The 1904 Welsh Revival
Origins of Revival
The 1904 Welsh Revival was birthed in prayer. A Forward Movement minister in Cardiff named Seth Joshua prayed for years that God would send an ordinary young man who worked in the coal mines or the fields to lead a revival in Wales. Later, God would do just that in choosing coal miner Evan Roberts to spark the revival. Several months before the revival began, Rev. Joseph Jenkins of New Quay was praying earnestly that a change might come over the churches of the area. One Sunday morning in February 1904, he held a prayer meeting for young people at his church and asked them to share about how they viewed God. One boy said, “Jesus is the light of world,” to which Rev. Jenkins replied, “Yes, but what does He mean to you?” 20 - year-old Florrie Evans rose to her feet and declared, “Rydw i'n caru Arglwydd Iesu Grist a'i holl galon” (“I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of my heart”). Instantly, the Holy Spirit descended on the room, melting their hardened hearts. The young people started weeping and declaring their love for Jesus. Slowly but surely, this brokenness spread to other places nearby, including Blaenannerch.
REV. SETH JOSHUA REV. JOSEPH JENKINS MISS FLORRIE EVANS MR. EVAN ROBERTS
Evan Roberts
On September 29, 1904, Evan Roberts attended a conference at Blaenannerch with a group of young men. During one of the meetings, Rev. Seth Joshua said something to the effect of, “Bend the church and save the world.” Evan knelt and prayed fervently that God would bend him. God answered by baptizing him in the Holy Spirit and in fire. He then returned to his hometown to spread the flame.
Diary of the Early Weeks of Revival
● October 31, 1904: Evan feels God tell him to return home to Loughor. When he arrives he tells his mother, ‘There will be a great change in Loughor in less than a fortnight. We are going to have the greatest revival that Wales has ever seen’.
● November 1: Evan speaks to the youth about the importance of being filled with the Spirit.
● November 2: Evan shares his four steps to receiving an outpouring of the Spirit:
1. Confess all known sin - past sins must be put away and cleansed.
2. Remove everything that is doubtful from your life and forgive everybody.
3. Obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit - obedience must be instant, total, unquestioning.
4. Make public confession of Christ as your Savior - be open in your allegiance to Christ.
● November 6: Meetings continue throughout the week. Sixty young people are saved.
● November 7: The Chapel is packed and people are moved to tears, while others cry out in agony over their sins. For the first time, the ‘ Revival Love Song’ is sung. (‘Here is love, vast as the ocean’). The meeting does not finish until 3.00 a.m.
● November 9: The people of Loughor awake to hear the sound of people crowding into the 6:00 a.m. prayer meeting.
● November 10: The Western Mail newspaper reports of the massive amount of people visiting the chapel in Loughor.
● November 11: The service at Moriah Chapel is overflowing with more than 800 people.
● November 12: From the surrounding countryside, people flock into Loughor and fill MoriahChapel where Evan Roberts is preaching, and also Pisgah Chapel, where one of Evan’s best friends, Sydney Evans is the preacher.
● November 14: Evan goes to Aberdare and 1,000 people attend Ebenezer Congregational Chapel to hear him preach.
● November 15: The whole of Aberdare is stirred and the early morning prayer meeting lasts for 4 hours. There are immense crowds in the evening
Effects of Revival
The revival continued to spread all around Wales. Preachers were springing up across the country, but people were falling under conviction of their sins by the power of the Holy Spirit even without hearing a sermon. This was a revival in the truest sense of the word - the country came back to life! People became aware of their need for God and as a result:
● Pubs were emptied.
● Young people would dance and sing praises to God in the streets.
● Crime decreased drastically. Magistrates often had no cases to hear!
● Forgiveness was rampant and broken relationships were reconciled.
● People repaid their debts.
● In the mines, the pit ponies could not understand what had happened to the miners as they spoke to them more kindly. They were so used to being sworn at that they became disobedient!
● Rugby came to stand still as the former spectators were all in church.
Society was transformed and Wales became a God-fearing nation. And at least 100,000 people committed their hearts to Jesus Christ within one year.
From Wales to the World
Though Wales was a little known country on the Celtic fringe of Europe when the 1904 revival began, within a short time, people were flocking to see and hear for themselves what God was doing and to share in the blessing. Newspapers reports of the revival spread news of the awakening and visitors touched by the Spirit of God took the flame to their home countries. The revival spread, like ripples of water on the pond, to Europe first, then America, and eventually to all the continents. Inspired by the revival, missionaries from Wales went to
Madagascar, India, China and Patagonia to promote and confirm the work of the revival.An untold number of churches and Christian organizations were birthed in the 1904 Welsh Revival, and indeed we are still benefitting from its influence today.
End Notes:
1. http://www.preciousseed.org/article_detail.cfm?articleID=108
2. http://moriahchapel.org.uk/index.php?page=1904-revival
3. http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-welsh-revival-of-1904-5-overview.html
Pisgah Chapel. Brynymor Rd, Loughor, Swansea SA4 6TD, UK. www.pisgahchapel.com