Return to Revivals Main Index 
The Revivals
From: Classic Books for Today #156
By S. B. Shaw (1905)
(Used by Permission)
"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" Psalm 85:6
A League of Intercession
"Dear Friend: The reports given in the daily papers from credible witnesses of the wonderful work of God now spreading over many parts of Wales, and the unmistakable evidences of its genuineness, are creating in the hearts of good people a great longing that the revival shall spread into England.
"Knowing of only one way by which so desirable an end can be obtained, namely, by united and earnest prayer, it has been borne in upon me that we might at once institute `A League of Intercession' for this definite purpose, with these very simple conditions: -
"First. That those who join the League do all in their power to spread information about the revival and so help to fan the flame.
"Second. That each will try to get others to join the League, and so become a center of influence.
"Third. That each day all with one accord shall unite in earnest and importunate prayer that God will graciously send down upon the churches of this country the baptism of the Holy Spirit in renewing and reviving power.
"The promise made in Ezekiel 36:37 is specially applicable to our present need: `Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a flock.'
"Also in I John 5:14-15: `And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything ac-cording to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we de-sired of Him.'
"In the first instance I am writing this letter to a few who, I believe, are in full sympathy with such a movement. I have no wish to multiply committees or organizations, we have enough of these al-ready, but that, in the quiet of our closets, we should besiege the throne of grace on this one behalf.
"For my own encouragement, and as a guide to further action, will you kindly give me your assent in writing that you will join this `League of Intercession,' and comply with its conditions.
"I am yours very sincerely,
"Thomas Walker, Southfield, Bolton."
This letter is being published in leaflet form, and scattered broadcast over the land.
We are quite sure that our readers will unite with us and our brethren across the water in this great League in earnestly praying that the revival will not only cover the British Isles, but may bound across the ocean and set America on fire. "The set time to favor Zion seems to have come, for her servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof."
-- From Way of Faith
Statement of Lady Henry Somerset
Contrasting the Wales revival with another where she found less manifestation of the Spirit's presence and power, Lady Henry Somerset says: -
"But the impression produced on my mind may have been possibly heightened by the contrast presented by the wonderfully vivid realization of the simple work of the Spirit which has been blowing like the divine breath through the valleys of South Wales.
"There organization has been unknown, money has been unsought, newspaper puffs non-existent; indeed, the revivalist has still to be found. True it is that the figure of Evan Roberts stands out strongly, and yet the revival is in-dependent of him.
"He is the voice crying in the wilderness, `Make ready the way,' but unquestionably the One that comes is the Unseen Presence of the Spirit of God. There is no order of service, no set choir, only bursts of wonderful Welsh melody, no hymn books -- the words are written in the hearts of the worshippers. The little whitewashed chapels resound with song, song exquisite in its harmony, solemn as death, and yet jubilant as a choir of angels. Then stillness, prayers, soft sobbing from broken hearts, confession, profession, all the wonderful gamut of the soul's experience, but all spontaneous,with no settled effect, only the greatest effect of all, the reality of human need and divine power.
"What wonder Wales has been shaken as never before since the great religious revival a century and a half ago! What wonder the drink shops are empty, that at the assizes there has been no crime!
"Everywhere as you move about you feel a great hush as though Christ walked over the mountains and into the mining towns and out through the valleys among the sons and daughters of toil, whose eyes have been opened to see Him as He came to them by the way."
Skeptics Convicted And Converted
The Rev. T. Ferrier Huline, writing to the London Methodist Times, gives an interesting narrative of the triumph of the Holy Spirit over defiant skepticism in one town in Wales.
Referring to the early days of the revival, he says: At that time Trecynon could boast of a so-called Ethical Society, composed of certain agnostics and atheists of various shades of unbelief, but chiefly out and out skeptics. They were avowed Socialists and avowed materialists, and some of them were far advanced in their anti-Christian views before they received the welcome encouragement afforded to such men in these days by Haeckel and Blatchford and the Clarion.
The most noted of these characters was Tom Hughes, a man of forty, vivacious and witty, and a good singer. He could hear the singing in the chapel from his own house on the Sunday Evan Roberts came, and it was his own love of good music, along with the magnificent rendering by the entire congregation of those glorious Welsh songs, that was used by the Spirit to draw him. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday he came, and stood in the lobby only, but on Thursday he ventured inside, longing to "touch the hem of His garment."
At 11 p.m. he left the chapel, and went home. His wife saw at a glance that a change had come over him and that he was in great distress. He went to his little parlor, and took down from his shelves one by one the books he had so prized as a member of the local Ethical Society, and flung them on the table. Then with great deliberation, and with intense emotion he took up one at a time, tore it in pieces and made a bonfire of the whole lot in his own grate.
Continue
|
• 
Back to