Background
Lewis Edwards was born in the parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, on the 27th of October 1809.
Lewis Edwards was born in the parish of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, on the 27th of October 1809.
Lewis Edwards was educated at Aberystwyth and at Llangeitho. In 1830 he was accepted for study at the Seceders College, Belfast, but chose instead to study in London, at a college which later became University College London. In 1833 he went to Edinburgh University, where he studied under Thomas Chalmers and Christopher North. By a special dispensation he graduated after three years instead of the usual four, obtaining an Master of Arts with honours.
In 1832 Lewis Edwards settled as minister at Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, and the following year went to Edinburgh, where a special resolution of the senate allowed him to graduate at the end of his third session. He was now better able to further his plans for providing a trained ministry for his church.
Previously, the success of the Methodist preachers had been due mainly to their natural gifts. Edwards made his home at Bala, and there, in 1837, with David Charles, his brother-in-law, he opened a school, which ultimately became the denominational college for north Wales.
By fostering competitive meetings and by his writings, especially in V Traethodydd ("The Essayist"), a quarterly magazine which he founded in 1845 and edited for ten years, he did much to inform and educate his countrymen on literary and theological subjects. A new college was built at Bala in 1867, for which he raised £10, 000.
His chief publication was a noteworthy book on "The Doctrine of the Atonement", cast in the form of a dialogue between master and pupil; the treatment is forensic, and emphasis is laid on merit.
It was due to him that the North and South Wales Calvinistic Methodist Associations united to form an annual General Assembly; he was its moderator in 1866 and again in 1876.
He was successful in bringing the various churches of the Presbyterian order into closer touch with each other, and unwearying in his efforts to promote education for his countrymen.