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  RENT HEAVENS, THE REVIVAL OF 1904
  by Rhys B. Jones
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Jones's historical account of the Welsh Revival of 1904, describing its origins
in small prayer meetings and young people's spiritual experiences in New Quay,
Wales, and the subsequent outpouring of divine grace that transformed
communities across the principality.

  Chapters: 7

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01 - The Name
    2. 02 - Origins
    3. 03 - November, 1904 - The Double Outburst
    4. 04 - The Revival Meetings
    5. 05 - Immedieate Practical Results
    6. 06 - Lasting Fruit
    7. 07 - Addenda

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  CHAPTER 1: 01 - THE NAME
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CHAPTER I THE NAME THE Revival is herein preferably called, "The Revival of
1904," and that in the same sense as "The Revival of ’59" is so named. Neither
of these two blessed seasons of spiritual power was confined to the year of its
name. In each case the year is mentioned as that in which the mighty work came
to a definite crisis and became publicly known. In each case the work belongs to
years both prior and subsequent to that year. 1904 is memorable as the year of a
great manifestation of Revival in the Principality of Wales. There was, as will
be shown, real revival even ere 1904 dawned, and certainly before November,
1904. It needs also to be remembered that, long after 1904 was past, the Divine
work continued.

I. "THE WELSH REVIVAL" The Revival is sometimes called "The Welsh Revival", and
that for the natural reason that the work had its begin­nings in Wales, and
also, perhaps, because it was there it found its most striking manifestations
and fruits. It were, however, a mistake to infer from this title that the work
was limited to Wales. True, for some inexplicable reason, it did not sweep over
England and other parts of our island; and yet many a town and district in
England, Scotland, and Ireland shared in the blessing. The mighty flame spread
also to other lands. Many of the Protestant countries of Europe reported unusual
movements of the Spirit, and mission fields in Africa and Asia were also
touched. On the Khassia Hills and in other places in Assam, where the
Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales has a work, the in­tensity was almost as
great as that experienced in Wales. Moreover, in the United States and Canada
there were very definite stirrings in several parts. The writer was himself
privileged with a part in a Revival which, early in 1907, swept through Churches
in some Welsh colonies in Pennsylvania. These facts show that to speak of "The
Welsh Revival" is apt to mislead.

WORSE THAN MISLEADING In some ways, to speak of "The Welsh Revival" may
sometimes be worse than misleading. Unconsciously perhaps to the speaker the
phrase has occasionally fallen on Welsh ears with a suspicion of something like
disdain. It may be that Welsh ears are somewhat ultra-sensitive, nevertheless it
cannot be denied that there have been attempts, as at Pentecost, at discrediting
the whole movement. Suggestions have been thrown out that it was little other
than a character­istic unrestrained letting loose of "Welsh emotion!" Emotion,
according to this much too widely-diffused notion, seems to be a monopoly of
Celtic races, and found at its highest among the inhabitants of the
Principality. All this sounds rather foolish to Welsh people, who know so many
of their com­patriots to be as stolid and impassive as any, and who read
occasionally of ungovernable emotion at such places as Epsom Downs and Wembley.

It matters little to Welsh people how they are regarded by their neighbour
races, but it matters much when such notions, spreading themselves, hinder the
spread of God’s fire when once He has kindled it. Many a child of God in Britain
to-day may wonder why the Revival of 1904 did not sweep over the whole island.
May it be lovingly and earnestly suggested that the reason, in great part, may
be that that Revival was commonly attributed to a supposed character­istic of
the Welsh people, and that British peoples, who are not Welsh, seem to fear
emotion when connected with spiritual movements. It is natural to shout at the
"Derby", but one must be more sedate in the religious service. Uncontrolled
spasms of emotion are what no sane person would urge or favour, but, if the past
is any clue, it may confidently be stated that those who fear to be stirred by
deep feelings, sometimes difficult to suppress, had better not look for
Re­vival. One notices that, already, predictions of the coming Revival make it
clear that it will be something altogether different from former ones; it will
certainly be "moral" rather than "emotional"! All this interests exceedingly,
for the writer recalls his own similar predictions in the years prior to 1904;
predictions, he gratefully confesses, entirely falsified by the event. Since
then he has learned that when the Holy Spirit is doing His "strange work" there
is nothing so unreliable a guide as our poor human wisdom, and that those who
fear being deemed as "full of new wine" had better give Pentecosts and Revivals
as wide a berth as possible. AN "ORGY OF EMOTION"? The idea that the Revival of
1904 was largely an "orgy of emotion" has been so sedulously cultivated and
spread that there seems to be every justification for an attempt at "nailing it
down". This, perhaps, can best be done by the telling of the following story,
the detailed truth of which the writer vouches for; he knows the facts and the
persons concerned; some of them, intimately. A Welshman in an Asiatic city-a
very well-known Christian man-hearing of the outbreak in his native Wales in
1904, as soon as possible hurried home. Arrived in England he called upon a
personal friend, a well-known evangelical leader, and told him what had thus
suddenly brought him back to these shores. During the conversation that ensued
he was definitely discouraged going down to Wales, the impression given him
being that it was not worth his while doing so to witness what was nothing more
than the unspiritual display of carnal feelings! So did he trust the judgment of
his friend that he there and then booked his passage and returned to his adopted
foreign home, a bitterly disappointed man. Some years later he was back again in
this country and on a visit to a centre where spiritual children of God from
many a quarter meet for fellowship. Included in the company at that time were a
few from Wales. The foreign Welshman heard their testimony and prayers with
amazement, and felt the impact of the power of their lives. It was all so new to
him that he naturally inquired who these people were and whence they came. When
he learned that they were from Wales, and that their experiences were born in
the Revival, he told them the story of his previous visit, and how he had been
robbed of the blessing of going down to Wales and seeing for himself. A "BARRAGE
OF ICE" This incident, one fears; is but typical of much that hap­pened in those
years. And it is the writer’s deep conviction, if he may be permitted its
expression, that herein lay a chief reason why the grand work did not spread to
Wales’s immediate neighbours. That "barrage of ice" hindered the fire
spread­ing. It was a serious slandering of the work, and a solemn grieving of
the Spirit. To attribute to carnal emotion what was manifestly the work of the
Holy Ghost can hardly be less than blasphemy. Repentance for this sin would, one
sincerely believes, remove a great obstacle in the way of the coming Revival for
which so much prayer ascends. Had the wise advice of the late Bishop Moule been
heeded, how different things might have been! Writing to his clergy at that time
he earnestly appealed that they "observe the movement with a reverent welcome
and a sacred hope". He, who himself knew the ’59 Revival, added, "A venerated
friend of mine, intimately conversant with the Revival time of 1859, told me a
few years ago that nothing was more saddening than the cold view of that
extraordinary upheaval taken by too many." Alas, that it is ever true, whenever
God appears, it can be said, even of the Lord’s own people, "There standeth One
among you whom ye know not." THE SMOKELESS FLAME

Protesting at the time the Vicar of Rhos wrote, "Sneers are made at our Celtic
temperament, but God gave it, and God can use it for the glory of His Name." If
the Welsh people share rather liberally, as is commonly assumed, in the gift of
emotion, they need have no shame on that account, nor need it be gratuitously
assumed that they do not know how to control it. Said an English visitor, an
eminent journalist, of his experiences, "I certainly saw nothing of that
(emotional) kind that might not be paralleled in mission services in England
.... There was absolutely nothing wild, violent, hysterical, unless it be
hysterical for the labouring breast to heave with sobbing that cannot be
repressed; and the throat to choke with emotion as a sense of the awful horror
and shame of a wasted life suddenly bursts upon the soul. ... The vast
congregations were as soberly sane, as orderly, and at least as reverent as any
congregation I ever saw beneath the dome of St. Paul’s, when I used to hear
Canon Liddon, the Chrysostom of the English pulpit. But it was aflame with a
passionate religious enthusiasm, the like of which I have never seen in St.
Paul’s." *

* The Revival in the West. Sir Arthur Keith, it may be added, in his recent
book-Ethnos: A Problem of Race-discusses the question "whether the heart of
Wales is likely to run away with her head", and rightly answers that "Welsh
reason is sufficiently strongly en­trenched to resist any such tendency".

He further testifies that Mr. Evan Roberts, "while abso­lutely tolerant of all
manifestations of the Spirit, was stern to check any disorder." Giving an
instance of this, he con­tinues, "At F--, where some persons had been disturbing
the meeting by exuberant and unseemly noises, he said, ‘He who would walk with
God must come to His house in a spirit of prayer, of humility, of awe. Joy is
permissible in the house, but it must be sanctified joy. For think of the
majesty of the Divine Person. . . . If we truly walk with God, there can be no
disorder, no indecency.’’’ The same witness puts his testimony on this point in
a nutshell when he says, "The flame of Welsh enthusiasm is as smokeless as its
coal."

PRACTICAL EMOTION

"I saw no trace of extravagance or fanaticism," wrote the late beloved Rev. J.
J. Luce, M.A., of Gloucester, after a visit with the Rev. Francis Paynter, M.A.,
to several of the "storm centres" in Glamorganshire. Our brother, in writing so,
did not of course wish to give the impression that the meetings were of the
"cemetery" type. Mr. Luce-­himself well known as a sweetly boisterous
Christian-would hardly have enthused over such. He would, rather, have heartily
agreed with the quaint comment of an old "fifty­niner" (the Rev. Griffith Jones,
Tregarth) who, when someone reflected rather critically on the commotion at a
meeting said, "I do not wonder at the great ado to-night. I have noticed that
there is always a great commotion when one birth takes place, but here to-night
are scores of newly born ones." * * Dafydd Morgan a Diwygiad 59, p. 451.

Mr. Paynter, a different type of man from his friend and companion, was equally
definite on the matter. Nothing that he saw and heard offended his deeply
sensitive spirit, and in his written impressions in The Life of Faith we find
these words, "Though the work is emotional, and we do not despise emotion in its
proper place, it is most practical." He added, "We have mingled with them, as,
for hours to­gether, they waited on God in a quiet, orderly way with very little
excitement, singing their beautiful Welsh melodies." Once more, the same witness
said, "I went to South Wales to see what God is doing, and have come back full
of thankfulness and praise. We have drawn nigh, and seen a great sight in this
sceptical age." The reader will forgive the amount of space given to the matter
of these last paragraphs. They are deemed necessary in view of the persistent
way in which one of the greatest Revivals of history has been misrepresented and
maligned. Perhaps, as one has said, it is true of Revivals as it is of any­thing
else, " Woe be unto you when all men speak well of you."

2. "THE EVAN ROBERTS REVIVAL"

Another name given the work is "The Evan Roberts Revival", a name which Mr. Evan
Roberts himself, with many others, would strongly deprecate. "The grace of
self-­effacement," as the late Rev. Evan Hopkins justly said at the time, "is
one of the things that impress one in Evan Roberts." Of course, it is easily
understood how such a description would arise seeing that he was far and away
the most prominent figure in the movement. As is well known, in a few months the
name of the young miner-student from Loughor had become famous throughout the
world. In those years he was easily the best known Christian in the five
continents. Doubtless, he was signally used to popularize the work then
proceeding in Wales. But it were wrong to assume that the Revival, humanly
speaking, is to be attri­buted to him. He himself would willingly agree that he
was more the child than the founder of the work. Just as in 1859 in Wales, the
Rev. David Morgan came in to carry on what another (the Rev. Humphrey Jones) had
begun, so was it also in 1904. It must also be remembered that the Revival
reached almost every nook and corner in the Princi­pality, whilst the ministry
of its principal figure was, with little exception, entirely exercised within
one of its twelve counties. The fire burned in places which he did not and could
not visit; in several places which he did visit the fire was already blazing ere
he came. This fact, and its important lesson, should not be forgotten. One of
the characteristics of true Revival is that it depends upon no human
personality. It is "the wind that bloweth where it listeth ". True Revival is
never organized; it is never, so to speak, carried in any individual’s pocket.
This was specially true of that Revival in 1904, concerning which the then
Editor of The Life of Faith glowingly challenged, "Has there ever before been
anything equal to this?" ii.

ORIGINS "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted, and became four heads."

- Genesis 2:10.

"No man can find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even unto
the end."

- Ecclesiastes 12:11 (R.V.).

"The thing that is hid bringeth He forth light."

"God understandeth the way thereof."

- Job 28:11, Job 28:23.

"The hope of the Church is in the holiness movement."

-R. W. DALE, LL. D.


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  CHAPTER 2: 02 - ORIGINS
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CHAPTER II

ORIGINS

THOUGH every Revival ultimately culminates in a form which attracts the
attention of all, no Revival is of sudden origin. Behind the startling outburst
is a process which sometimes goes on for years, a purifying and preparatory
process. It was so in connection with that of 1904. It has already been hinted
that the Revival goes back beyond November, 1904. Not many will care to contest
that state­ment. Indeed, in most of the few records of the movement it is found
that there were small burstings forth, more especially in New Quay,
Cardiganshire, in the earlier part of the year. The writer had the privilege of
visiting New Quay in August, 1904, and found indisputable signs of the grace of
God that had been poured forth upon several young people. They greedily devoured
every bit of teaching from the Word, a sure token that the life begotten by that
same Word was within. Earlier in the year-in February, so runs the story­-at a
meeting of young Endeavourers, a young girl was lifted from her seat, and, in
spite of her natural and pronounced shyness, with trembling lips was inspired to
say fervently in Welsh, " Yr wyf yn caru Iesu Grist a’m holl galon" ("I love
Jesus Christ with all my heart "). It was all so unexpected, so beautifully
simple and sincere, so manifestly of the Spirit that it acted like a spark on
tinder. The weeks that followed were unforgettable and, in August, 1904, after
several months, as the writer himself saw, the fire burned brightly.

BACKGROUND OF PRAYER

Whilst this very striking incident must not be forgotten, it is necessary to go
still farther back for the origins of the mighty movement. In her useful book,
The Awakening in Wales, and Some of the Hidden Springs, Mrs. Penn-Lewis goes
back as far as the incident above referred to and also to the Llandrindod
Convention of 1903, but there are "hidden springs" of which she was not told.
Indeed, at that time, there was neither time nor inclination to trace them, so
en­grossed were all with the work itself. It is only in later years that
opportunity has come for tracing the wondrous steps the Holy Spirit took. Of
course, it goes without telling that, like every other Revival, this also had
its springs in prayer. God seems to have so ordained that most, if not indeed
all, of His activities in the moral and spiritual realms should be the responses
of His heart and power to the prayers of His people. No axiom seems surer than
that. At the same time, if one is asked to probe to the praying that lay back of
the Revival of 1904, that is, such praying as would seem adequate to account for
the tremendous things that followed, one would be com­pelled to confess
inability. Doubtless, there were those in Wales itself who pleaded for Revival,
and, there was also the universal praying for Revival that belongs peculiarly to
the year 1902. Beyond this the writer has knowledge of nothing in the form of
adequate prayer that might explain the copious showers that fell.

UNPUBLISHED FACTS But if the Revival cannot here be traced back along the lines
of prayer, it is nevertheless possible to do so along other lines; lines,
perhaps, equally vital. That, however, belongs to a story which only a few have
known and treasured in their hearts all the years, waiting for the time when the
Lord would have it written. That time, it is felt, has now come. It is right
that the facts should be known; more, it is necessary and profitable. God’s
"ways" are ever of interest, His "ways" in Revival especially so; "ways" that
need to be pondered by such as pray for Revival and who might desire to be used
in any Revival the future may bring. THE YEAR 1896 For the last century or two,
as has been pointed out, "revival seems to travel in the opposite direction to
the sun. The great Revival of 1740, under Jonathan Edwards in New England,
preceded by many years the Welsh Revival under Howell Harris and Daniel Rowlands
and the English Revival under Wesley and Whitefield. In like manner the Revival
that touched Wales and Ireland in 1859, and England in the early sixties, had
its birth in 1857 or 1858 across the Atlantic." As for the ’59 Revival in Wales
it is clear that its origins layaway in the United States. A young Wesleyan
minister named Humphrey Jones had emigrated there from Wales. Having himself
"caught fire" in the Revival con­nected with the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting,
New York, after much Revival work in his adopted land, he became burdened with
the condition of his own native Principality, and returned here, as he confessed
to the friend who met him at Liverpool, "to set Wales on fire!" This was in
June, 1858. His return to Wales saw the beginning of "The Revival of ’59". That
is to say, the anachronism notwith­standing, the ’59 Revival began in June,
1858! Humphrey Jones, however, was not to be the prominent messenger to Wales at
that time. God had another instrument-the Rev. David Morgan, Ysbytty-for the
work of spreading the fire which Jones had kindled.

All this is increasingly interesting when it is recalled that the first known
outburst of the Spirit of God which led to the Revival of 1904 also took place
beyond the Atlantic, and with which another of the name of Jones is concerned.
This, briefly told, is the story. In the year 1896, in a Church in Scranton,
Penna, U.S.A., laboured a pastor who had settled there from Wales a few years
previously. It was a thriving church, and the pastor ere he left Wales was,
though young, one of the two most eminent preachers in his own denomination.
Well-read, cultured, possessed of a mind penetrating and analytical. to a
degree, he delighted his American audiences as he had his Welsh hearers. Still,
his preaching, as he confessed in later years, was something far beyond his
experience. Divine and eternal realities to his then somewhat sceptical and
rationalistic mind were so many postulates of thought and nothing more. Then
came a variety of trials which led to a more serious thought than ever
concerning God and the meaning of life. The fallow ground in his own heart was
being dealt with. A day came when the reality of God as a Person and a Holy
Presence seemed to dawn on his soul: that God was his own Father, and that
underneath him were "the everlasting arms" were facts so borne in upon him that
life seemed altogether new and the joy of his heart was boundless. How great his
wonder­ment at his erstwhile blindness! All things had become new. It was only a
beginning, and yet his preaching took on a new note and there was a new power.

CARMARTHEN

Ere that awakening had proceeded far God’s providence decreed a return to his
native Wales. It was at once observed that the minister who had returned to
Wales was different from the one who had left Wales a few years before. "Ye must
be born again," in those days, seemed a strange text for a popular preacher, and
that too in one of the high denominational preaching festivals! The people did
not gather at such a time to be convicted of sin and spiritual need, and it was
therefore not to be wondered at that the message of the preacher fell somewhat
flat. The common query thereafter was, "What has happened to --? He does not
preach as he used to." THE SECRETS OF GOD His return to Wales coincided with the
completing in his life of the work which the Spirit of God had begun across the
sea. Experiences which have been the lot of other pioneers of Revival were his
also. "In point of fact," to quote Professor James, "you will hardly find a
religious leader of any kind in whose life there is no record of such things.
St. Paul had his visions, his ecstasies. The whole array of Christian saints,
including the greatest-the Luthers, the Foxes, the Wesleys-had these visions,
voices, rapt conditions, guiding impressions, and openings. They had these
things because they had exalted sensibility, and to such things persons of
exalted sensibility are liable." The gifted professor, were he discussing the
matter from the point of view of these pages, might have added that such persons
are not only liable to such things, but also that such things are what really
constitute them pioneers in any new movement of the Spirit.

Over these things, in the case of the brother referred to is drawn a veil, and
if ever that veil which covers those sacred and marvellous dealings of God with
his soul is to be drawn aside, he himself must be the one to do it. Maybe he is
wise in not divulging them; they may have been for him alone; "pearls" and "holy
things" which few, if any others could fully appreciate and understand. And,
surely, it is right that the Father should have some "secrets" with His children
without risking their being bruited abroad from every house­top. God does not
give His servants marvellous experiences in order that they might appear to
others to be marvellous people. Speaking of "transports", Professor James
insists that "mystical truth exists for the individual who has the transport,
but for no one else". Paul, obviously, agreed with him, for he kept to himself
his" third heaven" rapture until he was forced by the folly of his antagonists
to divulge it. The brother referred to, although he could tell a story as
wonderful as any connected with the Revival, has probably followed the Lord’s
will in letting it be known to but a few of his closest friends. A FAVOURED
CHURCH His church soon realized that it had a pastor of an unusual, an
altogether new type. The preaching, while it had lost nothing of its brilliant
intellectuality, was concerned with a new message and charged with a power that
was overwhelm­ing. The holiness of the Lord had become to him a thing of
tremendous reality; he himself had stood in its humbling light, and now his
people also were searched by the same pitilessly searching and inescapable rays.
There was no great commotion in the meetings, but individuals here and there
went through the terrific agony of conviction of sin; and, finding peace at
last, and cleansing too, through the precious, expiating Blood, entered upon a
life of holy surrender.

FIRSTFRUITS The change in the pastor was obvious to all. Old faults of character
had given place to a meek earnestness that deeply impressed. The vessel had
become "only a broken vessel For the Master’s use made meet."

Brethren in the town, ministers of his own and other de­nominations, became
inquirers as they heard of the preach­ing and witnessed the life. The wife of
one of these "came through" into definite blessing and, some time later, her
husband also. THE SPREADING LIGHT The repute and influence of this work of God
were not confined to that county town. Our brother, being much in demand
throughout the Principality, found numerous oppor­tunities for ministry. That
ministry sounded a new note, and few at the time were able to realize what it
meant. The message burned with a fire that scorched even where it did not
consume. It revealed an ideal of Christian living far transcending the level of
the dead morality that ordinarily satisfies even those who profess regeneration.
It insisted that the laws of Christ had, for the believer, superseded the laws
of Moses. "Be ye holy" had substituted "Be ye moral". In its light it was seen
that to hate, despise, be unforgiving, etc., were as vile, if not viler, sins
than even the "gross sins" that had always been abhorred. Though most were
simply stunned by such preaching they nevertheless realized, though perhaps
dimly, that to give heart-assent to it involved a revolution for which, as yet,
they were hardly prepared, with the result that the preacher incurred their
dislike and the message was discounted. Some, and not a few either, came under
the power of the message so irresistibly that obedience followed. Habits that
had long been indulged were relinquished; redress for wrongs committed, where
that was possible, was made; differences between church members were composed by
confession and forgiveness. The writer speaks of some of these things as an
eye-witness for during those years, he had occasional opportunities of
fellowship with this brother at special meetings in different parts of Wales. It
was indeed a strange thing to see Welsh preaching festivals converted into what
approximated very nearly to Holiness Conventions! All believed in the sincerity
of the preacher; most failed to explain him; many became definitely hostile.

REINFORCEMENTS

All this went on from 1897. During those years, as on review can now be clearly
perceived, the message and life of this beloved brother were telling in a deep,
sure way on the hearts of many. Among these were some young ministers belonging
to his own religious body. Beneath a seemingly disdainful indifference a hunger
was being created which, presently, would become intolerable. In the providence
of God, early in 1903, they found themselves fairly near neigh­bours. Seriously
minded by this time, and having discovered affinity one with another, they began
meeting for prayer and other forms of spiritual intercourse. This fellowship but
intensified their hunger, bringing it at last to a pitch near to desperation. It
should, perhaps, be said that, during those months, some of them were
experiencing unwonted things. God was rending the heavens and coming down, and
moun­tains were flowing down at His presence. One of them recalls how, on
several Saturday evenings, sermon preparation for the following Lord’s Day being
over and he meditating and praying before the Lord, there would come upon him
such a power as would crush to tears and agonizing praying. All this was so new
and inexplicable; but he noticed that, in­variably, the next day’s preaching was
in unusual power. THE FIRST LLANDRINDOD CONVENTION As that. year 1903 wore on
this little group of young ministers· became conscious that all this must be
leading up to something important and definite, albeit, such was their;
spiritual ignorance, what that something definite might be they had hardly an
idea. The late revered Dr. F. B. Meyer had been greatly used to ministers in
South Wales. This they knew, and it was that knowledge that probably sug­gested
that he could perhaps help them also. Written to he replied that he was not
likely to be in their district for some time, but he informed them of a
"Keswick" Conven­tion which had been arranged for the first week in August at
Llandrindod Wells, and counselled their attendance thereat, promising also to
give them an interview there. This, it may be stated, was the first of the
Conventions at that beautiful Mid-Wales Spa, and the inception of the series at
this particular time seems to be a striking part of the preparation for the
mighty movement then imminent. That that Convention had a vital connection with
the Revival is certain, as the story which is here being told will, in part,
show. Keswick had not a little to do with the birth of the Revival, and many
have wondered how it happened that, when it was born, the nurse did not seem to
welcome as heartily as might be expected what was in large measure her child.
Not only is the influence of "Keswick ", especially via Llandrindod Wells,
distinctly traceable in the origins of the Revival, it is also noteworthy that,
in many a place which tasted the Revival blessing, the need for holding
Conventions for the solidifying of the work and the enlightening of the workers
in God’s methods of revival was keenly felt. And, it is but the barest truth to
say that, where the Conventions followed in the wake of the Revival, there the
fruits have been most fully conserved and matured. A NEW MINISTRY

Behind the first Llandrindod Convention there had been much prayer. Mrs.
Penn-Lewis, in her book already referred to, tells of how thirteen Welsh people,
gathered in 1896 (a year of peculiar moment in the story) at the Keswick
Con­vention, met together to pray for Wales, and definitely asked God to give to
Wales a Convention similar to the one at Keswick for the deepening of the
spiritual life. "For six years," Mrs. Penn-Lewis adds, "this petition lay before
the Lord, until in the seventh year-which in the Scriptures always speaks of
God’s fulness of time-the Lord’s time to answer had come." The letter from Dr.
Meyer was the first intimation the young ministers referred to received of the
proposed first Llandrindod Wells Convention. They decided to go. That Convention
was an utterly new and strange experience to them. Much could be written of the
struggle. Suffice it to say that the Lord gloriously prevailed and that those
young men returned to their pulpits altogether changed. A new vision had dawned
on their souls; spiritual truths had become articulate to their minds; an
unwonted power had come into both life and ministry. They knew what putting away
of sin was; they had found their way in surrender to the altar; they had entered
into the experience which follows the receiv­ing of the Holy Spirit in faith.
They were cleansed; cleansed from habits which had long defied their best
resolves. Of course, they had much yet to learn, but they were at least
conscious of having been ushered into a world altogether new, and that things
could never be again the same. The testimony of each in his own church made a
deep impression and caused intense questionings. Their new attitude toward
things which once were easily tolerated convinced their flocks that something of
importance had happened. Soon, in some at least of their churches, there were
signs of real awakening, and many were converted. Many of their members, the
young people especially, were led into full surrender to Christ as King and
became bold open-air witnesses.

VISION OF HOLINESS

During the last quarter of 1903 the work in the hearts of these young ministers
quietly developed. At the dawn of 1904 they found themselves burning with the
same message which, heretofore in Wales, had been heard from the lips of the
brother already mentioned only. The one flame had distri­buted itself into
several. That message, as already stated, was one to the Lord’s people; a call
to holiness. Strikingly enough, without the least collusion, and, indicative of
the leading and unity of the Spirit, several of these young ministers found
themselves preaching from the same Scripture; Isaiah’s vision of the Holy, Holy,
Holy God, and His call to solemn service! The light, as they preached, was
intense and the con­viction deep. Everywhere was heard the echo of Isaiah’s cry,
"Woe is me, for I am undone."

REVIVAL MISSIONS By this time signs of awakening were many. Together with the
pioneer brother referred to, some of these awakened men were asked to undertake
missions; a new thing to the men themselves, and something not very usual in the
churches in Wales. Indeed, to say the truth, the Welsh churches generally rather
looked askance at such efforts. However, with the holding of these missions, it
can confidently be stated, the Revival had taken on a very definite form.

It may be helpful if one of these missions were described. Typical of the rest,
let us think of one in the first month of 1904. The pastor of the church was
himself deeply exercised about his own life and ministry, and longed for
blessing upon himself and his people. The young and inexperienced mis­sioner (it
was his first mission) began the series of meetings, in much trembling. He
hardly knew what to do or to expect, but, from the first (there were so many
praying) there were, impressive manifestations of the Lord’s presence and work.
Every succeeding meeting fastened still more securely the Spirit’s grip on the
hearts of the gathered ones. The young members of the church were specially
moved. Let it be remembered that the message and its appeal were almost
exclusively to those within the church. The call was to holiness. After a few
nights, the "after-meeting" method was adopted. Those desiring definite blessing
were urged to remain after those who had to leave had gone. A sur­prisingly
large proportion of the congregation would stay. These were then further taught
the simple truth of the Lordship of the Saviour, and urged, first of all, to put
away all known sin and, if necessary, to be reconciled to others, of God’s
children, and make restitution where the latter was required and possible. Then
the simple way of faith in the matters of surrender to the rule of the Lord
Jesus and of the reception of the Holy Spirit was laid before them. That done,
while all knelt, one after another would speak out his or her confession,
decision, and faith, the Holy Spirit wondrously enabling. Can any pen describe
those meetings-their pure, tense, warm atmosphere? No sensationalism: such
meetings were hardly reportable; they provided no passable "copy" for the press.
All was so still, so silent, so deep, and yet overwhelming; as overwhelming as
when Elijah, hearing the "still, small voice ", hid his face in his mantle. In
the many meetings such as that just described, men and women-many of them still
with us-entered into a blessed experi­ence of the Lord which has stood the
stress of years and continued to grow. THE FIRE BURNING That mission and its
results could be multiplied many times over, as these "new" preachers blazed
throughout the Principality their newly-found message and testified to the
Lord’s power and grace. Cwmbach, Dowlais, Llwynypia, Penydarren, Porth,
Cefnrnawr, Cwmavon and Pencoed are only some of the places where the fires of
Revival burned glowingly, but, as yet, not in such form as to attract the
attention of the press. The spectacular was an element entirely absent from this
mighty work of the Spirit. A PRE-REVIVAL REVIVAL

Here is a letter written by a Welsh pastor, dated December 1st, 1904, and
recording movements of the Spirit in his own church and neighbourhood: "Much as
we rejoice in the present Revival which is quickly spreading over our dear land,
it is to our comfort and joy to be able to say that the Lord visited us in the
same manner locally something over a year ago. P-- Church, P-- (of which I am
pastor) was at that time in a state of cold indifference, the ordinary services
being chilly and formal; life and enthusiasm at zero point, and the conversions
few and far between. How­ever, one evening in the spring of 1903, some of our
young brethren-four in number-were found on the mountain holding a meeting for
prayer, and it transpired that they had been doing so every night for some
months. Their one object was to pray for Revival. The brother who discovered
them heartily joined them. When the news leaked out the whole church was moved
by the thought that her condition was so keenly felt by those who were so young
(the brethren who met for prayer were not more than eighteen years of age).
Some, it goes without saying, viewed the whole matter with suspicion and
disdain, feeling sure that it was nothing but a momentary flame soon
extinguished.

"Not so, however; the praying on the mountain continued, and those attending
increased in number; even those who never entered a place of worship were
attracted and remained to pray. And, as numbers increased, so also did the
fervour. Presently, the flame reached the whole church, and we were moved with
the Spirit of prayer and with a passion for souls. In an incredibly short time
the whole neighbourhood was ablaze with the divine fire. A special feature was
the part taken by the young women who prayed and sang swayed by the Holy Ghost.
On Sundays as many as six meetings would be held; thirty souls on one Sunday
coming to the Lord.

"Never shall I forget that summer; it was a time of un­speakable joy. For fully
six months we continued in prayer every night, and the effect of that blessed
time is evident even now when the wave of another general Revival has almost
submerged everything. The after-effects upon God’s people were very great.
Speaking for myself, my own heart and life were searched as never before. Was I
fully sur­rendered to the Lord? Where was the power that should be in my
ministry? Was I fully assured of salvation? Had I received the Holy Ghost? The
outcome of it all was that I yielded wholly to God, casting away all known sin,
and making God’s glory the one aim of my life and ministry. What an experience
followed! What joy!

Yours in Christ, E-- T--." AN UNMISTAKABLE AWAKENlNG

One of the "new" preachers referred to wrote under date, December 3rd, 1904, in
these terms, "My church has experienced a season of refreshing from the presence
of the Lord for at least five months. Indeed, there have been unmistakable signs
of awakening in some lives for the last fifteen months. There have been repeated
testimonies to a deep thirst for a holier life; many confessing that never in
their lives had they such a desire to live to God. About six months ago I
convened a special Sunday evening service for young people who desired to
possess a deeper spiritual life. The Holy Spirit came down and took possession
of that meeting and overwhelmed us all with power from on high. On another usual
Sunday evening service the Spirit descended in the same remarkable manner; I
could hardly speak, so manifest was the presence of God. There was such power in
the words I spoke that strong men were broken in pieces. That night several
young men gave themselves to the Lord. The same experience was repeated on
several Sunday evenings, but, as yet, the church as a whole was not ready.

"Then came the missionary prayer week, a week whose every night was spent in
praise and prayer. Following this came the week of thanksgiving for the harvest.
The Sunday preceding these special weeks, at my invitation, those who were ready
to yield entirely to the Lord and to go out seeking the lost, were met together.
They were but a few, but they were used for the kindling of the fire. Ever since
souls have been saved every day. The church had entered upon the blessing of
Pentecost. There is, of course, no doubt that the whole movement has a vital
connection with my own awakening. Now I have a new church with a large number of
men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, and who are used to win souls.

Yours in Him, 0-- M. 0--."

WEST WALES CONVENTIONS

Thus the fire was gaining strength presently to leap forward in irresistible
flame. Side by side with the Revival missions described, and the local
awakenings in south-east Wales just described, in north Carmarthenshire and
south Cardiganshire, local conventions were being held as early as 1903. New
Quay, Aberaeron, Borth, Blaenanerch, were some of the places where these were
held. These Conventions, it is important to note, were largely the direct
results of the work of grace in the county town already referred to. The
speakers thereat included the Rev. W. S. Jones; also the Revs. W. W. Lewis and
E. Keri Evans, M.A., two of the ministers in Carmarthen town who had come under
the influence of the message of the first-named; the Revs. J. Jenkins, New Quay;
J. Thickens, Aberaeron; and others. At a later stage the Rev. Seth Joshua came
in for a share in the work. The outburst at New Quay (mentioned on a previous
page) and these Conventions were intimately related. The whole of that
countryside in West Wales was now in a large degree awakened. It should also be
stated that the preparatory school, where Mr. Evan Roberts studied at that time,
is situate in that district. The story has already been told how it was that, in
one of those Conventions-the one at Blaenanerch in September, 1904-Mr. Roberts
and some of his colleagues entered into definite blessing, the blessing of being
"bent" to the Lord and His will. It was thus that the Revival, already existent,
brought forth its most prominent figure and leader.

MORE CONTRIBUTORY STREAMS In tracing these particular streams that led to the
Revival of 1904 it is not, of course, suggested that there were no others. There
doubtless were. It would, for example, be sheer ingratitude to forget two other
streams that unquestion­ably poured their quota to form the mighty tide. Both,
however, were somewhat more remote than those recorded in the preceding
paragraphs, but they were two special move­ments of the Holy Spirit within the
Principality preparatory to the later and greater movement. Both too, though
humanly independent, were largely contemporary. They are connected with two
well-loved names-two John’s-Rev. John Evans (Eglwysbach) and Rev. John Pugh. The
former, one of the mightiest Welsh preachers of his day, a Wesleyan Methodist,
and always a great evangelist, was so wrought upon by the Spirit of God that he
obtained freedom from the ordinary plan of his Church in order that, by adopting
new methods, he might win the masses of his people to Christ. His own spiritual
quickening and the consuming zeal of his mission work, especially at Pontypridd
the town chosen as centre-created a deep impression throughout the Principality.

Almost exactly in the same years, in another Denomination -the Calvinistic
Methodists-there arose another who after­wards became widely known as Dr. John
Pugh. Dissatisfied with ordinary methods, this devoted servant of God started an
evangelistic campaign in a tent at Cardiff, May, 1891. From that beginning
developed the "Forward Movement" of the body referred to, which for years has
done great work among the English element of the dense populations in South
Wales. It survives to this day and will soon be celebrating its fortieth
anniversary. Together with the Brothers Joshua (Seth and Frank) and others, Dr.
John Pugh did more than he had intended, and the Principality’s debt to his and
their services in the Gospel can never be calculated. Revival was brought nearer
through the pioneering evangelism of these two move­ments. iii

NOVEMBER, 1904

EL NINA: A few years ago a warm current called El Nina, which usually comes
before Christmas, swept southward along the west coast of South America in
greater volume than ever before. It brought with it torrential showers, which
visited parts of South America which had not known rain since the year I551.

El Nina turned thousands of miles of desert into paradise in an incredibly short
time, as it caused millions of hardy seeds which had lain dormant in the ground
through decades of drought to sprout and grow with incredible vigour.

"Lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the
earth, The time of the singing of birds is come And the voice of the turtle is
heard in the land."

- Song of Solomon 2:11-12.

"Assuredly the springs of life are breaking forth anew."

-DR. F. J. HORT (1870).


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  CHAPTER 3: 03 - NOVEMBER, 1904 - THE DOUBLE OUTBURST
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CHAPTER III

NOVEMBER, 1904 THE DOUBLE OUTBURST The Rev. W. Hobley, comparing the Revivals of
1859 and 1904 in Wales, calls attention to the fact, illustrated in the
foregoing pages, that the latter took longer to work its way to popular
attention than did the former, but that once it became manifest to all it spread
with a much greater rapidity, and made its influence felt more widely than did
its pre­decessor. He also states that it is a noteworthy feature of both
Revivals, that each began to spread beyond its erstwhile limitations, by means
of one special personality who was gripped some time after the Revival itself
had begun. * In the case of the ’59 Revival the personality was the Rev. David
Morgan, a man of forty-five years, and a minister near Aberyst­wyth. In the case
of the Revival of 1904 the personality was a young student of twenty-six years,
Mr. Evan Roberts. It is rather remarkable that the former Revival, in Wales at
least, appealed rather more to the old than to the young, while the latter was
in a very marked degree a young people’s Revival. Perhaps some philosophic mind
can explain whether the difference in the ages of the Revivalists had something
to do with these respective results.

* Dafydd Morgan a Diwygiad ’59, pp. 598, 600. The emergence of Mr. Evan Roberts
brought the work of the last Revival to a new phase-its popular phase. The date
of this happening was in the second week of November, 1904. It is of some
interest to record that this new phase was not exclusively due to the appearance
of that famous figure. During the days of Mr. Robert’s memorable meetings in
Loughor, South Wales, one of the mentioned group of young ministers was holding
meetings at Rhos, North Wales. In similar forms, and on the very same days, the
outburst came in both Loughor and Rhos. From Loughor the fire spread throughout
the south; from Rhos, to the north of the Princi­pality. As the story, from this
point onward, will mostly concern the work in South Wales, the following from a
local newspaper about the work in Rhos may here be permitted, "Since the
revivalist’s visit the district has been in the grip of an extraordinary
spiritual force, which shows no sign of relaxation. The churches are united in a
solid phalanx. The prayer-meetings are so crowded that the places of worship are
inadequate to contain them. Some last eight hours, with no cessation in prayer
or singing! From the lips of the humblest and lowliest pour forth petitions
which thrill the whole being-the spell of earthly things seems to be broken. In
the street, in the train, in the car, even in the public-houses, all this is, in
hushed and reverential tones, the theme of conversation." * The senseless
ditties of the music-hall and theatre were entirely silenced, and, instead, the
very hills echoed with the songs of Zion.

* The Wrexham Advertiser, quoted by Mrs. Penn-Lewis in The Life of Faith, Dec.
14, 1904.

RENT HEAVENS

It were easy to fill pages with wonderful incidents belong­ing to that
remarkable period. But this has already been largely-perhaps sufficiently--done.
Such incidents are-­well, merely incidental. "It is possible to be occupied too
exclusively with the mere incidents of the movement-deeply impressive,
thrilling, and important as they are." ** As the quoted writer further adds, it
is possible to be taken up with the effects and not with the cause; with the
phenomena, the mere accidents, as it were, instead of with the real work of the
movement. The essential work of a Revival may well be the despair of any pen.
The sensational provides "copy" for the journalist, but the more vital things
are of little interest to him. A better service than the mere recital of
incidents is, the present writer thinks, possible.

**Rev. E.H. Hopkins in The Life of Faith, Jan. 25, 1905.

If one were asked to describe in a word the outstanding feature of those days,
one would unhesitatingly reply that it was the universal, inescapable sense of
the presence of God. Revival is the exact answer to such a sigh as that of
Isaiah lxiv. I, "Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come
down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence." In 1904 the Lord had
literally rent the heavens, and had scattered the satanic foes entrenched
therein. The Lord had come down! The mountains were gloriously melted down in
His presence. THE SENSE OF THE LORD’S PRESENCE A sense of the Lord’s presence
was everywhere. It per­vaded, nay, it created the spiritual atmosphere. It
mattered not where one went the consciousness of the reality and nearness of God
followed. Felt, of course, in the Revival gatherings, it was by no means
confined to them; it was also felt in the homes, on the streets, in the mines
and factories, in the schools, yea, and even in the theatres and
drinking-­saloons. The strange result was that wherever people gathered became a
place of awe, and places of amusement and carousal were practically emptied.
Many were the instances of men entering public-houses, ordering drinks, and then
turning on their heels leaving them on the counters untouched. The sense of the
Lord’s presence was such as practically to paralyse the arm that would raise the
cup to the lips. Foot­ball teams and the like were disbanded; their members
finding greater joy in testimony to the Lord’s grace than in games. The
pit-bottoms and galleries became places of praise and prayer, where the miners
gathered to worship ere they dispersed to their several stalls. Even the
children of the Day-schools came under the spell of God. Stories could be told
of how they would gather in any place they could, where they would sing and pray
in most impressive fashion. A very pretty story is that of a child of about four
in an infant class who held up his hand to call the teacher’s attention. "Well,
A--," inquired the teacher, "what is it?" Swift and telling came the words,
"Please, teacher, do you love Jesus?" That was all: nay, it was not all; the
arrow had reached its mark. There and then the teacher came to the Lord, and it
is only a year or so since death ended her great missionary career in India.
This all-pervading sense of the presence of God even among the children, may
perhaps be further illustrated by a story from Rhos. Someone overheard one
little child ask another, "Do you know what has happened at Rhos?" "No, I don’t,
except that Sunday comes every day now." "Don’t you know?" "No, I don’t." "Why,
Jesus Christ has come to live in Rhos now!" AN OUTSTANDING SERVICE

It is difficult to over-state or over-value this remarkable feature of the
Revival. The writer will never forget one out­standing experience of this sense
of an atmosphere laden with the power of God’s realized presence. He was
conducting meetings in Amlwch, Anglesey, in the first months of 1905. Revival
had even then reached that northernmost point in Wales, and the meetings were
the culmination of several weeks’ work in that island called, "the Mother of
Wales." The "capel mawr" (big chapel) was crowded. The memory of that meeting,
even after more than a quarter of a century, is well nigh overwhelming. It was
easily the greatest meeting the writer ever was in. The theme of the message was
Isaiah, Chapter Six. The light of God’s holiness was turned upon the hearts and
lives of those present. Conviction of sin, and of its terrible desert, was so
crushing that a feeling almost of despair grew over all hearts. So grievous a
thing was sin; so richly and inevitably did it deserve the severest judgment of
God, that hearts questioned, Could God forgive? Could God cleanse? Then came the
word about the altar, the tongs, and the live coal touching the confessedly vile
lips, and the gracious and complete removal of their vileness. After all, there
was hope! God was forgiving, and He had cleansing for the worst. When the rapt
listeners realized all this the effect was-well, "electrifying" is far too weak
a word; it was absolutely beyond any metaphor to describe it. As one man, first
with a sigh of relief, and then, with a delirious shout of joy, the whole huge
audience sprang to their feet. The vision had completely overwhelmed them and,
one is not ashamed to tell it, for a moment they were beside themselves with
heavenly joy. The speaker never realized anything like it anywhere. The whole
place at that moment was so awful with the glory of God-one uses the word
"awful" deliberately; the holy presence of God was so manifested that the
speaker himself was overwhelmed; the pulpit where he stood was so filled with
the light of God that he had to withdraw! There; let us leave it at that. Words
cannot but mock such an experience.

It recalls, however, a somewhat similar incident in the ’59 Revival. In August,
1859, in Llangeitho, that famous cradle of the Welsh Methodist Revival of the
eighteenth century, an annual Convocation of the Calvinistic Methodist body was
being held. The climax came in an open-air meeting at eight in the morning of
the last day. The Rev. David Morgan, the Revivalist, wrote in his diary that it
was the most wonderful prayer-meeting he ever was in. A noted minister-the Rev.
Thomas John, Cilgerran-after the meeting, was found alone in deep meditation in
a field. Said one who drew near to him, "Mr. John, was not the sight of the
thousands as they silently prayed a most impressive one? Did you ever see
anything to compare with it?" "I never saw one of them," was the answer, "I saw
no one but God!" Soon after he was seen leaving the field, and said a friend,
"Whither will you go, Thomas John?" "Home," came the reply, "how dreadful is
this place! I must leave; I am too weak to bear it." His earthen vessel was too
frail for such experiences. Among the many lessons learned on such occasions is
that there must come a great change, not only in the spiritual characters, but
also in the physical frames of God’s children ere they will be able to "bear"
the "far more exceeding weight of glory". iv THE REVIVAL MEETINGS "He brought me
to the house of wine, and His banner over me was love."

- Song of Solomon 2:4 (R.V., m.).

"Can the sons of the bride-chamber fast, while the Bridegroom is with them? As
long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast."

- Mark 2:19.

"Wondrous Love, unbounded Mercy!

Vast as oceans in their flood;

Jesus, Prince of Life, is dying- Life for us is in His blood!

Oh! what heart can e’er forget Him ? Who can cease His praise to sing?

Wondrous Love! for ever cherished, While the Heavens with music ring."

-(Translation of the Revival "Love-song".)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: 04 - THE REVIVAL MEETINGS
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CHAPTER IV THE REVIVAL MEETINGS THE course of the Revival under the leadership
of Mr. Evan Roberts in South Wales was irresistible. It over­shadowed everything
else. Its reports made up the chief feature in the South Wales daily press for
many months. There was no building large enough to contain the crowds. Morning,
afternoon, and evening meetings were held each day, and, frequently, meetings
were much prolonged; the crowds would gather for the afternoon service ere the
morning one would be ended, and the afternoon service would hardly be over in
time for the commencement of the evening service; while the evening service
would last till, and even past, mid­night. As one said of the Ulster Revival of
’59, "The difficulty used to be to get the people into the Church, but the
difficulty now is to get them out." As remarkable a feature as any was that upon
which the late Lord Pontypridd thus remarked, "The Revival finances itself.
There are no bills, no halls, no salaries. "

PRAISE AND PRAYER

Praise was dominant; but prayer also found a large place. A notable feature was
the audible praying of many at one and the same time, and that without producing
the slightest sense of confusion. The Lord’s children were revived, and
thousands professed to be converted. Churches, small and great, suddenly so
swelled their ranks that a small church became a rarity in the land. Those who
had long been members of churches discovered that they were destitute of any
living experience of salvation and, with the rest, humbly found their way to the
Cross. This last feature was perhaps a more notable one than even the conversion
of those outside the churches.

"BROKEN EARTHENWARE"

There were, of course, thousands upon thousands of cases of conversion from the
ranks of the irreligious. "Broken earthenware," in large numbers, were re-shaped
in the Divine Potter’s hands. Magistrates, court advocates, and the police were
given a real holiday; their occupation being almost altogether gone. Characters
sunken in vice and crime, such as the law could neither regenerate nor control,
nor indeed even intimidate, found transformation through the grace and truth
which came by Jesus Christ.

"BROTHER TOM" A most remarkable thing it was to notice how some of the very
worst were transformed into characters of surprising saintliness. "Brother Tom,"
as he came to be affectionately known, of Ogmore Vale, was a most striking
example of such. For years he had been the terror of the neighbourhood, and the
despair of the police. His appearances before the Bridgend magistrates were
almost innumerable. A drunken, violent sot he was; but-GOD! The change was
marvellously com­plete and rapid. For some years now he has gone "to be with
Christ, which is far better", but the fragrance of his holy walk is still fresh
in the Ogmore. His way and success in soul-winning were remarkable; his insight
into spiritual truth, not only exceptional, but literally unique. The writer
will be permitted the confession that, for spiritual wisdom and penetration, he
has heard from no human lips anything to surpass, nor perhaps to equal, what he
once heard from the lips of this dear man who only a few years previously was
the completest moral wreck imaginable. The wonderful grace of God!

"SHALL NOT SEE DEATH"

"Father," as Brother Tom familiarly but reverently re­ferred to God, was
everything to him. He lived to worship and to pray. His love and simplicity were
beyond words. In a few years this "down-and-out" had become one of the princes
of God. His last years were years of much suffering. But, spite of his diseased
lungs, he was a soul-winner to the last, When he had failed to go out in search
of the lost the Lord brought the lost to him. His little room saw the re-birth
of many a soul. He lived with his sister, and would insist on coming down each
day from his upstairs bedroom. At the end of his last day on earth, with the
help of his sister, he slowly struggled up the stairs, and, having at last
reached his room, he weariedly sat upon the bed to recover somewhat his breath.
Noticing a great change in his appearance his sister became alarmed and made as
if she would rush out for assistance. Tom succeeded in calming her, saying that
there was no need for alarm. A few more minutes passed, and then he lay himself
upon the bed-cover. Presently, opening his eyes and looking up he said, "Father,
I am ready; are You?" Immediately, "he was not, for God took him!" Even in his
funeral a soul came to the Lord. The bones of a miracle-­working Elisha, though
interred, still have virtue left in them.

REVIVAL OF SONG The spontaneous general outburst of praise and prayer at the
meetings has been referred to. This was very wonderful. The singing was truly
magnificent and stirring. Welsh con­gregational singing is something unique. In
the places of worship the singing is not entrusted to a few who compose the
choir. The whole congregation is the choir. No part in the harmony of a tune is
missing, and most of the singers sing as ones trained. And so, from early youth,
they really are. At any time, a characteristically Welsh congregation singing at
a service is an experience worth going miles to hear. But imagine such an
instrument with its every string swept by the breath of the Spirit of God in
Revival degree. The reader will perhaps realize the same difficulty in imagining
it as the writer does in describing it. The fact is, unless heard it is
unimaginable, and, when heard, indescribable. In the Revival meetings there was
no human leader. There was no hymn book; no one gave out a hymn. Anybody started
the singing. And, very rarely did it happen that the hymn started, no one knew
by whom, was out of harmony with the mood of the meeting at the moment. Once
started, as if moved by a simultaneous impulse, the hymn was caught up by the
whole congregation almost as if what was about to be sung had been announced,
and all were responding to the baton of a visible human leader. "As a study of
the psycho­logy of crowds," it was by one truly said, "I have seen nothing like
it. You felt that the thousand or fifteen hundred persons before you had become
merged into one myriad-headed but single-souled personality." Such was the
perfect blending of mood and purpose that it bore eloquent testimony to a unity
created only by the Spirit of God.

"The praying and singing," to quote an eloquent witness, "are both wonderful,
but more impressive than either are the breaks which occur when utterance can no
more, and the sobbing in the silence momentarily heard is drowned in a tempest
of melody. No need for an organ. The assembly is its own organ as a thousand
sorrowing or rejoicing hearts found expression in the sacred psalmody of their
native hills." This feature made the Revival appear to many a "Revival of Song".
That it was that in a marked degree is quite true, and in being so it followed
the predilection and forecast of the Revivalist himself. At the same time it was
far from being a revival of song exclusively. Praying mingled largely with the
praising. And, such praying! Praying which rent the heavens; praying that
secured immediate and marvellous answers. It startled one to hear the very young
and unlettered pray with such unction, diction, and intelligence as could only
be accounted for in one way. Filled with the Spirit, they were utterly beyond
themselves in vision, thought, and expression.

PRAYERS’ IMMEDIATE ANSWERS

Speaking of answers to prayers being immediate, this may serve as an instance.
At Aberdare, a young man passionately prayed for his brother. "Oh, Lord, save
Abel," was the cry. Unconscious that prayer had been offered on his behalf, Abel
walked into the chapel shortly afterwards, and the ecstasy of the audience can
be better imagined than described when the prodigal brother rose to accept
Christ.

Here is a still more striking illustration of the same imme­diateness. It was at
the Tabernacle, Cardiff. A young man was seen to make his way to the big pew,
and sink on his knees and pray. A middle-aged man in the body of the chapel, who
had been watching the young man as he walked up the aisle, jumped up as if
struck, and, rushing to the big pew, stood for a moment at the side of, the
young man, and then knelt down at his side. The meeting went on in prayer and
praise oblivious of the touching drama. When the two men particularly under
notice arose, the younger man looked at the elder as if trans­fixed. "Father!"
he cried. "Son!" replied the father, and both embraced with almost fierce joy.
The father was a well­-known magistrate and mines’ official. The son had left
home three years before, and the parents, meanwhile, had heard no tidings of
him. Holding the youth by the arm, the father took him out of the "big seat",
through the aisle, down to the body of the chapel, where the young man’s mother
was engaged in prayer for her long-lost son. She was oblivious of everything
around her, and looked up rather startled when she felt a touch on her arm. With
a cry that thrilled every soul she threw her arms around her son’s neck,
showering kisses upon him. When the audience had recovered from its own emotion
the very rafters rang with "Diolch Iddo". Here was almost an instance of "Before
they call I will answer".

HUMAN LEADERS DISPENSABLE

Time-limits in the meetings were forgotten. Announced to begin at a certain hour
the people would gather an hour or two before. The meetings closed when they
were ended. Clocks were completely out of action. And prayer and praise ceased
not although the hours for meals or sleep were long past. Meetings began as soon
as part of the congregation had assembled. There was no waiting for any human
leader. "Never," writes one already quoted, "was there a religious movement so
little indebted to the guiding brain of its leaders. It seems to be going ‘on
its own’. There is no commanding human genius inspiring the advance. . . . In
South Wales the leading role is taken by the third Person of the Trinity." Those
called "leaders ", as a rule, entered when the meetings were already in full
swing; incidentally, a very clear proof that the Spirit’s working was not in any
degree dependent upon them.

REVIVAL, AND MISSIONS This last fact, perhaps, needs some stressing. Its
signi­ficance is too important to be lost. A revival is a unique thing. One
confesses to something not far removed from jealousy in regard to the use of the
very word, "Revival." A Revival is not a "mission", although, thank God, many a
mission has done much toward the reviving of the Lord’s people. A mission has a
human leader; a mission is organized. Revival, on the other hand, has but one
Leader--the Holy Spirit; Revival is never organized. It is energy, without
man­made machinery. To use another’s words, "True Revival is never worked up; it
always comes down from above." It is the work of the Spirit Who breatheth where
He listeth. No one who has lived in a real Revival is ever tempted to call an
annual mission by that name.

Apropos of the independence of the Spirit as to human leaders in Revival, the
following, by a writer giving his im­pressions of the work in Wales as early as
November, 1904, may be of interest. He said, "My second impression is that the
Revival is not inseparably connected with the personality of an individual human
being. The revivalist is not an eloquent man, neither is he a learned man, nor
even, as far as I could judge, a man of strong mental abilities .... This seems
to be another object-lesson to Wales that the light and the influence came from
God, and not from man."* * The Life of Faith, Nov. 30, 1904·

It is right to add that the Revivalist himself was extra­ordinarily careful that
it should not be thought that the work depended upon him. He soon decided that
his movements must not be announced beforehand. "People must not rely on me,"
was his constant cry. "I have nothing for them. They must rely on Him Who alone
can minister to their needs." "When you go to the window," he observed on one
occasion, "you do not go to look at the glass but through it at the scenery
beyond. Then look through me and see the Holy Spirit."

PREACHERS "CLOSURED" The spontaneity in worship, the unending flow of praise,
testimony, and prayer, in many districts almost completely ousted preaching.
Indeed, to cease preaching, at that time, seemed to many the natural and right
thing to do. Many preachers ascended pulpits only to be "closured". And, in many
cases, preachers gladly submitted, feeling their unfitness to speak in such an
atmosphere. As to others, so also to ministers, it was a most searching time,
and many who should have been leaders found themselves outstripped spiritually
by their own members. The light that shone so brightly brought everything to
view, and lack of spirituality or of orthodoxy would instantly be detected did
one attempt to preach or teach. There was an intense hunger for the Word, and
the awakened ones could not tolerate anything but the Word, and that too spoken
by those who had had personal experience of its power in their own hearts and
lives. Herein, perhaps, lies one reason why a proportion of ministers failed to
appreciate and support the mighty work. To be constantly comparing the two
Revivals of ’59 and 1904 is natural, and one should be permitted here to note
how a difference between the two is recalled by the matter of the last
paragraph. A fresh reading of the story of the former of the two Revivals, has
impressed the fact that the leader thereof was supported by a surprisingly large
number of ministers. The Rev. David Morgan, though the greatest of the
revivalists, was by no means one of but a few. Every­where there were ministers
touched by the fire, men who were capable of taking a Revival meeting with
results almost com­parable with those of David Morgan himself. In fact, that
Revival, in large measure, seemed to be led by the ministers of the districts
where the blessing had fallen. Whatever may have been the reason, it must be
confessed, this was not the case in anything like the same degree in 1904. THE
"FOUR POINTS" The "closuring" of the preacher, however, was not an un­known
thing even in 1859; even the chief Revivalist himself hall sometimes even to
shout his message above the din of the worshipping saints. But, in 1904, the
meetings in which there was neither preaching nor teaching were many. Some
pastors boasted that they had not preached for close on a full year! From this
distance it is impossible not to deplore the fact, and to regard one’s fears at
the time to be justified. More unfortunate still, Mr. Roberts himself gradually
ceased to speak at his own meetings. Except that, occasionally, he would
intervene with a word of guidance, in the latter stages of his public ministry
he would maintain silence. At the first he spoke pointedly, and often at much
length. Sometimes he would speak for close on an hour before setting the meeting
open for praise and prayer. And what he did say was most valuable. Everywhere he
would set before the people what became known as "The Four Points". Did they
desire an outpouring of the Spirit? Very well; four conditions must be observed.
And, they were essential. "(I) Is there any sin in your past that you have not
confessed to God? On your knees at once. Your past must be put away, and
yourself cleansed. (2) Is there anything in your life that is doubtful­-anything
that you cannot decide whether it is good or evil? Away with it. There must not
be a cloud between you and God. Have you forgiven everybody, everybody,
EVERYBODY? If not, don’t expect forgiveness for your own sins. You won’t get it.
(3) Do what the Spirit prompts you to do. Obedience -prompt, implicit,
unquestioning obedience to the Spirit. (4) A public confession of Christ as your
Saviour. There is a vast difference between profession and confession." THE
PURIFYING WORD

Here then were the "Four Points". The heads of the Revivalist’s teaching in the
Revival’s earlier days. And, as the late Mrs. Penn-Lewis then pointed out, they
are essentially the message emphasized at Spiritual Life Conventions such as
Keswick and Llandrindod. Here was no empty appeal to emotion, but the bringing
of hearts and lives under the search­ing light of the Spirit and the Word. Alas!
under the terrific nervous strain of those days, the continuing of such teaching
became to Mr. Roberts a physical impossibility. And thus he could but sit
silently in the pulpit, and take but little part other than in quiet prayer; a
spectacle rather than a prophet. The perspective, which the years that have
followed supply, compels the judgment that this was a vital loss. Indeed, it is
not too much to say that, when the human leader could no longer speak his
characteristic, vital message, his work entered upon a new phase. The Word of
God is not only pure but also purifying. Its giving forth, whether in reading,
preaching, or teaching, has a vital effect upon a meeting’s atmosphere and
success, for it lays an effectual check upon any elements therein that may be
carnal. Others of the Revival’s leaders, men of less fame but hardly of less
influence, did not, one is glad to record, give up preaching and teaching the
Word. So much was this done by them that their Revival campaigns, in different
parts of the country, were simply several series’ of successive Conventions. TO
THE CHURCHES FIRST

And, it is of much interest, not to say much profit, to note that, while the
message was given to the Lord’s people, sinners were converted. One of the
workers who, during those years, conducted as many, if not indeed more, Revival
gatherings than any other, has been heard to testify that, never once in those
years, was he given a message directly applicable to the unconverted, and yet he
was privileged to behold hundreds, if not thousands, at his meetings professing
to be converted! In one of his meetings the converts numbered well over two
hundred! One feels that such facts point eloquently a most important lesson,
which is this: The success of the Gospel in the case of the unsaved is
conditioned by its success, first of all, in the case of the saved. God reaches
those without through those within. Mr. Evan Roberts saw this clearly and never
tired emphasizing it. "My mission," he used to say, "is first to the churches.
When the churches are aroused to their duty, men of the world will be swept into
the Kingdom. A whole church on its knees is irresistible." To the same effect
are the words of the leader of the Revival in Wales in I859, "When the bonds of
Paul and Silas in Philippi’s prison snapped, the bonds of all the prisoners
snapped. So, when the church is freed from the bonds of apathy and worldliness,
those who are being drawn by Satan to eternal death will be released also."* If
the Revival of 1904 had anything that might be called a slogan, it was this,
"Bend the church, and save the people."

* Dafydd Morgan a Diwygiad ’59, p. 545.

It is a most solemn reflection, even a terrifying truth, that when God’s people
fail to respond to the message God had sent them, their very failure deprives
lost sinners of the power to respond to God’s message to them. A dead church is
the most effective obstacle the enemy can devise in the way of sinners’ coming
to Christ. A circular issued by the Free Church Council of Carmarthen about the
time of the great outburst in 1904 stresses this very point. It says, "We cannot
justly expect sinners to be saved, and our places of worship to be filled by
those from the outside, until we ourselves get right with God; and this can only
be done by an absolute surrender of our whole lives to Jesus Christ as King, and
a faith accep­tance of the Holy Spirit." Thus, whosoever prays for Revival, let
him be sure that when it comes God will concentrate upon His own people. This is
the lesson taught, not only by the Revival of 1904, but by all Revivals. It is a
lesson also which needs not only the vision, but also the courage, of faith to
act upon it. Certainly, go after the lost, but concentrate upon God’s people.
The key to the whole evangelistic position is there. An awakened church creates
the atmosphere in which decisions by the lost to accept the Saviour will be made
easier. The holiness movement, as the late Dr. R. W. Dale truly said, is the
hope of the church; it is more, it is the hope also of the world. This feature,
so marked in the Revival of 1904, is remarked upon by the late Rev. Evan H.
Hopkins thus, "The Revival is in some respects unlike those that have preceded
it. God is showing us to-day what He can do, not so much through the individual
missioner as through the whole company of believing people assembled together in
His Name. We have been accus­tomed to the Holy Spirit’s working through the
missioner, or evangelist, directly upon the unconverted. But what we are
witnessing to-day is the same Divine power working through the Church in its
corporate capacity on those who are un­saved."** **The Life of Faith, Jan. 25,
1905 v PRACTICAL RESULTS "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the
Lord com­mandeth it not? "

- Lamentations 3:37.

"Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly cleanse His threshing-floor."

- Matthew 3:12 (RY.).

"Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low;
And the crooked shall be made straight, And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh
shall see the salvation of God."

- Luke 3:5-6 (R.V.).


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  CHAPTER 5: 05 - IMMEDIEATE PRACTICAL RESULTS
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CHAPTER V IMMEDIATE PRACTICAL RESULTS

THOSE privileged with an opportunity of attending the Revival gatherings will
hardly need further proof that they were experiencing one of the long series of
remarkable period­ical sheddings-forth of the Holy Spirit in power. Others,
bereft of that privilege, would naturally seek to know whether the spiritual
fervour of the meetings was the only token of the genuineness of the work. "By
their fruits ye shall know them," is a Divinely appointed test to be applied to
Revivals as well as to prophets. THE SPIRITUAL SUPREME Let us then endeavour to
speak of those "practical" tokens which tell of the Divineness of the movement.
That something very extraordinary was afoot was seen in the fact that the "daily
bread", usually uppermost, had become a matter of secondary importance. It has
already been stated that the meetings were held all day, every day -morning,
afternoon, and night. Work in the mines and factories was, for the moment,
entirely dislocated; hundreds of men, instead of going to their daily employment
as usual, attended the all-day meetings. There could be no clearer proof than
this that matters spiritual were, at that time, the matters of supreme urgency.
.

STRIKE EFFECTS HEALED

What would readily be regarded as an undoubted "practical" result was the
Revival’s effect in the matter of "strikes". Bethesda, North Wales, the centre
of the widely known and protracted bitter "Penrhyn Strike", had for years
suffered acutely from the social, domestic, and religious dis-union which that
struggle occasioned. Families and churches were rent in the unfortunate dispute,
and life-long friendships shattered. So bitter were the divisions, that many
qualified to judge said that there could be no restoration within that
generation. The Revival came; and, with it, a transforma­tion as complete as it
was sudden. Women who sued one another in the courts, prayed side by side in the
same meeting! Members of families who had not spoken to each other for years met
in cordial love. In one fortnight the normal order of things had been restored
by the power of God. Feuds and differences were forgotten; peace and harmony
took the place of discord and enmity.

DISUNITY VANISHES A correspondent of a weighty journal, * early in 1905, gave an
interesting account of the Revival movement among the miners of South Wales. An
old miner, speaking of the feuds between Unionists and Non-unionists at the
collieries, is re­ported as having said, "I have seen neighbours refuse to speak
to each other, although they had been great friends. I have seen some refuse to
descend the mine in the same cage with men who did not belong to the Federation,
or to speak to them below ground, except with an oath. The Revival has stopped
all that, and colliers look upon each other, spite of all the differences, as
friends and companions. Some of the Non-­unionists were among the best of men,
and, at the meeting I have just left, one of them was leading the prayers, and
Unionists joining in !" To this may be added the remainder of the same collier’s
testimony, "The characters of the people have now been changed. The brutal sport
of rabbit-coursing is stopped. Men have sold their dogs, in which not long ago
they took the greatest pride. They go home at night sober men without touching a
drop of beer or spirits, and, before commencing work in the morning many of them
join together in prayer. You do not hear the words ’Unionists’ and
’Non-­unionists’ spoken. No one talks of the Federation now."

* The Iron and Coal Trades Review. To this testimony might also be added that of
the employers who spoke highly of the improved quality of the work put in by the
miners. Waste was less, and men went to their daily toil with a new spirit of
gladness in their labour.

FALLEN DENOMINATIONAL BARRIERS

Thus the one Spirit of God, when poured out, puts an end to sectionalism and
suspicion. This was found to be the result, not only in industrial, but also in
religious circles. Denomi­national walls, as high perhaps in Wales as in most
countries, fell down as did Jericho’s walls. "Sectarianism melted in the fire of
the Holy Spirit, and all men who believed became one happy family." In this
respect, one might pause for a moment to reflect, the Revival of 1904 shows a
decided advance upon that of ’59. Religious unity was still a desideratum in
Wales during that period of blessing. The record of it shows that one at least
of the great denominations in the Principality hesitated to mingle with the
others. In 1904, however, there was no such holding back, and, strangely enough,
the somewhat intransigent body of 1859 was, so it is commonly asserted, the one
that advantaged most from, and perhaps, contributed most to, the Revival of
1904. Not only did Nonconformists of all hues blend together, but the wider gulf
between Nonconformist and Conformist was also wonderfully bridged. Anglican
clergy, as well as Free Church ministers, recognized the work as of God.
Anglicans were seen in Nonconformist pulpits, and unordained revivalists
welcomed in Anglican pulpits. What agitation and legislation could never have
effected, to the Spirit of God was but the work of a moment. When the peculiar
state of Wales at that time is recalled the greater appears the miracle. The
Disestablishment fight had aroused feelings of no slight intensity and acuteness
in the Principality. How true it is that, in the clear, pure light of the vision
of God, all things are seen in their right pro­portion and perspective. The
Revival proved the truth of the late Bishop Moule’s characteristic words written
at that time, "Our Christendom," he wrote in The Record, "needs a new effusion
of the Spirit. If anything in this aeon can heal ‘our unhappy divisions’ ... it
is the putting forth of the power of the Paraclete to ’convince the world of
sin, of righteous­ness, and of judgment’, and to ’glorify’ the Christ of God.
‘Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come!’ "

HUMANENESS

Reverting to the mines, conditions there were such as needed a radical change,
and that in ways other than those already mentioned. That change, in a most
marked degree, came with the Revival. Even the pit ponies soon felt that
something had happened. But let the correspondent of The Daily News (December,
1904) tell the story, "The worst class of worker in the colliery is the haulier,
who has charge of the poor horses doomed to perpetual underground darkness.
These men, as a class, are proverbial for their profanity and cruelty, but now
the change is so marked that the poor, bewildered horses do not know what to
make of it. Accus­tomed to words of command, everyone of which is either a curse
or an obscenity, they hardly know how to obey the requests now couched in quiet
and gentle phrases." Even the "creation" will know deliverance from its bondage
and vanity when the sons of God are revealed.

SELF-DENIAL AND DEBTS

"The supreme test of a Revival," said the late Dr. F. B. Meyer, "is the ethical
result." As to this the testimony at the time was unanimous. To borrow another’s
words, "Not merely were all the grosser vices reduced to vanishing point, but
the subtler sins of unforgiving rancour, non-payment of debts, dishonest work
are abated." In nothing was the Re­vivalist clearer and more emphatic than in
his insistence upon forgiveness of injuries, unless it was upon the duty of the
payments of debts. Again and again he would say, "How can there be blessing when
there are family feuds and personal animosities, churches torn by little
dissensions, members cold towards each other?"

All this was but stressing what the Spirit commanded. At such a time the light
of the Spirit penetrates into the forgotten and hidden recesses of the past,
revealing again sins easily tolerated in times of declension. Revival brings
conscience to something like a new birth; at least, it uncovers its eyes,
releases it from its gag, and gives it new tone and vigour. Judged by this test
the Revival of 1904 stands vindicated as a real coming down of God. Tradesmen
felt the effects thereof immediately in a peculiar and unexpected way. One of
them at the time confessed that he had taken less money the first fortnight of
the Revival than at any time for years. He explained it by saying that, in his
opinion the people who had run into debt were now paying off what they owed,
and, in order to do that, were simply living on the bare necessaries of life! He
added that he had very few debtors in his business, which explained why his own
takings were so small. He knew, however, that in the long run he would benefit,
and that, when people found themselves out of debt, they would begin again to
buy more food and clothing for themselves and their children.

RESTITUTION

Many stories of old debts paid could be told, but considera­tions of space
counsel their being represented by this one only: A well-known provision firm,
ere the Revival was two weeks old, received the following letter, "Gentlemen, I
have pleasure in sending you the enclosed Postal Order for two shillings. A
child of mine received a two-shilling piece instead of a penny as change in your
shop eighteen months ago. Lately the child told me of it; and I am greatly
pleased to return same to you at the child’s request. I sincerely trust that it
has not caused you to lose confidence in any of your servants. I remain, Yours
respectfully, The Child’s Father. P.S. The child is now eleven years of age."
Sin troubles only when conscience has been re-baptized into sensitiveness. When
God draws near the lips of even an Isaiah begin to feel unclean.

All this, of course, is but illustrative of much more. It proves the correctness
of the impression of an American visitor who, after some weeks in the Revival,
in a characteristic way testified, "This is not the fizz of a pop bottle, but
the fizz of a fuse with the dynamite behind it." It certainly required
"dynamite" of no ordinary sort to enable men to confess sin, make restitution,
and deny self in the way the words just written indicate. THE CRIPPLED "TRADE"

Some slight reference has already been made to the influence of the Revival on
the habits of the people as a whole. The effect on the drink-habit of many was
very striking. The public-houses, almost at a stroke, became practically empty.
Brewery concerns found, in this movement of the Spirit of God, something that
seriously affected their dividends. Pub­licans were badly hit, and openly
confessed the tremendous diminution in their takings. Bankruptcy overtook some,
but, better still, some of them were converted and surrendered their licenses.
In one place a public-house was turned into a house of prayer, so was a
drinking-club, in another district. Even men who were not converts were ashamed
to be seen entering such places.

WORLDLY PLEASURES The theatres, likewise, went out of business owing to lack of
patronage. The paucity in the attendance caused, as was credibly reported at the
time, the receipts to drop to about one-tenth the usual amount. Some theatres
became venues of Revival gatherings.

Football, it has been said, had the same hold in Wales as horse-racing in
England. Vast sums were spent on Saturday afternoon in railway fares and
admission to football matches. No revivalist mentioned football, and yet
football and other popular games dwindled as God laid His withering touch upon
them. Doubtful things, as well as unquestioned sins, became intolerable in the
light of the vision of holiness. A special train was ready to take the usual
crowds to the International Trial Match, and at more than one station in the
populous Rhondda only four or five passengers appeared; the others were at the
Revival meetings, or had been otherwise attracted to things of eternal-profit
and joy. At the match itself, there were about four hundred people instead of
the usual thousands. In several places the football was burned and the teams
dis­banded.

Times of Revival also do not seem to favour some other forms of recreation and
interest usually regarded as not only harmless but even edifying. High-class
concerts, eisteddfodau, etc., institutions very popular in musical Wales,
somehow, in those wonderful days, sickened and almost died. The interest of the
populace had been raised to higher things. Very few concerts and eisteddfodau
were held, and even when held they somehow had a Revival tinge. Several of the
trained, pro­fessional vocalists of Wales were won; some becoming "Sankeys" and
"Alexanders"; others bursting out, in the few concerts held, in such songs as
"Throw out the life-line" ; the concerts ending in hymn-singing and prayer!

Politics also received a very definite quietus. Political meetings, so deemed
the spiritualized sensibilities of the people, were out of the question. Those
arranged for before the outburst had to be abandoned. No political speaker, be
he ever so eminent, could at that time attract the people who had suddenly
become engrossed in the matters connected with their souls’ salvation.

REVOLUTIONIZED HABITS The reference to public-houses will have suggested what
might, were there space, be said concerning the police and police-courts. The
effect of the Revival upon the general community was immediately apparent, as
anyone who would care to examine the records of the police-courts at that time
could see. All over Wales magistrates found themselves pre­sented with white
gloves, a token that their employment was gone. The charge sheets bore an
appearance that was unpre­cedented. The usual hundred or so cases of drunkenness
in the populous centres were reduced to less than a fifth. The correspondent of
the Liverpool Daily Post reported in December 1904, that there had been no
arrest for drunkenness in Rhos since the Revival had started. Even in the South
Wales ports-the rendezvous of all sorts and conditions of seafaring men and
others-the magistrates were through with their business in a phenomenally short
time. A well-known solicitor, since honoured with knighthood, a gentleman with
an extensive police-court practice, stated at the time that advocacy work was
practically all gone, that police charges in his district were a mere fraction
of the average, that private quarrels and assaults had become practically nil.
The earnings of the workmen, instead of being squandered in drink and vice, were
bringing a world of happiness to the child-life of the com­munity. He had, he
said, come across some wonderful practical results in his professional capacity,
notably how "hopelessly bad debts" had been repaid. He closed his testi­mony
with the words, "Surely no person could be found so basely selfish as to deplore
a diminution in fees as a result of this blessed consummation." Such words
rather suggest that the advocate himself had had some taste of the general
blessing. And so he had.

CHANGED PARENTS

It is of value to be able to quote the magnanimous, unbiased, expert testimony
of trustworthy men, and so, to that of the advocate just heard, let there be
added the voice of an in­spector of the N.S.P.C.C. He told a newspaper reporter
how in the mining valleys of Glamorgan the Revival had had a marvellous
influence on the conduct of parents in a few "slummy" parts toward their
children: "Homes that I have had under observation for some time," he said,
"have under­gone a complete transformation through the parents having been
brought to a better life through the Revival. The children throughout my
district are now kept in a much more clean condition, and it can be confidently
said that in my line things are decidedly slack. A couple of cases that I was
visit­ing, and in which I thought I should have to prosecute, it is no longer
necessary to watch, owing to the improvement brought about, in one case by the
conversion of the father, and in the other by the conversion of the mother. This
time last year I was compelled to prosecute at the rate of two a month. Now I
have had no prosecution since November."

"TRAMPS"

Even that community known as "tramps", the workhouse casuals, were reached. One
of the most romantic stories of the Revival of 1904 is that which could be
written on this subject. Its incidents are thrilling and, perhaps, some Harold
Begbie or Hugh Redwood will some day undertake its writing. The main road
between Cardiff and Swansea is a favourite one with many of the type referred
to. A minister, in humble circumstances, whose church lay in a town on this road
about midway between the two points named, felt moved of God to a special
ministry to the "tramps". Every morning he would meet them as they tramped
through the town, invite them to the school-room of his church, give them a
meal, and-the Gospel. The repute of the work, as can easily be imagined, soon
spread among this community concerned, with the result that, some mornings, he
would have as many as forty or more guests! Gifts of money, in answer to prayer,
to cover the. cost of the breakfasts, came in, and also gifts of clothing-he
knew not whence; only he knew that the Lord had prompted their being sent. Many
were the conversions at these break­fasts, for this brother had received a most
special gift for ministry to this class of men. Tramps, indeed, to speak but the
literal truth, were his "speciality", and, quite as wonder­ful it was to note
that, somehow, they too seemed to know it. In towns other than his own no tramp
would pass this brother without some kind of mystical recognition and
attraction. Frequently has he been seen kneeling on the roadside, in town and
country, leading a tramp to the Saviour. Once, on a London street, this brother
to his astonishment heard his name shouted from the dickey of a passing hanson.
The cabman was one of the many converts at the "tramp" breakfasts at B--! A RUN
ON BIBLES

Turning in still another direction for the "practical" results of the Revival,
let it be said that it made every one read his Bible. It was, to many, almost a
re-discovery of the old Book. And people now read it for practical purposes.
Young Christian workers, for example, were anxious to learn how rightly to
dispense the truth to needy souls. The records of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, the Oxford University Press, and other Scripture publishers could tell
a remarkable story. The supplies of Scriptures from the B. & F.B.S. alone during
November and December, 1904, more than trebled those of the corresponding period
in the previous year. Publishers of spiritual literature could add a similar
testimony. Com­mentaries and other religious books were, in many cases, paid for
with money that otherwise would have gone for novels and intoxicants. A touching
story came out in a meeting held by Mr. Evan Roberts at Tonypandy in Christmas
week. In one of the meetings the Revivalist asked all who read the Bible daily
to stand. One hardy toiler said that he could not read; but he was doing his
best, and spelling the words the best way he could! THE COLLEGES The movement
was in no wise confined to such as the illiterate miner just referred to. The
influence penetrated also to the, corridors and class-rooms of the centres of
learning. Students at one Collegiate School marched in a body through the
streets, and held several meetings; several conversions being the result. At a
Theological College, while the professor lectured, the Holy Spirit so wrought
that all-professor and students-were bent to their knees, the class merging into
a prayer-meeting. Incidentally, it may be mentioned as being quite a remarkable
thing that everywhere, directly the Spirit of God moved upon the people they
almost invariably fell on their knees-they were "bent"! At that time it almost
came to pass that a whole nation was on its knees in prayer. A casual group of
students at one of the University Colleges of Wales were discussing the Revival.
Suddenly one of them exclaimed, "Really, chaps, it’s a real thing." "I should
like to feel as some of those saved people feel," said another. After a moment’s
awkward pause someone started a hymn. Then came prayer, and then some more
hymn-singing, the sound of which reached other students, with the result that
lectures were "cut" right and left. The smoke-room became packed; a Revival
meeting was soon in full swing. Later, a procession of hundreds, mostly
students-men and women-­formed and marched through the streets with very
remarkable results. High browism was thus one of the "mountains" which "flowed
down at the presence of God" when He had rent the heavens and come down.

TESTIMONY OF THE PRESS And so the wonderful story could go on and its thrilling
incidents be recalled. It is extraordinary the attention devoted by the secular
press at that time to what the late Rev. Evan Hopkins rightly called a "modern
Pentecost". Some, it goes without saying, were cynically critical, but most were
definitely and warmly sympathetic, and this, we may be sure, because the
movement was solving so many practical difficulties which no amount of social or
political effort could touch. The London Daily News, in one of its daily reports
of the Revival, stated, "Silently, but steadily and surely, the moral results of
the Revival are making themselves seen and felt everywhere . . . and the hearth
burns more brightly this Christmastide (1904) than it has for many a long day in
thousands of Welsh homes."

More impressive still are the following wise words from a leaderette in a
well-known medical journal,* dealing with the criticisms of Mr. Henry Labouchere
in his paper, Truth, "Every adverse criticism of the movement has been founded
on an entire misconception of the Welsh character, and upon a distorted idea of
the services which are everywhere being conducted in Wales. There must, of
course, be some un­avoidable excesses in all great religious movements; there
must too be some harmful incidents; but a great upheaval like the Welsh Revival
must be judged by the sum of its

* The Lancet. results. It is even yet early to estimate, but the vast majority
of the Welsh people who are in touch with the movement, and who feel its
influence, already regard it as something far above carping criticism. At all
events, its triumphs are not scanty. Whatever of ill may be imagined against it
by uninformed critics, the good results of the Welsh Revival are tangible, and,
we believe, lasting. Mr. Labouchere shows how little he has read or understood
of the movement, when he describes the services as ’a mob shouting, singing, and
groaning, with a man on the platform dancing in ecstasy’. He shows the
shallow­ness of his inquiry into the matter when he presumes to criticize by
speaking of ’hysterical tomfoolery’, and ’orgies of religious hysteria’. How
long is it likely to last? he asks. The day and night prayer meetings may not
last for ever; but if they ceased to-morrow they would leave a lasting
im­pression upon the public mind, an impression all for good. In the past,
religion in Wales has been immeasurably strengthened by revivals which partook
of much the same character as the present one, and what was done forty-five
years ago is being done to-day. It is surely better that the scenes which are
happening in South Wales to-day-call them ‘orgies of re­ligious hysteria’ or
whatever else the scoffer may please­-should be indefinitely continued than that
the daily press should reflect the prevalence of orgies of a very different
character." Thus, in journals, not professedly religious, is found the crushing
answer to cynics blind to the meaning of what God was doing. THE REVIVAL AND
SOUND DOCTRINE

One further note in the evidence may fittingly be added, this time from the
pages of the Saturday Review. Its words point to the interesting and welcome
fact that the old Evan­gelical Faith was at the heart of the movement. These are
the words, "The London press says much about this Revival, but it conceals the
fact of its intensely orthodox character. Indeed, it is largely a popular
protest against the undenomina­tional and ’philosophic’ Christianity preached by
the ministers whom the Welsh University Colleges have trained." The
correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post, interested chiefly in the movement in
North Wales, after a visit to Rhos, and referring to the South Wales minister in
whose mission in that town the Revival there had burst forth, wrote, "If I had
been asked a month ago whether a Revival was probable in Wales, I should have
answered, No. It seemed to me that the ’higher criticism’ had wrecked the
ordinary machinery of a revival, and that, until theology had been re­shaped in
accordance with its conclusions, nothing would happen to disturb the prevailing
apathy. Oddly enough, the revivalist himself is one who, according to his own
confession, was at one time deeply interested in the ’higher criticism’, and
preached the ’new theology’. He felt, however, that there was a certain
emptiness and coldness in his sermons. Attendance at a convention held in
Llandrindod led to a crisis in his life. He felt himself to be a new man, and
since then the writings of the higher critics have lost their attraction for
him." It will at once be recognized that the lesson of the great Revival
regarding the matter of these paragraphs is too clear to be mistaken. Errors in
theology share the fate of vicious habits when the Lord has rent the heavens and
has come down. Would that the significance of this were taken to heart. As to
heterodoxy, to vary a famous phrase, it is the mule of theology; something
altogether barren of beneficent spiritual results, and absolutely incapable of
producing revivals. Not only so, a· spiritual revival and rationalism in Divine
matters are in­herently incompatible. The heart-experience of God and of
salvation in Christ, which every true revival begets, is a death­blow to all the
errors characteristic of rationalistic criticism of the Bible and "new
theology". The Revival of 1904 released many a minister and others from the grip
of wrong doctrine and severely checked the advance of various forms of religious
heterodoxy.

MELTED MOUNTAINS The closing thought, as all these and other immediate results
of the notable upheaval of 1904 are reviewed, is that there are very few, if
any, of our political, social, industrial, ecclesiastical, moral, and mental
problems which a Revival cannot solve. What legislation and organization
throughout the years fail to do, Revival accomplishes in a few days, a fact
which, among other things, shows that the insurmountable obstacle in the way of
every true reform has its strength in the human will. That "mountain", the
perverted human will, is im­movable until God rends the heavens and comes down,
and then, without the aid of any human agency, it causes the mountain to "flow
down at His presence". Said an old Brymbo miner in ’59, "When I was a boy, we
dug out the coal with chisels; after that came dynamite, and with this we mine a
much bigger quantity of coal. Till this week I have seen nothing but chisel work
in religion, but now here is God’s dynamite at the work!"

Oh, when will the world, nay, when will even the Church learn this lesson, so
repeatedly taught during the centuries? Prayer for Revival, when this lesson is
learned, will then replace the fussy, futile attempts at mending matters by
human machinery. Surely, at the present time, a Revival such as that of 1904
which had such blessed results, even with its "emotion" thrown in, would not be
unwelcome where once it was despised. In one of the meetings in December, 1904,
the Rev. John McNeill offered prayer, and said, "They call the Revival debauched
emotionalism; but if it is so, O Lord, may we be sober no more." One is tempted
to close this chapter with a free rendering of a Welsh verse by one fired in the
great ’59 Revival in a town in Wales:

"The foolish world, so proudly sage, Thinks I am drunk, or mad with rage;

Drunk? doubtless; yes, I’m drunk and odd;

But, drunken with the wine of God." vi

LASTING FRUIT "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be
rooted up."

- Matthew 15:13.

"Awake, 0 north wind, and come; thou south;

Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, Let my Beloved come
into His garden And eat His precious fruits."

- Song of Solomon 4:16 (R.V.).


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  CHAPTER 6: 06 - LASTING FRUIT
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CHAPTER VI

LASTING FRUIT

WELSH people who, during the last few years, have come into contact with
Christians outside the Principality are familiar with such questions as these,
"Why did not the Revival last?" "Are there any abiding results of the Revival?"
Not infrequently it has been felt that these questions and others suggest a mind
poisoned by a slander­-produced prejudice, but, very often, as one has chosen to
believe, they are expressions of a natural and justifiable concern. DO REVIVALS
LAST? As to the query in its first form one has sometimes won­dered exceedingly
why it should be asked at all. Why, of all the Revivals of the ages, should the
Revival of 1904 be the only one expected to last? Alas, which Revival has
"lasted?" Did Pentecost last? If that great first Revival had "lasted" then the
’59 Revival, not to speak ·of many an intervening one, would not have been
necessary. And, had the ’59 Revival "lasted" that of Moody in the seventies
could have been dispensed with. It seems a great pity that it appears to be the
habit of all Revivals that they do not "last". That being so, one may be
permitted to enter a plea that the Revival of 1904 should not be the only one to
be blamed or suspected because it has shared the ephemeral nature of all
Revivals.

NOTHING BUT A FLASH An anxious one in woeful mood complained to Dafydd Dafis
(Cywarch) of the ’59 Revival that he feared it was nothing but a "flash". "As
likely as anything, I warrant," responded the old preacher, "even the Thousand
Years compared with eternity will be nothing but a ’flash’." Another of the same
type told the late Dr. Thomas Job, Conwil, that these Revivals were nothing but
fits. Quickly came the retort, "Well, let it be so; I would as soon see the
devil die in a fit, as see him die of gradual decline." As to the ephemeral
character of Revivals the following wise words may be quoted. They were written
of the ’59 visitation by the late Rev. Evan Jones of Caernarvon, a man of note
and influence in the Wales of a generation or two ago. Said he, "It may be
objected that the Revival was something that soon faded away. And such it
certainly was, and such is everything like it. But, why should that lessen its
value? Brief and vanishing are most things: such is the sowing season; such the
reaping season. Such is the period of youth, and such, all our opportunities.
But, does their ephemeral nature diminish their worth? No; their brief
continuance rather compels us to value them all the more. Pentecost lasted but a
day; perhaps, one service. Will any regard that as a defect? Why then should the
brief day of the Revival of ’59 be regarded as a fault?"* * Dafydd Morgan a
Diwygiad ’59, p. 593, A TIME OF OPPORTUNITY

"A Revival", as another of the spiritual leaders of Wales (the Rev. W. Hobley)
so sanely reminds us, "is a leap from one extremity to another; It is always
preceded by a period of apathy. It were not becoming that the commotion of a
Revival should take permanent form, however blessed that might prove to be in
its own due time. A child’s happiest smile comes suddenly out of the midst of
its tears, and so the highest, the overwhelming joy of the Church supervenes
upon her being crushed to the ground under a poignant sense of the terrible
antagonism of satanic powers against her."

These indubitably true interpretations of what Revivals are should impress with
a sense of the infinite importance of Revivals, and of the need of making the
most of them while they last. They do not come so frequently as to justify
indifference and negligence. They are tides in the life of a generation which,
if not taken advantage of, leave the vessel high and dry on the shore. They are
but few who live long enough to have the privilege of experiencing more than one
of these stirring movements of the Spirit. Recognizing this fact, Mr. Roberts in
1904 warned his congregation, saying, that that sort of thing would not go on
for ever; that fever-­heat could not be kept going long; but they must keep at
it until the Churches could be raised to a higher level, and then they could
"settle down to business". A NEW GENERATION Of course, in a sense, the Revival
of which we speak, like all its predecessors, "did not last". It were, indeed,
difficult to see how it could. The Lord never permits His people to build their
much-desired tabernacles on the Mount of Trans­figuration. But all that this
means is that the crowded all­-day meetings have not continued; the tense
emotion has not continued, nor the unwonted rate of conversions. Incidents
characteristic of such a time naturally ceased to happen, although it may be
added that they continued to happen for a length of time that would compare
favourably with similar visitations in the past. It were idle and wrong to
attempt to deny that many of the estimated 100,000 who professed con­version
while the "fire" burned brightly went back. It must be admitted also that, more
than a quarter of a century after, Wales shares in too great a degree with other
lands the prevailing spiritual deadness. But while these statements are frankly
made, it were in the last degree foolish to construe them as admissions that
there is nothing of that great Revival left. Should there be any disposed to be
unbelievingly critical, let them, first of all, realize the swift passing of the
years. This is the last month of 1930; in Wales to-day there are but few, of
forty years and under, who can intelligently recall the wonders of 1904 and
after. A new generation has arisen; a generation, alas, needing revival quite as
much as did its predecessor.

DESPAIR OF THE PEN

Well; but are there any lasting results? Lasting results? Indeed there are, the
Lord be praised, and many too. And yet one attempts their enumeration and
description with small hope of success. It seems too difficult to produce in the
reader’s mind anything like an adequate sense of their nature and dimensions;
their value and reality. The difficulty arises, in large measure, from the
writer’s own lack of ability, and, partly, because the real worth of a Revival,
be the pen ever so eloquent, is better judged by an eye-witness than described
in words. Should any need convincing as to the "lasting results" of the Revival,
a visit to Wales even to-day, under competent direction, would inevitably supply
the conviction.

SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE

"Lasting results?" Here is one, to begin with. There still abides in Wales an
"atmosphere" quite peculiar to it. The writer cannot claim to be a great
traveller, but he knows something of other parts of the British Isles, and is
not alto­gether unfamiliar with parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe,
and he hereby bears his grateful and, he trusts, impartial testimony that in
meetings on neither side of the Atlantic has he realized in these last years a
spiritual atmo­sphere of the same intensity as is still to be found in Wales.
That atmosphere was not here previous to the Revival; it is beyond any doubt the
Revival’s after-glow. Visiting servants of God from other lands confirm by their
spontaneous testi­mony this judgment. In Wales, those who gather to hear the
Gospel message are generally found to be unusually sensitive to the Spirit and
quickly responsive to the Word. The late Dr. Alexander Maclaren, after a service
in Wales at which he had preached, paid the congregation an extraordinary
tribute when he said, in the hearing of the writer, "That congrega­tion was full
of the Word of God." What was true then in 1901 the Revival has in many a case
made to be still more true. *

* Just as the manuscript is finally revised for the press comes a letter from an
esteemed veteran preacher known throughout the world, in which, referring to a
visit this very month to the Principality, he says, "Nowhere do I enjoy
preaching the truth concerning our glorious Saviour so much as in Wales."

Another feature which is notable is that which American and British visitors to
Wales at Convention, Advent Testi­mony, and such meetings invariably remark
upon, namely, the large proportion of men who attend. Whereas elsewhere the
female element predominates, in the Principality the men, to say the least, in
number equal the women. This, beyond doubt, is a Revival effect. The men whom
the Spirit gripped a quarter of a century ago are still happy in that blessed
grip. THE INVIOLABLE WHEAT

"Lastings results?" Oh! no; all of the estimated 100,000 converts did not lapse;
no, nor even a majority of them. Too many, alas, as in all other Revivals, did
lapse. When has the Lord’s people ever marched on without attracting the "mixed
multitude" to pretend to do likewise. In the ’59 Revival one expressed his fear
that many of the converts would fall away. "What then," answered his friend.
"You have to turn many a mountain pony into the pound in order to catch one."
There is always more blossom than fruit. * There are always those who "seek the
young child’s life." A terrible degree of lapsing followed that great Galilean
Revival conducted by the in­carnate Son of God Himself: we read, "From that time
many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (John 6:66). Sad
indeed; but even that fact does not touch either the character or the success of
that Revival. Only twelve left! and yet that Galilean upheaval was a mighty
success.

* "I have always found awakening times," said George Whitefield, "like spring
times; many blossoms, but not always so much fruit."

After all, the wonder is that so many did not lapse. The good seed in the
parable matures only on one of the sorts of ground on which it was sowed, and
even there the maturity is unequal. The most sedulous care notwithstanding, even
as our Lord warns us, the enemy succeeds in sowing his tares among the Lord’s
wheat. But, while it is, of course, impossible not to deplore the tares, it is
surely very wrong to overlook the wheat. And, in the case of the Revival in.
Wales, the wheat IS there. Scattered throughout Wales-some in the regular
churches and denominations; many others outside of these-are a people whom God
knows, and who know God. No weapon devised by the enemy has succeeded in slaying
them. Anyone old enough to know the Wales of the last half century, and who has
had opportunities for coming into intimate touch with its religious life will
not contest the state­ment that there is in Wales to-day a people of God of such
a type and in such numbers as were not found there in pre-­Revival days. They
are a people of keen spiritual vision, unusually versed in the Word of God,
insatiably eager for the highest, mighty in testimony, missionary in spirit, and
aggres­sive in evangelistic work. And, were ,confirmation of this needed,
"deputations" and other visitors on behalf of "faith" missions and such, who
have visited the centres where these people can be met with in appreciable
numbers, could supply it.

LAND OF CONVENTIONS

"Lasting fruit?" Think of the many Conventions for the deepening of the
spiritual life that are constantly being held in various parts of the
Principality. Taking into consideration its size, it would be safe to say that
as many such Conventions are held in Wales as in any other of the four parts of
what used to be the United Kingdom. In addition to the central one at
Llandrindod Wells, which has gone on unbroken since 1903, there are other local
Conventions almost too numerous to mention. This fact is not only an
acknowledgement of the Revival’s debt to the Convention movement, it is also
evidence as to the character of the "lasting fruit" of the Revival itself, and
of the healthy hunger of those who owe the chief blessing of their lives to that
great visitation of God. The life then generated, they feel, can only be
nourished by the truths enunciated at the Conventions. And, moreover, these
Welsh Conventions, as a rule, are no minor affairs; they are meetings of some
magnitude. The writer was a speaker at one within the last month. * The building
was packed with, at least, 800 people, while many failed to find accommodation.
And­ the Revival was still there!

* November, 1930.

"YR EFENGYLYDD"

"Lasting fruit?" The Revival still survives in Wales in many an institution
which owes its being to the Revival. For example; not long after the stress of
those early years was over-to be quite exact, in January, 1908-a new Welsh
magazine made its appearance. Its purpose was to serve Welsh readers in much the
same way as English readers are served by such periodicals as The Christian, and
The Life of Faith. Without capital or human backing of any kind, a pure venture
of faith, that magazine is still being issued to some thousands of readers. Yr
Efengylydd (The Evangelist) is a direct fruit of the Revival, and-a "lasting"
one.

"THE FAITH MISSION OF WALES" In connection with the magazine just mentioned
several bits of aggressive work have been carried on. For years, its readers
supported missioners, who, using a portable wooden tent in winter, and a caravan
in summer (both the gifts of the readers), toured the Principality seeking the
lost. At the present time there is in full operation what is called "The Faith
Mission of Wales", and that with most blessed results. No one in Wales could
think of these sacrifices and efforts apart from the mighty upheaval in 1904.

BIBLE TRAINING INSTITUTES In the way of institutions which owe their origin to
the Revival may also be mentioned the seminaries which have arisen for the Bible
training of Christian workers. The first of these was founded at Porth. Started
in 1919 with but eleven students, it now has fifty-three! Its alumni, now
running well into the second hundred, are found in home pastorates, city
missions, etc., as well as in foreign fields. Its name, on acquiring a beautiful
home for its work, has recently been changed into The South Wales Bible Training
Institute. The second, which arose in 1924, is situate in Swansea, and goes by
the name, The Bible College of Wales. Both these institutions have the same aims
and are practically doing the same kind of work. They are mentioned here as some
of the"lasting fruits" of the Revival. Wales, in pre-Revival days, had no such
institutions; perhaps, did not need them. The need is present to-day, alas! But,
had there been no Revival in 1904, it is safe to say that there would not have
existed these attempts to meet it. Just as the Glasgow Bible Training Institute
stands as a memorial of the great Moody Revival, in exactly the same way these
Bible centres in Wales tell of the mighty days of 1904 and after.

MISSIONARIES

"Lasting fruit?" "Let me never fancy that I have zeal," said Henry Martyn, as he
contemplated the terrific obstacles to missionary work, "until my heart
overflows with love to every human being." During the heat of 1904-5, the
challenge was thrown out that the genuineness of the Revival would be judged by
its missionary results. Mission fields, it was said, were yearningly looking
toward Wales, desiring from its Re­vival additions to their missionary staffs
and power. Did the Revival yield this "fruit"? Let the writer first give his own
testimony. He distinctly recalls how, early in 1905, the matter of
world-evangelization became a burden on his heart. He was willing to go himself,
and definitely laid himself at the Lord’s disposal to that end. Not only that,
but in all his daily meet­ings for a long period the missionary challenge was
set before the young people who sought to know the yielded, spirit-filled life.
They were asked to say whether, should the Lord need them, they were willing to
leave home and comforts and be the Lord’s messengers to the heathen. Hundreds of
names during that time were given the writer, a register of which he carefully
kept and for which he prayed. Having received their "Yes" he had to pass on to
other districts never to meet them again. But the reader may imagine the joy as,
during several years that followed, he would receive at intervals letters of
which the following may serve as an example:

"You will hardly be able to recall either my face or my name, but in one of the
Revival services you conducted at Ll-- some years ago I was one of the many
young people who responded to your appeal for missionaries. I told the Lord then
that I was willing to go if He would send me. He took me at my word, and I know
you will rejoice to know that I am about sailing for the field, and I could not
leave without letting you know."

Missionaries? Yes; and many more than could here be named. The Rev. Sidney
Evans, B.A., one of Mr. Evan Roberts’s first colleagues, married also to Mr.
Roberts’s sister, is, together with his wife, working in the Indian mission
field as Principal of a Missionary Training College. Among the firstfruits of
the Revival in this respect were the late Dr. Fraser of Caernarvon and his wife.
At the call of God Dr. Fraser sacrificed his position as medical officer for the
county and, with his wife--as missionary-hearted as himself--became a missionary
to the Khassis. To name but a few of the many others, there are Henry Rees and
Mrs. Gertie Williams of India; Brinley Evans of Madagascar; Rees Howells and his
wife who spent years in Africa; David T. Griffiths and his wife in Poland; John
Jenkins of South Africa; Daniel Thomas and his wife in Amazonia; Tudor Jones and
his wife in Japan; everyone of them Revival-born. And, the end of the fruit of
the Revival in this respect is not yet. Just as one writes these words there
comes the announcement of the going out to the foreign field of two sons of a
minister who was made anew in the Revival, a signal evidence that the Revival
"lasts". To mention these few names is, one feels, rather invidious, for there
are many, many others, equally devoted, who are engaged in this most honourable
of Christian services because of what the Lord did in the Revival of 1904. The
records of all the missionary societies could bear eloquent testimony to the
practical, lasting result of the Spirit’s work in those days. THE ADVENT

"Lasting fruit?" One could go on enumerating token after token of the fact that
the Revival was no momentary flash. The addition of the following to what has
already been stated must suffice. To the writer, as well as to many others, a
most striking feature of the work was the light that came with it upon the truth
of the pre-millennial, personal advent of our Lord. From personal, and not
slight, knowledge of pre-­Revival Wales it can be stated that this truth was
then practically unknown and therefore untaught. Of late years one has heard of
individuals, few and far between, who cherished the blessed hope in the years
before 1904. Still, in the vast majority of churches and towns one would seek in
vain for such. In the whole of the Welsh pulpit, anterior to 1904, one knew of
but two ministers who held and taught the truth of the advent as above defined.
There may, of course, have been one or two others, but to the writer it seems
doubt­ful. Anyone holding such views then would, by the mere fact of being such
an exception, be easily known. There was, one might perhaps add, a missionary in
India, once a popular pastor in Wales, who held this truth and preached it, and
the fact was by no means hidden from his fellow-countrymen. One is, of course,
speaking of pre-Revival days. There were, certainly, even then a few of the body
known as "Brethren", and fewer still of another name who held and taught the
pre-­millennial advent. But they were so few and so remote from the general
religious life of Wales that the country generally hardly knew of their being,
not to speak of knowing, and being influenced by their peculiar views.

Here then was a land filled with churches and religious people; people also, let
it be added, not altogether unfamiliar with their Bibles but rather in many ways
unusually well versed in it, and yet-inexplicable as it may seem-without but the
vaguest idea of Scripture teaching on Advent truth! A GREAT ILLUMINATION But
mark the Divine miracle. The Revival came. And, with it, a great light. Not only
came light upon such matters as Justification, Regeneration, and Sanctification,
but also on the Advent. It is a most remarkable fact that, almost without
exception, all who entered definitely and fully into Revival blessing became
pre-millennialist in their view of the Advent. Not, let it be repeated, that
pre-millennialism was taught them; for, as has been already stated, there was
none to teach. The writer’s own testimony is but an instance of that of
thousands. Never can he forget the occasion, the place, nor the day when, alone
with God, the truth flashed into his heart. He had heard no preaching, nor had
he read any book on the subject; he simply shared the somewhat derisive attitude
of others to a matter he knew nothing about beyond the mere name. At that
moment, however, a conviction was wrought in his deepest heart that the Lord was
coming; that He was coming quickly; that indeed He must come, and that, apart
from His coming, there seemed no hope for the world.

Such direct revelation from heaven came to all who opened their hearts to the
full blessing peculiar to the Revival. The truth of the Advent of the Lord was
as the light of that life which they had received. To them the day had dawned
and in their hearts the day-star had arisen. And thus-the direct and immediate
work of the Spirit Himself-instead of the insignificant few of pre-Revival days,
there are in Wales to-day thousands who are eagerly waiting for the Son of God
from heaven, first, to complete their own personal experience of redemption, and
then to establish on earth the Kingdom of God. That, to the writer, is as
impressive a miracle as any connected with the gracious movement. "Celtic
emotion," it will readily be granted, would hardly be capable of such a result.
It was, rather, a tremendous overthrow of Celtic prejudice, and a return to the
old Puritan position of one at least of the great evangelical bodies in the
Principality. Nothing could be a clearer or more indubitable proof that the Holy
Spirit Himself was the Author of the Revival of 1904. ITS DISPENSATIONAL
SIGNIFICANCE Does the fact just stated give this Revival a distinctive place
among Revivals? The writer is not sufficiently versed in the history of such
movements to be capable of judging. It would be interesting to have the matter
discussed by those who have the requisite knowledge. One is at least certain
that, as far as Wales is concerned, the Revival of 1859, in which the
Principality richly shared, did not have this as one of its results. If, as one
is strongly inclined to think, the creating of the Advent hope in such a
marvellous way and in such a general degree, is something distinctive of the
Revival of 1904, then the dispensational meaning of the movement becomes
unmistakably patent. It would deepen the impression created by many another
token that we are in the "last days", that the Lord’s Coming must be near, and
that it is His urgent desire to prepare for Himself a people ready to receive
Him.

WALES TO-DAY

"Lasting fruit?" We have given some of the possible answers to this question.
They have been such answers as cannot but compel the admission, "Yes, praise
God; much lasting fruit." There are, alas, in Wales to-day, as in other lands,
features which disturb and grieve; and yet it is with increasing gratitude that
one reflects on how much more disturbing and grievous things would be had not
the Lord brought upon us those mighty influences of a quarter of a century ago.
The Revival, one need have no hesitation in claiming, brought into being what,
in many respects, is a new Wales. It raised up a band of men who, while holding
fast the evangelical truths of past Revivals, during the many passing years have
stressed vital truths in a degree not known in previous days. These men have
their eyes open upon the mighty world-purposes of-God in Christ, and upon the
Return of Christ in order to the materialization of those purposes. They have
been taught from God’s Word that God’s methods for the realizing of His purposes
are men-holy men; and their ministry is directed toward the edifying of the
Church-His Body-in love. These men are known throughout the Principality for
their staunch evangelical fidelity and their evan­gelistic passion; men whom the
churches in their high festivals love to hear. There are, alas, in the Welsh
pulpit to-day those who knew not the great days of 1904 and after;
repre­sentatives of the "modernistic" school, men full of the energy of their
devastating propaganda, * but it is the welcome, well-observed, and
much-commented-upon fact that the preachers called for in Wales to-day are, as a
rule, those whose fidelity to the faith once for all delivered unto the saints
is unques­tioned. This also is a debt which Wales owes in large measure to the
Revival.

* One of this "school ", it may be gratefully recorded, was recently deprived of
his ministerial position by the great denomination to which he belonged; a stand
for the faith not remotely due to the Revival of 1904. A FULFILLED PREDICTION

We cannot refrain from calling attention to a most remark­able fact that the
Revival of 1904 came in the line of pre­monitions given to and confessed by one
of the most saintly and beloved men of two generations ago. One refers to
Charles Haddon Spurgeon. In a sermon preached many years ago in London he used
these words, "In a few years­-I know not when; I know not how-the Holy Spirit
will be poured out in a far different style from the present My heart exults,
and my eyes flash with the thought there shall be such a miraculous amount of
holiness, such an extra­ordinary fervour of prayer, such real communion with
God, and so much vital religion, and such a spread of the doctrines of the
Cross, that everyone will see that verily the Spirit is poured out like water,
and the rains are descending from above." A correct and detailed description of
the Revival of 1904 need seek no other words than these. The eminent preacher
was a prophet; the Revival of 1904 the fulfilment of his prophecy.

If it be asked why the fire, when it came, fell on Wales? the answer may perhaps
be found in much that was written at the time. Fire preferably falls where it is
likely to catch and spread. Wales provided the necessary tinder. It is a
grateful fact that, spite of the presence of many who were irreligious, the mass
of the people of Wales were religious. If any nation could be called religious
Wales was that nation. It was familiar with the Word of God. The Sunday Schools
of Wales, veritable theological seminaries, had, and still have, in them the old
man of eighty as well as the babe of three. Child instruction in the things of
God and the Bible had in Wales attained to an exceptional degree. It was no
uncom­mon thing to find young people in their teens met together to discuss the
most abstruse theological problems. The people had imbibed the principles of the
Gospel not only from the Bible but also through their incomparable hymns. They
were, as Dr. Maclaren testified, "full of the Word of God." Here then was the
fuel ready for the fire when it fell. The lesson hardly needs stressing. No fire
can burn where fuel lacks. Let then the fuel be prepared. "Never let a
generation grow up without that knowledge of Divine things which may contain the
germ of national revival in years to come." In closing, we may perhaps return to
the thought already expressed that another great Revival is on the way. The need
for it is at least painfully obvious, and history shows that periodical revivals
is God’s usual method of calling a sinning and godless world to repentance. Each
revival comes in a time characterized by confusion, politically and morally; by
the spread of sacerdotalism; by social lawlessness and chaotic homelife; by
worldliness in the churches and scepticism in the pulpits. These features are as
pronounced in Christen­dom to-day as they have never been within a century and a
half. Thy pre-Wesley period is, perhaps, the nearest period that affords
anything analogous to the present condition.

If Revival was needed in I859 and I904 it is surely needed to-day in an even
greater degree. It is needed to still the multiplicity of voices and to enthrone
"Thus saith the LORD"; to magnify the local churches as against the encroaching
tyranny of the confederated "church". How can faith be restored to the ministry
and preachers be quickened? How can the tide of worldliness now sweeping over
the churches be stemmed? How can the youth of our lands be won to faith in a
personal God, an atoning Saviour, and a truthful Bible? How can sacred
institutions such as marriage and the Lord’s Day be rescued from their
desecraters? There is but one answer-REVIVAL! Revival such as comes through
"heaven­-anointed men rather than human-appointed machines".*

* "Our leaders," to quote a recent true statement, "are planning the work of a
paralysed church. They hope to accomplish by human plans and programmes what the
Holy Spirit only can do."

Even the secular press has been forced to say, "There must come a great
spiritual awakening or civilization is doomed. The only religion that has ever
been known in human history that produces such an awakening is orthodox
Christianity."* Mr. Lloyd George once told a number of ministers that "the
material conditions of this country will not improve until there comes a
spiritual awakening", adding, "and I charge you ministers with the
responsibility of promoting and fostering such a revival."

* A New York daily.

Such a revival has one condition. The one authority on the matter says, " If my
people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek
my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Some day such a revival, if the Lord tarry, must come. History abundantly
encourages us to expect that. "In the hour of darkest portent," as Dr. Torrey
has written, "when the case of the Church seemed beyond hope, believing men and
women have met together and cried to God, and the answer has come." And, when it
comes, may the Lord’s people not be guilty of the tragic error of not knowing
the day of visitation. In Israel, nineteen centuries ago, neither the
pipe-player could provoke to mirth nor the dirge-chanter start the tears. The
Fore-runner was criticized because of his stern unget-at-ableness, and the
Messiah because of His free con­descension. The sad tragedy of human history is
the repeated failure of God’s own people. Let us not think that we are wiser
than God; whatever His providences, may we have grace gratefully to accept them
even when they disappoint our expectations as to their forms.

ADDENDA

KESWICK, 1905 "God gave unto them the like gift as He did also unto us."

-- Acts 11:17 (R.V.).

"They went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that
the Lord had done for...His people."

-- 1 Kings 8:66.

"And there was no Passover like unto that."

-- 2 Chronicles 35:18.


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  CHAPTER 7: 07 - ADDENDA
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ADDENDA

KESWICK 1905 i "DIOLCH IDDO"* By the late REV. J. B. FIGGIS, M.A.

"THANKS be to Him," or, as we may fairly paraphrase it, "Glory to God !" This is
the language of multitudes who were in the little town in the fairest county in
England, where the Kings of kings held court during the recent Convention. Some
of our meetings might have been not in the Cumbrian but in the Cambrian hills,
for the Welsh tongue often sounded, and the Welsh fire often flashed. Nor do we
believe that anyone dared to offer "strange fire before the Lord". Of course,
emotional spirits will break forth into raptures, while more calculating natures
are con­sidering whether there is anything to be rapturous about. But we have
yet to learn that the emotions have not a part-­though only a part-to play in
the religious life. We had all the parts at Keswick--"the ordered harmony" of
the stickler for proprieties; the"lumen siccum", the dry light, of the student
of philosophies; the microscopic care of the Bible student, delighting in every
jot and tittle in the sacred manu­scripts; the telescopic vision of those who
love to take wide views of truth; the profound affection of those to whom in
deed and in truth, "God is love"; and the deep emotion of those the tumult of
whose sorrows and joys no voice but the voice of Jesus can tranquillize and
still. Yes, we had them all. Never were Bible-readings more thorough and more
prized. Never were prayer-meetings more numerous or more pro­longed. Never were
testimonies more thrilling, or philan­thropies planned on a larger scale. The
minister, the * The Life of Faith, Aug. 16, 1905 (by courtesy of the Editor).
missionary, the divinity student, the deaconess, the Christian worker of every
class and clime and grade, all came to the tables of the feast, and each found
his portion of meat in due season. Perhaps ten thousand Christians from first to
last came to those tables-and they only representatives of a great host left at
home; and all the ten thousand have reason, for sins forgiven, for grace
received, for visions of glory vouch­safed, to exclaim, "Thanks be to God for
His unspeakable gift." "Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer."
That familiar refrain is really the same as the newer Welsh note which we place
at the head of this paper. And has not the new note a right to be there? Has not
the blessing of Wales come upon us, and have we not reason to thank God
specially that the wave of blessing which broke upon the shore of the
Principality reached even unto us at Keswick? May it roll on and on, until in
every land the God of all grace "shall appear to our joy!" This chord was the
very keynote of the Convention. At the prayer-meeting for Erin on Monday
morning, one prayed "that Ireland may be as Wales; yea, much more abundant". At
the preliminary meeting of the Convention proper, one of the speakers most
valued amongst us pleaded with might and main for a welcome for the Revival. If
there was a doubt that night whether he had done wisely, that doubt seemed to be
dispelled next day at that wonderful afternoon meeting, when the Welsh pastors
gave their testi­mony. We felt like the disciples of old-"Who were we that we
should fight against God?"

If that meeting, as some thought, was too short, the same cannot be said of
Wednesday night’s meeting in Skiddaw­street Tent. That same evening the
Salvation Army had a half-night of prayer. That was normal, that was the
expected thing. But that in one of the great tents a prayer-meeting should be
prolonged to three o’clock in the morning was neither normal nor expected. It
was of God, as we trust, and is a prelude, as we hope, to what God is going to
do in many a place. Yes, God will "do a new thing". Let us have a new faith, a
new hope, and, above all, a new heart, aye, "a clean heart and a steadfast
spirit with us." And here we cannot but add that all the friends of the
Convention are under deep obligation to Dr. Pierson for giving up the hours he
needed (more than most) for sleep, that he might join the meeting our Welsh
friends and others had asked for; and then for the wise way he guided that
meeting (how wonderful the sheaf of requests for prayer, 360 in number), and for
his recital of the course it took, when he spoke in Eskin-street Tent next
evening.

Some speak of that meeting, which continued till the morn­ing dawned, as the
climax of the Convention; others look back to the Friday evening in Skiddaw
Tent, when the same speaker, quick to observe the workings of the Spirit in
those present, magnanimously withdrew his address, and for hours (i.e., from
7.30 to 11.15) confession after confession went up as evening incense to heaven.
It was in the other tent at the same hour that Mr. Meyer (only one brave as he
would have come to Keswick at all, for he had been ill and suffering all the
previous week) held us spell-bound by very thoughtful and very tender words. He
told us that he was "going back to Lystra-back to the stones, and the
difficulties of life-with a deep conviction of the duty of
concentration-concen­tration upon the salvation of souls". If Mr. Meyer will but
do this, it may be the saving of his life, and the prolongation of his
usefulness. If other ministers will thus concentrate their energies, it may
preserve them from scattering and wasting their powers. Such counsel from one
who casts the net so widely is invaluable. Nor less, perhaps, were suggestions
for the home he gave at a ministers’ meeting, and words he spoke on the Tuesday,
as one of the Oxford house testified at the praise meeting on Saturday. What a
meeting that was, in­cluding that invasion of University men-who came late, for
they came for Holy Communion, and went away early, for they left to catch a
train! May Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh, and all the Universities of the
land catch the fire that burned at Keswick so brightly in many a young heart.

It would be an entire misapprehension to suppose that "the Keswick chord" this
year was only that struck from the Welsh harp. All the old chords were also
heard. There was as ever the emphatic teaching of sanctification by faith, and
of the deep need of it. This was pressed to practical issues by leaders of the
olden times. There was ever the searching the Scriptures, and their exposition
by tried teachers known to all the world. How much we owe to Mr. Bowker, who,
years ago, picked out Mr. Brooke for this service, and to Canon Battersby, who,
in starting the Convention, had by his side, as we to-day, Prebendary
Webb-Peploe !

There were the usual Convention meetings, ministers’ meet­ings, ladies’
meetings, meetings for young ladies, meetings for men, praise meetings, and
missionary meetings. So we travelled along the old lines, but were touched by a
new spirit. The Spirit of God is living; He is, as the ancient hymn calls Him,
the "Creator Spirit"; and that He would not be if He did not fulfil the
aspirations of His servants and "do a new thing". The evening meetings for men
in the Drill Hall showed that the Spirit had stirred them deeply. Other late
meetings in chapels and halls indicate that hearts were moved pro­foundly. The
spirit of confession was surely "a new thing". We have always had prayer
meetings, praise meetings, and testimony meetings; but when ever before had we
meetings of which the dominating note was confession, when platform and people
were united in "owning their sins and acknow­ledging their wretchedness"?
"People have come here," said Archdeacon Madden, "because of deep
dissatisfaction with their spiritual life." This state of mind is very familiar;
but what was not familiar was its open and repeated ex­pression, the admission,
from the very leaders downwards, that there was something wrong, and that by
God’s grace it should be put right.

It would be simple ingratitude to God and man not to acknowledge that the new
atmosphere the Divine Spirit created owed its development largely to the Welsh
Revival and to the testimonies borne to that wonderful work of grace. We pity
the man who could remain unmoved while one bore witness that he and his
fellow-countrymen in the Principality "were like unto them that dream". "The
devil had made me doubt the Atonement, then the Incarnation; and even God became
merely a postulate. God brought me back to Him, and back to Wales; but I was
still wanting something. The Life of Faith and another paper showed me that
holiness was as needful as forgiveness. Then the power of God came and laid me
at His feet. It altered my preaching. People said that there was something
wrong. Every deacon seemed to turn his back upon me, and every church member to
leave me. But that memorable night I prayed to be God’s, cost what it would, and
it cost, and costs me, much. I am now in the Rhondda Valley; but one travels up
and down now without hearing an oath. The work has been done not so much by our
preaching as by God creating an atmosphere."

Another told how, on the second day of the last Llandrindod Convention, God set
him right. He said you must get" a revived pastor first, and then a revived
church. I didn’t know how to get my church into blessing. The Lord managed it. A
week of prayer-meetings for the heathen became revival meetings, and these
prayer meetings went on every night for two years. God became a reality to my
people. The Saviour became an object of worship. The most neglected Book became
the most popular. Prayer was a duty, a hard duty; to-day is a delight. Our meals
are sacraments. The family altar is rebuilt in many a home. If any business men
are here-do your best to promote a revival if you want bad debts paid!"

After Mr. Davies had sung "When I survey the wondrous Cross", Mr. Seth Joshua
rose and said, "There are breezes blowing from Calvary; shall we receive or
refuse them? God can send a universal Revival when we take away the stone. There
are places in Wales," he added, "where the Revival is shut out because they want
it all in their own chapels." Who could resist these calls to repentance, these
appeals to charity one toward another, all punctuated by shouts of "Diolch
Iddo", and made very real by the scenes of the last twelve­-months in Wales? The
ladies’ meetings, for obvious reasons, do not come under our purview, but some
of us had the privilege of hearing one of the lady speakers-Mrs.
Penn-Lewis-address meetings of the "One-by-one" Band. What could be more
practical, and more precious in every way, than such a message as she gave us on
the first Saturday? "The Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of Missions, the
Spirit of witnessing, the Spirit of heavenly love for souls. Go then to the Lord
for nothing short of Pentecost. If God can bring you into what Dr. Gordon called
His "planet purposes", what it would mean! I get letters from abroad that are
like whips to me .... The life that is to be the life of power is the life that
flings itself into the hands of God with absolute abandonment. In the Welsh
Revival God is showing the world that Pentecost is possible to-day. But God will
not work to order. Don’t expect Him to repeat the Welsh Revival, nor think that
everyone who comes from Wales is a charged battery .... There is no Pente­cost
without the Cross. But then (as a Scotchman said) ’it’s a Cross with wings’.
What does Calvary mean to you? Do you see that God has put you there? There is
no other way to Pentecost."

There were a few who thought we had too much of this sort of thing; there were
others who thought we had too little of it. The one would have kept repeating
what we have heard a hundred times (and no doubt we need to hear a thousand
times). The other would have changed all that and would have sought to turn the
benches into the platform and to have reproduced as nearly as possible scenes
read of in Wales. But the wise steward of his Lord’s goods is he who is found
"bringing out of his treasure things new and old". So it has been in these
blessed days. In both, we believe, our friends gone to "the land of the leal"
would have greatly rejoiced. Dear Mr. Wilson, "a man greatly beloved," as Dr.
Cumming well reminded us on the Monday night, has, after a long and well-spent
day, heard the call, "Come up higher." Dear Mrs. Head, from whom we might have
hoped for years of the winning and beautiful service of her sweet and lovely
life, has very suddenly "gone to see the King". The Sesame and Lilies, as John
Ruskin might have said, of our Convention gatherings are thus alike gathered by
the Father Husbandman, and by Him whom Mary supposed to be the gardener. If they
know, if God tells them, ought of what transpires here, surely they, even amid
the glories of heaven, will be joyful in our joy and ready to shout "Diolch
Iddo!" or to sing:

"Songs of praises, songs of praises, We will ever give to Thee." ii. A REVIEW OF
THE KESWICK OF 1905* By the late REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.

* The Life of Faith, Aug. 23, 1905 (by courtesy of the Editor).

CERTAINLY, after thirty years, something comparatively new has been seen at
Keswick, and it is incumbent on us all to form a calm, sober, spiritual judgment
as to the meaning of these developments.

There are two opinions already "in the air", neither yet taking tangible form.
One is that it was an impulsive, if not impetuous, outbreak of Welsh
emotionalism that became infectious, and rapidly swept through the Convention.
Another is that the same Spirit of God Who has moved so mightily in Wales,
stirred those great audiences in the Keswick tents, and like the wind which
bloweth where it listeth, bowed hearts, as some wind bends and sways the stalks
of grain in the harvest field. In the quiet of this sea voyage, time for calm
meditation and prayer has allowed opportunity for sober reflection and more
mature judgment as to the inner phases of this move­ment; and the results are
put before the readers of The Life Of Faith, not to forestall their independent
conclusions, but to furnish such facts as may supply a broader basis for a safe
induction.

Personally, I am entirely confident that we have had, not a visitation of
Welshmen, so much as a visitation of God. Providentially brought into very close
contact with the meet­ings where some most marked manifestations occurred, it
seems incumbent on me to give such testimony as may prevent misconception and
misrepresentation, on the one hand, and promote a true and healthy sentiment and
sense of responsi­bility, on the other.

Whatever other speakers may have seen in connection with other meetings, at the
three evening gatherings of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, in the Skiddaw-street
Tent, where the writer was a speaker, were witnessed undoubted and striking
movements of God’s Holy Spirit, growing in intensity and power. It was remarked
by many that Monday night witnessed an outbreak of spiritual interest that
ordinarily would be considered a grand climax for the closing meeting. No
after-meeting had been contemplated, yet it was not only natural but necessary,
and followed inevitably, not as some­thing that needed urging, but would not
bear suppressing. Yet the memorable "All-night meeting" of Wednesday rose to a
higher flood mark than on Monday, and lasted, with growing interest, till, from
motives of simple expediency, it closed at 3 a.m. Yet the closing meeting on
Friday exceeded either of the others in the high level of spiritual power to
which it rose.

If anything is sure to the writer, it is that the Keswick of 1905 has had, in a
new measure, a Pentecost. This was not the intoxication of excitement and
emotionalism, but the exhilara­tion of spiritual infilling, the new wine of the
Spirit. That there was deep feeling was unquestionable, and that it found
occasional vent in sobs, and tears, and cries to God; but it was not wild and
uncontrollable. Nothing was more marked than the holy restraint that was
manifested. The heart of the meeting responded immediately and instinctively to
every spiritual suggestion.

There was little need of leadership. Another and greater One was in control,
sensibly present and presiding. The place was solemnized with the overwhelming
sense of that Presence.

It is true that, when, on Wednesday evening a few gathered for a supplementary
prayer-meeting after the withdrawal of the throng, as the numbers rapidly
increased it was evident that, to some degree, tumultuous elements were at work.
There was, perhaps, undue noise, some little intemperate speech, and slight
tendency to a fanatical spirit, such as beget not order but confusion. But there
were also many who were silently praying to God to subdue and suppress any wrong
spirit or discordant element; and presently and in a remarkable way, these
disturbers voluntarily withdrew; and from that time on to 3 o’clock a.m. there
was one anthem of prayer, and confes­sion, and praise, in which, though we
passed from major to minor keys, and reversely, there was heard not one
discordant note! For three hours there was not a break in spontaneous exercises
varied in character, but all uplifting and helpful; oftentimes a half-dozen on
their feet at once, yet no disorder. While some are trying to account for all
this by human psycho­logy, we are constrained to look for explanation to Divine
Pneumatology, as John Owen calls it. In the closing meeting of Friday night
there were the most manifest demonstrations and illustrations of God’s working.
Many prayerful souls had focused their prayers largely on this meeting. The
writer was one of a company of about thirty that met by agreement at "Skiddaw
Bank", by invitation of Dr. Neville Bradley, that afternoon. An hour or more was
passed in prayer. Definite requests were made that the Holy Spirit would sweep
through the meeting in power, setting aside the appointed speakers, if He
pleased; breaking down souls in cries and tears of penitence, compelling
confession of definite sins, bursting through all needless restraints of fixed
programme, leading to boldness of testimony, keeping down all disorderly
elements, leading to momentous decisions, in­spiring new self-dedication, and
constraining all His servants to remove hindrances to holiness and usefulness,
and men and women to offer themselves for the Mission fields of the world. Every
specific request made that afternoon on the hillside, those who were present can
witness, was fulfilled to the letter!

I confine my testimony very properly to my personal observation. While Rev. E.
W. Moore was giving his address, from I Corinthians iii. II-I5, on the Ordeal of
Fire-dwelling with searching power on the necessity, not only of building on the
right foundations, but with purified materials; and picturing the careless
builder fleeing from his burning house, losing all work and reward, and himself
saved only as one who has barely escaped the flame-I felt God’s refining fire
going through me, revealing the wood, hay, and stubble of work and motive. When
I rose to speak, so humbling and over­whelming was this conviction, that, when
called upon to "lead in prayer and address" the meeting, it was quite
in­voluntary that I should first of all make my confession. I did so, and asked
others, who, like me, had felt conscious of God’s direct dealing, to stand with
me before God, as those who then and there besought Him to refine us now, that
worthless material might not accumulate against the coming Day of Fire. The
invitation was so responded to that the whole tent full of people rose as one
man! And while prayer was being offered, many voices joined in audible Amens.
Not one word of the proposed address, carefully prepared for this closing
meeting, was ever delivered. It had been my intention to speak on "Praying in
the Holy Ghost". As Prebendary Webb-Peploe well says, "God had no need for the
address, as He proposed giving an illustration of the theme instead." The prayer
was no sooner concluded than a spirit of penitent confession was already so
manifest that it could not be re­strained, and broke out in every quarter; and I
stood there on my feet for about two hours and a half, witnessing the Holy
Spirit’s wondrous working. Scarcely any human guidance was needed. Christ was in
the chair. A soldier confessed to desertion and theft, and left the tent to
write out his confession; and some of us, later on, saw the letters he had
written. A commander in the Navy grandly declared his purpose to make his ship a
floating Bethel. Not less than fifty clergymen, evangelists, and leaders in
Christian work, confessed to sins of avarice, ambition, appetite, lust of
applause, neglect of the Word, of prayer, of souls; hundreds of other individual
con­fessions of various sins of omission and commission followed, sometimes a
half-dozen or more being on their feet at once. No improper word was spoken. All
was subdued, but deep, intense, searching. The meeting might have still gone on,
without decline or interest, had not again motives of ex­pediency and
consideration for others prevailed. No one present will ever forget that
meeting. Seldom has any such scene been witnessed by any now living. God moved
in wholly unexpected ways, and no one could think of inter­fering. It was quite
obvious that He had set aside chairman and speaker and was both presiding and
speaking. There was a strange hush of God in the meeting, and few, if any, loud
outcries. No one showed a hysterical mood, or fainted; few left the meeting, and
meanwhile a great crowd gathered out­side. When we closed with "Coronation" and
"Diadem" there had been no disturbance; penitence, confession, prayer,
self-surrender, holy resolve, had led up to praise and adoration. And we quickly
adjourned, with the profound sense that God had visited His people.

We thank God for the deputation from Wales. The brethren that came up were from
the centres of the great Revival, and themselves God’s appointed leaders in it.
Such men as Rev. Seth Joshua; Professor Keri Evans; Rev. M. H. Jones of
Carmarthen; Rev. D. Wynne Evans of Chester; Rev. Owen M. Owen, of Merthyr; Rev.
W. S. Jones, of Llwynypia, and others, like them, came from revival scenes in
their own churches, and brought with them a spirit of believing and expectant
prayer.

Apart from the special meeting on Tuesday afternoon, given up to testimony as to
the Welsh Revival, only one of them spoke in the meetings; but they prayed, and
the blessing-­borne to Wales from Keswick and the conventions at Llan­drindod
and Pontypridd, and through the testimony of Mrs. Penn-Lewis, Mr. Inwood, Mr.
Meyer, and others-came back to Keswick as ascending vapours return in showers.

It behoves us all to tread softly. The Spirit might be grieved, if not quenched,
by attributing to man what belongs to God, by an over-critical spirit, by a
disposition to adhere to a rigid method, to elevate a prejudice or a preference
to the rank of a principle. Let us be tractable, and hold out reverent hands to
be led by the all-wise Spirit. iii SOME FURTHER WORDS ABOUT THE RECENT
CONVENTION * By the late REV. E. H. HOPKINS * The Life of Faith, Aug 30, 1905
(by courtesy of the Editor). By this time our readers will have gathered that of
all the memorable meetings at Keswick this year, perhaps the most memorable was
the Friday evening meeting in the Skiddaw­-street Tent. No description could
possibly reproduce its atmo­sphere and influence. The calm presence of God was
realized in a fashion not common even in our most favoured gatherings. It was
not only that the speaker, the Rev. E. W. Moore-­whose address was so signally
honoured and used-was in the power of the Spirit; but the whole of the vast
congrega­tion was subdued and swayed by the heavenly breath. Many, we are quite
sure, on that unique occasion obtained a quite new idea of the possibilities of
Christian worship, and of the governance of the Spirit of God in the assemblies
of His people.

We are very glad to be able to furnish our readers this week not only with Mr.
Moore’s address, but with a report of a con­siderable number of the testimonies
and confessions which were poured forth so freely. To report all was, of course,
impossible, for sometimes half a dozen or more were speaking at the same moment.
We trust, however, that these reports will be sufficient to revive the
impressions of those who were present, and to pass to many who were not there
something of the holy influence which was poured forth upon the assembled
thousands. As to the Convention as a whole, there still seems to be a few things
that need to be said. First of all, we are dis­posed to think that none of us
realized how great were the practical problems that this year’s gathering would
present. As we look back, we recognize, with wonder and praise, the marvellous
achievements of the Holy Spirit in carrying us through to so happy an issue. At
this last Keswick three great torrents of spiritual force and feeling met and
coalesced; with the result that a deep strong river of God is now flowing
forward to bless the whole world.

First of all we had a large band of friends from Wales, full of the fervour and
fire of revival, and eager to impart it. Nor could they have been blamed--it
would only have been human -if they had come amongst us with a desire for some
literal repetition of the glorious scenes which they had been witnessing in the
Principality during the recent revival. But the spirit of our Welsh friends was
altogether delightful, and worthy of the Master Who has so greatly blessed and
honoured them. Then, again, the Torrey-Alexander missions were represented at
Keswick this year by a large contingent of friends who had taken part in them,
and were full of holy zeal for aggressive Christian effort. Last of all, there
were present a very large number familiar with the "Keswick" of the past, many
of whom would choose as their motto the sacred words, "In quietness and
confidence shall be your strength." Add to these great sectional characteristics
and differences, the individual idiosyncrasies to be found in a gathering of,
say, ten thousand people, and it will be understood at once that the Convention
this year presented problems of extraordinary magnitude and intricacy. And yet
the Spirit of Christ gloriously prevailed, and by the end of the week the great
multitude were of one heart and mind, and marvellously knit together in the
sweet bonds of the love of Christ their Lord. We are free to confess that there
were moments during the week when the difficulties of the situation assumed a
menacing mien; but it was only for a moment, and to our poor vision. Nor were
the gains transient and temporary. Our hearts have been knit to our beloved
Welsh brethren and we trust theirs to ours, in the most enduring fashion. In
view of what happened at Keswick, and a little later at Llandrindod, it is not
too much to say that the Welsh Revival and the Conven­tion movement have entered
upon a fellowship which is full of promise and hope for both. In many other
ways, also, the "Keswick" of this year has made for the increase of that large
union and unity amongst the people of God which is so dear to the heart of our
Lord Jesus. We rejoice in the cementing of the bonds between ourselves and our
brethren of the United States, effected by the presence and fruitful ministry of
Dr. Pierson amongst us. At Northfield too, where Dr. Pierson and Prebendary
Webb­-Peploe are speaking, this fellowship will be still further developed. Of
the innumerable other uniting influences at work in Keswick, it would be
difficult to speak adequately. Think, for instance, only of the nations
represented. At that Friday night meeting amongst those who stood up was a
Japanese gentleman who, in excellent English, spoke of God’s wonderful
loving-kindness. In several other meetings it was the testi­mony of a German
sister that was signally used of God to stir the hearts of his people. In fact,
it is a great and precious education of heart and spirit to share for ten days
the fellow­ship of the Convention.

There is one other point we feel constrained to refer to. We have a strong
conviction that the blessing given at Keswick this year, in innumerable cases
will be tested and utilized in sore conflict with the powers of darkness. Again
and again has there come to mind the scene at the foot of the Mount of
Transfiguration. The Church of Christ to-day is encompassed by a host of
undelivered souls. Surely our pitiful Lord, at the earliest possible moment,
will press the new measure of faith and knowledge which He has bestowed upon us,
into the service of these miserable men and women. And that means conflict, Many
years ago, our dear friend, Mr. Hudson Taylor, remarked to us, "If you undertake
to subvert Satan, Satan will under­take to subvert you." The devil always hits
back. Directly we make any real and effective attack upon his kingdom, we shall
be made to feel his resentment and resistance. Hence it is almost certain that
before another "Keswick" comes round, many of us will have had experience of
such wrestling with wicked spirits in heavenly places as perhaps we have never
known before.

There is nothing to be troubled about in this. As Paul sets forth in the Epistle
to the Ephesians, ample equipment is provided for this conflict, and if we will
only put on the whole armour of God, we shall not only be able to stand
ourselves, but to take the prey from the mighty. The present writer has lived in
a heathen country, and is familiar enough, as all spiritual workers are, with
the sense of the presence and hostility of the principalities of darkness. For
the first time, he had a similar experience at Keswick this year, and on two
occasions. But let us be of good courage. Christ has given us power over all the
power of the enemy; He who overcame summons us to overcome, and is as willing,
and as able, to make us sharers of His victory here as He will be one day to
make us sharers of His throne yonder.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/jones-rhys-b-rent-heavens-the-revival-of-1904/
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