On 15 February 1733 the Rev. Griffith Jones of Llanddowror wrote to his
friend, Mrs. Bridget Bevan of Laugharne, as follows:
"...If we consider how numerous and shameless, I may say,
how common and impudent the despisers and opposers of serious piety are
in our days, what shall we think but that the enemy is coming in like
a water-flood, and threatens to overflow our land with a worse deluge
than that which drowned the world in the days of Noah. And though for
any thing I know, it may be suffered to proceed to a greater extremity,
than we have yet seen, yet in God's due time, I trust he will seasonably
and surprisingly lift up a standard against the enemies and persecutors
of Jesus Christ;...Reasons and human means only, will not serve to stop
the tide of iniquity, which now flows so fast upon us. No standard will
suffice to oppose it but that of the Holy Spirit's lifting up."
On 11 March 1735 he wrote again to the same lady:
"Our neglect of religion, especially the spiritual part
of it, has caused our sins to increase to a vast height; and it is evident,
that we ripen very fast for some terrible judgment, which we must expect
to feel soon, if God in infinite mercy prevents it not by sending a double
portion of a reforming spirit among us."
Griffith Jones's confidence was soon justified. Even when he was writing
of the necessity of "a double portion of a reforming spirit, "during
that very month the word of the Lord came to Howell Harris, a young man
from Breconshire, and it did not cease to work in him until he was made
a special messenger of Heaven to his age and nation.
As to his circumstances, he was of the common people. No long pedigree could
be drawn up for him, connecting him with a rich and noble ancestry. About
the year 1700 a carpenter from Carmarthenshire came to live in the district
of Talgarth in Breconshire. His name was Howell Powell, or Harris. His sole
capital, as far as we know, was a certificate declaring that the parish
of Llangado would support him if ever he needed parochial charity in his
new home. In 1702 he married a young girl named Susannah Powell and they
lived among her people in the hamlet of Trevecka, near Talgarth. There,
in the carpenter's cottage, the children were born--Joseph, Anne, Thomas,
and the youngest, who was born in January 1714, and was named after his
father, Howell Harris.
It seems that his parents walked circumspectly, and they used to attend
the public service in their parish church, together with their children.
We have reason to think, too, that they did not fully neglect another important
duty--religious instruction in their home. The youngest child vividly remembered
himself as a boy of seven walking to Talgarth church with his brother to
recite his catechism. He experienced profound impressions at times at that
tender age. God's greatness and the importance of eternity pressed so heavily
on his mind that if he saw the village children playing on the Sabbath he
could not refrain from rebuking them.
His first teacher and his best friend was his brother Joseph; but he soon
lost him. Joseph was a blacksmith, but he soon showed that he was no ordinary
man. We do not know what prowess he showed before he left home, but we know
that somehow he drew attention to himself and that he was as inexplicable
to his fellows and as insane in their sight as his youngest brother afterwards
became. He was a taciturn man, always keeping his sorrow and his joy to
himself and burying himself in study and scientific experiments. But between
the joints of this armour an arrow reached his heart. In a mansion the other
side of the valley there lived a young lady of about his own age. He fell
in love with her in spite of the difference in their stations, and one day
he ventured to reveal to her the state of his feelings. The young lady was
furious and commanded him not to think of her and not to utter a word to
her ever again. The blow was too severe. He determined to leave home, and
sought to assuage his sorrow by going away as far from her as he possibly
could. He was in London for many years, winning for himself a good position,
and publishing a book on some branch of his favourite study; but his sorrow
was not mitigated. Once and again he visited the West Indies for many months,
but in spite of his travels and many vicissitudes, the maid of Tredwstan
was in his thoughts wherever he went. After spending a period of his life
in this miserable condition, he at last divulged the cause of his discontent
to his brother. Howell took upon himself the task of interceding with the
lady on his brother's behalf, and before long they were united together
in marriage. We understand that some of their descendants have an honoured
place to this day among the Breconshire gentry.
In all his joys and sorrows Joseph Harris kept up his interest in his relatives
in Wales and cared for them. As Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah of old, he was
the counsellor and defender of his father's house in all difficulties. But
Howell, the youngest of the family, was his Benjamin, his dear one. He urged
his parents to give him a better education than was usual in those days,
and persuaded them from time to time not to be disheartened by their straitened
circumstances. In 1725 he wrote to his parents saying how glad he was to
hear of their design to send Howell to school, promising them every help
within his power. This was an elementary school, kept probably in one of
the local churches. But in 1728 he was placed in a grammar school kept at
Llwyn-llwyd in the parish of Llanigon near Hay.
At Llwyn-llwyd Harris studied the rudiments of Greek and Latin and mastered
them to some extent. He uses a good deal of Latin in his earlier diaries.
He used to say in later years that he was then conversant with history,
politics, games and much else that would make him an interesting companion
to rich and poor alike. With such a vivacious and animated nature he could
not be very moderate in anything he took in hand. He threw himself into
amusements and innocent mischief of his fellow-students. We can scarcely
believe that he went far astray while he was there, though there are some
statements in the diaries which suggest it. He was dangerously ill during
the end of the summer of 1729, and doubtless this checked him somewhat.
He had not yet chosen his calling, but his brother, in August 1730, pressed
upon him to do so in order to give a more definite trend to his studies.
It seems that he thought of the ministry of the Church at that time. In
October 1730 Joseph sailed for the second time to Jamaica, and before setting
out he wrote home to this effect:
"I would not have my Brother be in the least disconsolate
at my departure. I go upon a Sure footing, and I Shall have it at heart
to See him in a way of getting his livelyhood, to do which no endeavours
of mine Shall be wanting. I reckon he is Now almost gone thro' the Grammar
School, and if ever he Should be a Clergyman it is not so very material
whether he has had an University Education. Let him mind his Classicks
and take care not to forget what he has already learnt; the Latin and
Greek Tongues will be a key to him to read other Books which hereafter
he may have occasion for. I would have him also endeavour to inform himself
in writing, and then he'll have another String to his Bow. I wish he Could
get a School or Some Such thing to Employ him in the Countrey till I return,
and I hope you'll do your Endeavours to keep him from any Servile Employment
for that Time."
But a greater loss than the departure of his brother was near. In March
1731 his father died. Thus, Howell was obliged to leave Llwyn-llwyd at the
end of the term and go out to seek for some means of earning his living.
In January 1732 he was appointed schoolmaster at Llan-gors, a small township
near Syfaddan Lake, not far from his home. He was there for eighteen months
at least possibly a few months longer. His mother was anxious on his account,
predicting adversity; for Llan-gors bore a doubtful reputation in those
days. He himself, by then, was a youth of eighteen, without much to occupy
him, with no father to rule him and no brother at hand to give him advice.
Thus he was given a free rein at a dangerous period of his life, and it
is sad to relate that he rapidly went down hill. He spent his leisure in
the counsel of the ungodly and in the seat of the scornful. He neglected
his classics, reading plays and such vanities. He was the soul of every
company, and the source of fun in all the exploits and games of the locality.
He was ready to debate on every question, and he delighted in mocking the
few Nonconformists in the neighbourhood. The memory of Llan-gors was sore
to him throughout his life, "the place where I first broke out in the
devil's service." "Many of you used to go with me towards hell,"
he once said while preaching there, "and God's grace must have been
free, or else I would not have received it, because I was the worst of you
all." And the saddest part of the story is that no one tried to check
him in his course, not even the Non-conformists, "They were very ready
to debate with me concerning outward things," he said, "but no
one told me that I was on the way to hell."
Yet he could not find peace of spirit in this way. An occasional sermon
would give him a distaste for frivolity, awakening memories and creating
a yearning for better things. He once dreamed that the great Day of Judgment
had arrived, and that he was standing before the judgment-seat and compelled
to give an account of himself. These things drove him to vow to mend his
ways, and even to attempt praying. "I tried to turn to God in my own
power, but I did not succeed until the day of His power came." And
this, at length, was drawing nigh.
During his stay at Llan-gors his brother returned from Jamaica and he visited
his relatives in Wales. He was so pleased with his young brother that he
revealed to him the secret concerning Miss Anne Jones. It seems, however,
that Howell was unsatisfied with his position in life, for we find Joseph
advising him to resign himself for a while, promising to look for something
better for him as soon as he could. Joseph wrote to his brother in August
1732:
"I hope you'll always remember what past betwixt us at
Bristol, and keep entirely to yourself the Secret I entrusted you with.
You may believe I Shall always be glad to hear whatever you can inform
me from that quarter... it is with pleasure I Say that your behaviour
and Character I had of you in the Countrey, adds to the opinion I had
of you. You know how to behave always humble and affable; That, with a
Sincerity and Care in discharging the trust you take upon you, will always
gain you the good will of every body."
Joseph was as good as his word. A friend of his lived in Oxford, one Mr.
W. Harte, the vice-principal of St. Margaret Hall. Through his good offices,
he found a remunerative appointment for Howell, in Hampshire, as a schoolmaster.
In November 1734 he writes to him concerning the place. "I hope the
thing will be worth your Acceptance for the present, especially as you'll
have an Opportunity of taking a degree at Oxford as well as if you was to
Serve your time there." By this time Howell had left Llan-gors, and
was in charge of a school on the other side of the lake, in the old church
of Llangasty (Tal-y-llyn). He lodged with a gentleman named Mr. Lewis Jones,
of Trebinsiwn Mansion in that parish; Mr. Jones's children were with him
at school--Lewis taking well to his Latin, and Billy wholly otherwise. As
a rule Howell spent his week-ends at his mother's home, attending the Sunday
services fairly regularly at Talgarth church. But although he was now twenty-one
years of age, and his mind set upon the ministry for years, he had never
yet approached the Lord's Table. It is quite possible that the cause of
this was complete indifference; but it is equally possible that a measure
of tenderness in his conscience kept him from trifling with the most sacred
things while following such a loose life.
Some difficulty or other kept on recurring with regard to the school in
Hampshire, so that Harris was at Llan-gasty until November 1735. He tells
us time and again that he himself had no hand in the cause of this confusion,
but before long he came to see the finger of God in it all, for the "great
turning-point" in his life was now at hand, through which the insignificant
schoolmaster of Llangasty became, not a school teacher in England, but the
Apostle of Jesus Christ to the Welsh people, who at that time were in a
condition of utter spiritual destitution. |