This month thousands in Wales are remembering with thankfulness to God, the wonderful benefits of the Revival of 1904 when suddenly in both North and South Wales in the second week of November, God’s presence was felt in such an extraordinary way that crime virtually disappeared. (See also www.thoughtfortheweek.co.uk - 23rd April 2004).
The famous London journalist W.T. Stead, later lost from the Titanic, regularly reported on the Revival and wrote, “There is no commanding human genius inspiring this advance. There are no advertisements, no brass bands, no posters. All the paraphernalia of the got-up-job are conspicuous by their absence. There is no director, at least none that is visible to the human eye!” For over a year newspapers from all over Britain and beyond were reporting what God was doing!
David Lloyd Jones, later to become Prime Minister, reported that the total takings in one tavern in his Flintshire constituency on a Saturday were 4½d. The coal mines rang with the sound of praise instead of blasphemous oaths. Bookshops ran out of Bibles. Chapels were full of happy people. Family squabbles were settled and anti-social behaviour vanished. A Swansea headmaster noted the improved honesty amongst children and a Llanelli man spoke about how conscientious workmen had become.
The most thoughtless people became serious. Comedians lost their charms, and stages their glamour. This was not the result of condemnation from the pulpit, it was God’s voice within quietly influencing their daily conduct. This same voice also brought deep conviction of sin. Strong men cried out for mercy in an agony of spirit until they confessed their sins to God with broken hearts and found pardon and peace through the blood of Christ.
This visitation by God to Wales spread throughout the world. Recently some visitors to Britain from the strong Christian church in South Korea said that it was established by missionaries from the Welsh Revival!
