"A Great man has fallen in Israel." The celebrated Christmas Evans, the venerable Welsh Baptist minister, who for upwards of half a century has astonished the world with the brilliancy of his figurative preaching, is no more. He died, as we learn from the English papers, while on a tour of preaching, at Swansea, at the house of the Rev. Daniel Davies, about four o'clock on Friday morning, July the 20th, 1838. He lived to a good old age, as might have been expected from his immense personal vigor, being as we learn from an intelligent brother of this city, one of his countrymen, who was intimately acquainted with him, and has often heard him preach, about six feet and a half high, and of fine - indeed, even elegrant proportions, and unsurpassed dignity in the pulpit.

      The Canada Baptist Magazine says: - "This aged servant of Christ preached at Swansea on the previous Lord's day, although in his 72d year, with as much bodily and mental energy as ever; but, after retiring to rest, on Monday evening, he had an attack of what was then supposed to be erysipelas. He continued in a kind of lethargic state through the greater part of that night and the following day. On Wednesday, the powers of his mind seemed to be quite restored, and his body tolerably free from pain, but he complained of some difficulty of respiration, which gradually increased. Yesterday he took a walk in the garden to try his strength, with a view of going to preach at Llanelly on Sunday: but some alarming symptoms appearing in the evening, he consented to have a medical gentleman called in, of whom he enquired, with great earnestness, when he

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[p. 361]
thought he should be able to resume his labours. In the course of the night, however, he grew much worse, and between one and two o'clock on Friday morning, sent for Mr. Davies to his bed-side, and, with a holy triumph which seemed to pervade his soul in the prospect of an eternity of glory, he intimated that he was about to depart. Having dwelt with peculiar satisfaction on his having made Christ crucified the grand theme of his ministry for fifty-three-years, he attempted to sing

"Dyma'r wisg ddl'glaerwen oleu,
Guddia'm noethni hyd y llawr." ^*

      From that time he seemed diposed to sleep, and his soul took its flight seemingly without the least struggle."

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Note
^* This couplet a Welsh brother has translated for us literally, in these words: -
"Here's the robe of clearest light
Which hides my nakedness to the ground."
======== [From R. B. C. Howell, editor, The Baptist, Nashville, TN, December, 1838 pp. 360-361. Document from Google Books On-line. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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