The Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria

Death of Dean Howell. Career of a Famous Preacher and Orator. Interesting Memoir. THE tyy per Profound grief and a keen, sense of da S0Dal loss was felt throughout Wales on Fri- d/ W^en sudden death of the Very Rev Vld Howell, Dean of St. David's, was an- bounced. Th fte lLtdeCeaSed 'been in failing health for so s&ri We6^ or two> but his condition was not sufferei?USi as to 'give cause for alarm. He nad sible tVi y from- a weak heart, and it is pos- Dorotu a*L the parting with his daughter, Miss |toarripH^+-u °Well.5 w^° on^y f°r India to be erawi i Previ°us Tuesday, might ^ave accel- On T late Dean'S deat^ aid TO; U6sday took to his room, and medical mr,S ?OU;g^lt> and it was reported on Thurs- even ^bat ha was no better; but the end, hand w1' Was not thought to be so near -it iricr. passed away peacefully, as if sleep- Great ^ast wor(^s were "It is all right." Where *S universally felt at St. David's, n 1 6 news caused quite a consternation, as Up +nnT Was the Dean respected, but loved. fam;iv ^ast he took nourishing food. The y nave been summoned. j Beginning of the End, score6 dece'ased' Dean had attained some three- 1 ^ct thand, ten yearsJ and recently deplored the by cou^ no lonjger lead that active life I a Per' h e<e<^ bis countrymen for so long I Chris+- Latterly he suffered with remarkable W'h la*l ^ortitude from a heart affection. tyijj- en be went into residence this year, Canon P^rtip11?3 °kserved a great change in the Dean, a in ais movements, which indicated aWl?^. ^,eebleness of body, but his intellect j matte S iant as formerly, and his interest in infirnirSj.eCc^es^astical bad not at all abated. So tated be become that if anything necessi- objic j" ca^ or a visit to the village he was Oiorg travel in his carriage. No one was in thearSldlUOUS *n Perf°rmance of his duties eratio bedral, for which he had a great ven- Dea Soon after his appointment to the P°ssihpr determined to complete so far as was ha<j 6 the restoration of the Cathedral, which of ijj„ €n s'° largely carried out during the time I,, Predecessor, the late Dean Allen. Dean eas-t e h Co^ected funds for the chapel at the Opened' historic fabric. That chapel was Service s'ummer, and is now used for special aaotheS" ^as one son a clergyman, and for T\p ■?. barrister, the latter a sometime M.P. TVifg nbighshire. One of his daughters is the Anoth bdeacon Prot'heroe, of Aberystwyth, for IndLdaUihter' Miss Dorothy Howell, sailed Of thP b °n Tuesday, to be married to a nephew Ther -Arnold Thomas, of Bristol. the serf W&S certainly something pathetic about Miss S^tion, notwithstanding its occasion, for 11 the utm°r0t^^ bad always lived with him, and °st affection existed between them. IIIEarlY Life. of Lowell was the son. of Mr John Howell, r&th Io°ed» Glamorgan, and was born Au'gust Was'a h* J0*111 Howell (Howell Pencwlyn) f0_ €ac°n with the Calvinistic Methodists, month] Very many years was secretary of the rainat;/ ™eeting, or Presbytery, of that deno- 3t-lr TQi.n i?r the whole of Glamorgan His son, resides n —a brother of the deacon—still 2ealous -Pencoed, and, like his father, is a sister i ?acon with the Methodists, and his ^ethorT (. widow of the eminent Calvinistic S>\vanse ^ivine, the late Dr David Saunders, of youth th *s sai^ that in the days of their off jjy e future Dean and his sister were told faTri-? at'ber to manage a farm belonging to Ll*agan s*tuate near the parish church of Griffj^,CUrate of Llangan in those days was John ^eath atterwards Archdeacon Griffith, of Curate aa & ^rienc^sbip was struck between the ^eadfaq.tu, ^armer which continued firm and fut. trough their lives. The youn'g farmer c°ed vi],re dean had been educated at the Pen- a care„ school, and had then no thought of Of his ,0utside his native parish. Like otners ture> anda^S' he deliohted in poetry and litera- teddifoda °und a stimulus to study in the eis- OQly jg u held throughout the district. When by winn'^earS °^. a&e he distinguished himself essay & ^r^ze—that was in 1847—t°r an Engl" 1? advantages to Welshmen of learning °ated lan§uage, and in that essay advo- dium. of \v ,a^ino of English through the me- ^ardis fn e|, a method which fifty years after- This SUr.„U favour with educational experts. t at spurred him: on to further efforts, Bridgen ,n. ^o+j at the first eisteddfod held in bard w, ^transpired that "Llawdden"—as the first "and en lcnown —was the author of the best of the Welsh odes sent in to ^he South Wales Railway," Enh> were both prizes awarded. the Church. bad imnhrtndS^^ between him and the curate itiducgd tri ant results, for the young farmer was afterv?arde the Church, a choice which he ^fter a Ca ared he never once regretted. Pivinitw study at the Llandaff Diocesan i^liams ° at Abergavenny, under Canon Priest in !o f was ordained deacon in 1855 and cUrate at m ^.nd foraier years he became Wh° was t^a Under his friend, John Griffith, ^'ears wero U r€Ct°r °f that par:sh. Two useful ^as apDnfn+SPfnt at Neath» and then in 1857 he astoral A?r? caSS,Stant secre,aiT to the Church ^util 1861 r ??lety' a Position which he held f11 the i-S secretarial capacity he visited .anie as, dioceses, and by this time his j? every Dar-^fC^eT had spread abroad, so .^at ^'°ns, .(ij he attracted crowded congrega- tes in tbZ' j remember his visit to North any year, °'ff da>'s'" wrote one correspondent k Cti°n of ards' "and have a vivid recol- ,,ehalf of th! elo?uent sermons he delivered on Chmch nf S^Cle1ty" To hear a clergyman of dld> with the <v, ?rand Preach the Gospel as he P,as somethino-W and t^le ^re °f the old Cymry -t|aill0rgan ^ew and strange, and the young berever he wp t attracted hundreds of hearers i0, the livincr n<np he was presented t,ut three veard • !^e^' and though he spent ^ears of shp11 i!lat town they were ?als day the ol5 • rvhtrd Work' 30 that even to ays when tne lnhab,tants love to recall the s their vicar and ei0<3uent South Walian CKrted the V J/ ^as then that David Howell fer,M-Ch ^onthilv 3a i E§lwysig," the Welsh bpc "sh perjodir'nl n ?^SO "f~Iorrie Word.s," an to appear articles from his pen PPSar ln the leading magazines of Work in Cardiff. In 1864 the living of St. John's, Cardiff, was ,given to Mr Howell, and then real active spiri- tual life began to be manifested in Lile organisa- tion and congregation of St. John's Church. His ministry at Cardiff was remarkably success- ful. When he came to town there were two ser- vices held at St. John's and two at St. Andrew's every Sunday, which had just been opened. There were two Church schools, containing a little more tnan 200 scholars. When he left in 1875, after II years' ministry, instead of four weekly services there were 13 in the place of two schools, there were six; the children attend- ing them were 1,755 against 200; and at the Sunday school, which was practically a new institution, there were 1,800 scholars, ranging in age from, five years to 70 years of age. "Arch- deacon Howell" (writes one who knew him well at the time) "won here the good will of many he won the hearts of all, the enmity of none. He found time amid all his labours and anxie- ties to meet his people in social intercourse, and to assist them as far as in his power lay. One notable instance of this consisted in his giving up two evenings a week for a long period to give the late Lord Bute ùessons in Welsh. Eloquent as a preacher, active as a pastor, there were few speakers of the day who were his equal; and the crowds who attended the parish church attested his popularity. Evangelical to the backbone was his theme, and the blessed truths of the Gospel were fearlessly proclaimed and acted upon.' While in Cardiff Vicar Howell had perforce to take some part in political work, but this was a sphere of activity that never appealed to him. He was no party politician, though, of course, as a father he was. pardonably proud when some years afterwards his son, Mr Tudor Howell, the barrister, became elected as the conservative member for the Denbigh Borouighs. Five years ago, while indulging: in reminiscences ot his Cardiff days, the Dean remarked to the inter- viewer of the "Sunday Magazine" "When at Cardiff I took a very active interest in political work. But the fact is, as one gets older, one longs more and more to be at peace with all men. Besides, my work in life is that of a parish priestt; to that I have ever desired to dedicate myself, and since leaving Cardiff in 1875 I have taken no share in party politics. The motto of my ministerial life has been, 'Grace be witn all them that love the Lord: Jesus Christ in sincer- ity.' My endeavour has been to unite depth and breadth of conviction with-I will not say toler- ation, for I dislike the word if only because it implies superiority and condescension, but with a hearty and ungrudging, appreciation of the good work of others. And might I add a word in praise of our parochial organisation? The first need of the Church is to engage in parochial work with diligence and in a concilia- tory disposition, maKmg no distinction between Conformists and Nonconformists, between rich and poor. If that is done, our old parocnial system has, in it all you need for the work of a Christian pastor." Vicar of Wieximni in 1875. GreatJly to the regret of his Cardiff parishion- ers, who made every effort to retain him, Vicar Howell, in 1875, became Vicar of Wrexham, and was made a canon of St. Asaph in 1885, and Archdeacon of Wrexham in 1889. It was there he spent the longest period of his public life. It is doubtful whether any denomination in Wales ever possessed a minister who was more successful in increasing the number of communicants and hearers and in building so many churches and schools as the Rev David Howell. In the year 1875 there were three churches and two mission rooms at Wrexham. There, were five clergy with nine Sunday ser- vices, five celebrations during the- month, 128 Easter communicants, and six Sunday schools. At Easter, 1891, there were nine churches and five mission rooms. The clergy were ten, with 21 Sunday services, 22 celebrations during, the month, 835 Easter communicants out of a total of 1,259, and I4 Sunday schools. In 1878 the late Archbishop Tait, of Canter- bury, conferred upon the archdeacon the honor- ary degree of B.D. in recognition of his great and manifold serivce to the Church in Wales. The late Lady Llanover held him in the highest esteem, and invariably consulted him in all her efforts for the preservation of Welsh national characteristics. As an Orator. By his death the Principality is deprived of one of its most gifted and accomplished pulpit orators. To hear him preach was an intellec- tual feast, and from the beginning to the end of his discourse every word which he uttered, slow- ly and deliberately, struck home w.ith telling force. He was the most profoundly earnest preacher the writer has ever listened to. Possess- ing the voice of a rich, deep-toned bell, he never failed to reacn —j most distant of .AJ.lS congre- gation, and it may safely be said that he invari- ably secured the undivided attention of all his hearers. Commencing quietly—tentatively, as it were—and enlarging instructively on his sacred theme, he would hold his audience spell- bound by his' intoxicating eloquence, ms wonder- ful imagery, his wealth of diction. Then, after reiterating something that he wanted to particu- larly emphasiise, he would approach his princi- pal point with a sort of crescendo, and, with all the vigour with which he was capable, drive it home with a tumultuous crash like that of an organ. Nor was the effect of his sermons transitory. If ever a preacher accomplished his purpose in inculcating Christian principles it was Dean Howell. A thorough Welsh patriot, he was as brilliant a speaker in the vernacular as in the language of the Sassenach. One of his life's aspirations seemed to be the reunion of Christen- dom,, and when he last preached in the grand old parish church of Wrexham, on the occasion of a restoration thanksgiving service, he pathetically deplored the religious strife and bitterness wnich the Education Bill had given rise to, and the consequent widening of the abyss that separates Nonconformity and the Church. Type of Churchraansliip. Dean Howell was widely known as a preacher of the Evangelical type and a successful parish priest. His theological views and broad sym- pathies made him quite as popular amongst Nonconformists as' amongst Churchmen. A thorough Welsh nationalist of non-political type, he took a keen interest in Welsh movements and institutions, remaining to the last an enthusi- astic follower of the Eisteddfod. Though he avoided controversial topics as a rule, he valued highly the work of the Nati u al schools, was opposed both to d'sestablishment and disendowment, and in his earlier days was equally ready with the rest of the Welsh cleigy to defend ecclesiastical interests. He declined however, to associate himsdlf with the more modern Church Defence campaign, not that its objects did not appeal to him, but rather because of his dislike of political controversy. His view throughout his life was that the Establishment in Wales could only be justified by the success of the Church's religious ministrations in Wales, and that for the Church's fa.lure in this respect nothing else couild permanently make up. With the -great body of the Welsh people his appointment to a Welsh See would have been extremely popular, and Dean Howell had broad nd generous qualities which, in a Welsh bishop, might have turned to excellent account. His failure to reach the goal for wh'ch at one time seemed destined was probably due as much to an acknowledged lack of stiffness in his Churchmanship as to the absence of academic tinction. The Dean seems to have regarded s appointment to St. Davids as marking the last stage of his ministerial work, and devoted is leisure, with a certain degree- of success, to a scheme for the restoration of the ruined cathedral chapels. Last M ssage to the Welsh People. STRIKING COINCTDENCE. The last art-cle from; the pen of the late Dean Howell is his contribution to the January num- ber of the "Dysgedydd," the Welsh congrega- tional magazine just published. The late Dean contributed the article at the request of his friend" the Rev Dr Owen Evans, of Liverpool, who is joint editor of the "Dysgedydd57 wAh Mr Josiah Thomas, of Liverpool. The article, which is well-written in excellent Welsh, is on "Prif Angen Cymru" ("The Chief Need of Wales"). The following are extracts translated from me article :—"What is the chief need of Wales ( Some say 'Political reform;' others say 'A greater sympathy and co-operation between idifferent classes of society." w^ers say 'A more earnest and cultured ministry.' Others say 'More efficient sanitation and better social laws.' All these are very important things, but are they the chief need of Wales at tne present time? The chief need of Wales at present is a spiritual .awakening. Not a reform, but a revival; not a local agitation as may be wit- nessed in connection with a 'parish mission,' or a '.simultaneous mission,' but a sort of spiritual high-tide to flood the whole country, such as would saturate all classes with the Bap- tism of the Holy Ghost. Is not this the chief need of Wales at the present time? Is not this need felt to a more or less extent by almost all who profess to be and call themselves Christians? There never was more preaching than at the present, buit what about the effects? Have not the services, the anniversaries, and the special meetings of every kind, and all .the efforts to attract listeners become .almost a burden? Do we not hear complaints on all hands because, of the lukewarmness and the lack of spiritual feel- ing that characterises religion in our country. From every direction comes the complaint that the ministry has lost its strength and convincing y 11 power. The preaching, it is stated, iis able, learned, interesting, and instructive, but there is but little of the spiritual power in connec- tion with the preaching as it used to be in the past. The old theological terms of previous years, such as conversion, saved, repentance, adoption, and such, have to a great extent be- come meaningless and comparatively unknown terms. Family Worship Disappearing. The old experiences represented by these terms have become some kind of fossils without life in them. And what is the result? It is stated that family worship is quickly disappear- ing, and that it is an exceptional thing to fin 1 a family gathering together to worship God morn- ing and evening. The Sunday School hardly holds its own. The congregations in many dis- tricts are rather smaller, Sabbath desecration .s a debateable question, and the prayer* meeting is edging upon decline. The piety of God's people is not a terror to the wicked, and there is no difference between those who profess to be followers of Christ and those who do not. The authority of the Bible and the fundamental truths of Christianity are being weighed and measured in the scales of reason and criticism as if they were only human whims. Belief in the unseen, the miraculous, and Lile supernatural are open questions. It is true that upon the whole the number of communicants' is on the increase, but the Lord's Supper is not a feast of fat things as in the days of old, and it is not looked upon with the godily fear tnat charac- terised the pious Welsh people in the past. The temperance cause is not as flourishing as it used to be, although L.o..le drinking curse is on the increase in town and country. The craving for pleasure has taken possession of the rising generation, and the Cynmanfaoedd of the football attract greater crowds than the Cyman- faoedd of the gospel, even in Wales. What about the cure? There cannot be a doubt on this point. Undoubtedly, the Spirit of God is. the only source of spiritual life; and it is im- possible to produce or revive this, life through any means apart from the Spirit of God. inis is the doctrine at the root of the Gospel. This is what distinguishes Christianity from all otner relùgions in the world; and this is what distin- guishes true Christianity from all the various imitations, of it; and this is the cure for the moral and spiritual indisposition of Wales at the present time." Verses in support of these state- ments follow from various parts of the Scrip- tures. In conclusion, the late Dean appeals to his readers in the following words:—"Wilt thou do thy share in connection with this blessed work? Wilt thou consecrate thyself to make this the chief end of thy desire, morning, noon, and mid-day? Wilt thou do thy best to bring others to co-operate with thee, so as to create a circle of implorers? Great is thy privilege; great is thy responsibility. 'Oh, that fil, u wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow at thy presence. Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that ..ley may live. Awake, 0 north wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.' Bywha dy waith ni phery'm taith yn hir, 'Rwy'n ofni'r bedd heb wel'd dy wt..dd, yn wir. Take notice-if it were known that this is my last message to my fellow-countrymen through- out the length and breadth of Wales before be- ing summoned to judgment, and the li'gnt of Eternity already breaking over me, and it is my —the chief need of my country and my dear nation at present is a spiritual revival through a special outpouring of the Holy Ghost. "NEFOL JUBIL, "Gad im wead y boreu wawr."