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    dained May 31 , 1792 . This His , jirsi proved his only pastoral engagement , arid , after thirty-five years of uninterrupted harmony , terminated but with his existence . Of his friends and associates , JV ^ essrs . Evershed , Kingsford , David , Worthington and Winter , ( now Dr . Winter , ) who assisted at his ordination , all except the last have passed before him to their long rest .

    Deeply impressed with the truth and importance of the leading principles of the denomination he had thus joined , and actuated by the laudable desire of reviving the cause Dr . Evans upon his settlement drew up an . Address to the General Baptists , and an Appeal to Young People on the Necessity and Importance of Religion , both of which are contained in the recently published collection of his Tracts .

    His ministerial labours , however , were by no means exclusively confined to his own immediate denomination . For fourteen successive winters , from 1795 to 1810 , he and his intimate friend the late JJugh Worthington , in conjunction generally with various other ministers , but during one winter by

    themselves , carried on a series of lectures on the Wednesday evenings at Salters * Hall , upon practical subjects * During several ycjars also he had a permanent engagement as afternoon preacher at the . Presbyterian Meeting-house in Leather Lane , Holborn , since converted into a Trinitarian place of worship .

    Tine Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian World , by which the naaje of Dr . Evans , to adopt the words of the preacher of hjy& funeral . discourse , " has become identified with the history of reli g ious opinion , " first appeared in the beginning of the year 1795 , in the form of a shilling pamphlet ^ The circumstances that gave rise to this production

    are . curious , and are narrated in the later editions of the work ! The rapid sale of the , first impression called , for a second edition in Jufy of tlie same year , and during a period of a ^ put thirty years , fourteen successive editions , comprising iii all 100 . 000 copies , have been circulated : and a fifteenth edition , now in tlie course of publication , had been com-Dieted bv the author immediately before

    his ' lafct illness ; yhe book ^ has been translated into Welsh and yari p us cpijtitiental languages , and several editions hftve appeared in the United States of Amt ' ri (? a . In , hijS dedication of the fourteenth e&it $ n to h ^ frtenfl the late Lord Er&ttel &fy , authpr , a | ter noticing th £ expensive circulation or Til ' s Mrb ^ thus * d altiParty -m ^ tohWT n&d td tH

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    inconsiderable sum for which he parked with the copyright :. " Its impartiality has been the basis of its popularity That it is altogether free from religious bias the author does not aver—but he has strove to divest himself of

    prepossession . The zealot has complained that in the perusal oi ; the Sketch the opinions of the writer cannot be developed . This is a flattering though involuntary testimony to the accuracy of the work . Were vanity , my Lord , the object of the writer , it fras been satiated ; b . ut a philosophy inferior to that of his Divine Master

    would have , taught him to suppress so ignoble a passion when desirous of in * farming and improving mankind . Were filthy lucre the end in view , then indeed he has been disappointed . Unfortunately , the author sold the copyright of the Sketch for ten pounds ; but his friends haye administered to him a negative consolation , by reminding him that a similar sum was paid for the copyright of Watts ' s Hymns , as well as of that gigantic product of human genius , Paradise Lost . "

    In August , 1795 , Dr . Evans married Mary , one of the daughters of the late Rey . John Wiche , for nearly half a century General Baptist Minister at Maidstone , and the friend and associate , of Foster and Lardner . Of this union , productive to botih parties of the most solid and lasting domestic happiness , three sons now live to cherish the remembrance and emulate the virtues of their father .

    Shortly after ; tys marriage he opened a seminary , which , after conducting it first at Hoxton Square , and subsequently a . t Islington , with continued respectability and success for about thirty years , he ultimately relinquished in 1825 , to enjoy that honourable leisure to whidi his previous exertions had so justly entitled him .

    The observation , however trite , that the happiest portion of a man's life is th , at which affords the least material for the pen of the biograpner , \ niay be correctly applied to the long series of yeairs which followed X [ V , Evans ' s settlement and marriage , during which the uniform tenor of his ! l | fcL ' marked by fne constjantly recurtfiig duties of mk pulpit and his school , ^ B lii tej'rupteciJ ) y few events beyonjl thepr / eparatibfi , an ; d putyicatfoa of those nuinerous works on wnich he

    delighted tp employ his intervals of Jejsur ^ . Th ^'^ itiva tlo n al ^ o of his numerous friendsliibfl constituted another fa * - vburite relaiaSdn after the ; ^ uties of his adiobX But , about the y ^ r lftlS . the syrtiptbms of' a . complaint ; atojfotyr&i , whfcn . balin'g ^ U medical and SMr ^ lcaJ sktii ; gr ' adualiy advanced Up 6 n hiih , and

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    Obituary . —Dr Evans . 2 $ 5

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    VOL . U Q

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 225, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/65/