Christmas Evans (1766- 1838)

Christmas Evans (1766-1838) was born on Christmas day, December 25th 1766.
He was Welsh nonconformist minister who has been described as ‘the greatest preacher that the Baptists have ever had in Great Britain’ known by D.M. Lloyd-Jones.

Christmas was born near the village of Llandysul, Cardiganshire. His father, a shoemaker, died when his son was 9 years of age.

He grew up as an illiterate farm labourer. He stood about 7 feet tall and lost an eye during a youthful brawl.
Aged 17 he became the servant of David Davies, a Presbyterian minister, who taught him to read and write in English and Welsh. Visiting Calvinistic Methodist preachers and members of the Baptist church in Llandysul influenced him, so he joined the Baptists.

Career
In 1789 he settled for 2 years on the remote Llyn Peninsula in Caernarfonshire.
He then moved to Llangeful in Anglesey. here on a stipend of £17 a year,he built up a strong Baptist community. Many new chapels were built, the money being collected on preaching tours which he undertook in South Wales.
In 1826 he moved to Caerphilly, where he stayed for 2 years. In 1828 he moved to Cardiff. In 1832, responding to an urgent call, He settled in Caernarfon and again took undertook the old work of building and collecting.

Style of preaching
Christmas was a remarkably powerful preacher. With a natural aptitude for his calling he united a nimble mind and an inquiring spirit. His chief characteristic was a vivid and affluent imagination, which absorbed and controlled his other abilities, he earned the name ‘The Bunyan of Wales’. His sermons enlightened the understanding and warmed the heart. His piety humble and his faith fervently evangelical.
His famous ‘The Graveyard Sermon’ was included in Grenville Kleiser’s 1909, 9 volume The World’s Great Sermons. .

In 1838 he was taken ill, in the house of Daniel David,while on another tour of South Wales. He died in Swansea on 19th July 1838. His funeral was one of the largest ever attended in the country. He is buried in the grounds of Swansea’s Bethesda Chapel.

His works were edited by Owen Davies in 3 volumes and published in Caernarvon between 1895-7.

Christmas Evans came on the scene in the late 18th century and became one of the greatest preachers in the national history of powerful Gospel preaching in Wales

(It is believed to bring good luck to kiss his headstone - making it the Swansea version of the Barney Stone.)

Source
Wikipedia