sure to be regarded by him with peculiar vigilance. He ever bare in mind the precept,-" If a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; and, in many cases, souls were restored to holiness and peace by this means. Where, however, this could not be effected by private admonition, and circumstances demanded investigation, the self-denial, patience, and prayerful diligence which he evinced must be fresh in the minds of those who assisted him; and where charges were proved to be correct, and the individual could not be brought to repentance, he suffered no circumstances of friendship or private feeling to influence his judgment for one moment,-the honour of his Lord and the purity of His Church were dearer to him than any other consideration. The solemnity of his deportment, and the deep feeling which was evident on these occasions, can never be forgotten by those who witnessed them.

At the sick and dying beds of his flock he was constantly to be found, administering sound and wholesome warning, instruction, or consolation, according as he judged it needful. He was greatly favoured with witnessing the peaceful and happy departures of many of his people. He found these seasons most profitable to his own soul, and, while his sense of responsibility at the death-bed was deep and awful, his entire sympathy and warm feelings especially fitted him for access and usefulness in the hour of affliction.

It was not, however, to the members of the Church alone, or to the matured believer, that Mr. Evans confined his attention. To the young persons of his congregation he devoted a large share of his time, forming them into Bible classes, where he met them, as a father with his children, loving and being loved. With the

female Bible class this was especially the case, and here it pleased God to grant a large blessing; many were converted through this instrumentality, and many led on and encouraged in the right ways of the Lord. With the young men he found a difficulty, arising from the late hours of business in London; but for two years he met them once a-month in the vestry of his chapel at six o'clock in the morning, leaving his home before half-past five for that purpose, and often spoke of the happy meetings he had with them at that period, which only his state of health obliged him to discontinue. He also was in the habit of preaching a sermon to young people at the opening of the year. And, after the formation of a Maternal Association, which consisted of mothers who met once in every month for prayer for their children, he assembled these mothers occasionally to encourage and exhort them on their duties and responsibilities; and these opportunities were greatly valued by those who partook of them. The younger children of their families he likewise collected twice a-year, and addressed them in a manner suited to their tender age; and most interesting was it to witness him in the midst of his youthful auditory, whose attention he completely riveted, while he always acknowledged they were the most difficult congregation he had to address.

The varied associations by which the Church of Christ maintains an aggressive warfare with Satan and the world all claimed and had a portion of his regard. Schools, the Society for visiting and relieving the Sick Poor at their own habitations, the Christian Instruction Society, the London City Mission Society, Foreign Missions, in all these he took a lively interest, though the demonstration of it was principally limited to his own

F

congregation; his natural temperament leading him to withdraw from public Meetings, and all his powers being fully occupied in his weekly routine of engage

ments.

In preparing for the pulpit Mr. Evans spared no pains. Often was the expression heard from his lips, "I am not an inspired man, I must prepare for the pulpit. What! shall I give to God that which costs me nothing?"* His usual habit was, when he had decided upon his subject, to commence by noting down the thoughts upon it as they occurred to his mind, without any regard to order.

* The choice of subjects, it need scarcely be observed, formed a matter for much prayerful thought and consideration. "If you select a subject, he would say, because it is an easy one for you to preach upon, there is no blessing likely to result from that sermon.” His own plan accordingly varied. He looked first to his people to supply him with a text for the coming Lord's-day. If any circumstance had occurred within the week of a providential kind which affected them generally, this would often determine the subject of his address on the Lord's-day which followed; or if he had discerned seeds of what he considered an unsound or a partial view of truth springing up amongst any individual members of his flock, this he would regard as an intimation from God, directing him to meet the error. Many came to him from week to week for private conversation, some inquiring, some doubting, some in distress of soul from outward calamities, some vexed and harassed by Satan,-these have often furnished him with his Sunday text; and from this fact, there can be little question, followed much of the power and substance and reality which were to be found in his words. He was combating errors whose existence he knew, for some who held them were his hearers,-solving doubts and removing difficulties, not imaginary, but such as had been presented to him for answer,— comforting many with the consolation which God the Spirit had blessed to others. This was one secret of his experimental preaching, for by this means the pastor and the minister were both brought to bear upon the people, and the experience of the one character acted upon the ministrations of the other.-ED.

He then consulted commentators* on the passage, or treatises on the doctrine or precept on which he proposed to preach, and in any difficult or important subject great was his labour and research in this way; and finally, he wrote a complete and copious sketch of his sermon, with all the principal heads and leading ideas fully arranged, and more or less filled up, according to circumstances. He did not, however, use these notes in the pulpit, and never had any assistance of the kind, always preaching from memory, and the help given at the time. This was sought in earnest prayer; indeed, he may be said to have studied and prepared his discourses in prayer, and to have delivered them in prayer, and here, no doubt, was one cause of the blessing which attended them. He always went into his pulpit from his knees, and returned to them again on coming out of it, and the fervency of his supplications could only be known by one who might casually overhear them, and by that God to whom they were addressed. His scheme of Gospel truth, while it had much of the spirit of the preceding, had much also of that of the present age. The distinguished men who embraced the broader view of Calvinism, and who in their day had been singularly honoured of God in building up his Church, had gone to their rest, and had been succeeded by those who, while they included in their testimony many truths of great practical importance, suited also to a time in which the kingdom of Christ was to be more largely extended than at any previous

Scott, Henry, and Dr. Gill were his favourite commentators. The first he valued most highly for his sound scriptural views of truth. "I never like to preach a sermon," he would say, " without having seen first what Scott says about it. If he takes the same view, I consider then that I am tolerably safe."-ED.

period, had yet allowed the class of truths above alluded to, if not to fall into disuse, yet to hold a less prominent place in their teaching than the Word of God commands. Mr. Evans aimed at combining the substance and spirit of both these classes of truths, and while he fully stated the total and entire depravity of man by nature, without ability to turn himself to God, the free, sovereign, electing love of God, flowing through the cross of Christ, and the absolute need of the power of the Holy Ghost to commence in regeneration and carry on in sanctification. His work in the soul-he was fettered by no shackles of system; and while he maintained that the atonement of Christ was for the sins of His own people, he proclaimed the Gospel as free to every creature under heaven. The truths which search and probe the conscience, and urge to a full surrender of the whole spirit, soul, and body to holiness and love, in all the detail of daily life, both domestic, social, and public, in retirement, and in business, were pressed home upon his hearers; but he delighted also in statements of truth which contribute to the nourishment and strength of the believer; upon the principle that service could only be continuously and cheerfully rendered by those who were well supported and sustained, that the love and practice of the precept were only diligently exemplified by those who lived upon the promise. Hence many were gathered round him, and ended their days in fruitfulness under his ministry, who had been trained up under what has been technically termed high doctrine, who would have been repelled from the precept which they afterwards learned to hold as dear as the promise, had the sceptre of their Lord been so exhibited by him as to conceal from them His cross. It was a common saying among the most