Welsh Journals

REV. W. GRIFFITHS, GOWER. 43 ing Penclawdd, and also that they must have harassed his mind much, though they did not damp his ardour, or lessen his efforts in the cause of the great Master. His labours were continuous, and acceptable, extending over a very large sphere. His biographer says,—"those who are unacquainted with Gower can form but a very inadequate conception of the character and extent of Mr. Griffiths's labours there. He had three chapels under his charge; and besides supplying these, there were several preaching stations in different and distant parts of the peninsula, at each of which, as a rule, he officiated once a fortnight on some week evening. He had members and hearers living in ten different parishes ; and since it was too far for many of these to attend regularly at either of the chapels, he thought it his duty, and made it his pleasure, to bring the means of grace as frequently as possible to their very doors." The amount of his labours is almost incredible. According to a tabular statement of what he did from 1825 to 1836 inclusive, he preached 2522 times, and attended 752 other religious services in Gower. Moreover, in each of these years he took a preaching tour of from four to six weeks in some part of South Wales, or supplied for an equal length of time in England. On one of these occasions, he preached five weeks for the Rev. Rowland Hill at Wotton-under- edge; and on another he supplied six weeks at Spafields Chapel, London. Thus he lived to the end of his life, ever diligent in his work, allowing neither weather nor pleasure to hinder him from being at his post of duty. It may be, that his early military experience tended to nurture within him the extreme conscien- ' tiousness which characterized him in his work; and also bis extreme precision in all his doings. This precision was a striking character¬ istic of his life. His books and papers were not, like those of some eminent divines whom we know, all abroad, but everything was in its place, like the contents of a soldier's knapsack. His biographer says of him in this respect, " He was never at a loss where to find anything. K'ever had he to lose a minute in tossing over papers, and rummaging drawers for a lost letter, or a missing sermon. Every book, every sermon, every ' subject-paper,' and every letter, was as sure to be found in its own place as Arthur's stone is on the Cefnybryn mountain." Much of this precision may appear mechanical, but better this than the confusion \thich characterizes some men's doings. While Mr. Griffiths was thus busily engaged in his public duties,