John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays (Morgan)

Description

North Wales in the early part of the nineteenth century provides a striking instance of the way in which a spiritual revolution can change the whole direction of a people and a society. Equally striking was the agency which brought the prevailing religious indifference and lawlessness to an end: it was the preaching of the gospel by men without position or influence like John Elias (1774-1841), Under the preaching of Elias, the outlook of thousands was permanently changed. They not only heard of the crucifixion of Christ, but felt that they had seen it. ‘I felt’, said one hearer, ‘as if the earth shook for miles around me.’

This account by Edward Morgan traces the life and ministry of Elias from his first religious impressions until the day when 10, 000 attended his funeral in Anglessey, the scene of most of his labours.

Here, in days of revival, forty-four chapels were built in forty years. To Elias’ life and the lessons to be drawn from it are added his letters and other papers originally published as a separate volume. Previously published by the Trust in this form in 1973, the Life, Letters, and Essays of John Elias is now reckoned among Christian classics.

Contents

LIFE

1. Elias’s origin, education and early serious impressions
2. Elias becomes more decided – enters the Welsh Methodist Connexion – his public ministry
3. Elias at the commencement of his ministry – his desire for learning and knowledge
4. Elias’s removal to Anglesey – the state of religion there and the great alteration therein at his departure
5. Elias’s marriage – his family – education of his children
6. Elias’s difficulties, afflictions and oppositions
7. Elias’s ministerial character – his intellectual and delineating powers in preaching
8. Illustrations of Elias’s great powers – testimonies to his success
9. Of Elias’s zeal in the cause of religion
10. Elias’s exertions for the Bible and the London Missionary Societies – Sunday schools – the temperance cause
11. Elias’s second marriage – his private character – catholic spirit
12. Elias’s declining years and happy end

LETTERS

To Mrs Elizabeth Elias, his first wife
To his daughter, Phoebe Elias
To his children after the death of his first wife
To his daughter after her marriage
To his son, John Elias
To Lady Bulkeley
To the Rev W. Roberts
To a sister-in-law
To Mr. Thomas Owen, prisoner in France
To the Church of God in London
To Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Davies, London
To the Church of God in Liverpool- Mr. John Roberts
To Mr. John Jones, a preacher at Liverpool
To the Rev Henry Rees
To the Rev Robert Jones, Ty Bwlcyn
To Mr. Daniel Jones, a preacher at Liverpool
To the Church of God in America
To the Association at Denbigh
To the Church in America in 1840
To Mrs. Jones of Wrexham
To Miss Rogers, afterwards Mrs Davies, of Carnachen-wen
To Mrs. Foulkes of Machynlleth
To Mrs. Lloyd of Beaumaris
To Mrs. Roberts of Caernarvon
To W. R. Roberts, Esq, Surgeon of Caernarvon
To a clergyman

ESSAYS

1. Thoughts on the Bible
2. On the use of reason
3. On preaching the gospel
4. On the important subject of the ministry
5. On hearing the Gospel
6. On the moral inability of man
7. On the obligations of man
8. On government and the sin of despising it

OTHER PAPERS

1. Documents on the better observance of the Sabbath
2. Papers showing the loyalty of Elias
3. Short account of the death of Mr John Lloyd
4. On singing

OBSERVATIONS ON ELIAS’S WRITINGS

1. On the Sabbath
2. Justification
3. On hardening under religious privileges
4. Advantages of the yoke to young people
5. A sermon on the death of faithful ministers
6. A sermon on the death of King George III
7. A sermon on the death of the Duke of York

Index

Endorsement

"In John Elias: Life, Letters and Essays we are confronted with a spiritual giant – a reminder to us that our great God can raise great men for His church from the humblest of circumstances. Letters, essays and biography combine to give a rounded picture of one who was ‘a burning and shining light’. A most important book. Buy it. Read it. You will be spiritually much richer."
— HYWEL R. JONES