diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoost.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoost.java
index f7f9c3eaee34..ff95dd6959b7 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoost.java
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoost.java
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ public static Booster train(
           IEvaluation eval,
           int earlyStoppingRound,
           Booster booster) throws XGBoostError {
-    if(eval != null) {
+    if (eval != null) {
       return trainWithMultipleEvals(dtrain, params, round, watches, metrics, obj,
                                     new IEvaluation[]{eval}, earlyStoppingRound, booster);
     } else {
@@ -164,6 +164,13 @@ public static BoosterResults trainWithResults(
     List<DMatrix> mats = new ArrayList<DMatrix>();
     List<String> logLines = new ArrayList<String>();
 
+    if (evals != null && evals.length == 0) {
+      throw new XGBoostError("Evaluation function array is empty, but not null.");
+    } else if (earlyStoppingRound != 0 && evals != null && evals.length > 1) {
+      Rabit.trackerPrint("Multiple evaluation functions provided, disabling early stopping.");
+      earlyStoppingRound = 0;
+    }
+
     for (Map.Entry<String, DMatrix> evalEntry : watches.entrySet()) {
       names.add(evalEntry.getKey());
       mats.add(evalEntry.getValue());
@@ -209,7 +216,7 @@ public static BoosterResults trainWithResults(
       if (evalMats.length > 0) {
         float[] metricsOut = new float[evalMats.length];
         String evalInfo = "";
-        if (evals != null && evals.length > 0) {
+        if (evals != null) {
           for (int i = 0; i < evals.length; i++) {
             String evalLine = booster.evalSet(evalMats, evalNames, evals[i], metricsOut);
             evalInfo = evalInfo + " " + evalLine;