[b]A Revival Meeting[/b]

t's difficult for us almost 60 years later to trace the ministry of all the dear servants of God who were so mightily used at this time. As suggested before, so great was the glory of God manifested to them that they felt totally insignificant and unworthy. What a pity it is that men like Seth Joshua, R.B. Jones, and others didn't publish a modest report of all that God had wrought in their meetings. Because of this silence, there are at least a 100 books unwritten on the Welsh Revival. Only the "Bema" of Christ will reveal the great exploits of ordinary men and women of God in that day.

Evan Roberts was by far the most publicized preacher of the day. This wasn't of his own seeking. He was deeply distressed at all the publicity he was receiving, and he soon decided that his movements must not be announced beforehand. On many occasions when it was known where he would preach, he would simply say to the ministers who invited him, "Yes, I believe the Lord would have me accept your invitation and come for three days, but please don't announce in what building I will preach; the people must come for the Lord and Him alone. Otherwise, the Holy Spirit will withdraw Himself from our midst."

The revivalist also was extraordinarily careful that it shouldn't be thought that the work depended on him. "I'm only one of the instruments God is using. There are many others," he would say. "It's true that God gave me a vision, and God gave me a call to this revival, but it was a joy for me to discover later that the same experience was duplicated in the lives of so many dear saints of God. Unknown to each other, the same Spirit of God had burdened us all for this awakening."

"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, you don't go to look at the glass, but through it at the scenery beyond. Then look through me and see the Lord."

It's easier for us to trace the supernatural work of the Spirit in the meetings of young Roberts, however, owing to the heavy publicity his meetings received.

Time limits in the meetings were forgotten. Announced to begin a certain hour, people gathered an hour or two before. Meetings closed when they were ended. Clocks were completely ignored. Meetings began as soon as part of the congregation had assembled. There was no waiting for any human leader. Never was there a religious movement so little indebted to the guiding brains of its leaders. When the evening meeting, which began at 7 o'clock, poured out at 3 o'clock next morning, other crowds were preparing to get into the chapel for the early morning prayer meeting! In many places, all work ceased during the time of the visit of Evan Roberts. The factories and shops sometimes closed for one to three days so the people could attend the meetings.

A famous reporter of the great "London Daily" visited the meetings of the young prophet of Loughor in order to describe to the people in London the amazing scenes about which they had heard. He wrote:

I found the flame of Welsh religious enthusiasm as smokeless as its coal. There are no advertisements, no brass bands, no posters. All the paraphernalia of the got-up job are conspicuous by their absence. There's no instrumental music. The pipe organs lie unused. There's no need of instruments, for in and around and beneath surge the all-prevailing thrill and throb of a multitude praying and singing as they pray.

The vast congregations are soberly sane, as orderly and at least as reverent as any congregation I ever saw beneath the dome of St. Paul's cathedral. Tier above tier in the crowded aisle to the loftiest gallery sit or stand as necessity dictates, eager hundreds of serious men and women, their eyes riveted upon the platform or upon whatever part of the building is the storm center of the meeting. The vast majority of the congregation are stalwart young miners.

"We must obey the Spirit" is the watchword of Evan Roberts, and he is as obedient as the humblest of his audience. No one uses a hymn book; no one gives out a hymn. The last person to control the meeting in any way is Evan Roberts. You feel that the 1000 or 1500 persons before you have become merged into one myriad-headed but single-souled personality. You can watch what they call "the influence of the power of the Spirit" playing over the congregation as an ebbying wind plays over the surface of the pond.

A very remarkable instance of this abandonment of the meeting to the spontaneous impulse, not merely of those within the walls but of those crowded outside, where were unable to get in, occurred on Sunday night. Twice the order of proceeding, if order it can be called, was altered by the crowd outside who, by some mysterious impulse, started a hymn on their own account which was at once taken up by the congregation within. On one of these occasions, Evan Roberts was addressing the meeting. He at once gave way, and the singing became general.

The meeting always breaks out into a compassionate and consoling song, until the soloist, having recovered his breath, rises from his knees and sings a song.

The praying and singing are both wonderful. But more impressive than either are the breaks which occur when utterance can no more, and then the sobbing in the silence momentarily heard is drowned in tempest of melody. No need for an organ. The assembly is its own organ, as a 1000 or 1500 sorrowing or rejoicing hearts find expression in the sacred Psalmody of their native hills.

Repentance, open confession, intercessory prayer and, above all else, this marvelous musical liturgy - a liturgy unwritten but heart-felt - a mighty chorus rising like the thunder of the surge of the rock-bound shore, ever and anon broken by the flute-like note of the singing sisters whose melody is as sweet and as spontaneous as the music of the throstle in the grove or the martin in the skies. And all this vast quivering, throbbing, singing, praying, exultant multitude intensely conscious of the all-pervading influence of some invisible reality - now for the first time moving palpable though not tangible in their midst. They call it the Spirit of God.

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon