========================================================================
  THE WELSH REVIVAL, EVAN ROBERTS, & THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT
  by Candace Malcomson
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon delves into the profound impact of the Welsh
Revival, highlighting the rich history of revivals in Wales and the
pivotal role it played in shaping the Pentecostal movement. It focuses
on the life of Evan Roberts, a key figure in the Welsh Revival, and his
journey from a coal miner to a powerful preacher who led thousands to
God through prayer and spiritual awakening. The sermon explores the
intense prayer, fervent expectation, and divine encounters that preceded
the outbreak of the Welsh Revival in 1904, detailing the transformative
effects it had on individuals, communities, and even nations worldwide.

Topics: "Revival", "Spiritual Awakening"
Scripture References: Psalm 85:6, Acts 2:17, Joel 2:28, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Matthew 9:37, Isaiah 57:15, Habakkuk 3:2, Zechariah 4:6, Ephesians 5:14

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon delves into the profound impact of the Welsh Revival,
highlighting the rich history of revivals in Wales and the pivotal role
it played in shaping the Pentecostal movement. It focuses on the life of
Evan Roberts, a key figure in the Welsh Revival, and his journey from a
coal miner to a powerful preacher who led thousands to God through
prayer and spiritual awakening. The sermon explores the intense prayer,
fervent expectation, and divine encounters that preceded the outbreak of
the Welsh Revival in 1904, detailing the transformative effects it had
on individuals, communities, and even nations worldwide.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8 The Welsh Revival Before we look at the Welsh Revival, we
should note that the Pentecostal pioneers had a heritage of many
revivals. The denominations from which the pioneers came, whether
Methodist, Brethren, Presbyterian, Baptist or Anglican, were deeply
affected and impacted by revivals in previous centuries. There were
those alive in the early 1900s who remember the great revival of 1859
that swept Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as Scotland and England.

All these pioneers were well acquainted with the history of the
Methodist Revival, which swept England in the 18th century. The
Methodist Revival saved the nation from experiencing a bloody revolution
like the one in France. God's way of deliverance was to raise up chosen
vessels like George Whitefield, John Wesley and his brother Charles out
at the despised Holy Club at Cambridge.

Both Scotland and Wales experienced numbers of small awakenings, as well
as large and national revivals over the centuries when the spirit was
outpoured. In fact, Scotland and Wales have had more outpourings than
any other nation in the world. Far too many to summarise here, but the
reason we now single out the Welsh Revival, which broke out in November
1904, is that it preceded the Pentecostal movement by less than two
years and was probably one of the greatest moulding influences upon the
Pentecostal movement.

In the years preceding the Welsh Revival, there were very definite signs
of coming glory, especially in the ten months leading into that
November. There were many who were soaked in prayer and who had a living
expectation that they were on the verge of a great revival. Many hungry
saints had read books, like Andrew Murray's With Christ in the School of
Prayer, that prepared them for the place of prayer.

God had prepared a people and carefully moulded many vessels to lead
vast multitudes of souls back to God. Many were prepared, many were
used, but one person, Evan Roberts, was certainly to become the most
prominent and the one we shall look at here. Evan Roberts was born into
a very godly, devout and hard-working family in 1878.

He was one of 14 children and one of seven sons. Their home, called
Island House, was situated on the banks of the River Lochr in Lochor, a
small village in Glamorgan in South Wales. Near Lochor was a coal mine
where Evan went to work with his father at the young age of 11, which
brought an end to his school education.

He was a door boy, which entailed opening and closing the door for the
drams, carriages, carrying coal up and down the shafts. The old Welsh
preachers often referred to those dark and dangerous mines as a picture
of hell or the darkness of men's depraved hearts. Those like Evan who
worked underground could very well relate to this picture language.

From his earliest years, Evan was a very serious and solemn boy. He was
a constant student of the Bible and was never found without it, either
in his hand or in his pocket. Once, in an explosion in the mine, his
Bible was scorched but Evan was unharmed.

When manning the mine doors, he would often give the passing miners a
written text of Scripture to meditate on and would later ask them what
they had learned from it. This boy intended to be a preacher. His
separation from all the boyish fun of his friends around him was a true
mark of just how serious he was about us.

He had no outstanding gift to speak or expound the Scriptures that
anyone could see, but the blamelessness of his life was apparent to all.
Evan faithfully attended every meeting at Moriah Chapel, the large
Calvinistic Methodist church which his family attended. Moriah was one
of several non-conformist chapels in Lough Corr.

One day, an elder challenged young Evan concerning faithfulness in
attending God's house. The elder had asked him how he would feel if he
were absent when the Spirit of God fell. After that, Evan made it his
habit to attend every meeting without fail.

There was not a night of the week when he was not at some meeting. In
1902, he left his work in the mine and began an apprenticeship with his
uncle as a blacksmith. He went about his business faithfully and almost
unnoticed, but his desire to pursue the call of God became increasingly
evident.

For years, he held back from applying for ministerial training because
he knew very well how such theological schools had killed the spirit of
many. Prior to the revival, academic qualifications and learning had
become the most emphasised thing in preparing for ministry. Spiritual
life and fervency were secondary qualifications and almost ignored.

Eventually, he was recommended for the ministry by Moriah Chapel in
1903, which meant that he had to pass the trial of preaching his first
sermon before the presbytery in Moriah to prove his skills and then to
preach in other associated chapels to further prove his call. It also
meant that his personal experience of Christ and his call to the
ministry would be scrutinised by mature, godly men in this church and
area. It is of interest to note that George Muller's writings on faith
and prayer left a quiet mark upon him in his walk with God.

As he prepared for ministry, he prayed much that God would baptise him
with the Holy Spirit and power. Evan was no victim of higher criticism
or modernism. He believed in the total depravity of man's heart, the
eternal punishment of Christ-rejectors and of the miracle-working power
of God to save sinners, to wash them clean in his precious blood.

He preached obedience, holiness and subjection to Christ in all things.
But he was deeply depressed over the state of church generally across
the nation. It was a sad failure in comparison to what he read in the
scriptures.

One night, while trying to prevail with God and prayer, he fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, he awoke suddenly with unspeakable joy in
the very presence of Almighty God. For four hours, he spoke to the Lord
face to face as a friend would speak to a friend.

From that moment, he knew that God was going to work in the land. A
similar burden of prayer came to him every night for the next four
months. It would be wrong to say that this was the beginning of his
prayer for revival, for he had been praying for it throughout the
previous 11 years that God would send revival to Wales, and for 13 years
he had prayed for a personal filling of the Holy Spirit.

In September 1904, at the age of 26, he moved to Newcastle Grammar
School for preliminary studies for the ministry. It was here that he
would have a meeting with God that would be as significant as Moses
meeting God at the burning bush. Seth Joshua, pioneer evangelist for the
Calvinistic Methodist forward movement, had been mightily converted back
in 1882 at a Salvation Army meeting when he knelt at an old mourner's
bench and cried unto God for forgiveness and salvation.

Those were days when Salvationists had invaded the Welsh Valleys with a
spirit of revival. They held open-air meetings and the Salvation Lassies
played the tambourines amidst testimonies and shouts of Hallelujah! The
CM forward movement, Calvinistic Methodist forward movement, was founded
by denominational leaders as an earnest attempt to reach the Welsh
communities previously untouched and unmoved by the power of the Gospel.
The forward movement certainly carried something of the spirit of those
old-fashioned Salvationists and so did Seth Joshua.

Those who knew Joshua called him a man of God, for he was wholly
dedicated and consecrated unto God. He was a man that God could use. He
was not bound by typical trends of religion or tradition, for some time
he'd been greatly concerned about the emphasis on education rather than
emphasis on a real spiritual experience and walk with God as the main
qualifications for ministry.

He continued with a deep burden and prayer that the Lord would, open
quote, take a lad from the coal mine or from the field even as he took
Elisha from the plough to revive his work, close quote. When old Joshua
came to Newcastle, Emlyn, to hold a campaign, the principal of Evan
Roberts' school encouraged all the young men to attend the meetings. At
these meetings Evan was much impressed with the fervour and the message
of the preacher as he sat night after night intently listening to this
messenger from heaven.

The campaign ended without any unusual manifestational sign that God was
about to do a great work and Joshua thought that the ground was hard and
the people unresponsive. Even Evan found his own heart to be somewhat
hard and cold. The evangelist moved on to his next preaching
appointment, a small neighbourhood on the coast of the cardigan bay, but
there were some very definite workings of God in the hearts of the
people of this place.

A group of the students from the grammar school made plans to travel to
those meetings and Evan was among them. As they travelled they sang, It
is coming, it is coming, the power of the Holy Ghost, I receive it, I
receive it, the power of the Holy Ghost. After the first early morning
meeting Seth Joshua prayed asking God to bend them.

This prayer became Evan's prayer in a powerful way. Now he prayed, bend
me Lord, with all his heart. Soon this would become the prayer of a
nation.

In the meeting the next morning young Evan fell upon his knees and then
lay prostrate asking God this one thing, bend me, bend me. He was
sweating profusely as he travailed in prayer and groaned in spirit. That
day he died, he became a new man, another man.

It was a virtual baptism of fire in which God did bend him. These
meetings continued for several days with other young friends having
similar experiences. Evan was now given over to prayer for a great
spiritual awakening in Wales.

It became impossible for him to carry on his studies at the college. He
asked God for others who were filled with fire who would stand by him
for the task and they were soon given to him. He made initial plans to
step out in faith with this little band in evangelistic labors from
county to county but it seems the Lord restrained him from this.

One day with great excitement Evan went to see his good friend Sidney
Evans to tell Sidney that the Lord had given him a vision of all of
Wales being lifted up to heaven and that he'd received the assurance
that 100 souls would be saved. Another night while standing in a garden
with Sidney looking up at the beautiful full moon they experienced the
same vision at the same time. It was a hand reaching down from the moon
to the earth to take something unto itself.

They were both convinced that this was a token of the confirmation that
the hand of God would be outstretched to work in the nation to bring in
a great harvest of souls. Another time he had a vision of hell and the
terrible suffering of lost sinners. As he saw this he pleaded with God
to close hell's door for one year and give the people an opportunity to
repent.

During those weeks of intensity there were those who felt Evan was
losing touch with reality and that he was becoming fanatical and
extreme. They were very concerned about him. Evan and Sidney would be up
frequently in the middle of the night travailing in prayer and one night
their hostess came and rebuked them for the noise at such an unearthly
hour.

It was in the Sunday morning meeting as the minister Evan Phillips
preached on the subject Father the hour is come that Evan had a vision
of the church in Locore with young men sitting in rows and he was
preaching to them. The Spirit of God was commissioning him to go and to
speak to them and he yielded to God's will. After speaking with the
principal of the school he left Newcastle on the 31st of October to
return to Locore by train.

All he had was the Holy Spirit and a vision from God. No one was
expecting him in Locore and no meetings were arranged. His family were
skeptical of his enthusiasm and his minister was slow to arrange a
meeting.

Finally he persuaded the various older ministers in the area to allow
him to speak at some of the smaller less important meetings that week.
The first meeting was a youth meeting held on a Monday night. There were
just 17 young people present.

As he testified of what God had been doing in his life and was about to
do in the nation he exhorted them to prepare themselves for a baptism of
the Holy Ghost. At first the meeting was hard going but suddenly the
power of God came down and all who were not saved were converted and
others yielded themselves unreservedly to God. The next days news of the
deep impact and change in the lives of these young people spread in the
community.

Night after night meetings were held with more gatherings as Evan went
from church to church. The people prayed, listened, repented and
rejoiced. His message to sinners was repent.

His message to the saints was be filled with the Spirit. By the end of
the week the community was astir. Meetings went on for five hours with
many laying prostrate on the ground under deep conviction of sin and
agony of soul until they received salvation.

The following week meetings continued to five in the morning with sleep,
food and normal activities forgotten. Then an invitation came from a
church in Aberdare 30 miles to the east where the proposed speaker had
cancelled his morning engagement. Evan arrived there with three young
ladies accompanying him.

The congregation had been trundling along in normalcy but not for much
longer. The church elders expected a good service but nothing unusual.
The service began with one of the young ladies bursting into song as
tears rolled down her cheeks.

The young preacher was bent over in his seat shaking as he wept.
Suddenly one of the church's proudest members fell on her knees and
confessed her sins publicly in agonizing prayer. People knelt
everywhere.

The organ remained silent with the organist on her seat as the service
continued all day. By nightfall the community was astir and a great host
gathered at the chapel that evening. Some were singing, O the lamb, the
bleeding lamb or throw out the lifeline.

Others were praying and travailing. Some were sitting, many were
kneeling and others were prostrate. Words of knowledge flowed from the
young revivalist.

Meetings continued, the fire spread and homes were changed. The exact
same thing happened in every chapel in Aberdare where the people sought
God. The services were spontaneous and unorganized.

People prayed, testified and sang as prompted by the spirit of God.
Reports began to appear in newspapers which at first were very
disparaging but when reporters also began to get converted the papers
carried very positive supportive reports. News of this Welsh revival now
spread abroad to many nations.

At times Evan could preach for hours, other times he gave short direct
words but always in the Welsh language. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he
laughed and other times he rejoiced. He was of course the most prominent
in this new revival, a vessel raised up by God to lead but the revival
was everywhere.

Many ministers arose to preach and lead their people back to God and
into personal revival. National sports events were deserted of their
normal large crowds, theatres were empty, pubs were closed and crime
dropped immediately. In Cardiff police reported that drunkenness dropped
by 60 percent within one month of the revival beginning.

This revival even invaded brothels and gambling dens in the city.
Hardened cursing minors were suddenly transformed formed and these were
regarded as the hardest people to reach in the entire land. Agnostics
repented and put faith in the blood of the Lamb for forgiveness of their
sins.

Children prayed down the power of God. At the centre of every prayer,
every song and every message was the finished work of Calvary and the
bleeding Lamb. Preachers came from across Britain and the world to see
the glory of the Lord fill his temple.

When F.B. Meyer, the famous London preacher and teacher, came to
investigate he was urged to preach but he refused and sat silent in the
school of the Holy Ghost as he listened to inexperienced untrained
minors preach eloquently. The great Bible expositor G. Campbell Morgan,
scared of being a hindrance, finished his preaching engagements in Wales
as quickly as he could and told Evan he was leaving to return home. When
asked his opinion about the revival he said it is Pentecost continued.

William Booth packed his bag and left the revival as quickly as
possible. These great preachers and leaders were scared to touch this
work of God. They sat idly by while children and old coal miners prayed
and testified.

True revival is never organised by man, committees or denominations. The
fear of God was dominant amidst manifestations of power and it protected
the work. Evan himself strove to keep out of sight so as not to hinder
the work of God.

He refused many international invitations to minister. Even politicians
had to take note. Mr Lloyd George, a member of Parliament and later
Prime Minister of Great Britain said, quote, it is certainly the most
remarkable spiritual movement this generation has witnessed.

It seems to be rocking Welsh life like a great earthquake, close quote.
This revival especially captured the youth but it never missed or
neglected the old. It was a singing revival but the songs were crammed
with sound doctrine.

It was a time of blessing for the church. The emphasis was on seeing
sinners saved. It was indeed a Welsh revival not a British revival but
the fire did spread to Britain, Europe and the world through those whose
tongue was touched by a call from off thy altar.

A desire and love for reading the written scriptures was restored to the
church during this revival. Holiness of heart and conduct was wrought
mightily deep within lives. Worldly methods of drawing and keeping
people in the church were nullified.

This was a heaven-sent revival. One eyewitness said divine movements
have their birthplace in the heart of deity, close quote. Evan Roberts
had maintained an unparalleled and active schedule without proper break
or rest.

It was inevitable that this would take its toll. By January 1906 he had
finished a phase of his life. He had ministered in South Wales
continually as well as in the North and in Liverpool in England.

A great many praised him as an anointed man of God while others
considered him a deceiver and his revival false and erroneous. He passed
into a time of terrible mental strain and fatigue and his body was
tired. To the surprise of all he seemed to suddenly disappear from the
work and disappear from sight.

Then in January 1951 Roberts went to be with the Lord. We do not have
the space to continue the story here but there are many great
biographies on Evan Roberts and the Welsh revival available to read. At
a glance what were the final results of this revival? Within two months
of its beginning there had been over 30,000 converts.

Within six months 100,000 converts. By the beginning of 1906 who could
know? By 1910 its influence was felt in every corner of the globe.
Religious systems in Britain tried to explain it away by claiming it was
the product of Welsh emotion but for well over 100 years it has now been
regarded as a major part of Christian heritage of genuine revivals and
Christians continue to be encouraged and challenged by it.

It has been much speculated and stated that within two years much of the
harvest was lost but the evidence in fact shows that the vast majority
remained as members of established churches. The proof of this is that
all the local churches were full and later membership suffered little.
Now what was the influence upon the Pentecostal movement? Without doubt
the primary mark and greatest effect of the Welsh revival upon the
Pentecostal movement was the converts it produced.

Welshmen like Stephen and George Jeffreys, Dan and Joan Williams and Tom
Mercy were converted and deeply impacted at this time. These men all
played significant roles in the three Pentecostal denominations that
later arose in Britain and Ireland. An indelible mark was left upon
these men of the reality, power and purpose of God in bringing a nation
to its knees.

There can be no doubt that these men were the main pioneers of Elam, the
assemblies of God and the apostolic churches across the land. Later
their ministries were to have a profound effect in many other nations of
the world. After the Welsh revival began to wane there were those across
the land who were not willing to return to dead denominationalism or the
formalism of former years.

Very often these children of the revival were pushed out of their old
churches and left with no option but to start their own mission halls
and assemblies. Many of these new assemblies later received the message
of the Pentecostal baptism. Donald G was converted in London through
preaching of Seth Joshua in October 1905 who came red-hot from the
revival.

Others who were already mature in ministry were profoundly stirred. For
example, Alexander Boddy came to see the revival personally and talked
with Evan Roberts asking him to come to Sunderland. Boddy's church hall
was that one used in the first Sunderland Wits and Tithe convention in
1905 for Welsh revival meetings.

In Boddy's mind these two revivals were inseparably linked. Smith
Wigglesworth visited the revival in 1905. Cecil Paulhill visited in
1906.

T.B. Barrett of Norway published reports of the Welsh revival in his
paper called By Poshton and also carried the story of Evan Roberts's
baptism in the Holy Ghost. This had a wide readership in Norway. In
January 1905 Barrett wrote to Evan Roberts in Wales asking for earnest
prayer that Norway might have a similar revival and that he, Barrett,
might experience a baptism of fire.

When Barrett later received his baptism in the Holy Spirit followed by
the revival in Oslo in December 1906, he believed that this was the
answer to prayer by the Welsh saints. Pandita Ramabai, who was the
daughter of a Brahmin in the west of India, was highly educated and very
active in social reform in the nation. While staying in England in the
1880s she was converted and baptized in water.

In 1895 she opened a home in India called Mukti, meaning salvation,
which gave refuge to young women. By 1905 Pandita Ramabai had two
thousand girls who'd taken refuge with her. Her work was very well known
and respected in many nations.

After hearing of the Welsh revival in 1904 she started special early
morning prayer meetings in January 1905 during which they sought God for
a genuine revival for themselves and the world. In July that year
revival came and when it did it carried all the marks of a Pentecostal
revival. These ladies were filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke in tongues,
prophesied and went forth by hundreds to witness and preach the gospel
in their region.

As they did many turned to the Lord and sick bodies were healed. Whilst
this predated the Pentecostal revival which later came to America and
Britain, Pandita Ramabai later had close ties with the Pentecostal
pioneers. Joseph Smale, an Englishman trained at CH Spurgeon's College,
was a pastor in Los Angeles.

At a time when he needed a vacation he returned to England and took a
tour of the Middle East. Before returning to LA he heard of and then
encountered the Welsh revival. When he returned to LA in June 1905 he
entered his pulpit on fire.

His first message was the great Welsh revival. He wholeheartedly
believed that a similar revival would come to LA and just before his
return in 1905 F.B. Meyer had spoken in LA about the Welsh revival which
many of Smale's congregation had attended. Frank Barthelmen corresponded
with Evan Roberts informing him about the work in LA and asking for
prayer.

He received three responses from him between June and November 1905
assuring him of prayer. Barthelmen also distributed accounts of the
revival right across the city's churches and leaders. These men were
later central in Los Angeles outpouring or as it became known the Azusa
Street revival.

In 1910 Barthelmen visited Britain for the first time to minister at a
Pentecostal assembly. In between visiting and ministering with Smith
Wigglesworth in Bradford in the north of England and for Cecil Paulhill
in London he stopped with Evan Roberts in Leicester for an afternoon.
The evidence is in the fruit.

We can see that the Welsh revival was a significant if not major
influence in the bringing forth of a Pentecostal revival in India,
America, Britain, Norway, Europe and in Britain it is utterly impossible
to separate the two. Interestingly in later years when someone asked
Evan Roberts where the fruit of the Welsh revival was he pointed to the
Pentecostal evangelist Stephen Jeffreys.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Sn0vRFvoa9s.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/candace-malcomson/the-welsh-revival-evan-roberts-the-pentecostal-movement/
========================================================================