real consideration of holy things. His first sermon was preached the Sunday following the ordination, at the small church of Worldham, in Hampshire, belonging to his uncle.

Few, saving those who have been on terms of near intimacy with the subject of this memoir, have conceived his constitutional shyness and natural timidity. These qualities distinguished him even to the last. Many years' acquaintance with London could not eradicate them. The standing up, week after week, in the presence of large congregations, did not alter this inherent constitution of his mind. While at Oxford he has not unfrequently gone out of the chapel with the handkerchief applied to his face when it was his turn to read the lesson for the day, thereby escaping from what was to him an unwelcome, because a public office, under pretence of a bleeding nose. And he has quoted it as a proof of his nervousness in preaching; that, although at Little Worldham, he had nothing before him but a few red cloaks and smock-frocks, and every word of his sermon was written in full, yet that he always took with him a vial of wine in his pocket, which he never omitted to drink on the road, to brace him up to the effort of appearing in the desk, and in the pulpit. Let the reader compare this fact with the saying of one, who, standing up without a note of his sermon before him, in the presence of many hundreds of eager and most intelligent listeners, declared often, "I do not regard my congregation more than so many cabbage-stumps." And if the young minister desire to know the secret of this insensibility to man, we would recommend earnestly the practice he adopted — careful preparation, diligent prayer, and an abiding remembrance that

he was standing between the living and the dead. The natural temperament may remain much the same, but the sense of the near and immediate presence of God will make the preacher forget much of the presence of man. I can conceive of no one who more lost sight of every person and every thing, save the message he was delivering, than he did of whom it may be said, in sincerity and truth, even to the close of his life, he loved the shade, and sought not the gaze of the world. Often, when he has been asked, after preaching in his chapel at John-street, "Did you observe such an individual amongst your hearers to-day?" his reply has been, “I could not tell you the names of two persons present out of the whole congregation."

In May, 1809, he was at Worplesdon, in Surrey, near Guildford, but here he did not remain long, for he soon after entered upon the curacy of Enville, in Staffordshire. Some years after he wrote a tract, "The Old Man and his Grand-daughter at E.” The circumstances as therein related were supposed to have occurred in this place. His rector was resident, and unwittingly was made the instrument of great good to him. Their custom was to divide the duty between them, the one taking the prayers, while the other took the sermon. Shortly after my father commenced his labours, his rector, anxious to give a younger man than himself the benefit of his longer experience, said he thought he took much unnecessary trouble in composing and preaching his own discourses, and told him that he always read his sermon from a printed book, adding that his library was at his service. "I usually preach Blair's Sermons, Mr. Evans, but from what I have heard of your preaching I should say that Cooper would suit you best." He

was a kind-hearted man (little competent, as he showed himself to be, to advise a young minister), and fully meant that his counsel should be followed. Accordingly he sent him "Doctrinal Sermons, by the Rev. Edward Cooper," and it was the perusal of this book which led his mind to comprehend and embrace the blessed and fundamental doctrine of Justification by faith alone.

In the same year, 1809, he formed an engagement with Caroline Joyce, younger daughter of Thomas Joyce, Esq., of Freshford House, near Bath, and it was in the prospect of this union that he resigned the curacy of Enville. He had now an additional reason for obtaining a field of labour in the south of England, and Staffordshire was too far removed both from his own relatives and hers, to make it any longer a desirable position. His father's purpose was to buy him an advowson, and many negotiations were entered into at this time in consequence. None, however, seemed likely, at that time, to be brought to a successful termination. And it was finally determined that the marriage should take place without waiting till an advowson was obtained; meanwhile he undertook the curacy of Milford, a retired village on the coast of Hampshire, and the marriage was solemnized in April, 1810.*

* Shortly after the death of my beloved mother, in 1831, an advertisement appeared in the "Record" newspaper, announcing that a short account of her life would be published. It gives me the truest gratification to write, that, although this memoir never was published, yet my father completed it to a considerable extent. Writing for the press was always with him a matter of singular labour, arising from the dissatisfaction he always felt in the productions of his own pen, and the scarcely ceasing emendations which, consequently, he made upon the original draught. The readers of this volume will know how to make

[For the subsequent portion of this memoir I am indebted (as stated in the preface) principally to the hand of another. The numerous and pressing engagements of a public order, which I have had no option of postponing, in addition to severe and protracted domestic afflictions, have combined to impede the carrying out of my earnest desire of completing this brief memoir. Both these hindrances still existing in full force, I have most reluctantly, but most gratefully, availed myself of another's help. What now succeeds is chiefly from the pen of one who possessed the most intimate opportunity of knowing my father's mind. It will be evident that, as a clergyman of the Church of England, I could not have written all that follows; but to its general accuracy I can bear testimony.]

His marriage was a most important epoch in his life. The wife whom God gave him was a woman of uncommon ardour, perseverance, industry, and devotedness. Like himself, she had possessed few advantages of religious training; but, with entire conscientiousness and singleness of motive, she was now earnestly following the Lord and scrupulously acting up to the light she had obtained; and they began their married life, determined, by the grace of God, to walk in His ways, and, with allowance for an unfinished manuscript, and which, I ought to add, I have sometimes found it very difficult to decypher; but as this is the only portion which at all approaches to an autobiography, as he never kept any kind of diary himself, the insight into his own life and character in connexion with his beloved wife, which the letters afford, must prove deeply interesting to his friends. His own biography of my dear mother will be found at the close of this memoir. It was addressed to the Church of Christ and Congregation worshiping in John-street, King's-road.

diligence and self-denial, to lay themselves out for the good of the parish. They had both been brought to renounce their own righteousness and to receive Christ as their only hope, but to the freeness and consequent obligations of the Gospel they were strangers; and, while Mr. Evans preached Christ crucified as the only way of salvation for the sinner, he knew nothing of the sovereign and unmerited love of God, nor did he set forth the Saviour in His work and offices, as he was led to do in the subsequent part of his ministry in the place here assigned him.

On first settling at Milford, Mr. Evans found himself without any brother clergymen in the neighbourhood to whom he could look for example and encouragement, or of whom he could ask counsel; nor was there any religious society. All the persons who showed attention and kindness to him and Mrs. Evans were completely worldly in their tastes and habits. Dinner-parties were declined, as consuming too much time and unsuitable to their pursuits; but in the evening parties, where music and singing were the attraction, they soon became favourites, as they both had fine taste in these. Songs, both English and Italian, occupied the part of the evening during which they were present, but, as they retired early, the card-table was not introduced till they had left.

In the following year their happiness was much increased by the birth of a son; but it proved the source of much sorrow, for the infant, after languishing for some time, died before the expiration of its first twelvemonth. The distress of the parents on this occasion was great; and, to the bitterness arising from the loss of their firstborn, many misgivings were added,