." When she had ended, she put the instrument aside with the remark, " There ^youhave heard me play for the last time on earth,"'