The Life of the Rev Thomas Charles, B a of Bala

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: XXVIII THE DEATH OF WILLIAMS, PANT Y CELYN: THE EXPULSION OF PETER WILLIAMS: TREVECCA COLLEGE The year 1791 is a kind of landmark in the history of Calvinistic Methodism in Wales: three events of special signiftcance have made it so, and with each of these Mr. Charles is closely associated. The first is...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: XXVIII THE DEATH OF WILLIAMS, PANT Y CELYN: THE EXPULSION OF PETER WILLIAMS: TREVECCA COLLEGE The year 1791 is a kind of landmark in the history of Calvinistic Methodism in Wales: three events of special signiftcance have made it so, and with each of these Mr. Charles is closely associated. The first is the death of the Rev. William Williams, Pant y Celyn; the second, the expulsion of the Rev. Peter Williams from the Calvinistic Methodist Association; and the third, the revival which broke out at Bala. The passing away of the poet laureate of the great Welsh Revival of the eighteenth century followed that of Daniel Rowland so closely, that we may almost speak of them as a twin event. Daniel Rowland had given the Welsh Methodist Revival its origin a few years before Williams threw in his lot with the movement; but from the year 1743 both had seen so much of each other, and so admirably had they co-laboured, that they had become almost essential to each other, and the very fitness of things makes pleasant the thought that in death they were not long divided. Williams, however, lived long enough to compose and print an elegy to the memory of Rowland; and having done so, he laid aside his relaxed lyre, and was soon laid aside himself. As a man of letters, Williams holds a very high place in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen; in his own line, he is still awaiting his peer. He was the first Welsh Methodist to grip the pen in the interests of a spiritual propaganda; and by 1756 he had impressed the stamp of his genius for ever on Welsh literature. While a Welsh heart responds to its God in its own tongue, the hymns of Williams will live. Already many of them have been given an English dress; and two, at least, of his hymns have been sung for a good deal more than a century, ..