The 1904-1905 Welsh Revival

Philip H Eveson

Dr R Tudur Jones, the Church historian, describes the 1904-1905 revival as ‘the most stunning happening in the history of 20^th century Wales’ and yet, for many Welsh people today, 1905 is remembered not for the religious revival but for the glorious day when the Welsh international rugby team defeated the unbeaten New Zealand ‘All Blacks’.

The revival began in controversy and has remained a subject of dispute ever since. That something extraordinary happened is not doubted. What does concern many scholars and Christians writers is how far the religious fervour experienced during the months of the revival achieved any lasting good. Because it generally lacked sound biblical preaching and was heavily influenced by Charles Finney’s techniques and the Keswick Movement, one Reformed writer has described the 1904-5 revival as ‘a sad episode in Welsh church history’. For Tudur Jones there was something ‘lamentable rather than creative’ about the revival in that the people soon turned to ‘politics, to the new theology’ and ‘social struggles’. The main cause of the controversy, however, has centred on the place of Evan Roberts in the revival. Some have regarded him as a charlatan and a distraction from the true revival that was taking place.

Some forgotten factors

It is wrong to speak, as is often done, of ‘the Evan Roberts Revival’. Though he was used by God to ignite the flame in South Wales, revival broke out in places where Evan Roberts never visited. While it is true that some of those who came under the electrifying effect of meetings held by him in the south subsequently moved to the north and so affected others with their enthusiasm, the spread of the revival cannot be accounted for in terms of mass hysteria and contagion. The fact is that at the same time as Roberts was experiencing unusual happenings in his own church at Loughor in South Wales, a quite separate spiritual awakening was taking place in North Wales, in the large mining community of Rhosllanerchrugog (Rhos) near Wrexham. There was no prior consultation or contact between the two places, no central human agency governing events.

The person used of God to set the North alight was a well-respected thirty-five year old South Wales Baptist minister, R B Jones. While preaching was so often conspicuous by its absence in Roberts’ meetings, this was not the case in those led by Jones. During the first of his two-week preaching mission, R B Jones challenged the Christians of Rhos concerning holiness of life based on Isaiah’s experience of God. One eyewitness reported that he made holiness so real that the congregation trembled and was brought low. During the second week powerful evangelistic messages were delivered with fervent prayer sessions prior to the meetings. Many were converted and the revival spread to all the other churches of the district so that by the end of February 1905 there were 1,338 converts.

Immediate effects

It is estimated that 100,000 were converted throughout Wales during the revival just as Evan Roberts had predicted. Not all these turned out to be genuine but the effect of so many coming under the influence of the spiritual awakening meant that whole communities were transformed overnight. Crime was completely eradicated from some areas so that magistrates were given white gloves. Pit managers reported increased coal output and swearing diminished so much that the old pit ponies were disorientated. Outstanding debts were repaid and longstanding quarrels were settled amicably. The churches of the land were full of people praising God and praying fervently for the salvation of others, young and old, not only in the Sunday services but at the weeknight prayer meetings as well. Sir John Morris-Jones, one of the leading literary figures of the time, was amazed at the elevated language that uneducated people used in their prayers.

National as well as local newspapers gave day by day reports on the progress of the revival in different parts of the principality. Men and women, boys and girls, were seen calling on God on railway station platforms, train compartments and buses, while prayer meetings were held underground in the coal mines and in student common rooms. Notorious sinners were remarkably converted. Public houses were not only forced to close but in some cases the landlords were themselves transformed by the work of the Spirit.

Worldwide interest

The revival attracted a good deal of attention outside Wales and not only from England but from as far away as the USA and Canada, South Africa, China and India. Interest was aroused on the continent of Europe and especially in France. One medical doctor who was a specialist in psychiatry was commissioned by the French Home Office to investigate the effects of the revival first hand. In his conclusions he was very positive, stating that in ‘contrast with many religious movements, the Welsh Revival has been a uniting movement…It merits every sympathy.’ A theological college professor belonging to the French Reformed church researched the revival, interviewing people from various centres throughout Wales, and wrote a 613-page book in which he confessed, ‘I profoundly believe that God is really, considerably and undeniably at work in the Welsh Revival’.

Lasting results

It did give the Welsh chapels ‘a temporary impetus, unique in the western world’, according to Kenneth Morgan, the modern Welsh historian. The Christian influence in Wales would certainly have been much weaker in the first half of the 20^th century had it not been for the revival. The ‘children of the revival’, as the converts of the spiritual awakening were known, kept the flame of evangelical life and passion alight at a time when the dark clouds of theological liberalism were descending over the pulpits of the land. Among the more well-known names greatly affected by the revival, who exercised an influence for good in later years, were Nantlais Williams, a Calvinistic Methodist minister, and Keri Evans, a University of Wales professor of philosophy.

It encouraged greater missionary interest and the Calvinistic Methodist mission field in north-east India was itself overwhelmed with revival blessing, the results of which are still noticeable today. The Apostolic Church, which is now so strong in many parts of the world, is a direct offshoot of the revival.

More lasting good would have been achieved if the leaders of the churches had insisted on biblical teaching and sound theological reflection and had been less preoccupied with the sensational effects. Evan Roberts was a sincere Christian who knew something of the mysterious power of God but who lacked the biblical wisdom to deal adequately with all the worldly and fleshly influences that sought to ruin the heavenly work.

(The author is Principal of London Theological Seminary. He was born and grew up near the centre of revival in North Wales and knew a number of people who were profoundly affected by it.)