Giles's, which was soon crowded to excess. His doctrine and pulpit talents attracted many, while others were drawn by curiosity and the novelty of his position; but his health gave way, which compelled him to discontinue public engagements for a time, and visit Malvern, Brighton, and other places, for restoration.

On his return to London, he engaged the chapel in Cross-street, Hatton-garden, where he first formed a Church.

In the meanwhile, Mr. Henry Drummond, M.P., was seeking a site on which to build a chapel for him, in which, after some effort, he succeeded, and the spacious building in John-street, Gray's-inn-lane, was erected solely by Mr. Drummond's liberality, and given to Mr. Evans for his life. In October, 1818, it was sufficiently advanced towards completion to allow of his preaching in it, and a congregation soon gathered.

We enter now upon a period of Mr. Evans's life which demands peculiar delicacy on the part of his biographer, while it was one of such vast importance in itself, and exerted so powerful an influence over the whole of his subsequent character and ministry, that we feel constrained to enter somewhat largely into it. We shall, however, in so doing, present it nearly in his own words, from a small work published by him some years since, but probably little known to the Christian public.*

We may first remark, what can scarcely have escaped the observation of the reader, that the theological education of Mr. Evans had been lacking in system. His divinity was simply the fruit of his piety, and had been obtained, from time to time, by the adaptation of the discoveries of the Gospel to his spiritual necessities; and "Letters to a Friend." Nisbet, 1826.

the knowledge thus acquired was faithfully and affectionately dispensed in his ministry.

Theological education, as such, formed no portion of the training of candidates for the ministry at the universities in the days of his College life. Examination in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and in the evidences of Christianity, was indeed required before taking orders, but this was all. It was indispensable as a qualification for professional life that a learned or liberal education. should be acquired; but this being attained, other considerations generally determined the course of study which was to prepare for the actual work of the ministry, if, indeed, any were deemed needful.

His associations at this time were peculiar and exclusive, being chiefly, if not entirely, with men as inexperienced and as little aware as himself of the heresies which infest the Church of Christ; and however highly educated they might be in other respects, and truly devoted to God, were neither qualified to detect nor to refute the sophistries by which we shall find him entangled.

Soon after leaving the Establishment and coming to London, circumstances occurred which led him to oppose certain statements, which went to assert that Jesus the man was God by the indwelling of the Father, and it was not till after he was engaged in this controversy that he began to discover that the doctrine of the Trinity was one to which he had never really devoted his attention. He had simply received it, together with the other truths of the Gospel, and preached them as he found them. But disputable questions concerning the niceties of any point in divinity had little occupied his thoughts, nor was his transparent and ingenuous mind at this time

subject to the discipline, in the absence of which controversies on abstruse subjects are full of danger.

Shortly after this the works of Dr. Watts fell into his hands, and being read by him with that respect which his piety and talents were calculated to inspire, his mode of reasoning greatly settled, or rather unsettled, his mind, and was in no small degree the means of leading him to a denial of the distinction of Persons in the Godhead.

It would not be here desirable to go minutely into the views held by that author on this subject in his later works, written, it is believed, when his mind was past its vigour, which, however, involve a denial of the distinct personality of our blessed Lord and of the Holy Spirit. The error, essentially Sabellianism, was a novelty to Mr. Evans, as were the refutations of that heresy, scattered about in many works of standard theology; and though at first rejected by him on the very account of its novelty, was afterwards admitted by him as appearing to solve many difficulties.

In 1819, he was induced, partly by the solicitations of some of his friends who agreed with him on these points, and partly from the wish that what he considered to be the truth of God should have a wider circulation than could be effected through the medium of his pulpit, to publish his views on the subject, under the title of 'Dialogues on Important Subjects." The sentiments contained in that book he subsequently discovered and declared to be subversive of the real Deity of the Son of God, and infinitely derogatory to His true dignity and majesty; and that the Holy Spirit, being denied to be a Divine person, is denied as to all His own

personal Deity and glory; and yet the bare possibility of such a conclusion, as an inference to be drawn from the premises which he held, was far from his contemplation. Because he did not deny the work of the Spirit upon the heart, because he felt that God alone could convince, convert, and sanctify the sinner; and because he looked to the Father, through Christ, to begin, carry on, and finish the work, he did not even suspect that the Holy Spirit could be in the slightest degree dishonoured by him, and, in the midst of a plain avowal that Immanuel was not God at all, that is, in any real and proper sense, he persuaded himself that he considered Him to be God over all, and, however inconsistent it may appear, in his heart worshipped Him as such.

When his book appeared, great was the alarm excited by it. His best friends wrote to him, or in some other way endeavoured to show him his awful position. Those who had formerly held communion with him, passed him in the street without notice. One minister is known, who openly, from the pulpit, warned his people against him. Another visited him, and solemnly denounced him as a heretic. He was broadly charged with holding a system which viewed the Saviour as God indeed by name, but as a mere man by nature, and with entire denial of the real glory of the Holy Ghost in the economy of redemption. This charge appeared to him of so awful and appalling a nature, that it made the deepest and most solemn impression on his mind, and the conviction soon became established, that if such were really his system, it could not be a true one. But when this charge was again and again repeated, and that, too, by many whose opinions he could not but respect, he was led by it seriously and prayerfully to

review his scheme altogether; and that not hastily, but with much caution and deliberation, although his agitation and distress of mind were very great.

By day and by night he was occupied with the subject. He would rise at three in the morning for study and prayer, earnestly and honestly seeking, not to establish a system, but to know and believe the truth.

While thus engaged in the investigation, a valued friend sent him Dr. Wardlaw's "Treatise on the Socinian Controversy.' This book he read with deep attention, and many of the arguments there brought forward were very convincing to him; but as the work, being intended for Socinians, did not entirely meet his case, it failed to give him full satisfaction, and he therefore addressed a letter to Dr. Wardlaw, which, through his kindness, we are enabled here to present to the reader, as it sets forth the real state of his mind far better than it can be described in any other way:

"London, September 6, 1822.

SIR, AS I feel perfectly convinced that you are, as one who has been made partaker of the Spirit of Him who gently leads those that are with young, capable of feeling for those who are in deep anguish and sorrow of heart, I make the less apology for thus intruding upon your time and attention. If it were in your power to give one drop of cold water to the most undeserving of those who profess to call Jesus Master, I doubt not but that you would not refuse it to him.

"It is under this conviction I now write to you, and if the Lord should enable you to relieve my mind from its present burthen, to release it from that pressure which he only who has endured it can duly estimate, I need