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  THE BEGINNING OF THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT
  by Price Davies
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Davies' historical account of the origins of the modern Pentecostal movement,
documenting the events, personalities, and theological developments that gave
rise to one of the most significant religious movements of the 20th century.

  Chapters: 7

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01 - Chapter 01
    2. 02 - Chapter 02
    3. 03 - Chapter 03
    4. 04 - Chapter 04
    5. 05 - Chapter 05
    6. 06 - Chapter 06
    7. 07 - Chapter 07

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  CHAPTER 1: 01 - CHAPTER 01
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 1 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price

I was brought up religiously from my childhood and attended the Sunday School
and Meetings at Calvaria Welsh Presbeterian Chapel, Caeharris, Dowlais. I thank
the Lord for knowledge of the Scriptures that I received at Calvaria in my
youth. At the age of thirteen I was made a member and was baptized in the order
of the Presbetarians which is sprinkling a few drops of water on the forehead. I
was very earnest and conciencious and became a faithful attendant to all the
meetings, passing my scriptural exams (arholiad) year after year and gaining a
fair knowledge of the Word of God, the Bible. When I was twenty three years of
age, in the Autumn of 1904 with another young man from Dowlais Top named
Ebeneser Walters, I went away to work at the Nixon’s Navigation Colliery,
Mountain Ash. I transfered my Membership Letters from Calvaria Dowlais to
Bethlehem Welsh Presbeterian Chapel Mountain Ash, and there also I was a
faithful attendant at the Meetings. On Sunday Morning November 20th 1904, I went
to the meeting as usual to hear the visiting minister preach his sermon, and not
expecting anything different from the usual routine. But Oh, little did I think
I was going to get the most surprising and amazing and wonderful experience of
my whole life. The visiting minister went up to the pulpit to give out the hymn
to commence the meeting, but instead of announcing the hymn he broke down to cry
and wept and kept on weeping for some time. After a little while the deacons
were all weeping too, and, before the meeting closed that morning the tears were
running down all our cheeks under some strange sense of awe and the Presence of
the Melting Power of the Holy Spirit of God. We had never seen or experienced
anything like this before in all our life. The visiting minister had come
straight from the meetings at Trecynon, Aberdare, where Evan Roberts had been
having such wonderful meetings lasting all night until three, four, five, and
even six-o-clock in the morning. In the Sunday evening meeting at Bethlehem, the
Minister told the congregation some of the wonderful things that were taking
place at these meetings, and announced that Evan Roberts was coming to Mountain
Ash the following Monday, November 21st 1904.

NOVEMBER 21st 1904 Wonderful day, the day of days for me.

Bethlehem Chapel Mountain Ash, with two other chapels in the town, were
overcrowded early with people waiting and expecting some great and wonderful
results; and what a wonderful and unforgettable meeting it was. Evan Roberts in
the pulpit that night experience a very rare and exceptional time of liberty in
the Lord to speak. He spoke for just over on and a half hours, the words simply
flowing out, it was life indeed to listen and the congregation earnestly
drinking and taking it all in. There in the gallery of Bethlehem Chapel that
night I was one of fifty who were Gloriously and Wonderfully Saved. That night I
passed from death to life (John 5:24), I was translated from the kingdom of
Satan into the Kingdom of God’s Dear Son (Colossians 1:13) I passed from
darkness to light (1 Peter 2:9) His Marvelous Light, I was Born Again,
Regenerated (1 Peter 1:23) made a new creature (Creadur Newydd) in Christ Jesus.
Justified by faith. Adopted into the family of God. Made a child of God.
Halelujah. Praise God for Ever. Amen.

Oh how wonderful it all was, and has been ever since; getting more and more
wonderful as the days and years have gone by Diolch Iddo. That night on the
gallery I realized in the depths of my soul that Christ Died for me and His
Blood washed my sins away.


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  CHAPTER 2: 02 - CHAPTER 02
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 2 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price THE WELSH REVIVAL So the
Revival went on, like a mighty Prairie Fire allover South Wales and
Monmouthshire and in three months one hundred and seventy five thousand souls
were converted (175,000). Bendigedio, fyddo Duw yn Oes Oesoedd Amen (Blessed be
God for ever and ever Amen). Wonderful days, wonderful meetings-commencing at
six or seven in the evening and going all night. The meeting at Brynteg
Gorseinon commenced at six in the evening on Sunday and went on until seven
Monday Morning, and then much pressure had to be brought to bear on the people
to bring it to an end, and afterwards the people stood in groups about the
street talking about the wonder of it all. Two hundred and fifty (250) members
were added to the Hebron Baptist Chapel, Caeharris, Dowlais where the meetings
were going on all night. I remember reading of a minister going to his church on
a Sunday Morning as usual, with his sermon and notes in his pocket ready to
preach. He got to the meeting and gave out the hymn to commence and someone got
up to pray, then another, and another and another; and so it went on; not only
in this meeting but in those following for two months so that he never had a
chance to preach his sermon. During those two months two hundred were added to
the membership roll Haleliwia (Hallelujah). Public Houses empty Chapels full. A
record was taken in Lougher, Evan Robert’s home town, on a Saturday night at
eleven p.m. Stop Tap and out of all the drinking saloons of the town they could
only count five. Diolch Iddo (Thank God). It was a lean time for theatres in
those days. No cinemas then, I have not been to a cinema in my life and I am now
in my eightieth year (80th) and neither had my wife, who passed out of this life
on February 6th 1961 at seventy eight years of age (78). Both of us were always
total abstainers and non-smokers. Thank God we had found an enjoyment Infinitely
Superior in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us on Calvary’s Cross. Praise
God for ever. David Matthews living in Aberdare and a respectable member of
Siloam Chapel, was asked by some of his friends to come to Trecynon to the
Revival Meetings "No, not I" he said, "I am not going to that mad lot, they are
all gone off their heads up there." And he kept on refusing for a whole week.
But on the following Sunday night, instead of going to Siloam, he found himself
going up to Trecynon. When he got the large chapel where the Revival Meetings
were, he found a large crowd outside of people that could not get in, and so he
got curious and very interested and determined to get inside to see what was
going on. So he began to edge and elbow his way through the crowd and got to the
chapel door, but still determined to get closer and ultimately he got to the
second pillar in the aisle an there he stood while that wonderful meetings went
on. God’s Spirit was moving mightily in and upon the congregation as David
Matthews looked on in wonder and amazement and awe. He had never been in a
meeting like this before, nor seen anything like it in all his life-meetings
indescribable-singing, heavenly; numbers in different parts of the chapel under
deep and awful conviction of their guilt and sinfulness before God. Crying to
God for mercy and pardon, and, Praise God, finding it. Then when they got the
blessed realisation and knowledge that their sins were forgiven, what a
wonderful and spontaneous volume of praise went up to God from the congregation.
What was amazing to David Matthews was that no man convened or controlled the
meeting. Thank God in the Welsh Revival man was out of sight, God was in
control. And so the meeting went on while David Matthews stood by that pillar in
awe and amazement until he thought It was time to go home, he pulled his watch
out of his pocket, and what do you think the time was? Three-o-clock Monday
morning! He had been standing by that pillar from about six-o-clock Sunday night
until three-o-clock Monday morning not realizing how the time was passing. Dear
reader can you imagine yourself standing in a meeting for nine hours not
thinking of time? David Matthews, who afterwards was David Matthews the Welsh
Evangelist and Revivalist, went home under deep and awful conviction of his
sinfulness before God. He went to bed but could not sleep. He got up later and
went to Siloam Chapel where the men that were working nights held their morning
meetings, and there, in such a meeting with his head down between his knees for
two hours crying to God for mercy, David Matthews was gloriously saved. He went
home, and when he opened the door he shouted at the top of his voice "Mam, I’m
Saved!" His mother said "All right David don’t make so much noise", but again it
came at the top of his voice "Mam I AM SAVED!" Dear reader, you have read how
two respectable Church members were saved, I was a church member for ten years
and not a member of the Body of Christ, not born of God! Think of the awful
possibility of being a church or chapel member for years and finding yourself at
last in outer darkness in hell and the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone (Revelation 20:11-15). Dear reader make sure that your name is written
in the Lamb’s book of Life (Revelation 21:27). A minister, coming from England
to the Rhondda to look for, and see, the Revival, got off the train onto the
platform and asked the porter if he could tell him where the revival was. "Yes",
he said smiting his breast, "In here". Thus it was, you were up against it
everywhere in South Wales then. People were getting converted on the streets, in
the trains and down in the mines. I have taken my coat off and laid it on the
ground for people to kneel on and get saved in the open air often.


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  CHAPTER 3: 03 - CHAPTER 03
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 3 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price GOD DEALING WITH SEVERAL MEN
INDIVIDUALLY IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

T. E. Lewis and I were brought up together on Dowlais Top, and only a few years
ago, (not long before he died) while we were standing outside Woolworths Stores
in High Street Merthyr he related to me how and where he was saved. Every
Saturday night he and his friends spent their time drinking in different pubs
until eleven-o-clock Stop Tap; after this they used to take drinks with them to
one or another of his friends homes, and drink until the early hours of Sunday
morning. He told me he never went home until about two-o-clock in the morning.
He was going home drunk one Sunday morning along along Gwernllwyn Road, with a
railway along one side of it this was a lonely road. He told me he was brought
down under an awful conviction by God of his sinfulness and guilt; and there
alone on the solitary pavement he cried to God for mercy and forgiveness for
some time. T. E. Lewis was saved there and went home a changed and sober young
man and became a faithful member of Hebron Baptist Chapel for more than fifty
(50) years. He said that the Lord Jesus Christ took that appetite and thirst for
drink out of him that night for ever, for it never returned. Praise the Lord. T.
E. Lewis was well knows as a Coster in Twynrodyn and Merthyr. Sam Brown, another
friend of mine, was converted down in the Colliery-Number two Pit Bedlinog-there
along between two ventilator doors. Praise God. I had an adopted brother,
married and living in Dowlais Top. His hobbies were drinking, gambling, and
fighting. Many of those he knew, who had lived the same kind of life, were at
this time converted and he used to go with them to the meetings in Hebron; but
he came out time after time saying "They are not going to have me". But the more
he was coming and going out defiantly, the more an even greater volume of prayer
would rise from the congregation to the Throne of God in Heaven that the Lord
would have mercy on him and bring him to His Feet. Not long afterwards some of
the members of Hebron were coming home at midnight one Saturday night after
attending a Revival Meeting at Pantywain, a village on the mountains above
Dowlais Top. Before they came to the houses in Dowlais Top they could hear
somebody moaning and groaning on the side of the road, and Glory to God it was
him; brought down under awful conviction and crying to God for mercy. Two of the
men picked him up, one under each arm, and took him down, past his house to the
meeting in Hebron where the meetings were going on all night. There, that night,
or rather Sunday Morning, D. R. Williams, commonly called Dai Ruth was
converted. Oh, What a change! He became a member of Hebron Baptist Chapel. In
Ystradgwynlais there were two pals. Their hobbies were drinking, gambling and
fighting. They loved going up the mountain stripping to the waist and fighting
with bare fists. One of them had a quarrel with an official where he was working
and went away to work at the Great Western Colliery, Pontypridd. While he was
there the Revival came along and he was wonderfully saved, immediately his first
concern was for his butty Danny Evans, and so he got up in one of the meetings
and asked the congregations to pray for him. The whole congregation stood and
prayed that God would bring him to Himself and save his soul. Just after this
Danny got up one morning to go to work as usual and began to put on his working
clothes, no pit-head baths in those days. But, when it came to putting his
trousers on, he could put one leg on yet try and struggle as much as he could,
he could not put the other leg of the trouser on. Davy could not make it out at
all, to think he could put one leg on and not the other. He cursed and swore and
blasphemed and kept on doing so in an awful temper; in the end he gave it up as
hopeless feeling awful at having to lost a day’s work and nothing at all the
matter with him. He began to dress in his ordinary suit and when he realized he
put his trousers on easily he undressed again thinking everything was all right
now for him to go to work. But no, when it came to putting on his working
trouser the same thing happened again and so it went on until it became too late
to go to work anyhow. In an awful temper he put his working clothes away and
dressed himself in his suit then, when it was time for Open Tap in the pubs he
went out to get himself a pint of beer. He asked the barmaid for a pint and paid
for it, but when it came to drinking it-try as he did, he could not get the
glass to his lips. Just as he could not get his working trousers on, so he could
not get the beer to his mouth. More cursing and swearing, he cursed the place
and the barmaid (as if she had anything to do with it) and so Danny spent the
rest of that day going from one pub to another trying to get beer to his lips
but failing. At six-o-clock in the evening, coming out of a public house, still
having failed to get a drink, Danny noticed an open air meeting-a Revival
Meeting-going on just over the road. Danny stood and listened, and behold behind
the meeting he saw a large white sheet rising up, and on that white sheet he saw
his sinful life like a panorama before his very eyes. Under awful conviction of
sin Danny fell on his knees just where he was, cried to God for mercy and was
gloriously saved. Hallelujah. I heard Danny Evans giving his testimony in the
Temperance Hotel, LLandrinod Wells where we gathered after the Keswick Meeting
in the tent August 1907. To God be all the Glory. Amen. A NOTABLE MIRACLE. *

*Note added by Roy Davies. According to the 1901 census they were living in
number 73 in 1901. I think my grandfather said "’73" on the tape and, because of
the poor sound quality, this was transcribed as "twenty three." The South Wales
Echo and Western Mail said "74" but I think that should have been ’73. In
1904-1905, at number seventy three Brynhyfryd Street, Penydarren, Merthyr
Tydfil, where Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Griffiths lived with their family, their
daughter Annie Griffiths was bedridden with a Tubercular Hop (Hip disease) a
large growth on her hip and the one leg shorter than the other, she was a
helpless, hopeless cripple. The doctors gave no hope of her ever being able to
walk again. The family were members of Elm Baptist Chapel, Penydarren, where Mr.
Thomas Griffiths was a deacon, the minister was the Rev. O. M. Owen who had been
wonderfully blessed of God during the early days of the Welsh Revival, and he
was for many years the Secretary of the Keswick Convention at LLandrindod Wells.
Mr. Owen was very friendly with the family and used to visit Miss Griffiths
often and was very much grieved and burdened at seeing her sad plight and
suffering as she was. He was spending much time in prayer with God on her behalf
and also on behalf of the family as a whole. On one of his visits he asked Miss
Griffiths if she believed God could work a miracle in our time and heal her. She
said "Yes Mr. Owen, I believe God can do all things." "Well Annie," he said, "I
don’t believe it is the Will of God for you to be lying there suffering like
that." He gave her a tract to read that told of a young woman that had been
healed in answer to prayer of Spinal Trouble. He also asked her to read some
Scriptures especially James 5:14-16 which she gladly did.

One Saturday night, Miss Griffiths was in fact due to go into hospital the
following Monday so that she could be made more comfortable on an Air Bed and
also that her mother might be relieved a little; that evening another Baptist
Minister from Aberduar, West Wales, called. His name was Mr. Francis and he was
on his way to Fochriw to preach but lost his connection at Dowlais Top and so
called at Mr. Owen’s House. During their conversation Mr. Owen asked Mr. Francis
if he believe God could perform a miracle today in answer to prayer. "Of course
I do, Why not?" said Mr. Francis. So Mr. Owen told him about Miss Griffiths.
They decided there and then to visit the home and have a definite time of prayer
with her father for her, so they came. After a little talk with Miss Griffiths
the three of them knelt and prayed that God would touch and heal her. These are
Annie’s own words to me, (after the ministers and her father had prayed for her
and as she was about to ask the dear Lord herself to heal her,) she felt the
Lord was there by her bedside and laid His Hand on her head and the Power of God
came upon her and went right through her whole body and took the disease away,
the bed itself shaking with the Power of God. Glory be to God she was
Wonderfully and Miraculously healed. She told the ministers and her father that
if they would leave the room she would get dressed. Praise the Lord for ever.
One minute a helpless, hopeless cripple unable to move without help, the next
minute Gloriously Healed by the touch of God. Hallelujah. She asked her mother
for her clothes and then got up and dressed; then she walked from the front room
where her bed was, through the middle room to the kitchen. When her father saw
her he lept for joy, shouting "Hallelujah" with a loud voice. Mr. Owen asked her
if he would see her in the meeting the following Sunday. Her father said "You
tell Mr. Owen that you will be there before him tomorrow morning"., and she was.
Praise God. Oh what a stir that miracle caused in the Borough. Elim chapel was
thronged with people night after night for weeks, Open Air meetings were held on
the bottom of the street. I remember Dai Ruth (D. R. Williams) taking his coat
off in one of those meetings and laying it on the ground for people to kneel on
it and get converted. That miracle was published in the Daily Papers and the
Christian Herald. I remember reading the report in the South Wales Echo 20th
September 1905. Some may ask "Are healings permanent?" Annie Griffiths was
healed of a Tubercular Hip when she was twenty one years of age, she passed out
of this life to her reward in heaven at seventy eight years of age with never a
return of the complaint. Diolch Iddo Bendigedig. Just a few years later after
her healing, in September 1908 she became my wife and became the mother of five
children four boys, and one girl. During our married life we walked hundreds of
miles together abundant proof of the perfect soundness of her limb. Acts 3:16.
Praise God. Diolch Iddo.


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  CHAPTER 4: 04 - CHAPTER 04
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 4 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price THE EFFECTUAL FERVENT PRAYER OF
A RIGHTEOUS MAN AVAILETH MUCH (James 5:16) *

* Annie Griffiths, my grandmother, was born on 30 December 1883 (or possibly
1882). This voyage would have been when Moody and Sankey were returning to the
United States after their 1882-1886 campaign.

Many may be interested to know that the World Famous Evangelist, D. L. Moody has
held Annie Griffiths in his arms and very earnestly and fervently prayed for
her, committing her to God’s care and keeping, and asking God’s blessing upon
her when she was but a babe in arms on board a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean
going to America, following her father who had gone some time previously. Her
mother was taken seriously ill on the voyage, and to all appearances would have
been buried at sea, the doctor said she was dying. D. L. Moody and Sankey were
there seeing all this, and Mr. Moody took the baby in his arms and prayed for
the Lord’s blessing upon her, and her mother, and committed them to God’s care
and keeping. Her mother recovered and they eventually reached America where they
lived for about two years before returning to South Wales. I have often wondered
whether the fervent prayer of that man of God has had very much to do with the
great blessing Annie has been to hundreds of God’s people all along the years;
in the Pentecostal movement especially where she was used in the ministry of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, Tongues, Interpretation, and Prophecy particularly in
the last. Many leaders in South Wales can verify this, to name just a few-Pastor
L. Jenkins of Newbridge, Pastor J. H. Phillips Bedlinog, Pastor William Owen
Treharris.

EMOTION-YES ALL EMOTION! This was the verdict passed by three level-headed,
highly intelligent, un-emotional deacons in a London chapel about the Revival.
The mother of one of them lived in the Rhondda Valley, so they decided they
would go down and stay a night or two in the mother’s house and then they would
have a chance to prove that it was all Emotion, All Emotion. They caught the six
p m from Paddington and arrived at their destination about eleven. One, whose
mother it was, knocked open the door and they walked in. Seeing a girl who
helped in the house, and not his mother, this one asked her "where is Mam?"
"Oh!" she replied, "Down at the meeting in the Chapel, I just now came from
there." She went on to add also, "It’s wonderful down in the meetings in the
Chapel, nobody wants to come from there." "In the MEETING at eleven-o-clock at
night" said the one "They must be going off their head right enough. Ridiculous!
Nothing but a lot of EMOTION."

"Well said one of the others "Now is our opportunity to prove that it is all
Emotion. Let’s go down to the meeting."

"To the meeting at this time of night? Not I. I’m not going to any meetings at
nearly midnight."

"Well" said the same one again "This is what we came down here for, and here is
our opportunity to prove it." So after some persuasion and pleading the three of
them went to the meeting. They went in and found a seat and sat down. After a
while listening to the wonderful singing, and the fervent praying, the
hallelujahs, the Amen’s, and the Diolch Iddo’s; and seeing the meeting in full
swing as if it were only six or seven, and not midnight-they began to wonder.

Then someone in the front noticed them, and asked them if one of them had a Word
from the Lord. They had never been asked a question like that before-"A Word
from the Lord?"

"Well" said one "He is the one to speak" and he pointed to his friend who was
supposed to be able to speak spontaneously on any subject. The one in the front
asked him if he had a Word from the Lord. He did not like to refuse so he got up
to speak, but lo, to his amazement he could not utter one word. A lump had got
in his throat, all he could do was to break down and cry and weep and asked them
to pray for him. Now sooner had he asked for prayer than a number of young
people surrounded then, and prayed for them. Praise the Lord, before that
meeting closed those three level-headed, highly intelligent, sober-minded,
un-emotional deacons had cried to God for mercy and were saved. Hallelujah.

Emotion had got them....


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  CHAPTER 5: 05 - CHAPTER 05
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 5 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT. For
some time after Miss Annie Griffiths’ healing, Cottage Prayer Meetings were held
weekly at their home where many were blessed of God. Also through those meetings
and our acquaintance with the family and O. M. Owen, we became acquainted with
many other ministers who had been wonderfully blessed during the Revival. R. B.
Jones. W. S. Jones LLwynypia, D. S. Jones Bridgend, Hill Penyfair, Thomas
Penprisk, Evans LLwynendy and Thomas Madog Jeffreys Waenlwyd (who later was the
Officiating minister at our Wedding on 16th September 1908 at the Market Square
Chapel Merthyr Tydfil.) Prof. Keri Evans Cwmarthen and others. We used to
frequent also Conventions held for the deepening of the Spiritual Life at
various places where these ministers were speakers at different times,
especially the Keswick Convention held every August at LLandrindod Wells. But
although receiving much blessing through and in these meetings, yet we were not
satisfied. We believed that the Lord did have something more for us. The Lord
had also been enlightening our understanding in the Word that there ought to be
an Enduement with Power from On High, and that Acts 2:4 ought to be our
experience. Also about this time Annie Griffiths use to receive papers from
Spokane, American with the news that large numbers were receiving this
experience according to Acts 2:4. Then in the Autumn of 1907 came the news that
the Lord was pouring out His Spirit in All Saints Vicarage, Sunderland, where
Pastor Body was the vicar. All this news was creating a deeper hunger and thirst
in many of us boys in Dowlais for the same experience, Thomas Madoc Jeffreys,
Congregational Minister Waenlwyd, Mr. Ebbw Vale had been in those meetings in
Sunderland.

Easter Monday 1908, a few of us from Dowlais, including Willie John Phillips,
Bedlinog, (the brother of Pastor J. H. Phillips) heard that the Lord Jesus was
pouring out the Holy Spirit at T. M. Jeffrey’s chapel at Waenlwyd. T. M.
Jeffreys was having Special Meetings with Pastor Niblock from London and brother
A. H. Post from Los Angeles California, who was in this country at the time and
both of these had also attended the meetings in Sunderland. So on Easter Monday
1908 four of us decided we would go over to Waenlwyd the following day, Tuesday.
We met the next morning and went. We had never been to Waenlwyd before. We got
to the chapel just as they were coming out of the afternoon meeting and a sister
in Christ by the name of Mrs. Jenkins took the four of us home to have tea with
her, and then, after tea, back to the chapel. The meetings were held in the
vestry, and being in a strange place the four of us sat together in the back
seat, Willie John Phillips, John Daniel Jones, Gwilym Gunter and myself-Price
Davies. The meeting commenced with a hymn and was then left entirely to the
Lord-and Oh what a wonderful meeting. There was a wonderful outpouring of the
Holy Spirit on that congregation and there, in that meeting the four of us,
sitting side by side, in the back seat were filled with the Holy Ghost and began
to speak in Other Tongues as the Spirit gave us utterance-Acts 2:4 had become
our experience Hallelujah! We stayed the night at Waenlwyd and came back the
next day. We walked over the mountain to Tredegar, and caught the train at
Nantybwch to Dowlais. I was at that time living with my sister Jemima at number
sixty Dowlais Top. Whilst I was away my sister’s little girl-who had been
seriously ill with pneumonia-died; the funeral took place the following Saturday
afternoon. After the funeral a number of us gathered together at my brother’s
home at number seven Ivor terrace, off Pant Road, Dowlais. My brother’s name was
David John Davies, his wide was Edith Davies, both had been saved in the Welsh
Revival and both were following on to know more of God’s wonderful provision for
us in Christ Jesus our Saviour and Lord. And there in that gathering that
evening, when we were witnessing of the Blessed and Wonderful Experience we had
received the previous Tuesday at Waenlwyd, the Lord Jesus blessed us with
another outpouring of His Holy Spirit and another four were filled with the Holy
Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. So
that made eight in Dowlais (including Willie John Phillips, Bedlinog) that had
received our baptism in the Spirit according to Acts 2:4. The four brethren
baptized that night were Isaac Roberts (Pastor David John Robert’s father);
William Jones, Station Terrace; Evan Jones (William’s brother living in
Pengarnddw); and David John Davies my own brother who in later years was Pastor
D. J. Davies Ystrad Rhondda and the Treasurer of the South Wales District of the
Assemblies of God. The following week two sisters received their Baptism at
number seven Ivor Terrace, they were Janet Hill and Edith Davies my brother’s
wife who had also received in the same week a wonderful healing of a serious
internal complaint. So the dear Lord was working with us with Signs following.
Morris Davies was another Dowlais boy who had been saved in the Welsh Revival
and who was living at this time in Brynteg Cottages Gorseinon. During the Easter
of 1908, a Convention was held at Swansea, where the children of God gathered
together from many parts of South Wales. On the Easter Tuesday night, a few
stayed at Brynteg Cottages with Mr. and Mrs. David Evans, and there also that
night the dear Lord poured out the Holy Spirit and two were filled with the Holy
Ghost and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The two
brothers who received were Hodges Hereford, and Morris Davies, who soon
afterwards came back to Gellifaelog to live. When the Lord was blessing Morris
that night, He revealed to him (and Morris told those that were there) that
Price Davies and others were getting the same blessing as well. One of those who
stayed at Brynteg Cottages that night was George Vale (Garfield Vale’s father)
he was at that time living at Tylacelyn Road Penygraig, Rhondda Valley where he
pioneered and became pastor of the Tonypandy Assembly prior to moving to
Gorseinon to live. We used to visit their home in Tylacelyn Road and have some
precious times of fellowship together when Garfield was still a boy at school I
remember one time especially, when over in the Rhondda during a Convention, with
W. S. Jones at Jerusalem, LLwynypai: When George Vale brought thirteen of us
home for tea when Willie my wife’s brother was wonderfully blessed during a time
of prayer in an upstairs room, maybe Garfield (who received


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  CHAPTER 6: 06 - CHAPTER 06
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 6 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price WATER BAPTISM ACCORDING TO THE
WORD OF GOD. The Presbyterian mode of Baptism is Sprinkling a few drops of water
on the head. After my conversion in the Revival, I saw and realized that the
Lord’s way, according to the Bible, was Immersion-Burial and Resurrection. Some
brethren, who had been blessed in the Revival from Gorseinon, used to visit us
in Dowlais and were a real blessing to us in Dowlais in our Friday night Free
Meetings in the lesser hall of the Undenominational Chapel, Ivor Street, kindly
lent to us every Friday evening. Mr. James Borthwick was the name of one of
these brethren. I remember talking to some of the boys one Thursday evening and
they were asking when Mr. Borthwick was coming to see us again. I said to Willie
Griffiths "When you and I will be ready to be baptized in water". When we got to
the meeting Friday night, Mr. Borthwick was there-he had come for that purpose
to arrange for Baptisms. That night it was arranged that the following day Mr.
Borthwick should baptize myself and John Daniel Jones in the River Taff at
Pontsarn. On the Saturday afternoon we were baptized according to the Word of
God, Evan Clement Morgan was one of the congregation looking at that Baptismal
Service. A few years later I baptized Pastor Gwilym Gunter and Mrs. Price Davies
at the same place in the River Taff at Pontsarn. Our obedience to God in being
baptized in water was the cause of the cessation of our membership in Calfaria.

Just before and after the Outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Dowlais, the meetings
were held in our homes-number seven Ivor Terrace, and the top house in Winifred
Street in Gwilym and Amelia Gunters’ home, and in Blaendowlais at Isaac Roberts
home. After our marriage in our house at Penygarnddu and one meeting in our
house in Well Street, Dowlais. Our house in Penygarnddu was only one small room
up and one small room downstairs, it was too small for our meetings, so we were
all looking for a larger house. Bye and bye we heard of a house in Well Street
with large rooms. I went to see the owner and she let me have the house. On the
Friday following we moved in. The next day the saints fathered for a meeting,
and what a grand meeting-the brethren praising the Lord with a loud voice,
speaking with Other Tongues and Magnifying God. I must admit it was rather a
noisy meeting, for a Cottage Meeting. The result was that the neighbors were up
in arms about it, they sent for the landlady, and she sent for the Police and we
were put out. The landlady said she let the house as a dwelling place and not as
a place to make Bedlam in. The following Sunday Morning we held our meeting a
Breaking of Bread Service, on the hillside at Blaendowlais, Dowlais Top, and Oh
what a Precious and Blessed time of worship it was-the Power of God was mightily
upon us. Diolch Iddo. Bendigedig. So Pentecost increased, on after another in
the different homes being brought into and receiving the blessed experience at
Being Filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking with Other Tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance. Willie John Phillips was also making contacts at Bedlinog.
Edmund Griffiths and the family and others too and they were coming up to
Dowlais for fellowship.


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  CHAPTER 7: 07 - CHAPTER 07
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Davies’ Pentecostal Movement: Chapter 7 The Beginning of the Pentecostal
Movement in the Merthyr Borough by Davies, Price LIVING IN A GOSPEL CARAVAN.

While we were without a house we were offered a Gospel Caravan, and pitched it
just above LLwydcoed, just off the roadsite. During our stay in the Gospel
Caravan, Hopkins the farmer close by us was converted and opened the farm house
for meetings. So we held meetings weekly in the farm and had some precious times
in the presence of God. Diolch Iddo. It was while we were living in the Caravan
that our little daughter, Mair died, and was buried in the Aberdare Cemetery.

Some months later the owner, a Mr. Morgan from LLanelly, wanted the van for his
own use so we had to let him have it; but Praise the Lord we did have fruit for
our labour during the time we spent in it ourselves. In the year 1910 we moved
to the Rhondda Valley. D. J. Davies, my brother, and his wife had moved to the
Rhondda before us; they were at one time living in, and conducting meetings at,
the Co-operative House, Blaenclydach and afterwards they lived in the main
street of Treorky the meetings being held in a large room there above a café. We
were living at Ynyshir and meetings were held at several homes: At Tom Ablett’s
home, Evan Ablett’s home (Noah their brother was MP for Merthyr) also at the
home of their parents in Aber Rhondda, Rood, Port, and in Tom Saunder’s home.
The Lord was leading a good number out of the different Chapels and bringing
them into the blessed experience of Pentecost. Hallelujah. My first contact with
one of the noted Jeffrey’s Family.

During Easter 1911, my brother D. J. Davies was having a convention at his place
in Treorky, where there was a good gathering of God’s people from many parts of
the different valleys. I was one of the ministering brethren during that
convention and a number of believers here came to a decision to be baptised in
water. On Easter Tuesday a Baptismal Service was arranged on the side of the
mountain at Ynyshir. The women brought blankets and sheets from their homes and
rigged tents for changing among the trees. A good number were baptised among
them being Arthur Davies and Tom Griffiths from Aberaman, many men and women
from Ynyshir including Evan Ablett, some from Tonypandy and Blaenclydach (one
from Blaenclydach was James Henry Boyce who not long after went to India as a
missionary under the P. M. U.) There were also some from Treorky and David
Bedford and Mrs. Bedford and Miss Annie Owen who later became Mrs. Lane the wife
of Pastor W. Lane, Maesteg, and also Mrs. Stephen Jeffreys-all from Maesteg. It
was an unforgettable day. Joy abounding and the Lord abundantly glorified in the
obedience of His people to His blessed Will and Word in Water Baptism, all went
home full of the joy of the Lord and wonderfully blessed of God. Praise
God-Hallelujah. One result of that obedience in Water Baptism was that in the
same week a letter came from Stephen and George Jeffreys asking me if I would
come over to Maesteg to baptise them in water. I wrote back to say that the
first day off at the colliery, (I was at this time working in the Standard
Colliery Ynyshir,) we would come over. In about two weeks time there was a
Railway Strike, no work at the pit-no coal wagons. So on the Saturday three of
us started out for Maesteg. Myself, Annie my wife, and Johnny Griffiths who was
living with us at that time in Aberhondda Road Porth. No trains No Buses then.
We caught an Electric Tram from Porth to Treherbert and then walked. Walk, walk,
walk. We walked from Treherbert to Blaenrhondda and from Blaenrhondda to
Blaencwm, and from Blaencwm through a Railway Tunnel to Blaengwynfi, and from
Blaengwynfi to Cymmer Glyncorrwg, and from Cwmmer Glyncorrwg to Caerau Maesteg.
We arrived at Stephen Jeffreys’ home about eight-o-clock at night-weary, worn
and glad. Glory to God. Hallelujah. After a nice meal, Annie always remembered
it-salmon and lettuce, a blessed time of fellowship we went to bed for a well
earned rest. Perhaps some of you readers know the mileage we had walked, and
realize how wonderful it really was when you remember that only a few years
previously Annie was a helpless, hopeless cripple with a Tubercular Hip. How
wonderful indeed, Praise God. Then Sunday morning after breakfast and a time of
Prayer we set off for a spot called Cwmdu, and there on that Sunday Morning
three weeks after Easter 1911 Stephen Jeffreys, who afterward became the Beloved
Evangelist at a World Renown Revivalist, and Eddie Jeffreys his son were
baptised in water under an open heaven, Natural and Spiritual. All the
congregation we had was Annie my wife, and Johnny Griffiths which was two more
than Phillip had when he baptised the Ethiopian Eunuch in the Desert (Acts
chapter eight.) Johnny Griffiths was the Pentecostal Pioneer in the Aberdare
Valley, and later, he also saw the vision on the wall behind the pulpit when
Pastor Stephen Jeffreys was preaching in Island Place, LLanelly. George Jeffreys
for some reason best known to himself was not baptised that Sunday morning. We
enjoyed blessed fellowship that Sunday at Maesteg, then the following Monday we
tramped it all the way back to Treherbert, and an electric tram to Porth. That
week I had a letter from George Jeffreys saying he was very sorry that he had
not been baptised the same time as Stephen and Eddie his son (Eddie was twelve
years old at that time) and asking me if I would please come over and baptize
him. I wrote back saying I would come at the first opportunity. In just a few
weeks there was a Docker’s Strike and again no wagons for the colliery. No
walking this time. We took a train to Maesteg. A Weeks Meetings were arranged to
be held at Mr. & Mrs. David Bedford’s home in Bridgend Road. George was not in
the Sunday Morning Service but he was there for the evening and we closed that
meeting early and marched in procession down through Bridgend Road to the River.
There again under Open Heaven George Jeffreys was baptised with a nice
congregation joining in the service. Coming back from this service along the
banks of the river, Stephen Jeffreys saw a vision of Fire in the Heavens. George
Jeffreys, as all will know, became the founder and the Principal of the Elim
Pentecostal Movement, and a World renowned Revivalist with a Wonderful and
Miraculous Ministry of Healing. Glory to God, Hallelujah. Bendigedig.


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