Evans, Christinas, an eloquent "Welsh preacher, was born December 25, 1766, at Lland3-ssul, Cardigan- shire. His father was poor, and he had no school edu- cation. At seventeen he was converted, and joined
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tJie Baptist Church. He then first learned to read the AVolsh Hible, and soon after began to exhort. His ^ first settlement as a preacher was at Lleyn ; two years after lie went to Anglesea to lalior as an evangelist at ten preaching places, on a salary at first of £17 a year. Here he spent thirty-four j'ears. He early showed oratorical powers, but in Anglesea he began to be a wonder. For a series of years he made preaching tours through South Wales, and the memory of his sermons remains to this day. The following sketch of one of these sermons is given bv his biographer, the IJev. D. M. Evans : "In tiie midst of a general hum and restlessness the preacher had read for his text, ' And you that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind \iy wicked works, j'et now hath he recon- ciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable, and unreproachable in his sight.' His first movements were stiff, awkward, and Avrestling, while his observations were perhaps crude and commonplace rather than striking or novel ; but he had not proceeded far before, having thus prepared himself, he took one of his wildest flights, bursting forth at the same time into those iinmelodious but all- piercing shrieks vmder which his hearers often con- fessed his resistless power. Closer and closer draw in the scattered groups, the weary loungers, and the hith- erto listless among the motlej^ multitude. The crowd becomes dense with eager listeners as they press on insensibly towards the preacher. He graduallj' gets into the thickening plot of his homely but dramatic representation, while, all forgetful of the spot onAvhich they stood, old men and women, accustomed to prosy thoughts and ways, look up with open mouth through smiles and tears. Big burh- country folk, in whom it might have been thought that the faculty of imagina- tion had long since been extinguished, became en- grossed with ideal scenes. Men ' whose talk is of bullocks' are allured into converse with the most spir- itual realities. The preachers present become dazzled with the brilliance of tliis new star on the horizon ; they start on their feet round the strange young man, look hard at him in perfect amazement ; loud and rapturous confirmations break fortii from their lips : 'Amen,' 'Ben digedig,' ' Diolch byth,' fall tuniultu- ously on the ear; the charm swells onwards from the platform to the extreme margin of the wondering crowd, and to the occasional loud laugh there has now succeeded the baptism of tears. The excitement is at its highest ; the preacher concludes, but the weeping and rejoicing continue till worn out nature brings tlie scene to an end." His chief qualities as a preacher " include passion, or ardent e.xcited feeling, a dramatic imagination, and grotesque humor. The published scraps of sermons which remain, and have been trans- lated into English, illustrate these qualities, and al- most only these." — Christian Spectator (Loud.) Sept. 18G3, reprinted in The Theolog. Eclectic, i, 147 ; Evans, Mvmoir of Chnstmas Evans (18G2) ; Stsephen, Life of Chiistmas Evans (London, 1847) ; Sermons of C.Evans, with Memoir hy Jas. Cross (Phila. 18.04, 8vo).
Evans, John, D.D., an eminent Nonconformist di- vine, was liorn in 1(J80, at \Vr(>xham, in Denbighshire. His father was minister of Wrexham. The son was first placed under the care of Mr. Thomas Eowe, near Loudon, and studied afterwards at the seminary of jMr. Timotliy Jollie. He was ordained and settled at Wrexham, August 18, 1702. " Dr. Daniel Williams, of London, hearing that Mr. Evans was invited to Dul)lin, to prevent his leaving England sent for Iiim to the metropolis, where he first assisted the doctor, | afterwards became co-pastor, and at length succeeded him at his death. In the Arian controversy he re- fused ii^ subscribe to any articles, but maintained the orthodox sentiments. In the puldic services of the dissenters he was often called to preside, and was ap- pointed to assist in comjileting iNIatthew Henry's Com- mentary, of which he supplied the notes on the Epistles
to the Romans so well, that Dr. Doddridge says, ' The exposition of tlie Romans, liegun by Henry, and fin- ished by Dr. Evans, is the best I ever saw.' He was for some years preparing to write a history of non- conformity from the Reformation to the civil wars, but, by his death, the work devolved on Mr. Neal. He died May 16, 1730." Besides a number of separate sermons, he published Discourses concerning the Chris- tian Temper, 38 Sermons (4th ed. London, 1737, 2 vols. Svo), with Life l»j John Erskine (1825, 8vo), which are called by Dr. Watts "the most complete summary of those duties which make up the Christian life," and by Doddridge "the best practical pieces in our language." See Bogue and Bennett, History of Dissenters, ii, 364; Jones, Christian Biography, p. 143 ; Skeats, Free Church- es of England (London, 1868, Svo), p. 249.
Evanson, Edward, a minister of the Church of England, was born at Warrington, Lancashire, in 1731, and was educated at Emanuel College, Cam- bridge, where he passed M.A. in 1753. In 1768 he became vicar of South Mimms ; in 1770, rector of Tewkesbury. He soon began to manifest doubts about the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity. For a sermon preached in 1771 he was pros- ecuted. In 1778 he resigned his preferments in the Church, and retired to Mitcham, where he kept a school. He died Sept. 25, 1805. Among his writings are, On the Observance of Sunday (Ipswich, 1792): — The Dissonance of the four Ecangelists, and their Au- thority (Gloucester, 1805, 8vo). In this work Evan- son rejects all the Gospels but Mark, and also Ro- mans, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude. It was refuted by Falconer, Bamp- ton Lectures, 1810.