Christmas Evans Part 7

We have remarked before that the preacher's descriptions of Oriental travel were always Welsh, and this could not arise so much from ignorance, for he was fairly well read in the geography, and, perhaps, even in the topography, of the Holy Land; but he was quite aware that Oriental description would be altogether incomprehensible to the great mult.i.tude of his auditors. He described, therefore, the Wise Men, not as we, perhaps, see them, on their camels, solemnly pacing the vast sandy desert, whose sands reflected the glow of the silvery star. They pa.s.sed on their way through scenes, and villages, which might be recognised by the hearers, anxiously enquiring for the young Child. Turnpikes, if unknown in Palestine, our readers will, perhaps, remember as one of the great nuisances of even a very short journey in Wales in Christmas's day.

"The wise men came up to the gate,-it was closed; they spoke to the keeper, inquiring, 'Do you know anything of the Child?'

"The gatekeeper came to the door, saying, in answer to the question, 'You have threepence to pay for each of the a.s.ses.'

"They explained, 'We did not know there was anything to pay; here is the money; but tell us, do you know anything of the young Child?'

"No, the keeper did not even know what they meant. For they know nothing on the world's great highway of the Child sent for the redemption of man. But he said, 'You go on a little farther, and you will come to a blacksmith's shop; he has all the news, he knows everything, and he will be sure to be able to tell you all you want to know.'

"So they paced along the road, following the star, till they came to the blacksmith's shop; and it was very full, and the blacksmith was very busy, but they spoke out loudly to him, and said, 'Where is the young Child?'

"'Now,' said the blacksmith, 'it is of no use shouting that way; you must wait, you see I am busy; your a.s.ses cannot be shod for a couple of hours.'

"'Oh, you mistake us,' said the wise men; 'we do not want our a.s.ses shod, but we want you to tell us, you, who know everything hereabouts, where shall we find the young Child.'

"'I do not know,' said the blacksmith. For the world, in its bustle and trade, knows nothing, and cares nothing about the holy Child Jesus. 'But look you,' he said, 'go on, and you will come to the inn, the great public-house; everybody from the village goes there, they know all the news there.'

"And so, with heavy hearts, they still pursued their way till they came to the inn; at the door, still resting on their a.s.ses, they inquired if any one knew of the Child, the wonderful Child.

"But the landlord said, 'Be quick! Evan, John, where are you? bring out the ale-the porter-for these gentlemen.'

"'No,' they said, 'we are too anxious to refresh ourselves; but tell us, hereabouts has been born the wonderful Child; He is the desire of all the nations; look there, we have seen His Star, we want to worship Him. Do you know?'

"'Not I,' said the landlord. For pleasure knows nothing of Him through whom the secrets of all hearts are revealed. 'Plenty of children born hereabouts,' said the landlord; 'but I know nothing of Him whom you seek.' And he thought them a little mad, and was, moreover, a little cross because they would not dismount and go into the inn. 'However,' he said, 'there is an old Rabbi lives in a lane hard by here; I think I have heard him say something about a Child that should be born, whose name should be called Wonderful. See, there is the way, you will find the old man.'

"So again they went on their way; and they stopped before the house of the old Rabbi, and knocked, and the door was opened; and here they left their a.s.ses by the gate, and entered in; and they found the old Rabbi seated with his Hebrew books, and chronicles about him, and he was strangely attired with mitre and vestment. And now, they thought, they would be sure to learn, and that their journey might be at an end. And they told him of the Star, and that the young Child was born who should be King of the Jews, and they were come to worship Him.

"'Ah, yes,' he said, 'He is coming, and you shall see Him, but not now. You shall behold Him, but not nigh. See, it is written here-a Star shall rise out of Jacob. And when He comes it will be here He will show Himself. Go back, and when He comes I will send word and let you know.' For even religious people, and Churches, cannot always guide seekers after G.o.d to Him whom to know is life eternal.

"But they were not satisfied, and they said, 'No, no, we cannot return; He is born, He is here!'

"'There has been a great mistake made,' said the Rabbi; 'there have been some who have said that He is born, but it is not so.'

"'But who has said it?' they inquired.

"And then he told them of another priestly man, who lived near to the river hard by; and to him they went, and inquired for the young Child.

"'Yes, yes,' he said, when they pointed him to the Star, 'yes, through the tender mercies of our G.o.d, the Dayspring from on high hath visited us; to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our steps into the way of peace.'

"And so he guided them to the manger, and the Star rested and stood over the place where the young Child was, while they offered their gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."

Sometimes the preacher, in another version which we have seen, appears to have varied the last guide, and to have brought the wise men, by a singular, and perfectly inadmissible anachronism, to the man in the camel's hair by the river's brink, who said, "Behold, the Lamb of G.o.d, who taketh away the sins of the world!"

But one of the most effective of these sustained allegories, was founded on the text which speaks of the evil "spirit walking through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none." We believe we were first indebted for it, to the old dame who entertained us nearly forty years since in the Caerphilly Cottage.

SATAN WALKING IN DRY PLACES.

The preacher appears to have been desirous of teaching the beautiful truth, that a mind preoccupied, and inhabited by Divine thoughts, cannot entertain an evil visitor, but is compelled to betake himself to flight, by the strong expulsive power of Divine affections. He commenced, by describing Satan as a vast and wicked, although invisible spirit,-somehow, as Milton might have described him; and the preacher was not unacquainted with the grand imagery of the "Paradise Lost," in which the poet describes the Evil One, when he tempts, with wandering feet, the dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss, and, through the palpable obscure, seeks to find out his uncouth way. Christmas described him, as spreading his airy flight on indefatigable wings, determined to insinuate himself, through the avenues of sense, to some poor soul, and lure it to destruction. And, with this end, flying through the air, and seeking for a dwelling-place, he found himself moving over one of those wide Welsh moors, the preacher so well knew, and had so often travelled; and his fiery, although invisible glance, espied a young lad, in the bloom of his days, and the strength of his powers, sitting on the box of his cart, driving on his way to the quarries for slate or lime.

`"'There he is,' said Satan; 'his veins are full of blood, his bones are full of marrow. I will cast my sparks into his bosom, and set all his pa.s.sions on fire; I will lead him on, and he shall rob his master, and lose his place, and find another, and rob again, and do worse; and he shall go on from worse to worse, and then his soul shall sink, never to rise again, into the lake of fire.' But just then, as he was about to dart a fiery temptation into the heart of the youth, the evil one heard him sing,

"'Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty, Hold me by Thy powerful hand; Strong deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.'

'Oh, but this is a dry place,' said the fiery dragon as he fled away.

"But I saw him pa.s.s on," said the preacher, "hovering, like a hawk or a vulture, in the air, and casting about for a suitable place where he might nestle his black wings; when, at the edge of the moor, he came to a lovely valley; the hills rose round it, it was a beautiful, still, meadow-like spot, watered by a lovely stream; and there, beneath the eaves of a little cottage, he saw a girl, some eighteen years of age, a flower among the flowers: she was knitting, or sewing at the cottage door. Said Satan, 'She will do for me; I will whisper the evil thought in her heart, and she shall turn it over, and over again, until she learns to love it; and then the evil thought shall be an evil deed; and then she shall be obliged to leave her village, and go to the great town, and she shall live a life of evil, all astray from the paths of my Almighty Enemy. Oh, I will make her mine, and then, by-and-bye, I will cast her over the precipices, and she shall sink, sink into the furnace of divine wrath.' And so he hastened to approach, and dart into the mind of the maiden; but while he was approaching, all the hills and crags seemed to break out into singing, as her sweet voice rose, high and clear, chanting out the words,

"'Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly, While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high.

Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee; Leave, ah, leave me not alone, Still support, and comfort me.'

'This is a very dry place, too,' said the dragon, as he fled away.

"And so he pa.s.sed from the valley among the hills, but with hot rage.

'I will have a place to dwell in!' he said; 'I will somehow leap over the fences, and the hedges, of the purpose, and covenant, and grace of G.o.d. I do not seem to have succeeded with the young, I will try the old;' for pa.s.sing down the village street, he saw an old woman; she, too, was sitting at the door of her cot, and spinning on her little wheel. 'Ah!' said Satan, 'it will be good to lay hold of her grey hairs, and make her taste of the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.' And he descended on the eaves of the cot; but as he approached near, he heard the trembling, quavering voice of the aged woman murmuring to herself lowly, 'For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee.' And the words hurt the evil one, as well as disappointed him; they wounded him as he fled away, saying, 'Another dry place!'

"Ah, poor Devil!" exclaimed the preacher, "and he usually so very successful! but he was quite unsuccessful that day. And, now, it was night, and he was scudding about, like a bird of prey, upon his black wings, and pouring forth his screams of rage. But he pa.s.sed through another little Welsh village, the white cottages gleaming out in the white moonlight on the sloping hillside. And there was a cottage, and in the upper room there was a faint light trembling, and 'Oh,'

said the Devil to himself, 'Devil, thou hast been a very foolish Devil to-day, and there, in that room, where the lamplight is, old Williams is slowly, surely wasting away. Over eighty, or I am mistaken; not much mind left; and he has borne the burden and heat of the day, as they call it. Thanks to me, he has had a hard time of it; he has had very few mercies to be thankful for; he has not found serving G.o.d, I think, a very profitable business. Come, cheer up, Devil, it will be a grand thing if thou canst get him to doubt a bit, and then to despair a bit, and then to curse G.o.d, and die; that will make up for this day's losses.'

"Then he entered the room; there was the old man lying on the poor bed, and his long, thin, wasted hands and fingers lying on the coverlid; his eyes closed, the long silvery hair falling over the pillow. Now, Satan, make haste, or it will be too late; the hour is coming, there is even a stir in every room in the house: they seem to know that the old man is pa.s.sing. But as Satan himself moved before the bed, to dart into the mind of the old man, the patriarch rose in bed, stretched forth his hands, and pinned his enemy to the wall, as he exclaimed, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me; Thou preparest a table before me, in _the presence of mine enemy_; Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over; goodness and mercy, all the days of my life, dwell in the house of my G.o.d for ever.' Oh, _that_ was a fearfully dry place!

The old man sank back, it was all over; those words beat Satan down to the bottom of his own bottomless pit, glad to escape from such confusion and shame, and exclaiming, 'I will return to the place from whence I came, for this is too dry for me.'"

This will, no doubt, be thought, by many, to be strange preaching; many would even affect to despise it,-perhaps would even regard it as a high compliment were we to say, they would feel exceedingly puzzled even if, by way of a change, they were called upon to use it. It appears, however, to have been a style exceedingly fascinating to the Welsh mind of that day; it told, it stirred up suggestions, awakened thoughts, and reclaimed and converted character; and we need not, therefore, stay to attempt any vindication of it.

We have inserted these very characteristic ill.u.s.trations here, because they appear to have belonged to the Anglesea period. Such, then, was the teaching, the preaching, the truth, which, while it was his own truth, and sustained his own mind, gave to him such power, at once, amongst the Churches to which he immediately administered, and made him the object of such attraction, when visiting distant neighbourhoods.

It might have been thought-it has usually been the case, in the instances of other men-that such excursions as those we have described, would have interfered with the great success of his work in the ministry as a preacher, and with his efficiency as a pastor. That they did not, substantially, is clear from many evidences. There can be no doubt that his sermons were no off-hand productions; there was a careful, rigid, and patiently conscientious weighing of their material. All those which we possess, abundantly show this; and he entered with all his heart, and mind, and strength into the work of preaching; but he never had an easy sphere; and yet, would his sermons have been greater had he been placed where the circle of his labour would have been narrower, and the means of his support more ready, and sufficient, and ample? Most likely not; but he weighed the entire work of the ministry in a manner which seems to us, sometimes, more like the sound thoughtfulness, and consideration of the theological Princ.i.p.al of a college, than a popular, or itinerant preacher. As an ill.u.s.tration of this, we may insert the following, very lengthy, but admirable letter to a young minister, written, we believe, some time nearer the close of his career than that we have just depicted:-

"DEAR BROTHER,-1. Consider, in the first place, the great importance, to a preacher, of a blameless life. You must, like Timothy, 'flee youthful l.u.s.ts,' as you would escape from beasts of prey; for there are kinds of beasts, living in the wilderness of man's corruption, that will charm, by means of their beauteous colours, those that walk among their haunts; there is no safety but by keeping from them, and adhering to such as live by faith, and watch, and pray. It will be well for you, while you travel through the coppice of youth, to keep from all appearance of evil. May you have grace to pa.s.s through the coppice of forbidden trees, without cutting your name into the bark of one of them, or you may be upbraided, at critical times, by those who may wish to prove that you are not better than themselves; even the _iota_, inserted by your hand, may be produced after many years.

"2. I remember the words of Luther, that _reading_, _prayer_, and _temptation_ are necessary to strengthen, and to purify the talents of a minister. Read, to extend your general knowledge, especially as to the plan of redemption, according to the Scriptures, in all its parts, from the election to the glorification; that you may, like a spiritual watchmaker, know all the relative cog-wheels, and be able to open them in the pulpit, and to connect them all by faith, hope, and charity, that they may occupy their own places, and exhibit their true results on the dial-plate; thus proving yourself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Be not like that thrasher, who presumptuously took his watch to pieces in the barn, and could not put it together again, but was obliged to carry it home in his handkerchief. The messengers of G.o.d, described in the book of Revelations, are full of eyes behind, and before. You must use prayer to fetch strength out of Christ, like the homer to carry home the manna in, or the water-pot of the woman of Samaria.

Without the prayer of faith, the preacher will have 'nothing to draw with,' from the well that is deep,-even _the deep things of G.o.d_.

Temptation is requisite, to prove the nature of the metal of the preacher's character, and doctrine,-'approved of G.o.d.' The piece of gold, in every true minister's ministry, must be tried in some furnace, prepared by Divine Providence. He must, therefore, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil his ministry, endure hardness, and affliction, and thus prove himself a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

"3. Avail yourself, in the morning of your days, of every opportunity to acquire knowledge useful for the ministry. Let it be your constant aim, to turn every stream and rivulet of knowledge in the right direction, to facilitate the work of the ministry, for the good of souls, and the glory of G.o.d; as the bee, in all her excursions amongst the flowers of the gardens, and the hedges, gathers honey to enrich the hive, as the common treasury of the industrious race. Always have a book to read, instead of indulging in vain conversations. Strive to learn English, as you cannot have academical training. Learn your own mother-tongue well. Learn to write a good hand by frequent practice. Avoid vain conversation, instead of growth in knowledge. Remember this, that you cannot commit some loved sin in private, and perform the work of the ministry, in public, with facility and acceptance. For a preacher to fall into sin, be it a secret one, and to live in it, is as fatal, ultimately, as the cutting of Samson's hair. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus against all corruption.

"4. With regard to the composition of your sermons: first, let the matter be evangelical. The doctrine of the Gospel is a mould from heaven, and not changed. It puts its own impress and shape on the professor that is melted into it, so that his justification, sanctification, and all his salvation, flow from the merits of Christ; and all through G.o.d's grace, and not of ourselves. The gospel, as a gla.s.s, should be kept clean and clear in the pulpit, that the hearers may see the glory of Christ, and be changed to the same image. Every duty is to be urged by evangelical motives. 'Let us have grace,' etc.

"Hereby we can serve G.o.d in all the duties of the kingdom of heaven.

The whole is summed up in living by faith, which worketh by love, to him that died for us, and rose again for our justification.

Secondly, let your divisions be natural to the text. Take care that your interpretation accord with the contexts. Two or three general heads; avoid many. Four or five remarks you may make on each head; see that they are fairly in the truth of the text. Thirdly, I am not inclined to make inferences, or applications, from the whole. When the preacher has expended his strength, or ingenuity, in endeavouring to impress, and apply the truth to the minds of his hearers, application seems to me to be doing again what has been effected already. The blacksmith does not put the horse-shoe in the fire, after he has nailed it to the hoof; and the cook does not spread the cloth again, when dinner is over. Fourthly, beware of long sermons, as well as long prayers. When there is but one preacher, he should not preach for more than an hour; when there are two, both should not be more than an hour and a half, that the worship may close within two hours; whenever this time is pa.s.sed, coolness and fatigue ensue.

To put three ministers to preach (in one meeting) is a modern corruption, and likely to make some progress in Wales; while the English, generally, have but one sermon in one service. They excel us herein; for we do not read that, on the day of Pentecost, Peter, James, and John, preached after each other; but Peter, '_one_ of the twelve,' delivered that successful sermon. When we lose sight of the Scriptures, and common sense, we are driven to extremes, though it be with the kindly purpose of respecting strange ministers, by putting them to preach.

"5. Attend, also, my young brother, to your outward appearance in the pulpit. Beware of a proud, haughty appearance, with wandering eyes, and unfeeling countenance, so that the people utterly fail to see the man of G.o.d in you. We must, in order hereunto, have something like unto Moses, when he had been on the mount with G.o.d, that will indicate seriousness, love to souls, a spirit of prayer, zeal for Christ, and longing for the salvation of men; like unto those who have felt the fear of perdition ourselves, and the infinite value of salvation by G.o.d's grace; and that we wrestle with G.o.d in order to be useful to souls. These things must be imprinted on our appearance and deportment, having transformed us, in some measure, to a heavenly form and habit. Our outward conversation should be consistent herewith, or men will despise us as hypocrites, without the fear of G.o.d.

"6. Avoid, my dear brother, all foolish bodily gestures.