Charles O'r Bala
In the good Providence of God the national
revival of the eighteenth century was followed by a
period of wise constructive energy. After the
solemn awakening came the broad and sober reign
of education. Catechisms were used largely, and
with much profit: theology was organized, and
church polity was defined. Among those approved
workmen in constructive religion, no name is more honoured than that of
CHARLES O'R BALA.
The memorable little incident of 'Mary Jones and her
Bible' has made him known everywhere as the
pioneer and one of the founders of the British and
Foreign Bible Society. He was born at Pant-dwvn,
in the county of Caermarthen, October 14, 1755, of
a respectable family of farmers. He came under
the influence of the new religious movement in the
days of boyhood, and it left a deep and permanent
impression upon his spirit. Having taken his
degree at Oxford, he was ordained priest May 21,
1780, and spent the next three years in a curacy at
Halifax. Afterwards he returned to Wales, having
been appointed to the curacy of Llanymowddwy: but
his work there came suddenly to a close. Some of
the parishioners, in their zeal for national ignorance,
accused him of giving free instruction to the children
after vespers. His rector considered this to
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be such a shocking innovation that he was at once
dismissed. Like many another earnest spirit of
the time, he had to forsake the Church of his
fathers in order to have a free field for his heroic
devotion. He publicly joined the Calvinistic Methodist
movement, and found the work was 'great and
large.' John Newton had asked him to come over
to England: but he preferred to stay at home and
bear the cross in his native land. His splendid
toil in the interest of elementary and religious
education, his part in the founding of the Bible
Society, his Catechism and Bible Dictionary--both
of them still treasures of the household and the Church--need only be
mentioned here.22See 'Short Biographies for the People': Thomas
Charles, by Rev. Dr. Herber Evans.
One bitterly cold night in the winter of 1799-80, he was returning
over the mountains from Carnarvonshire to
Bala, when his hand was bitten by the frost, and
a severe illness succeeded. Much prayer was made
on his behalf: but in the annals of those prayers
nothing is more remarkable than this strange
petition of one old Christian--'Fifteen years more,
O Lord! We pray for fifteen years to be added to
the days of his life; and wilt Thou not grant fifteen
years, O our God, for the sake of Thy Church and
Thy cause?' Nearly fifteen years later--in the
summer of 1814--he told his wife at Barmouth,
'Well, Sali, the fifteen years are nearly up.' A
few weeks later, a friend called to see him one
morning, and said, 'Well, Mr. Charles, the day of
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trouble is come!' And he answered, 'There is
Refuge!' His first word after that was spoken
beyond the veil. What better mapping out of
his spiritual course than these verses from his
only hymn, written early in the fifteen years' trial?
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