john jones, talsarn and dr thomas chalmers a …

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John Jones, Talsarn & Thomas Chalmers Alan C. Clifford

JOHN JONES, TALSARN AND

DR THOMAS CHALMERS

A Welsh-Scottish Gospel Connection

Dr Alan C. Clifford

John Jones, Talsarn Dr Thomas Chalmers

On 3 March 1899, the Welsh-language paper Y Negesydd published a

fascinating item about the great Methodist preacher John Jones,

Talsarn (1796-1857). With a charming anecdote, Dr D. Rees, Bronant

reminded readers that the seraphic preacher was still fondly

remembered forty years after his death:

A brief word about the story of John Jones, Talsarn when he was

showing the preaching unction that was within him. It is said that

when a boy he would go to something like a pulpit, read a chapter, give

out a hymn to sing, take a text, preach and thank at the end for the

help he had received. Once when he was standing on a river bank

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where there were lots of geese cackling he began preaching to them

and in the height of his preaching said to the geese compose yourselves

a little and I will release you soon. However much skill is shown by the

crosses of Rome there is no need for Wales to hide its head. The King

of Zion has able soldiers in Wales. There could be the wrath of an

Eliab inflaming and inflicting a boy from Wales disdainfully and asking,

with whom did you leave some sheep, and another leaving the quarry,

and another the hammer. Amongst such as these the Lord raised up

giants for the pulpit in Wales. Someone sent part of John Jones,

Talsarn’s sermon to Dr. Chalmers and the doctor drowned in

amazement about his great mind. We could write much about (him,

and about his other brothers shining comets in the firmament of the

church). Do not be cast down. The Master and the equipment are

working with us. The Lord has an excellent band these days.1

While we note with great interest that Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was

born later that year (20 December 1899), we also note an intriguing

indication that the eminent Scottish Free Church leader Dr Thomas

Chalmers (1780-1847) had been deeply impressed by the preaching of

John Jones, Talsarn. The identity of both the sender and the

1 I am grateful to Dr Lynda Newcombe for her translation of the original: Y PARCH. JOHN JONES, TALSARN. GAN DR. D. REES, BRONANT Gair yn fyi o hanes John Jones, Talsarn, pan oedd yn dangos yr elien bregethu oedd ynddo. Dywedir pan yn fachgen ei fod yn arfer myned i ben rhywbeth fel pwipud, yn darllen penod, rhoddi emyn i ganu, cymeryd testyn, pregethu, a diolch ar y diwedd am y cymorth gafodd. Tra yn sefyll un tro ar Ian afon lie yr oedd awer o wyddau yn clegar, dechreuodd bregethu iddynt, ac yn mhoethder ei bregeth, meddai wrth y gwyddau, Ymlon- yddwch am chydig, a mi a'ch gollyngaf ymaith yn fuan.' Pa faint bynag o fedrusrwydd ddangoswyd gan groesau Rhufain, nid oes raid i Gymru guddio ei phen mae gan Frenin Seion iilwyr medrus drosto yn Nghymru. Gall fod digofaint arribell Eliab yn enyn ac yn peri iddo edrych ar ami fachgen o Gymro yn ddiystyrllyd a gofyn, Gyda phwy y gadewaist ti yr ychydig ddefaid,' un arall yn gadael y chwarel, y llall yr engan a'r morthwyl, arall y myniawyd, &c. O fysg rhai fel hyn y cododd yr Arglwydd gewri pwlpud Cymru. Anfonodd rhywun ran o bregeth John Jones, Talsarn, i Dr. Chalmers; ac yr oedd y Dr wedi boddi mewn syndod uwchben eliediadau ei feddwl mawr. Gallasem ysgrifenu llawer (am dano, ac am frodyr eraill fuont gomedau disglaer yn ffurfafen yr eglwys). Na ddigalonwn, mae y Meistr a'r offer gweithio gyda ninau. Mae gan yr Arglwydd fintai ar- dderchog ar y maes y dyddiau hyn.

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presumably-translated sermon extract2 sent to Dr Chalmers is

uncertain. However, a significant theological and spiritual affinity may

be demonstrated between the two men. This ‘affinity’ was shared and

reflected in the life and ministry of the eminent Dr Owen Thomas of

Liverpool (1812-91), whose epoch-making biography of John Jones,

Talsarn was published in 1874.3

I have in my possession Dr Owen Thomas’s personal copy of Dr

Chalmers’s Institutes of Theology (1849). It was presented in December

1891 to the Theological College at Bala by William Thomas of Bootle,

Liverpool. It is worth noting that Thomas had studied under Chalmers

in Edinburgh. One wonders if he might have sent the unknown

sermon extract to Dr Chalmers? Judging by an extant letter from the

latter to the former, John Aaron points out that the two men enjoyed a

warm and close relationship:

I rejoice in the spirit of your denomination; and there are few things

which would delight me more than a union between the Calvinistic

Methodists of Wales, and the Presbyterians of Scotland, England and

Ireland.4

Now, in the extended Chapter XI of his biography of John Jones,

Talsarn, Owen Thomas provided a historical theological survey of the

atonement controversy which had brought widespread soul-deadening

distress to Christians in early 19th-century Wales. Such over-

reactionary hypercalvinism had been provoked by the advent of

2 Currently being researched. 3 Owen Thomas, Cofiant Y Parchedig John Jones, Talsarn (Wrexham: Hughes and Son, 1874). 4 See Owen Thomas, Owen, tr. John Aaron, The Atonement Controversy in Welsh

Theological Literature and debate, 1707-1841 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), p. xii.

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Arminianism in North-eastern Wales. Looking at the broad theological

scene (and just before giving a favourable account of Moïse Amyraut’s

contribution in France) the author outlined developments in

Scotland.5 Surprisingly however, he did not quote Thomas Chalmers.

Yet under his nose - in Chalmers’s Institutes - was a statement which

supports John Jones, Owen Thomas and other brethren in Wales who

sought to express a more biblical and compassionate ‘authentic’

Calvinism. The Scottish colossus stated:

I cannot but think that the doctrine of Particular Redemption has been

expounded by many of its defenders in such a way as to give an

unfortunate aspect to the Christian dispensation. As often treated, we

hold it to be a most unpractical and useless theory, and not easy to be

vindicated, without the infliction of an unnatural violence on many

passages of Scripture...Its ministers are made to feel the chilling

influence of a limitation upon their warrant. If Christ died only for the

elect, and not for all, they are puzzled to understand how they should

proceed with the calls and invitations of the gospel. ... Now for the

specific end of conversion, the available scripture is not that Christ laid

down His life for the sheep, but that Christ is set forth a propitiation for

the sins of the world. It is not because I know myself to be one of the

sheep, or one of the elect, but because I know myself to be one of the

world, that I take to myself the calls and promises of the New

Testament.6

Doubtless, young Owen Thomas heard statements like this from

Chalmers’s own lips. This one undoubtedly justifies his assessment

and verdict on the entire controversy. Interestingly, the Scottish Free

Church leader was never seemingly-challenged for exceeding the

soteriological limits of the Westminster Confession of Faith! He was

5 Ibid. 134ff. 6 Thomas Chalmers, Institutes of Theology (Edinburgh: Sutherland and Knox, 1849), ii. 403-6.

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probably as uncomfortable with some statements of the WCF7 as John

Jones arguably was with Chapter 18 of the 1823 Welsh Calvinistic

Cyffes Ffydd.8 Neither of them questioned the sovereignty of God in

salvation, but they felt that an unhealthy ‘fatalistic’ preoccupation

with predestination undercut human responsibility and the ‘free offer’

of the Gospel. Thomas Chalmers, John Jones and Owen Thomas

clearly believed that Christian evangelism would be more biblical and

healthy if it avoided the distortions of both Arminianism and ‘Owenite’

High Calvinism (the precursor of hypercalvinism proper). In addition,

was Owen Thomas ever aware that, shortly before his death, Chalmers

expressed considerable sympathy with the views of Richard Baxter

whose undeniably-important stance he also omitted in his survey?

“Yes, Baxter holds that Christ died for all men; but I cannot say that I

am quite at one with what some of our friends have written on the

subject of the atonement. I do not, for example, entirely agree with

what Mr. Haldane says on the subject. I think that the word world, as

applied in Scripture to the sacrifice of Christ, has been unnecessarily

restricted; the common way of explaining it is, that it simply includes

Gentiles as well as Jews. I do not like that explanation; and I think that

there is one text that puts that interpretation entirely aside. The text to

which I allude is, that ‘God commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent

[Acts 17:30b].” Here the Doctor spoke of the connexion between the

election of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the freeness of the offer of

the Gospel. He spoke with great eloquence, and I felt that he was in the

pulpit, as some of his finest bursts rolled from his lips. “In the offer of

the Gospel,” said he, “we must make no limitations whatever. I

compare the world to a multitude of iron filings in a vessel, and the

7 See Gervase Charmley, Thomas Chalmers: Scottish Amyraldian? at http://www.nrchurch.co.uk/pdf/Thomas%20Chalmers%20-%20Scottish%20Amyraldian.pdf 8 See Alan C. Clifford, John Jones Talsarn - Pregethwr y Bobl/Preacher of the People (Norwich: Charenton Reformed Publishing, 2013), 30, 83, 237-8.

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Gospel to a magnet. The minister of the Gospel must bring the magnet

into contact with them all: the secret agency of God is to produce the

attraction.” 9

Baxter’s name nowhere appears in the index of Cofiant John Jones,

Talsarn.10 A possible reason for this is that the puritan preacher was

ignorantly dismissed as an Arminian by William Williams,

Pantycelyn.11 Hence he wouldn’t have been regarded as a sympathetic

supporting authority. Whether or not they ever read his works, John

Jones and Owen Thomas were one with the seraphic 17th-century

English Puritan Richard Baxter, as Thomas Chalmers evidently was.

As I have demonstrated in my recent review of Crossway’s From

Heaven He came and Sought Her,12 the simple fact is that these

preachers saw the need to ‘moderate’ not Calvin’s teaching but the

‘ultra-Calvinism’ of the day in order to return to a Bible-based

‘Authentic Calvinism’. One may say that - with the approval of

Thomas Chalmer’s - the Welshmen sought to rescue their

denomination from ‘Owenistic Methodism’ and to be true to correctly-

defined ‘Calvinistic Methodism’. In this respect, contrary to the

standpoint of both translator and publisher, the author - despite

ignoring Chalmers and Baxter - produced a persuasive, praise-worthy

and illuminating study in historical theology in Cofiant Y Parchedig

9 W. Hanna, Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers (Edinburgh: Thomas Constable, 1854), ii. 773. 10 However, several of Baxter’s works were translated into Welsh, including the

famous Call to the Unconverted; see Eifion Evans, ‘Richard Baxter’s Influence in

Wales’ in The National Library of Wales Journal, XXXIII. 2, Winter 2003, 149ff. 11 Ibid. 150. This might well explain why Owen Thomas did not present Baxter’s views in his historical survey. His whole case would have been reinforced had he known Baxter’s agreement with Amyraut whom he did cite. Of a kind Dr Thomas

would have approved, Baxter’s views on the atonement are clearly evident in the Call

to the Unconverted. 12http://www.nrchurch.co.uk/pdf/Crossway%20Book%20Review.pdf

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John Jones, Talsarn.

Whatever proves to be the actual sermon extract that so impressed

Thomas Chalmers, the following passage from John Jones’s famous

Bala Association sermon of 1835 fully accords with the perspective of

the preacher’s Scottish contemporary, ‘drowned in amazement’ at the

sacred oratory of his Welsh brother:

If the Government of England were to send an order to the British

Admiral to bring the Fleet home from the Mediterranean Sea, you

would not suppose that the Government intended that the Admiral and

his men should carry the ships home? Nothing of the kind. We all know

full well that the meaning of the order would simply be that the

Admiral should make the proper preparations; that they should employ

the proper means in order to bring the ships home—weigh the anchors,

turn their prows towards the deep, that they should put them in the

way of the great forces of nature: spread the sails, and steer the vessels

home; let the winds play upon them, and the waves and the tides carry

them. Meanwhile, the men on deck might take it easy; they could enjoy

themselves, and sing their native songs, while the mighty elements co-

operated to bring them home.

In the same manner, God in the Gospel calls upon you to repent, to

believe, and to lead a pious and godly life. But He does not mean that

you should do all this of your own individual resources. No; He intends

that you should put yourselves as you are under the operation of the

mighty forces of the Gospel; that you should faithfully employ the

means which He has commanded. Turn the prow of thy little vessel to

the deep; let it sail upon the wide ocean of Christ’s Atonement; spread

the sails, and steer it on by the guidance of the Word of God. The winds

will blow, the mighty forces of redemption will play upon thy vessel; the

tides will carry it, and thou shalt find thy little bark one day in the

haven of eternal rest.

You have, my friends, something yourselves to do, and it is of no use at

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all to expect the operations of the Spirit of God, while we ourselves

neglect our duty. ‘But what can I do?’ Canst thou not read? Open thy

Bible; look at it, read it bring thy mind into contact with the great

saving forces, and wait for help from above. ‘But I cannot pray.’ Canst

thou not try? Canst thou not bend thy knee, and put it down on the

ground? ‘But I must pray from the heart, and this I cannot do.’ Wouldst

thou give Him thy heart? Give Him thy body, give Him thy tongue; and

if thou canst not say a word, there is One up there who can open His

lips to intercede for thee. Try fairly; do your best for your own

salvation. Do not, at least, rush headlong into perdition. I, indeed, have

made up my mind long ago that I shall not go there so. If I must go to

hell at all, I shall not go there straight along. No; I shall loiter a good

deal about the Garden of Gethsemane; I shall go many a round about

the hill of Calvary; I shall bend my knees daily at the throne of grace. I

shall be good enough for hell, if I have to go there, after all these

efforts. But, blessed be the name of God, we have every reason to

believe that this is the high road to heaven, and that no one ever went

to hell in that way, and that no one ever will.13

May we all be likewise ‘drowned in amazement’ at the glorious Gospel

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world and ever-

merciful Redeemer of all who flee to Him for salvation. Amen!

13 Cited from Owen Jones, Some of the Great Preachers of Wales (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1885), 487-9.

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