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and population of equal numbers, been so signally honoured by the presence and the power of the Spirit of God. That which constitutes the highest privilege and the most transcendent glory has been lavishly conferred on the Principality. During the whole of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it has been remarkably favoured. has its own special work assigned to it; its lot has been unlike that of any other part of the empire, or any other portion of the church. It has been the theatre of a great and prolonged experimentan experiment in ecclesiastical economy. The question how far statesmen may be safely trusted with the things of God has been fully determined, and an awful warning supplied! The power of Christianity fully to sustain and rapidly to extend itself has also been illustrated in a manner the most satisfactory. The importance and the value of full religious liberty has been made equally plain; that liberty, so essential everywhere, is incalculably more so wherever religion is established by law and ruled by statute. Should the truth itself be incorporated with such a system, nothing will so contribute to conserve it as a powerful and active Dissent; nor where it has been corrupted will anything so much conduce to correct and restore it to its pristine purity as the existence of vigorous and spiritual churches.

Brethren, notwithstanding the past, so full of goodness, you have still a great work to perform-a mission to fulfil which you will do well to magnify. In carrying it out, it will devolve on you, first, to finish the work which is so well and so happily begun in your native land-to saturate the whole Principality with the waters of life—to convert the entire population into one great church of the children of the Kingdom-the faithful in Christ Jesus, by whatever name known, whether endowed or voluntary. Having done that, you will then be in a position to render powerful aid to England and other lands. The bulk of your people can do but little in the way of pecuniary contribution; but this has its advantages. Wealth is attended with danger. Commerce, while it creates opulence, always engenders corruption; and hence those who desire to be preserved in purity must consent to remain comparatively poor. Your power does not consist in earthly substance, but in fervent

piety; yet, for moral purposes, that is the noblest species of power. Of all powers, the highest is the power of prayer! The Moravian church has companies of its people specially appointed to the work of intercession for the rest, deriving their name from their function. The idea is good. Let Wales constitute itself one great interceding body for the whole of the British empire and the wide world, and they may do more for the Gospel than if they annually subscribed a million sterling!

Let us now, for a moment, glance at the past of your country. When Wesley and Whitefield arose, nothing could exceed the ignorance and ungodliness of the Principality. The power of religion was everywhere gone, and the form had but a very imperfect existence. Non-residence and pluralities were the rule, and of those who dwelt on their livings only a handful had any knowledge of the language of the people they had taken on themselves to instruct! They were, therefore, necessarily dumb dogs, unable to bark even if they would. The people themselves were steeped in ignorance, even of the alphabet, and hence there was no substitute for the lack of public instruction in the native tongue. The concern of the clergy was to secure the people's substance, to catch the fleece; the poor sheep were left to find food for themselves or die! As a consequence of this deplorable state of affairs, the parish churches were everywhere forsaken, and the doors of most of them might have been locked. During a large part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the sees were filled by Englishmen, total strangers to the Welsh tongue. Politics, not piety, had to do with these episcopal appointments. These prelates were of course absentees. Wales had no charm for them. princely revenues, therefore, which they derived from the people, and which ought to have been spent in the Principality, were drained off to London, Bath, and elsewhere. The Welsh clergy, at least the dignified portion of them, might have been likened to the Irish absentee landlords: they were productive of no good to the people either in temporal or spiritual matters. In things of this sort there is nothing like facts. Well, of the higher dignities of the church, from 1745 to 1830, only ten were enjoyed by Welshmen, while 73

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were conferred upon Englishmen! The mere figures suffice to settle the question. The thing is so monstrous as to be scarcely credible. A Welsh gentleman of great ability, Mr. A. J. Johnes, who took the Royal Medal for the best Essay on the causes of Dissent in Wales, has illumined the whole subject in his masterly publication. Mr. Johnes says:

"Should an English bishop be guilty of nepotism in England, the duty may still be efficiently performed; but in Wales every relation of a bishop is in language a foreigner, and his uncouth attempts to officiate in a tongue unintelligible to himself, can be felt by his congregation as nothing but a profanation of the worship of God. Now, were I to affirm that the English bishops of Wales have been more fastidious in the distribution of their patronage than their brethren of England, I should contradict the indignant assertions of almost every intelligent writer on Welsh subjects. Nowhere has the Church of England been more disgraced by a selfish distribution of patronage. On putting to a gentleman, upon whose accuracy I can rely, the following questions, What proportion of the collective income of the Welsh church is held by Englishmen ?' I received the following answer, Four bishoprics, a great proportion of the deaneries, prebends, and sinecure rectories, and many, if not most, of the canonries! During the reign of the houses of Tudor and Stuart, several Welshmen were mitred, but not one since the accession of the house of Brunswick! The consequence was, that the prelates brought into their respective dioceses their sons, nephews, and cousins, to the ninth degree of consanguinity; the next consequence was, a change of service on the borders from Welsh to English; and a third and important consequence was, the desertion of the church!

"Most of the church patronage is shared between laymen, the Crown, and sinecurists in England and Wales; hence, under the influence of personal friendship or political connexion, the parishes are filled with ministers unsuited to them. The bishops usually take but very little pains to encourage deserving pastors, and often prefer Englishmen to Welsh benefices. Pluralists and absenteeism exist to a great extent. Thus a very small fund is left for the generality of the clergy, who are reduced to abject poverty. Many of them are obliged to keep farms, situated often in distinct parishes from those which they A great many of them serve two or three places of worship every Sunday; in many churches service is performed only once a day, and that at an inconvenient hour. These abuses exist to a less extent in the southern parts of South Wales; but in Cardiganshire, Radnorshire, and Carmarthenshire, this is the general course of things.

serve.

"Of seventy-one parishes in Cardiganshire, including chapels of ease, not more than thirty are held by residents; at the same time, the revenues of the church are squandered in sinecures, under the local circumstances just described."

VOL. XVI.

Mr. Johnes next proceeds to show that the yearly revenues of a single bishop, when he wrote, amounted to the sum of £9,267! Mr. Johnes goes on to state that, if the prelates forgot their flocks, they were mindful of their families. He says::

"Total enjoyed by relatives of Bishop Luxmoore, in the diocese of St. Asaph alone, £7,226 !

"The value, however, of church property belonging to the relatives of Bishop Luxmoore, in Hereford and St. Asaph, is £10,776! Such is the amount at present in the hands of this single family. In the time of the late Bishop Luxmoore the case stood thus :-Such was the prosperity of the time, that the revenues of the see of St. Asaph were worth at least £12,000, and the parishes belonging to his relatives were worth at least £15,000; so that the country has had to pay £27,000 per annum for the services of one prelate !"

This is a statement which may well fill with shame and indignation the heart of every man, be he Churchman or Dissenter, to whom the honour of the Gospel is dear! But this is only a fragment of the mighty whole. Here is another chip from the block of clerical corruption :

"Absentees from the country in

which their benefices are situated, and residing remote from them... £3,185 "Total unemployed as above (de

ducting salaries of curates, of bishops, absentees, &c., £2,680).. "Total enjoyed by the general body of the resident clergy (including the salaries of the curates of bishops, absentees, &c., £2,680, and exclusive of Queen Anne's bounty and fees, £2,230)

34,369

11,361

"The amount enjoyed from this diocese by the bishop, and the relatives of former bishops, alone amounts to £23,679, and thus, on the most liberal calculation, exceeds the whole amount enjoyed by all the resident clergy put together!

"Such is a picture of the Church in North Wales in the nineteenth century! I shall abstain from all comment, for I can little hope to add anything to the plain force of facts by any comment of mine,-facts, indeed, which it is equally impossible to strengthen, to palliate, or to deny !"

At the commencement of the period to which Mr. Johnes refers, there was scarcely any Dissent in the Principality to compensate for the wide - spread famine. In 1715, there were only thirty-five Nonconformist churches throughout Wales. From such a handful, weak and poor, no deliverance could be expected. In affliction so deep, vain was the help of man,

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Such, then, was the state of things when the Most High began to make bare His holy arm. The Dissent of the country, such as it was, was passed by. In Wales, as in England, the revolu tionary power came from within the church. Her own sons were employed to effect her deliverance; theirs was the honour to wave throughout the land the torch of Divine light, which was mercifully kindled by the Spirit of God to conduct the people to the Cross! The prime instrument of this glorious work, as you well know, was Griffith Jones, Rector of Landowrer, in Cardiganshire, of blessed memory.

This

great and good man was deservedly called the Welsh Apostle. He was the prototype of your noblest men—a pattern for Welsh preachers now, and in the ages to come. To him all times and places were alike sacred, and suited for the publication of Divine truth. He preached in season and out of season, and was equally at home in the parish church, at the market-cross, on the mountain side, and the grassy common. This single man was a power in the land; his mighty voice resounded through the country, like the trumpet of the Angel of the Apocalypse.

But, after all, what was one man, whatever his zeal or might, among twelve counties? Help was required, and it was soon sent him in the person of a convert of his own, the Rev. Howell Davies, of Haverford West, a man of rare endowments, and distinguished by every excellence.

Mr. Davies obtained a curacy, where he laboured with all his might for the salvation of men. But a light that so burnt, and so shone, was not to be endured by his cold and purblind superiors. His zeal offended them, and he was dismissed. This cruel treatment, however, turned out to the furtherance of the Gospel. He was now at liberty to sow broadcast throughout the Principality the seed of the Kingdom. For a season the churches were generally open to him, and crowded with anxious hearers, but, like Whitefield, every door was soon closed against him; and, like Whitefield also, he went forth into the highways and the hedges, publishing salvation to countless multitudes, who otherwise would never have seen his face or heard his voice. may well be supposed that such men would feel a strong drawing of the heart towards Whitefield, and long for

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his seraphic presence in their midst; and the desire of their hearts was speedily granted. That ethereal spirit flew thither on wings of love, and was everywhere received as an angel of light! His labours were attended with extraordinary power; he mightily helped to strengthen the hands of his brethren.

Still the work spread; still more agency was wanted, and still it was forthcoming. But a peculiar instrumentality was now required, and speedily provided in the person of Thomas Charles. This distinguished man was educated at Oxford, and obtained a curacy at Bala, where he laboured after the manner of Howell Davies, and met with a similar reward. He, too, was dismissed, and such was the aversion in which he was held by the clergy on every side that he could gain no field even for gratuitous labours. These men little thought that they were advancing the cause they sought to overthrow. The Head of the Church had special work for Mr. Charles, and it was necessary that he should be completely emancipated from every trammel"; and, in order to this, he was led by a way that he knew not. Most anxious to continue in the church of his fathers, he employed every means to obtain an opening, but without success; at last it occurred to him to solicit the good offices of his excellent friend the Rev. John Newton, of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, to whom he forwarded his testimonials. These important documents, however, were lost, which led to prolonged delay and increased difficulty. In the meantime, Mr. Charles was impatient of idleness, and began to teach the children of the poor. He was blessed in His deed; the numbers so multiplied that he repaired to the place of worship provided by the new converts for their own accommodation as a school-room. Such were precisely the people to meet his views, and, above all others, he was just the man suited to their circumstances. Mr. Charles was no common person; second to none for zeal, power, and efficiency as a preacher, he was a consummate man of business, every way an able ecclesiastical administrator. He forthwith became a power in North Wales, everywhere organising, consolidating, and regulating the new community. No man contributed so much to mould the great and admirable body known as the Welsh Calvinistic Metho

dists, to whom, as you all know, the Principality is so deeply indebted.

But Mr. Charles was also a great and zealous educationist. His scholastic labours were only second to his pulpit ministrations. He filled the land with schools. The following letter from his own pen is so interesting that we cannot withhold it. Writing in the year 1797 to a friend who had helped him in his labour, he says:—

"About nine years ago, in travelling through different parts of the country, I found many large districts between the mountains of North Wales sunk into total ignorance of Divine things; few, if any, could read at all; and no Bibles in their houses. I anxiously began to think how it was possible to remedy so great an evil. No practicable plan occurred to me as within my power to hope of putting in execution but that of employing a teacher or teachers, as my finances would allow, and sending them into these dark parts to teach all freely that would attend to read their Bible in their native language, and to instruct them in the first principles of Christianity. By the assistance of generous friends, to whom I communicated my thoughts on the subject, it was set on foot, and succeeded far beyond my expectations; the calls for teachers became numerous; the change in the principles and morals of the people where the schools had been was evident; the number of teachers at last increased to twenty. I set Sunday and night schools on foot for those whose occupations and poverty prevented their attending the day schools.

"Whatever we attempted of this nature succeeded wonderfully; till the whole country was filled with schools of one sort or another, and all were taught at once. The blessed effects were corresponding: a general concern for eternal things took place in many large districts; many hundreds were awakened to a sense of sin and their need of Christ, and I have every reason to believe are now faithful followers of Him. The schools are still carried on, and the effects the same in a greater and lesser degree; the number of teachers increase or diminish as my finances will allow. All my income from a chapel which I serve, I devote wholly toward their support, being supported myself by the industry of my wife. I pay every teacher £12 per annum. They continue half a year or three quarters in one place, and are then removed into another part of the country. Three quarters of a year is found fully sufficient to teach our children to read their Bibles well in the Welsh tongue. I visit the schools myself, and catechise them publicly: I have the unspeakable satisfaction of seeing the general aspect of the country most amazingly changed; to see the wilderness blossom as the rose, and the thirsty land become springs of water; through the schools and the preaching of the Gospel, the spread of Divine knowledge is become universal."

In recording the special mercies of

God to the Principality, we must not forget to do honour to His sovereign grace, working by instruments of His own choice, rejected by the wise ones of the earth. While Griffith Jones kindled a light in Carnarvon, Howell Davies in Pembroke, and Daniel Rowlands in Cardigan, Howell Harris was selected to perform the same holy office in Brecon. A gentleman born, Harris was entered at Oxford for the Church. He soon became disgusted with the immorality of the place, however, and returned home. But, while he viewed and mused on the sin and misery that surrounded him, the fire burned; to hold his peace was impossible; he spoke, and everywhere his word came with power; his converts so multiplied as to form 300 societies or churches! Harris was highly esteemed by the excellent men already mentioned. The affectionate admiration with which Whitefield viewed him may be seen from his letters.

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Men, Brethren, and Fathers! stated at the outset that I professed only to "stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance," and in this, I presume, you will think enough has been done. Let me now, therefore, only add a few closing words to the main classes of which you are composed.

Evangelical Churchmen! these facts demonstrate that you have a history in the Principality, and that your noble fathers were the mainspring of the great spiritual movement in the middle of the last century. Those, your predecessors, were men who would have done honour to any church in Christendom. Such a descent, conferring unspeakable honour, involves a corresponding responsibility. It is for you steadfastly to walk in the footsteps of those renowned and apostolic men; so doing, you will not fail, like them, to prove a blessing to your own generation, and to be held in affectionate remembrance in after ages. But, honoured brethren! this is not all. You are called on to wage a rightful war! You have to exert your utmost might to reform your church. As a first point, you must carry the principle that none but devout Welshmen shall fill any or either of the four Episcopates into which the Principality is divided. This is vital! This carried, other things will follow. Among the privileges of the Jews, it was promised them that

"their nobles should be of themselves." A foreign nobility is a badge of conquest-a cutting indignity, a cruel wrong! Only think of such bishops as Griffith Jones, Howell Davies, Daniel Rowlands, and Thomas Charles! By the help of God they would speedily have transformed the entire country into a scene of moral beauty! Such men, each in his own diocese, would have moved to and fro as the angels of the Lord, diffusing life, light, and gladness on every side! Such men would have seen to it that only those who knew the truth, loved it, and adorned it, should be ordained and appointed to teach and lead the people. Such men, further, would have seen to it that, to the best of their ability, the church, properly so called in every parish, conformably with the rubrics, should have been exclusively composed of the faithful in Christ Jesus, men who "with the heart had believed unto righteousness, and with the mouth were making confession unto salvation."

These, brethren, are the points, the great points, after which it is now your mission to strain to the utmost of your power. You will never forget that Christ is the sole Head of the Church, and that His word is her only and exclusive law. You will labour to perfect the institution with which you are conscientiously connected, that it may prove to the utmost a spiritual blessing to the people by whom it is supported. A thoroughly reformed church might be rendered an instrument of unutterable good to the Principality. Considering your advantages, your condition is at present deeply humbling. The registered attendance of worshippers at the census is as follows:

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ture, or sound policy. So soon as men begin to reason, it will be mended or ended. It is the church, not of the people, but of the parsons! It feeds the shepherds, it starves the sheep!

Calvinistic Methodists! you, too, have a history: a glorious lineage is yours. If not directly of the Established Church, you sprang from it. As a community you were created by the power of the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the living Word by men whose praise is now in all the churches. Your system of ecclesiastical polity, like that of the Wesleyan Methodists, was the result of chance, accident, and the urgent demands of the passing hour; and, in spite of its short-comings, when tested by the apostolic standard, in a very remarkable degree it combines liberty with order, and admits of being so worked as to realize the happiest results. Even if there be a more excellent way, for the present that is the best way for you. The Gospel exists among you in its scriptural purity, and, as it was among your fathers, it is still accompanied with marvellous power. If Welsh humanity be still the same, so is the everlasting Gospel. After a long season of deadness, the power has returned in its ancient glory. By continuing to live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to pray in the Spirit, you will daily grow in power and advance in prosperity. Already God has wrought wonders by you. The census gives your chapels at 828, and by this time they probably approach 1,000; if so, as the census states, they will accommodate about 250,000. Poor as you are in the Principality, since 1747 you have expended on chapel erection and repair about £1,000,000. Your communicant's roll, however, is very far from satisfactory; in the census it is set forth as 58,577. Allowing for a fair increase of chapels since that time, the result will be an average membership of sixty to each chapel. This is small, very small. It is high time for you to rise, to furbish the spear, anoint the shield, and order the battle.

Independents! you, too, have a history even in Wales. With you the little one has become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. In 1740 your preachers in the Principality might have taken for their text, "By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?" You had then only six meeting-housessmall, mean, and incommodious. Now

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