A Diary of Revival - The outbreak of the 1904 Welsh Awakening

This year is the centenary of the 1904/05 Welsh Revival. Here we read of its beginnings . . .

On Sunday evening 18 December 1903, Evan Roberts preached his first sermon at his home church of Moriah, Loughor. He preached on Luke 9.23: 'Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."'

From December 1903 to September 1904, Evan Roberts spent his time at home in Island House preparing himself for entry into the Calvinistic Methodist ministry. This was a time of sitting exams and preaching some sermons in the local chapels. It was during this time that he became friendly with Sydney Evans, who was to become a key figure later, in the revival. He too was preparing to enter the grammar school and apply for the Christian ministry. He was later to marry Evan Roberts's sister Mary. During the spring of 1904, Evan began to experience an ongoing and intense encounter with God. He tells the story himself.

'Taken up' - Spring 1904

'For a long time I was much troubled in my soul and my heart by thinking over the failure of Christianity - oh! it seemed such a failure - such a failure and I prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to give me any relief. But one Friday night last spring after I had been in great distress praying about this, I was taken up to a great expanse - without time and space. It was communion with God. I found myself with unspeakable joy and awe in the very presence of the almighty God. I was privileged to speak face to face with him as a man speaks face to face with a friend. Before this, a far-off God I had. I was frightened that night, but never since. So great was my shivering that I rocked the bed, and my brother, being awakened, took hold of my thinking I was ill.

'After that experience I was awakened every night a little after one o'clock. This was strange, for through the years I slept like a rock, and no disturbance in my room would awaken me. From that hour I was taken up into the divine fellowship for about four hours. What it was I cannot tell you, except that it was divine. I felt it and it seemed to change all my nature and I saw things in a different light and I knew that God was going to work in the land, and not this land only but in all the world. About five o'clock I was again allowed to sleep on till about nine.'

New Quay in West Wales

At the time that Evan Roberts was experiencing his 'face-to-face' encounter with God in the spring of 1904, God's Spirit was also at work among a group of young people at Tabernacle Church, New Quay.

The minister, Joseph Jenkins, had been concerned about the spiritual life of the church in his area for some time and had already held a 'Convention for the Deepening of the Spiritual Life' at New Quay, 31 December 1903 - 1 January 1904, the speakers being Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Saunders and W.W. Lewis. This had been seen as a success. Other conferences had been planned: the second in Aberaeron 30 June - 1 July and the third at Blaenannerch in September 1904.

Jenkins himself seemed to be going through a personal spiritual reformation around the time. He had met with his nephew regularly - John Thickens, a minister at Aberaeron - to discuss their own spiritual state - meetings that to begin with only highlighted their own spiritual need. But a deeper realisation of spiritual truth began to dawn on Jenkins after he read Andrew Murray's With Christ in the School of Prayer and a biography of US evangelist Dwight L. Moody.
This led to nights spent in prayer and at least one intense spiritual experience that he described to a friend years later. One night he was on his knees praying and, having lost all sense of time, he decided to lay hold on God until he was clothed with power from on high. It was on this night also that he experienced what he described as a 'blue flame', which enshrouded him, and which he took as a sign of the intense spiritual communion that he had experienced.

This 'communion' was soon to affect his own congregation. About February 1904 Jenkins was preaching on 1 John 5.4: 'for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith'. After the service he was approached by a young girl who said that she longed for spiritual peace and joy. Jenkins advised her that she should acknowledge the Lordship of Christ over her life and submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. One Sunday in February 1904 in the youth meeting, she stood up and publicly confessed that she loved the Lord Jesus with all her heart.

The effect was electrifying and deep beyond description - gentle weeping spread throughout the congregation. After this the numbers of young people in attendance grew week by week. Some travelled up to 15 miles to attend the weekly youth meetings. The zeal of the youth grew and many of them, accompanied by their minister, soon began spreading the fire to other chapels in West Wales.

A recently-found letter, written in the spring of 1904 from New Quay to the Rev. J.T. Job, highlights the spiritual intensity experienced by the youth of Jenkins's church. This letter leaves little doubt that what was being experienced at New Quay was not just a precursor to revival but revival itself.

Letter from his father-in-law to J.T. Job:

Dear son-in-law,
I have been thinking for days and weeks of writing you a letter (to break this quietness), to give you the history of the revival here amidst the young people more specifically. Yet the gentle atmosphere is also on the middle-aged and the old. They are being called 'Christian Endeavour Meetings'. In the end many of these meetings break out in praise to God ... Some praying while others halfway through the prayers break out to sing, young girls mainly, girls in service going forward to pray without being asked.
There is a meeting after the morning sermon in the vestry. All these meetings are held in the vestry with the preachers going into them and some of the preachers experiencing emotions that they never had ever before. The eyes of all are filled with tears when the girls pray. (I will name some of them:) Florrie Evans is about 20 years of age, she lives a few doors above us in this street. She is about the first that the Spirit came upon. Maude Davies (the singer); May Phillips of Park Street; Maggie Davies (a maid who is with Mrs. Phillips); Dd. (Dafydd) Jenkin Evans Wellington (he was in the church but he has come to us now), and he is full of the Holy Spirit as in the days of the apostles. And there are a number of girls that take part ... reading a psalm, giving out a word to sing, and tens of others. There is a meeting every Wednesday evening and they come here three or four miles distance from the county. The place was last night over-packed (old drunkards are coming in, and in the meeting they shout out for prayer and are praising God before they come out). Yes, this is how it is now. I hope this is how it will continue. It is easy to pray and preach here.
(letter courtesy of Rev. Dafydd Job)

Ministers visiting the area noticed the change. According to the Rev. R.B. Jones who visited New Quay in August, 'the fire was burning'. Seth Joshua, who was conducting a mission there in September, records in his diary:

'There is a remarkable revival spirit here. I have never seen the power of the Holy Spirit so powerfully manifested among the people as at this place just now. The revival is breaking out here in greater power - the young are receiving the greatest measure of blessing. They break out into prayer, praise, testimony and exhalation in a wonderful way. Several souls.'

Joseph Jenkins himself describes the outpouring in a letter to Evan Philips in March.

28 March 1904
The Spirit of God has fallen on our young people. I am unable to do anything. I am in the middle of the sound of the wind. God himself is here. I have never seen anything like it before. It is spring and I don't know what to say - only weep and yet I cannot weep. Twenty-year-old girls are prophesying. It is the early hours of the morning and I am unable to go to bed. I must try to pray. I know that you will be pleased to hear this news. I do not know where to start with anything. I organised a meeting for the youth before and ... the tide now is truly powerful.
Yours Jos Jenkins

When Evan Roberts arrived at Newcastle Emlyn in September 1904, he was to come to an area where people were already burning with spiritual enthusiasm.

This is a chapter from A Diary of Revival - The outbreak of the 1904 Welsh Awakening by Kevin Adams. It is reprinted with permission from Crusade for World Revival and is available at £7.99 from CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham GU9 8EP (01252 784700, mail@cwr.org.uk).

A Diary of Revival - The outbreak of the 1904 Welsh Awakening

'Taken up' - Spring 1904

New Quay in West Wales

Letter from his father-in-law to J.T. Job:

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