Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – “One eyed Bunyon of Wales”
Christmas Evans – After Conversion his old friends beat him and blinded one of his eyes
PART TWO
To place Christmas Evans among the biographies of such noted Baptists as John Bunyan and Isaac Backus may seem strange. Known as the “one eyed Bunyan of Wales”, Evans remains an unusual and yet very useful servant in God’s army. Christmas was born at Llandysul, Wales on the day from which his name is taken, to Samuel and Johanna Evans in 1766. His long life would carry him until 1838 and leave a legacy of great Baptist leadership in his homeland of Wales.
Early in Evans life, his father died leaving his mother nearly destitute. In desperation, Johanna Evans sent her nine year old Christmas to live with her brother and work on his farm. Unfortunately, Evan’s uncle was a drunkard and a cruel man. Due to the circumstances of his life Christmas found himself illiterate and irreligious at the age of eighteen. Finally, sick of his condition, Evans headed to the town of Llwynrhydewain to get away from his abusive uncle and the life which held him in its snare.
In God’s sovereignty, a revival was waiting on Evans when he arrived at his new home town. It was there that he was converted and came to know the living and risen Lord. Late in his life Christmas wrote of this time: “The fear of dying in an ungoldy state especially affected me … and this apprehension clung to me till I was induced to rest upon Christ … this concern was the dawn of the day of grace in my spirit.” Almost immediately, Christmas knew that he had to separate himself from his lost and wicked companions.
Not long after his conversion he was attacked by six of his former rogue friends. They beat him unmercifully and blinded him in one eye with a stick. It was because of this cruel attack that Evans would be called later in life, “the one-eyed preacher of Wales.” Christmas Evans could say along with the apostle Paul, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Thomas E. Kresal from: http://www.newble.co.uk/xheroes/evans.htm
