If the warriors of Greece and Rome ever deserved funeral orations and funeral songs, a great Welsh preacher was entitled to them on
far higher grounds. For whom is such a claim made? John Jones, Talsarn!
He was born on ‘St David’s Day’, 1 March 1796 at Tan-y-castell near Dolwyddelan in Gwynedd, North Wales. Brought to faith in Jesus Christ through the ministry of his young friend Henry Rees, John Jones became an eminent preacher of the Gospel throughout Wales. From his later home in Talysarn, he travelled widely for more than three decades. Ever-increasing demands were made upon him by a population hungry to hear the Way of Salvation. During the last year of his life, John Jones preached the Gospel of Christ three-hundred and sixty times.
Owen Jones wrote: ‘Preaching was the delight of his heart…“There is no occupation in the world so delightful as preaching Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners, and the ideal of human life for those who believe in Him”...His countenance beamed with the sweetest love and the most boundless benevolence...Preaching absorbed all the energies of his life...he became the most efficient and most popular preacher of the age in Wales. The epithet is applied to him to this day, “The preacher of the people.” And no one since his time has arrived at anything like his popularity… He would often preach for an hour and a half or two hours, and the people not at all tired, but delighted and enchanted, and in raptures before the close...When expressing the believer's delight over the riches of God in Christ, there was such a heavenly sweetness in his voice as electrified every congregation. As to power, flexibility, sweetness and beauty of voice, the Welsh pulpit no doubt reached its climax in the orator from Talsarn’ (Some of the Great Preachers of Wales, 1885).
John Jones’s friend and biographer Dr Owen Thomas wrote: ‘We are disposed to think that he, during those years (from 1821 to 1857), made for himself a deeper home in the affections of his fellow-countrymen than perhaps any of his mighty predecessors or contemporaries - so deep a home, indeed, that the longing that is still felt for him in the breasts of his hearers is as keen and strong as if he had died
yesterday’ (Cofiant John Jones, Talsarn, 1874).
When he died at Talysarn on Sunday, 16 August 1857, John Jones proved the blessedness of all he had preached to others. Despite advancing weakness, his spirit was filled with rapture as he was heard repeatedly to whisper, “O! Iesu anwyl! O! Iesu anwyl! O! Waredwr bendigedig!” - “O dear Jesus! O beloved Jesus! Blessed be Thy name forever!”
With great poignancy Owen Jones wrote: ‘On Friday, 21 August, the day he was buried at Llanllyfni, the shops were closed in Talysarn and all the country around; and even in Caernarfon, which is several miles away; and the work in the slate quarries was at a stand that day. And in the eyes of some, great Snowdon seemed to wear a pall...’
Before leaving the house in Talysarn, Henry Rees spoke to the large crowd of mourners: “It is not becoming to say much now. Silence is the most eloquent. If you desire to have a real sermon today, look at the coffin, the funeral car, and the grave, and think of your sweet-mouthed preacher, who is now silent forever. His name was well known throughout the Principality for thirty or thirty-five years, and his
eloquence roused and charmed the minds of Welshmen. But today there is no John Jones, Talsarn, in Wales.” Far be it from us, however, to weep for him as men which have no hope. ‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him!’ ”
In the funeral procession there were eight medical men, sixty-five ministers and preachers, three abreast; seventy deacons four abreast; two hundred singers, six abreast; six thousand men and women, six abreast, trending slowly on the road from Talysarn to Llanllyfni, singing on the way some of the old Welsh tunes, ‘Yn y dyfroedd mawr a’r tonau’, ‘Ymado wnaf a’r babell’, the hills around and Snowdon in the distance echoing the sound. That day and for many a day after a great gloom rested upon Wales’.
Between his birth at Dolwyddelan to his death at Talysarn, was there any Welshman who brought more blessing to Wales through the preaching of Christ than he? Did any preacher present the Saviour of sinners more gloriously, eloquently and tenderly than he? Was there any minister whose heart throbbed with more love to Jesus and his fellow-men? Is there any better Spirit-anointed model for preachers today than the Christ-exalting John Jones, Talsarn?
Surely such servants of Christ should be remembered. Recording their labours can only enhance our appreciation of God’s grace and mercy to the people of Wales. Let us pray, “LORD, do it again—everywhere!”
Dr Alan C. Clifford
No comments:
Post a Comment