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    por tion of Christians , to a question far which a full and fair discussion had long fe # en , aqugbt , but in vain , the interest excited ^ r their delivery , and the discuaaion occasioned by their subsequent publication ,, f&ve Dr . Evans the highest gratification , land added to the last few months of his life a spirit and zest to which his family still look back With a pleasing recollection . Besides the Sketch of Denominations , Dr . Evans was the author of numerous

    works , some topographical and others of a miscellaneous character , but all breathing that spirit of charity of which he was so ardent an apostle and so conspicuous an example . His detached Sermons and Tracts were in 1825 collected by him into a single volume , enriched wjth a portrait . He likewise contributed frequently to the periodical journals , and particularly to the former series of this work , in which his recent

    articles on Milton evince an unabated vigour of mind . He had read with peculiar interest the newly-discovered theological work of that immortal bard , and felt no common exultation in claiming brotherhood with him , not only as a Unitarian , but also in the more specific character of a General Baptist . For the Christian Moderator he lately contributed a series of biographical memoirs of . several leading deceased Arian

    ministers . Few words may sufficed ) describe Dr . Evans ' s theological sentiments . As a Baptist , he maintained the essentially personal nature of Christianity , and the right and duty of private judgment and individual conviction in matters of religion . ^\ s a General Bap tist , he warmly advocated the unlimited , unpurchased

    goodness of God . Resting on these two great principles , he neidom wandered into controversial discussion upon topics less immediately connected with practical religion : for he considered real religion as depending on wha $ we do , rather than on what we think . In his estimation the greatest heresy was a wicked life . But he was not without } ils' opinions on the Various subordinate topics that divide Christians , nor was he backward , on

    proper occasions , to declare and mamtain them , as his sermon entitled ** The Christian Minister ' s Retrospect , " and his " Letter to Dr . Hawker , ' * testify . A firm believer in ^ the personal unity and paternal character of God , he claimed the appellation of Unitarian in its wider , and , as he contended , only correct application . On the person or Christ , though he never attained , nor perhaps desired to attain , that confidence professed by many , he never appear * to have seen

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    reason to give up the doctrine of our Lord ' s pre-existence . Of Universal Restoration he was accustomed to say it was what every good man must wish to be true , but he seemed to think it wanted th * t collusiveness of scriptural evidence which could justify a full conviction of its truth . To the theory of philosophical necessity he was no friend . The great principles of civil and religious liberty ever found in Dr . Evans a firm and consistent advocate .

    In the pulpit his chief characteristics were animation and simplicity . His melodious voice and easy delivery , joined to an extraordinary fluency of extemporaneous composition , eminently qualified him for pulpit eloquence . The constant affection with which Dr . Evans discharged the several duties of a husband and a father , can never be effaced from the recollection of those to

    whom he bore those endearing relations . The benevolence and charity he so earnestly inculcated from the pulpit and the press , were fully exemplified in his own life , and few have left a more widely extended circle of sorrowing friends , among whom were many who held the most opposite theological sentiments . Notwithstanding his close connexion with a religious denomination , small in its number , and differing in many particulars from their fellow-Christians , the

    exclusive spirit of party , the odium theologicum , found no place in his heart : an < J though a minister , he had nothing of the priest about him ; and his exhaustless fund of general information and anecdote enabled him largely to contribute to those delights of intellectual intercourse which his cheerful temperament and social disposition eminently qualified him to enjoy .

    His general character exhibited a rare assemblage of the nobler qualities that adorn humanity . His piety was without a tinge of bigotry , his charity without the shadow of ostentation . He was manly , generous and frank ; and in him the elements were mingled so happily , that they constituted in their combination a beautiful symmetry and consistency of character . His amiable virtues , indeed , can be fully and adequately appreciated by those alone who were united to him

    by the tiea of conjugal and filial affection : and with them the unavailing tear can only be dried by the prospect of a blessed reunion in that immortal state where the wise and good of every age and clime shall be assembled , and death and separation be known no more . " They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever . * J . E .

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    Obituary . — £ > f . Evans . 227

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 227, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/67/