In the video, the speaker describes a powerful religious gathering where the usual order of proceedings was abandoned for a more spontaneous and heartfelt approach. The preacher walked among the congregation, exhorting, encouraging, and praying with them. The atmosphere was filled with deep religious fervor and exultation, with people experiencing intense emotions and seeking forgiveness. The speaker also mentions the appearance of Evan Roberts, a young man who was deeply affected by the meeting and later became a prominent figure in the religious movement.

We're turning to Psalm 85, and our prayer tonight is really expressed in the words of the sixth verse there. As we come to speak about the subject tonight, Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Let's just unite in a word of prayer. Our gracious God and our Father, it is our prayer that thou wouldst revive us afresh. Revive us, Lord, as thee levating, while harvest fields are vast and white. We realize, our God, the vast need, the great need that there is, that we go out and tell men and women about their need of salvation, of the Saviour who came, of the salvation that is available. And our God, we pray that they might turn to God and find thee as their Saviour. Revive us tonight. Wilt thou not revive us? Lord, we need revival. Revival starts in the people of God. Indeed, revival is among the people of God. For you can't revive a dead thing. And our God, we pray that thou wouldst revive us tonight. And bless us as we come into this place. O God, write thy Word upon our hearts. For it is in Jesus' precious name I would ask these things. Amen. Amen. It was about this time, exactly a hundred years ago, that revival began in the Principality of Wales. The first reports of the revival appeared in the Western Mail newspaper in South Wales on November 1, 1904. But whether you trace the revival to the spring or to around September, October, it's all around mostly traced to about this time of the year when God reached down in mighty blessing in the land of Wales and great blessings flowed. Now, revival always starts in heaven. You can't work revival up. It's the sovereign work of a sovereign God. But if we were to trace the earthly history of the 1904 Welsh revival, you might trace it back to a burden given to two men, the Reverend Joseph Jenkins of Newquay and John Thickens of Aber Aran. They had a great burden about the state of their congregations, about the state of their own hearts. And they were lamenting the dryness and the barrenness that there was amongst them. And they felt that this barrenness was in their congregation, and they felt their poverty of spirit, and they began to pray that God would anoint them with the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Now, one day, Reverend Jenkins was speaking to his young people in Newquay where he was the minister. And it was a young people's society, really sort of a club that they had. And he was speaking to the young people, and he said to the young people, What does the Lord Jesus mean to you? And there was a silence for a little while, as probably you would have in a young people's meeting. He asked that question. And then slowly somebody said, Well, the Lord Jesus is the Savior of the world, and He has come to save men and women. But the Reverend Jenkins said, But what does the Lord Jesus mean to you? And another little moment elapsed. And then a girl by the name of Flory Evans, who had been only saved three weeks at that time, said, I love the Lord Jesus with all of my heart. And she said it with such sincerity, and with such meaning in her voice, and such obvious conviction, that it came in at that meeting with a power. And that really was the start of the revival in Wales. There was a man by the name of Seth Johnson. He was an evangelist with the Forward Movement of Wales. And he came to Newquay then, in September, the place where these young people had been under the power of God, and had been stirred by the Spirit of God. And he came down to do some meetings in Newquay in September. And he records in his diary, he said, I've never seen the power of the Holy Spirit so powerfully manifested among the people as at this place just now. Now, in the following week, Seth Joshua came and he did the meetings there, and he felt the power of God. But he was to go to another place, a place called Newcastle, Emlyn. And then he was to attend a conference at a place called Blannanerch. And it was there in Newcastle, Emlyn. He did the meetings, and there were some students there from a local college where they trained people for the work of the ministry. And he had been praying for a long time, for four years I think, that God would lift a man out of the pits, out of the collaries, or out of the ordinary work, and would place him in the work of God and send a great revival. Now, God was going to answer his prayer at the meetings in Newcastle, Emlyn in a remarkable way. Now, he had these meetings in Newcastle, Emlyn, September 1904. And the first few days of the meetings, it seemed that there was going to be none of the blessing that he had experienced in UK and in other places. And then on Tuesday, the 27th of September, he recorded in his journal, a large number were blessed this evening. Some students received blessing and confessed salvation. The Lord will certainly move this place. The yearning is here among the people. Now, among the students that he mentioned there from Newcastle, Emlyn, was a man named Evan Roberts. Evan Roberts was 26 years of age at that time. He came from the little town of Locker in South Wales where the Rev. Dinedue Pritchard labours in Pisca Chapel there, which is associated with Evan Roberts. But he belonged to Moriah Chapel, which was Calvinistic Methodist now called Presbyterian in Locker. And there in Newcastle, Emlyn, Roberts was training for the ministry. He had gone into the ministry. For years, he had been in the mines. For years, he had been labouring. He had been labouring since he was 12 years of age. He was a blacksmith and as a collier. But now God had led him and given him a great burden to go into the work of God. And Evan Roberts was a man like many others that are used in revival. He had a great longing for the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. And he describes an incident which took place earlier in 1904 when he says that God came to him when he was at his bedside. He was down praying and God came to him and he says that he was taken to a place which he says was a great expanse without time and space. And he found himself in communion with God. And he felt the power of God laying his hands upon him. And he said that ever after that, all down through the months of 1904, every night from that on, at one o'clock at night, he would wake. And he would be brought into communion with God and he said he would pray until five o'clock in the morning and then he would be allowed to sleep again until nine o'clock. And God was preparing the heart of this man so that by the time Joshua came to the conference, it says that he was waiting for the fire to fall. Now, when the conference was taking place in Blaenorac, Evan Roberts came with the other students on the second morning of the conference. And there was an early morning session. And the meeting was clothed in prayer by Seth Joshua. And he used a phrase in his prayer that really stuck in Evan Roberts' heart. He said, O Lord, bend us. O Lord, bend us. And the words just seemed to go into the hearts of Evan Roberts. And he came at the end of the meeting and he felt compelled to fall on his knees. And he just cried, O Lord, bend me. Bend me. And he says that as he said that, he experienced a profound peace. As God began to bend him and mould him. And it says that he was filled with a compassion. He says himself, these were his own words, he said, The salvation of the human soul was solemnly impressed upon me. I felt ablaze with a desire to go through the length and breadth of Wales to tell of the Saviour. It was from that that Evan Roberts seemed to be filled with the power of God. And he had a desire to go out and conduct meetings. Now, at this time he was still a student. And he went back to the college. They had been given time off to go to these meetings, this conference. And he went back, but he was uneasy. And he felt that God was calling him back to the young people in his own congregation in Locker. And he felt that was what God would have him to do. And he went to the principal of the college and he said, I have a great longing to go back. I'm uneasy. I can't settle at my studies. And he said to the principal, Is this of God or of the devil? And the principal was wise and he said, Well, the devil doesn't give you desire to spread the gospel to other people. So he gave him a week off and he went down to Locker. And he came home and his parents were sort of surprised to see him home. And they said, What are you doing home? Are you not at your studies? He said, I'm going to speak to the young people and I'm going to speak at the church. They said we were out at church on Sunday. We didn't hear it announced. He said, No, the minister doesn't know it's going to take place yet. And so he went and asked the minister. And you can imagine somebody coming from the Bible College just coming out and asking to take a meeting and you'd wonder what it was. So he said, Well, what we'll do is that after the meeting if people want to stay and listen, they can. Seventeen people stayed to listen. And he spoke with power. And the minister then invited him the next night to speak to the meeting. And it grew and grew until on Sunday the meetings were absolutely packed. And God began to move. And God began to bless. And God began to save souls. So that in the end a hundred thousand or more maybe were saved in Wales during that time of revival in 1904. Now it wasn't just Evan Roberts because there were others. During the revival every church nearly in Wales was packed. It was packed with people. And they had meetings from early in the morning to late at night. In every church. And all day they were packed. A man got off a tree and one day wanted to be brought to where Evan Roberts was preaching. And the man says, Where is he preaching? He says, We don't know. He doesn't announce his meetings. It could be in any church. He says, Where are the meetings taking place? He says, They're taking place in every church. Every church is full. He says, When do the meetings take place? He says, Will they go on from 6 o'clock to half 12 at night? He says, What? Do you have meetings that long? He says, From 6 o'clock to half 12 at night? The man says, Yes, from 6 o'clock in the morning to half 12 at night. And those meetings were packed for people felt the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God and they knew that God was in the midst. And we would long for God to come in such a way. God has not lost any of His ancient power. We think of the words of the psalm here, Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? We need a breath of the Spirit of God that will come and turn us and sweep many into the kingdom of God in these days. And so for a few minutes tonight we just want to think about some of the lessons that we have here of the Welsh revival in 1904. I want you to think about the background of the revival because it is very interesting to think about the background of what was happening in Wales before the revival took place because in reality it was in a very low ebb. Now Wales was a land of revivals. It is said that from 1735 to 1904 there was a revival in Wales once on average about every ten years. But when the 20th century came in and the last revival had been in 1859, there were 100,000, about a tenth of the population of Wales saved in that revival. But at the 20th century beginning, men's minds were turned away. There was a great hope as this 20th century came in. And they thought that they could solve all their problems. That they had a great desire to solve all those problems. And liberalism was coming in. And apostasy was coming in. The moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Wales in 1900 assessed the situation. He said, A spurt of air fills the air so that a silent subconscious influence on the mind of men attracts them away from the living God. Another one, Welsh Magazine in 1900 news said, While the church sleeps, the enemy busily sows tares among the wheat and nothing short of an outpouring of the Spirit from on high will uproot them and save our land from becoming a prey to atheism and ungodliness. And that was the state of the land before the revival. And isn't it encouraging to us to realize that often times it's always darkest before the dawn. And God breaks in revival even in the days of darkness and when people are indifferent. And when people have turned away from God. And we read that even in the Bible. In the days of Hezekiah, when God sent a revival among the people, we read that the kings before Hezekiah had shut up the house of God. They had shut its doors. The furniture even had been taken out of the temple. And it was just lying there, unopened, unused. God in no way was being worshipped. But we read that Hezekiah in the very first month of his reign opened up the house of God and started the service again. And in two months, within two months, the land was shaking with the power of God's Word afresh. And God can change suddenly. God can change a land suddenly. God can change a heart suddenly. God could change you, sinner, in this meeting suddenly. But God can affect this land all of a sudden. And we think of the spiritual poverty that there was in the land before the revival. There was something else. There was a spirit of prayer. We're told in the histories of the revival that all over Great Britain at that time there was a spirit of prayer for revival, a great longing for revival. We've already said about the fact that Evan Roberts was praying with all his heart. And he'd been praying probably for 13 years at that time for revival. Seth Joshua, the other man that we mentioned, the Bible teacher, he was praying that God would raise up a man out of the collieries. And how God answered his prayer. God lifted a man out of the collieries. Even Evan Roberts, to be a man who would lead in the revival. There was a spiritual thirst, a longing, a praying that God would step in in revival. And of course, we know prayer is always the forerunner of revival. We think of all the revivals we've ever read about and there's always prayer associated. We think of the Isle of Lewis in 1949 and the two little ladies that prayed. God would send Duncan Campbell to that island. How God answered that prayer even though he had other plans. We think of the men in the schoolhouse at Kales in 1859 in Ulster here. God honors prayer. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, the Bible says, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. We need to pray. And then there was something else. Not only was there the spiritual poverty of the land, and there was the spirit of prayer, but there were surprising people. You think of that girl, Flory Evans, only three weeks saved, and yet it was an utterance, just those little words, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, that started an awakening under God in the land of Wales. A man who was just training for the ministry, only in college, this was only his second term, Evan Roberts. God used that man. God can take the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And so we think today of the background of revival and the way that God works. And God wants us to trim our sails that we might receive the blessings of God poured out upon us. So we think of the background of revival. But then could we think about the blessings of the revival? Let me just read you an account from one of the reporters. Now this is a reporter, it's not in any way spiritual. There's an odd thing in it that maybe we'll not agree with. But this is a man who went along from the Western Mail, the newspaper, just a reporter. And he went along to see what was taking place. Now, these meetings, let me give you a little background. After the meetings in Locker, they went on for a couple of weeks. When Evan Roberts was preaching, he'd gone down there. He wanted to preach. And after that, he received an invitation from Gorsan and from a couple of chapels there. And this was a congregational chapel or church. Brinteg Congregational Chapel. And he was to go there to preach. And he was there on Saturday, the 12th of November. And this man went in to give an impression of the meeting. And this is what he wrote. The meeting at Brinteg Congregational Church on Thursday night was attended by those most remarkable scenes which have been made previous meetings memorable in the life history of so many of the inhabitants of the district. The proceedings commenced at 7 o'clock and they lasted without a break until 4.30 o'clock on Friday morning. It must have been Thursday at Starr's. This must have been on the Western Mail came out on Saturday, the 12th of November. During the whole of this time, the congregation were under the influence of deep religious fervor and exultation. There were about 400 people present in the chapel. And then I took my seat at about 9 o'clock. The majority of the congregation were females ranging from young missus of 12 to matrons with babies in arms. Mr. Roberts is a young man of rather striking appearance. He is tall and distinguished looking with an intellectual air about his clean, shaven face. His eyes are piercing in their brightness and the pallor of his countenance seem to suggest that those nightly vigils are taking their toll on him. There was, however, no suggestion of fatigue in his conduct of the meeting. There is nothing theatrical about his preaching. He does not seek to terrify his hearers with eternal torment, and eternal torment finds no place in his theology. Rather does he reason with the people and show them by persuasion a more excellent way. I had not been many minutes in the building before I felt that this was no ordinary gathering. Instead of the set order of proceedings to which we are accustomed at the Orthodox religious service, everything was left to the spontaneous impulse of the moment. The preacher, too, did not remain in his usual seat. For the most part, he walked up and down the aisles, open Bible in hand, exhorting one, encouraging another, and kneeling with a third to implore blessing from the throne of grace. A young woman rose to give out a hymn which was sung with deep earnestness. While it was being sung, several people dropped down from their seats as if they had been struck and commenced crying for pardon. Then from another part of the chapel would be heard the resonant voice of a young man reading a portion of the Scripture. While this was in progress, there came from the gallery an impassioned prayer from a woman crying aloud that she had repented of her ways and was determined to lead a better life from henceforward. All this time, Mr. Roberts went in and out among the congregation, offering kindly words of advice to kneeling penitents. He would ask them if they believed, the reply in one instance being, No, I would like to believe, but I can't. Pray for me. Then the preacher would ask the audience to join him in the following prayer. And it's in Welsh, but it says, Send the Holy Spirit, for Jesus Christ's sake, Amen. The prayer would be repeated about a dozen times by all present. When the would-be convert would suddenly rise and declare with triumph, Thank God, I have now received salvation. Never again will I walk in the way of sinners. This declaration would create a new excitement and the congregation would joyfully sing in Welsh. I suppose this occurred scores of times over the nine hours that the meeting was protracted. A very pathetic feature of the proceedings was the anxiety of many present for the spiritual welfare of members of their families. One woman was heartbroken for her husband, who was given to drink. She implored the prayers of the congregation on his behalf. The story told by another woman drew tears to all eyes. She said that her mother was dead and that her father had given way to sin, so that she was indeed orphaned in the world. She had attended the meetings without feeling her position. But on the previous day, while following her domestic chores, the Spirit had come upon her, bidding her to speak. And she did speak, her address being remarkable for one who had never spoken in public before. Yet another woman made public her confession that she had come to the meeting in an attitude of idle curiosity, but that the influence of the Holy Ghost worked within her, causing her to go down on her knees in penitence. It was now long past midnight, but still there was no abatement in the fervor of the gathering. And then he goes on and he says that that meeting finished at 4.25 in the morning. And he says that when he left the meeting that there were dozens of people standing round here and there, and they were all discussing the things that had taken place and the things about their soul. And they had no desire to go home. Such was the moving of the Spirit of God upon them. And we've said that meeting after meeting and church after church, churches were packed. It wasn't just a matter of thousands. It was hundreds of thousands that were brought into the meetings and had a longing after the Lord Jesus Christ. And how they longed! God is still the same. God is still the same. God can do that. God can cause men and women to cry out because of sin. Cry out because they need a Savior. And how we need God to break in in these days in which we live. Could I say just a word about the blemishes of the revival? I just have to say this because one of the things that is remarkable about the Welsh revival is that after it was over, many of the churches in which the revival took place turned almost immediately to the social gospel. And it's a remarkable thing. Now, part of the reason why Wales today, there's only 7% of people who are associated with non-conformist or gospel preaching churches or evangelical churches in Wales. It's the lowest figure in the United Kingdom. How could that happen? How could there be such a turnaround in such a short time? Why did the churches turn away to the social gospel? We have to say that one of the reasons why the effects of the revival didn't last long was because of the First World War. A lot of the men who were saved in the revival went to the war and were killed. That's one thing. But also we have to say that one of the failures maybe of especially the Evan Roberts meetings was that there was... in not restricting the Spirit of God, that sometimes there wasn't a reliance upon the Word of God. I understand that in some of his meetings there was no preaching at all. So there wasn't a solid foundation that there ought to have been. Now, it was a work of God. Now, sometimes men mar the work of God. We just are making that point. But I say it was a work of the Spirit of God. Because it wasn't just Evan Roberts. Now, when the revival broke out in the south where Evan Roberts was, up in the north of Wales there was another man, R.B. Jones. And he was in a little place near Wrexham in north Wales. And revival broke out there completely independently. There was no connection between the two. There was no organisation between the two. There was no reference between the two. But God in a little Baptist church near Wrexham, God broke in there. And this man, he preached the Word. Now, this revival was based upon the preaching of the Word of God. And it was exhorting His people to holiness of life. And God broke in there. And there was a remarkable move of the Spirit of God so that by February 1905 there were 1,338 converts in and around Wrexham there in north Wales. So God was moving in Wales. God was just moving. And it wasn't just Evan Roberts. There were people all over. God was moving. And God can break in like that. And God can move like that. But we need to make sure that what we do is based upon faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now, we're not saying there was no preaching, for there was. But sometimes we need the foundation as well. But then could I say just a wee word about the benefits of the revival. What happened when God broke in? Well, hundreds of thousands, 100,000 souls were saved. That's the greatest thing. To see men and women plucked from the burning. To see them changed from nature's darkness and brought into the kingdom of God's dear Son. That's the greatest benefit that any land, that any community could have. But we also think of how the crime rate went down. It was remarkable. In those days, it wasn't 1859, but still in 1904, it was the custom that in a magistrate's court, if there was no cases, that the magistrate was given a pair of white gloves. And in many of the magistrate's courts, they were white glove courts. No cases. No cases. And there was a reduction in swearing and cursing. Now, I'm sure you've heard the story about the Welsh pit ponies. The Welsh pit ponies were so used to the men cursing and swearing at them that they didn't understand the language of the men when they'd been converted. They couldn't understand what they were saying about swearing and cursing and blasphemy. Quarrels were settled. Long-standing disputes were settled. And God broke in in mighty power. Sir John Morris Jones, one of the leading literary figures of the age, was amazed at the elevated language of the uneducated people as they prayed. And national and local newspapers of the day reported how people would be going about their business and suddenly they would fall down and pray, seeking God's help. They did it in trains. They did it in buses. They did it in student common rooms. They did it in coal mines. God just broke in and turned the people. Public houses were forced to close. No more people were frequenting. Indeed, many times it was the publicans themselves that were saved. And then, of course, the revival fires began to spread to England, Ireland, Scotland, over into USA, Canada, South Africa, China, India. Prayer meetings multiplied. As many as 2,000 attended a prayer meeting in the city of Bradford. And in Leeds, Samuel Chadwick reported that his church was never empty all day. And an amazing work of grace transformed life in a factory in that town. Also in the English town of Nuneaton, there was a glorious revival there in the Prince's Theatre. It was packed. A Sunday evening meeting. 1,500 praying believers and seeking sinners were in that meeting. And God broke in and saved. Here in this land, in Lurgan, God broke in. Revival meetings were taking place in Lurgan. And the pubs emptied. The people came in record numbers in the Presbyterian church in Lurgan, the Methodist church. And God broke in. A theological professor from a French Reformed church researched the revival. And many people have criticized the revival. But he wrote a 613 page book. And he said, I profoundly believe that God is really considerably and undeniably at work in the Welsh revival. Not only did it happen in Wales, but then the revival spread. Missionaries went out from Wales to India. And the revival broke out in India that still is having an effect in India today. Society was changed overnight. Society was absolutely transformed by the grace and power of God. And what God did in 1904 and what God did in 1859 and others He can still do today. We see the benefits of revival. But then could I think about the burden for revival? Because men and women, we need to have a burden for revival. We often speak about it. We might even pray about it. But are we willing to pay the price for it? You know, we often profess that we want revival. But are we willing to lead the holy lives that will bring us to revival? Now, God sovereignly sends revival. There is nothing that we can do that will bring down revival. It is the sovereign power of God that sends it. But we can trim our seals when the wind of God blows, that we will be blown with it. And I want to say today that we need to get ourselves to a place where we really have a burden for revival. Now, I read about Evan Roberts long before the revival. And it's said that he prayed for ten or eleven years, thirteen years before. But Evan Roberts tells about a time way back in his early days when he was probably about thirteen years of age. And he tells about a deacon in his church, a man by the name of William Davies. And he was preaching upon the fact, I think probably of the fact that when Thomas and the Lord Jesus appeared amongst the disciples after his resurrection, that Thomas was not there. Thomas missed out. And William Davies said in that meeting to the people, Remember to be faithful. What if the Spirit descended and you were absent? Remember Thomas. What a loss he had. And he was talking about the fact that Thomas was absent. And he said, Don't miss out on the prayer meetings because it might be the day when God descends. It might be the day when God sends His blessing. And if you were missing on that day. And Evan Roberts, when he heard that, he determined that he would never miss a prayer meeting. And for ten or eleven years, he never missed a prayer meeting. He said he'd often go past the lads who were kicking football. And he'd often be tempted. And often times his mother, when he was sick, or when he was tired, she'd say to him, Don't go tonight. You're exhausting yourself. Sit down tonight. You don't have to go every week. But he always thought, What if God came tonight and I wasn't there? What if God came down tonight and I was missing? And for ten or eleven years, Evan Roberts never missed the prayer meeting. That's the man that God used to promote revival. That's a faithful man. A man who was willing to go the second mile with God. And men and women tonight, we need revival. But are we prepared to pay the price? Are we prepared to go the second mile with God? Unsaved men and women here tonight, our longing is that you be saved. Our longing for revival is that God deal with us. Yes. But our longing is that you might be swept into the kingdom of God. For revival is a time when there is an unusual experience of the presence of God. When people really feel that God is there. That God is there. And God is there that they might cry to Him and be saved by His grace and by His power. Is the reality of God real to your soul? Well, if He is, then cry to Him. Call upon Him. And oh, that God might send us a breath of His Spirit that men, women, young people would cry unto God. Call upon Him for mercy. We need the breath of the Spirit of God. Wilt Thou not revive us again that Thy people may rejoice in Thee? May God write His Word upon our hearts for His name's sake. Let's just bow, please, in a word of prayer. Loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We think of this revival that took place a hundred years ago. And oh, God, we long for such a thing again. We long for Thee to work. We long for Thee to bless. We long, our God, that Thy Spirit would break through. Lord, all our problems would be put into the background. All our problems would be solved when God breaks through. Those disputes would be settled. Those disagreements would be overcome. Those difficulties would shrink into insignificance. God was to break through. Oh, God, help us to pay the price. Help us to be willing to go through with God. Help us to have a burden to pray and to seek the face of God that He may bless us with His power and with His grace tonight. Lord, speak, we pray. Bless Thy Word for Jesus' sake. Separate us now with Thy blessing. Watch over us as we go our separate ways. Take us to our separate homes in safety. For it is in Jesus' precious name that we ask these things.