On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
who embrace it ought to understand , and which those who understand it do and must adopt , presented only a motive to thought and reflection , and soon vanished like the morning dew . Bright sunshine followed , and few
could be found that more clearly discerned the sublime and consoling doctrine of Hobbes and Hartley . The terrors which have confounded others , and frightened them from embracing the clear " truth as it is in Jesus , " that there is " one God and one Mediator
between God and men , the man Christ Jesus , " could have little effect on one who had been taught from his youth to obey God rather than man , " and to follow truth whithersoever it should lead him . He had the happiness to embrace the pure gospel while yet
young . Yet such was his candour , his openness to conviction , his teachableness and cbildiike simplicity of heart , that , had the evidence of the truth been presented to him in maturity or in old age , he , unlike many
men who are obstinate in proportion as they are ignorant , and dogmatical in proportion as they are advanced in years , would probably have received it with the same docility and readiness as he manifested at an earlier period .
An opportunity presented itself to D . Jenkiri Rees of shewing his zeal for truth in the latter years of the eighteenth century , when Thomas Evaus , principally by the assistance of Mr , Lindsey , erected the first chapel that , in South Wales , was devoted expressly to the worship of " one
God , the Father . ' Although that attempt to collect a congregation of Unitarians , at Brechva , eventually proved abortive , the spirit of inquiry was then more decisively roused than at any former period . The subject of this account gave to the infant cause an unequivocal support , and the influence of his talents and character
contributed largely to remove bigotry , and conciliate favour to the doctrines which he strenuously avowed . So great was the influence of his patronage , that the inclination to scoff at the truth and to calumniate its advocates was powerfully checked by the consideration th ?* t D . J . Rees was one
advocate of that truth . Those who remember the time , can , testify that the fierce enemies of the doctrine of one " God and one Mediator , " bowed
Untitled Article
low the head and smoothed the brow of sullen hate in the presence of thia man of plain appearance and address . As yet , however , he remained in connexion with the old congregations , stemming the torrent of their animosity
against the ' sect every where spoken against , " yet in a stale of comparative infancy . His efforts were efficacious in bringing many to favour the truth , arid many to embrace it with decision and constancy . Since the time in
which Jenkin Jones and David Lloyd had opposed themselves to the violence of clamour , when they began a reformation of the general creed , controversy had ' , in a manner , ceased . The enemy had quitted the field , and a lifeless indifference had succeeded .
With indifference came ignorance , and , for the most part , the people knew not on what ground they had been built , contenting themselves with the name which their predecessors had rendered illustrious by their intelligence and zeal . Now , a fresh activity was produced , and it would surprise those who think they excel many , how much talent was called forth , and how
much penetration was displayed , in this remote district , in finding and managing arguments in support of the doctrines that so many concurred to reprobate . In few instauces has the spirit of Jesus shewn itself more capable of overcoming the world . Slander , which knew no bounds and observed
no decorum , was fairly driven to howl in the haunts that served to protect it from shame and confusion . The time at length arrived when D . J . Rees was called upon to act still
a more conspicuous part , when it became necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff , and congregate , in one body , the disciples that had been more silently formed in the bosom of the old connexion . For reasons that
cannot now be detailed , it seemed fit to all the brethren" to " form themselves into a society of professed Unitarians . The consequence of which resolution was , that two chapels were erected , one at LJwy n-y-groes , and the
other at Pant-y-defaid . These are the mother churches of this respectable name in the Principality of Wales . They are the first in point pf time * and , it is liumbly believed , the , first in point of real consequence and information . They are pure , aud unmixed .
Untitled Article
742 Obituary . — ; Jttr . David Jenkin Rees .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 742, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/46/
-