CHAP. X.

The testimonies of eminent characters in proof of Rowlands' very great usefulness and popularity, and of the wonderful success of the gospel under him.

ROWLANDS chiefly excelled as a preacher; and shone most illustriously in that character. The immense concourse of people that flocked from every part of Wales to hear him at Llangeitho, and that for half a century, sufficiently proves his talents as a preacher to have been great and wonderful.-The testimonies of some eminent persons shall now be produced, in proof of his extraordinary eloquence and success.

An aged, excellent, and well-known clergyman, now resident in England, who has heard the greatest preachers in this country as well as in Wales, has often affirmed, "that he never heard but one Rowlands:" meaning that he far excelled all other ministers. The first time he heard him he was exceedingly struck with his matter and manner, though he was then but a lad. This happily led him to a serious train of thinking, which ultimately ended in his conversion.

The late pious and eminent E. Burn, of Birmingham, used to describe Rowlands' preaching as accompanied with more zeal, fervour, and animation than he ever witnessed. He often mentioned the following anecdote respecting him with great delight.-"I came accidentally," he said, “to a place in Wales where Rowlands was preaching to an immense congregation in the open air. Indeed, I never witnessed such a scene before. O! the striking appearance of the preacher: his zeal, animation, and fervour were beyond description; and such effects descended on the

congregation under him, as never came within the sphere of my observation before!"-He said moreover, that Rowlands' countenance, when engaged in the work, was the most expressive of any he ever saw that "it reminded one almost of an angel." It seems there was an uncommon, amazing brightness on his countenance, as he was engaged in his usual remarkable animated manner of preaching, Those striking words were thus verified in him, "He maketh his ministers a flame of fire."

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An old minister now resident in London, who used to hear Rowlands in Wales, declares that it is impossible for any one that had not heard him, to have a conception of the amazing powerful effects that attended his ministry. "I knew," he says, a gentleman that came upon some business from England to Wales, and happened to visit Llangeitho when Rowlands was preaching there. Though he did not understand a word of Welch, yet his mind was seized with the greatest amazement, as he declared afterwards. I heard much of him,' said he, but it never could have entered into my heart to conceive of the mighty energy and power that accompanied his preaching. His words did fly like darts.'"

The same thing was certified also by Lady Huntingdon. Her ladyship was present when he was preaching a sermon in Welch. Another preached in English at the same op portunity-a double lecture. She declared that the delivery of the Welch sermon, though she understood not a syllable of it, had far greater effect on her mind than the English, though it was an excellent evangelical discourse.

The testimony of the next respectable person will afford us a graphical description of Rowlands' extraordinary ministry in general, and the amazing effects of it on the great congregations. The Rev. John Davies, rector of Sharncourt, Wilts, who knew him well, and translated eleven of bis sermons into the English language, gives the following most interesting account of him in the preface to that

volume, as a most eminently successful preacher. He represents this highly gifted minister" As an eminent clergyman in the principality of Wales, who has been for near forty years a zealous and indefatigable labourer in the Lord's vineyard. He is still alive," he says, " and notwithstanding his advanced age, he is as active as ever.-Unembarrassed with worldly cares, and almost unconnected with the world, he lives above it, and is a striking emblem of primitive. simplicity. His manner of life carries the mind many centuries back, and sets it down in the apostolic age. Such undissembled piety, and such unaffected integrity, are not. the general characteristics of latter days. Wholly devoted to his Master's work, and treading in his steps, he goes about continually doing good. His audiences are very large wherever he preaches; and the stated number of communicants at the monthly sacraments, in his own church, is seldom less than two thousand, and sometimes more than four thousand. His discourses are plain and practical: he does not affect a display of learning, or extensive reading; but his whole aim is to speak to the heart. He draws all his arguments from the sacred oracles, not only as they are best adapted to the capacities of his hearers, but as they contain the only method of salvation for fallen guilty and helpless sinners. Knowing the wretched state of man by nature, he tries to rouse him to a sense of his danger by the thunders of the law, and the lightnings of Sinai. Deeply acquainted with the gospel scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ, he publishes the glad tidings with all the fervour and affection of one who experimentally knows their inestimable worth. He sometimes adds tears to his entreaties, when, after he hath displayed the unsearchable riches of Christ, he is inviting the miserable, the poor, and the naked, to come and partake of them. Yet, being convinced that no human persuasion can prevail with them to accept of a free and plenteous redemption, he, with earnest supplication, recommends them to the Spirit of grace, and

to his efficacious influence. And oh! in what rapturous and elevated strains does he often perform this part of his office! How are the congregations melted, borne down, and overcome, while the sweet and precious accents of the gospel drop from his tongue! Having learned by happy experience that faith is a vital principle, wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God, he not only inculcates universal holiness of heart and life, as an evidence of genuine faith, but insists upon it as an indispensable meetness for communion with God, both in time and eternity. These vari ous subjects he illustrates by pertinent scriptural allusions, and by similies borrowed from those objects which happen to be nearest at hand. This too he hath learned from the example of his blessed Master, who grounded most of his parables on some object that presented itself to the eyes of his auditory....... The most squeamish critic and most flippant wit, if they understood his vernacular language, and could hear him deliver them with his grave and manly eloquence, carrying all before it like an irresistible torrent, would soon alter their opinion; and if they could not, with Saul, when he was admitted among the prophets, catch his spirit, they would learn to admire and extol his productions. Blessed as he is with these endowments, can it be wondered that he is a successful preacher ? Accompanied as the word from his mouth is with uncommon energy from above, can it be thought incredible that so many thousands of souls should, under his ministry, be brought from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God?" How remarkable!

Rowlands' amazing successive bursts of eloquence, overwhelming, under the Spirit's influence, the vast congregation, and thus advancing the kingdom of grace, shall next be set forth and attested by another respectable testimony. I heard the celebrated Griffiths of Nevern describing his extraordinary preaching in a very remarkable manner. He used, with great pleasure, to pourtray the public oratory of this great man sometimes as follows:

"This great preacher, in his public ministrations," he would say, "resembles the gradual swelling and bursting of the waves of the ocean, when the wind agitates the bosom of the deep. The overwhelming power of the mighty influence of the Spirit in his ministry came on gradually, in manner like a wave of the sea, increasing more and more. He commenced his address calmly; but as he advanced, both his matter and manner increased in interest. His congregation, always immense in number, were most intensely observing him, with eyes like stars, and delightfully watching him as he was advancing in so noble and grand a manner; their minds and feelings were carried along with him most sweetly and powerfully, being excited to a high pitch of religious emotion;-until at length his eloquence attained its climax, and then his preaching, under divine influence, would most nobly break forth, like the rising swell of the sea, and would overwhelm the great concourse of people in an astonishing manner. The intenseness of their feelings found relief in the same moment in a simultaneous burst of Hallelujahs and ascriptions of praise to the most high God. The preacher would then pause for a short interval, until the people had enjoyed the feast:-his voice indeed could not have been heard, had he proceeded. It was also necessary to permit their fervour to subside, in order to fit them for hearing the renewal of his discourse with profit. They would exert themselves to suppress their feelings as quickly as possible, as they were anxious to enjoy the rich repast set before them by this extraordinary and highly gifted embassador of heaven. He would then commence another paragraph of his sermon, in a cool and deliberate manner, but gradually rising, like another wave of the sea, into amazing sublimity of ideas and warmth of feelings, the natural and genuine effects of evangelical views, and the Spirit's influence. These again, clothed with appropriate and suitable expressions by the teaching of the Spirit of God, generated similar feelings in his hearers. They were