Temperance Column.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 19, 22 July 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

Temperance Column.

AN ANCIENT CASE OF REFOEMATION. Among the many instances of reformation from a life of drunkenness and dissipation which go to prove that while no one has a right to presume on the prerogative of mercy, on the other hand none need despair, comes the case of Bees Pritchard, a vicar of Llandovory. The Bey. Paxton Hood, in his very readable book— The Preachers of Wild Wales — thus introduces him : — He was born in the parish of which he became the vicar, so far back as 1575, and was educated at Oxford, where bis early life was more remarkable for dissipation of every kind than for any pursuits compatible with his sacred profession. He was, especially, an inveterate drunkard ; the worst of his parishioners were scandalised by his example, and said, " Bad as wo may be, we are not half so bad as the parson !" The story of his conversion is known to many who are not acquainted with his life and work, and the eminence to which he attained ; aud it certainly illustrates how very strange have been some of tho means of man's salvation, and how foolish things have confounded the wise. As George Borrow says in his "Wild Wales," in his account of Pritchard, " God, however, who is aware of what every man is capable, has reserved Roes Pritchard for great and noble things, and brought about his conversion in a very remarkable manner." He was in the habit of spending much of his time in the public-house, from which he was usually trundled home in a wheelbarrow in a state of utter insensibility. The people of the house hod a large hegoat, which went in and out, and mingled with the guests. One day Pritchard called the goat to him and offered .it some ale, and the creature, so far from refusing it, drank it greedily, and soon after fell down in a state of intoxication, and lay quivering, to the great delight of Pritchard and his con panionf, who, however, were horrified at this conduct in one who was appointed to be their example and teacher. Shortly after, as usual, Pritchard himself was trundled home utterly intoxicated. He wus at home and ill the whole of the next day, but on tbe day following ho went down to the public houte and called for his pipe and taukurd The goat came into the room, and again he held the tankard to the creature's mouth, but it turned away its head in di.ijrusfc, hurried away, and would come near him no more. This startled tbe man. "My God!" hesaid, "is this poor dumb creature wiser than I?" Ho pursued in his mind train of feeling awakened by conscience ; he shrank with disgust from hinuelf . "But, thank God ! " he said, ** I am yet ulivo, and it is not too late to mend. The goat has taught me a lesson ; I will become a new man." Smashing his pipe, he left his tankard untested, and hastened homo. He- isdeed commenced a new career. -Mg- became, and continued for 30 _v«£?s7"a great and effective ''preaching-," sayß Mr. jPjrtow, "the inestimable efficacy of Christ's blood-hht-ddiug." His talents were not confined to preaching, for he wrote the most popular book (tbe Bible except ed) ever printedin the Welsh language, "The Welshman's Candle." Since the day of its publication it has gone through countless editions, and there was a time, not long since, when there was scarcely^ a family in Wales of any intelligence which did not possess a copy. Though three centuries have rolled away since he died, his memory is still green in the hearts of the people of Llandovery, where the old vicarage was, a few years ago, still standing. Mr. Borrow tells us that while he was looking at the house, a respectablelooking farmer came up, and was about to para, " but observing me and how I was employed, he stopped and looked now at me, and now at the antique house. Presently he said, " A fine old place, t.ir, is it not ? But do you know who ti ved there P" Wishing to know what the man would say, provided he thought I was ignorant as to the aucient inmate, I turned a face of inquiry upon him, whereupon he advanced towards me two or three steps, and placing his face Bo close to mine that his nose nearly touched my cheek, he said, in a kind of piercing ory, " The Vicar !"; then drawing his face back, he looked me full in the eyes as if to observe the effect of his intelligence, gave me two or three nods.Vos if to jay "he did indeed, ' ' and departed. The Yiear had been dead nearly 200 years."