Evan Roberts and the 1904 Welsh Revival
This extract is from A Diary of Revival by Ken Adams.
It is fascinating to see the sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit being experienced and understood in the life of a young man (less than thirty years of age when this happened). There appears to be a great deal of learning taking place, humility in what was experienced and a genuine openness to grow in God.
“While a number of people discussed the issue of women taking part publicly in the revival meetings, most welcomed the difference and appreciated the exuberance, enthusiasm and singing of these girls. As most were young, rumours abounded about Evan Roberts’ relationship with them, yet they remained rumours. There is still no evidence of scandal, and a look at the itinerary of the evangelist who was daily in the public eye gave little opportunity either. The girls would always stay in separate lodgings when on mission. Yet rumours of his engagement to Annie Davies still sold papers and made interesting reading.
Evan Roberts’ ground-breaking style and method made him a model for other leaders in the years following the revival. He created a mould that wouldn’t be discarded rapidly, but imitated and used by fledgling Pentecostal leaders in the coming years. Evan wasn’t the last breath of the nineteenth century; he was in many ways the first breath of the twentieth century. The path he cleared through years of traditional religious undergrowth soon became a well-beaten track in the history of the new Pentecostal movement’s style and teaching. Evan himself became an ideal example for many of the leaders seeking to be open to the Spirit. He was seen by them as a pioneer in understanding the immanence and direct revelation of the Holy Spirit and, in the spiritual consciousness of thousands, as an icon to be imitated.
During and after the revival, newspaper stories about Evan Roberts and his methods, which had been reported in detail, became documented cameos and blueprints for thousands of other meetings throughout the principality of Wales, and wider afield. Even though these services were never visited by the revivalist himself, his methodology was copied nationally. Physically absent, yet spiritually and emotionally present through the press coverage, Evan’s message and personality stamped itself on a nation within a few months.
His methodology wasn’t just a pleasant contrast to what preceded it; it was painfully controversial, especially his claims regarding the guidance of the Spirit. This guidance was something he relied on, not just for worship services, but for direction as to where to visit next on mission or even whether to see someone who had come to speak to him. Professor John Young Evans, who met him at his home on Monday 27 March 1905, noted his preoccupation with this.
More than once in the course of the afternoon when he was being consulted on matters of apparently little moment, he hesitated before replying, while his lips were slightly but perceptibly convulsed. The Spirit’s guidance had now become a matter from day to day and so far as his mission movements were concerned, he would henceforth require the first suggestion from the Spirit … The increase of emphasis he now lays on the Spirit’s guidance even in temporal affairs easily lent itself to satire and caricature.
One writer commenting on this aspect of his personality notes: ‘Everything that comes from his subconscious is regarded by Roberts as the guidance of the Spirit while everything that comes from reason or from the good advice of his friends is human counsel’.”
This may be an overstatement, yet it does contain some truth. As the revival progressed, Evan realised that subjective feeling by itself didn’t always indicate the Spirit’s guidance. In the meantime it did cause some controversy, as with the residents of Cardiff when Evan Roberts said that the Holy Spirit was saying ‘No’ to a visit there. The controversy filled the newspapers.
Even more controversial and strange to the Church of the time were Roberts’ claims to supernaturally given knowledge about people and events in the meetings that he led. An account of his revisit to Blaenannerch in March 1905 provides an interesting example. He enters a packed congregation and declares that:
there was someone at that moment denying the divine inspiration of the Bible. God wanted that person to confess. Prayers were offered by the sisters, then the evangelist again asked the man to confess. The missioner was evidently in overpowering agony, but no one spoke, the silence in the chapel being unbroken except for Mr Roberts’ groans. ‘God’s order is that that man must honestly say he doesn’t believe’, was his cry. After a minute’s pause, he said God had revealed that the man was standing. Dozens were standing, but nobody confessed. The scene was most pathetic (that is full of pathos), many in the front of the chapel sobbing bitterly during their prayers. ‘God give me the name of the man’, prayed the missioner and shortly afterwards he said, ‘I know his name and age, won’t he confess?’ After a struggle with anxiety Mr Roberts said, ’The man’s name is ___, 23 years of age - Oh, Lord, Oh! After ‘Diolch iddo’ had been sung he said that the man need not confess now because he had changed his views.
Later on, he went on to warn those who were sceptical that God might divulge their names also and finished by saying there was somebody present who needed to make restitution to the church threefold because he had committed sacrilege.
There had been a number of other incidents similar to this previously; for instance, at Cwmafon in February 1905, where he said that there was a lost soul in the congregation and that God had prohibited him from praying for that soul. It was ‘too late, too late’.4 Similar incidents were to follow in the Liverpool mission. As previously noted, again as the revival progressed, Evan Roberts began to realise that subjective feeling in and of itself doesn’t always guarantee that the Spirit is involved, and even warned people about over-reliance on feeling alone.
Feeling is not the foundation of religion, faith is. And when feeling disappears do not think that God has We lose so many battles by resting on the heights and depths of feeling. It is faith in God that is really important … The Holy Spirit doesn’t tell us what to wear. etc. If He did that He would make you into less than man … Do not put your reason to one side. Then you will not be out of control.”