Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – The Life and Times of the One-Eyed Preacher
Christmas Evans – PART EIGHT

His eminence is due mainly to his astounding preaching labours. Evans preached what he felt and felt what he preached, and employed the full wealth of his wide-ranging imagination, and ready facility with words, to convey this felt truth to his hearers. His devotion to the cause of Christ was absolute – the sacrifices he and his wife made quickly condemn our more pampered age. He travelled and preached tirelessly with a power and effectiveness seemingly almost unmatched (and this in an age of eminently powerful and effective preachers). Mr Shenton helpfully includes samples from the sermons by means of which the Spirit moved the hearts of Evans’ hearers (and even in translation they show something of how abundantly God gifted his servant).

We are both encouraged and warned as we see the various strengths and weaknesses of the cast of characters who wander in and out of the narrative. Rising above all is the example of Christmas Evans. While there are warnings here as well, his prayerful and sacrificial existence, his utter devotion to the kingdom of Christ, his earnest desire to see souls saved and Christ exalted, all flowing into and informing his Christ-centered and impassioned preaching, ought to rouse us to plead that the Lord would once again grant preachers to his church – preachers who love God and the truth of God, and who are mightily equipped to communicate with all the faculties of their redeemed humanity that love and those truths to their congregations.

Thomas E. Kresal – Evangelical Press Book Review of “Christmas Evans: The Life and Times of the One-Eyed Preacher” by Tim Shenton