THE PRINCIPALITY OF WALES—THE PROPHET OF THE REVIVAL —HIS LAST MESSAGE TO WALES IN 1903—THE FIRST LLANDRINDOD CONVENTION IN AUGUST, 1903.

“The sound of abundance of rain.” I KINGS xviii. 41.

BUT where in these days can be found the conditions necessary for the mighty working of God? It must be, and can only be, where the Atonement of Christ is proclaimed, and the Scriptures accepted sincerely as the Word of the living God.

We look towards the little Principality of Wales, and find these conditions there. Speaking generally the pulpit has been true to the Evangelical faith in all its essentials, and the gospel of the grace of God has been faithfully preached to the people. The nation has clung, as a whole, to the faith of their fathers—the exception being the few who have been touched by the spirit of criticism and unbelief so prevalent in other lands. True the people may have been living upon the traditions of the past, yet there has not been departure from the “faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Wales has also had special advantages in its Sunday schools, where people of all ages gathered to learn the Word of God, and earnest efforts were directed to make the teaching effectual by systematic study and Scripture examinations. Then, again, we find the congregational festivals for singing placing the words of hymns full of the message of Calvary into the people’s memories. Groups of churches would practice the same selection of hymns through the winter, and then a day would be set apart for a festival under the conductor-ship of a leading musical teacher. The late Joseph Parry, Mus. Doc., said, in conducting one of these festivals not long before he died, that the coming revival would be a singing one! With the Gospel of Calvary in their minds, and the hymns about Calvary in their memories, the nation needed but the breath of God to quicken their traditional faith into living power.

The All-Wise God looks forth upon the world, and finds here in this little country the conditions necessary for the breaking forth of His Spirit in Pentecostal power.

Let us see whether there are traces of the “prayer movement” in the Principality. We do not know whether the story of the world-girdling prayer circles reached many in Wales, but we find the Holy Spirit creating in individuals, and groups of twos and threes, the very same cry He was cal1ing forth all over the world.

In 1901 the Lord drew near to one of His servants in the ministry, and gave him such a revelation of His glory that he cried, like Isaiah, “Woe is me,” and entered on a life in God unknown before. Then, in a quiet spot on the banks of a Welsh river, burdened over the spiritual condition of the country, he spent hours in prayer, pleading with God with many tears that He would come forth in power and work in the land. Again, in a quiet town in the western part of Wales, we hear of two and three women meeting together for prayer during several years, pleading for “Revival” among the women of the town.

We go to the Rhondda Valley, where afterwards the Spirit of God swept with great power, and hear of some who for years had been pleading for a Revival which should “sweep over the whole world.” We do not wonder that such souls are taken in to the secrets of God, the Holy Spirit saying to one of them just three days before the valley was moved by the mighty tide of life, “ Get thee up . . . there is the sound of abundance of rain.”

We find in Monmouthshire the hand of the Lord upon two sisters, one an invalid, who, during 1903-1904, were burdened over the prevalence of sin, and the increase of crime in the county, one sister saying, tearfully, “I cannot sleep day nor night because my dear Lord is despised and set at naught.” Another child of God—a retiring, timid lady— bemoaning the deadness of the churches, said, “I shall die unless God exerts His power, and sends a Revival!”

We hear of three ministers of the Gospel meeting together in May, 1903, for prayer and conference, drawn together by a sense of need; utterly dissatisfied with their own Christian experience, and distressed at the condition of their churches, with worldliness and apathy among their officers and members. Once again we see it is a group of three! They decided to form a “prayer circle,” and fixed 10 o’clock each morning as the time to pray for each other and their churches. This prayer-group we shall refer to again, but just here it throws light upon the Spirit drawing forth prayer in Wales in unconscious accord with the world-wide circles of prayer. The Spirit of God was manifestly brooding over the land, and doubtless there are many names recorded in heaven of others burdened with a similar consciousness of need, who were drawn out in Spirit-taught prayer, both in the ordinary prayer-meetings of the Churches, and Young People’s Societies, as well as alone, with God.

In the momentous year of 1902—the prayer-movement year, we may call it—as we look toward Wales we see also a figure standing out like Moses on Pisgah’s mount, beholding the land of far distances. One who has since been called the “prophet of the Revival.” The late Dean Howell, of St. David’s, or “Llawdden,”—to use his bardic name. A dignitary of the Church of England, like Solomon, he had “largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the sea-shore!” so that he was beloved of all sections of the people as a saintly man of God, a patriot, preacher-orator, and bard.

In the closing month of 1902, in his far-away home on the extreme western point of the Principality, at the age of 83, “ Llawdden” looks out upon his beloved land. Conscious of standing on the brink of eternity, with earth-born things fading from his gaze, and the light of heaven shining upon him, he sends out a message to his countrymen, since realised to be wondrously prophetic of the Revival.

The Dean first gave a vivid sketch of the spiritual dearth in the land, and then in powerful language emphasised he only remedy to be a spiritual awakening. He appealed to all to “create a circle of implorers” who would cry to God in the words of Isaiah, “Oh, that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, and come down.” Then beseeching his readers to consecrate themselves to make a revival the chief end of their desire, he closed with the following memorable words :— “Take notice, if it were known that this was my last message to my fellow-countrymen throughout the length and breadth of Wales before being summoned to judgment, and the light of eternity already breaking over me, and it is this—the chief need of my country, and my dear nation at present is a SPIRITUAL REVIVAL THROUGH A SPECIAL OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY GHOST.”

The message was issued in a Welsh Magazine in January, 1903, and caused a deep impression throughout the Principality. It proved indeed to be his last message, for shortly after its issue the aged Dean passed to his heavenly reward.

“A spiritual revival through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost” was just what God was leading His people all over the world to pray for, and even then beginning to send upon the Principality of Wales. But before we watch the rising of the tide we must again return to the “Prayer Circle,” Keswick, of 1902.

At Keswick that same year were found two Welsh ministers who told how thirteen Welsh people, gathered in 1896 at the Keswick Convention, met together one afternoon for a prayer meeting for Wales, asking God Himself to give to Wales a similar Convention for the deepening of the spiritual life. For six years this petition lay before the Lord, until in the seventh year—which in the Scriptures always speaks of God’s fulness of time—the Lord’s time to answer had come.

Again without using any of the usual “machinery” the Spirit of God immediately began to move toward the arrangement of a Conference for Wales, by a series of steps of such remarkable guidance, and wonderful coincidences, that so far as anything can be said to be wrought of God, with the least touch of human hand, so far can it be said that God Himself arranged, and brought to fruition, the Convention which became one of the channels for the rivers of life to Wales. When in September, 1902, the aged Dean was asked whether, in his judgment, the time was ripe for such a Conference for Wales, he stood, and with his hands raised, and his eyes lifted heavenward, he said, “I am an old man on the edge of eternity, and I say that if such a Conference could take place, God-given and not man-made, it would be an incalculable blessing to Wales.”

From this time on, with much prayer and wise counsels, he entered into all the detailed arrangements for the Conference, giving his very last strength and labours to the furthering of what he believed would tend to bring about the “spiritual high tide” which he, at this very time, urged upon his countrymen as “ the chief need of Wales.”

Meanwhile the Spirit of God was working in the Principality. We have referred to the group of three ministers who banded together for prayer in May, 1903. They were conscious that the first step to blessing for their churches was to get right with God themselves. They agreed to pray daily, but they could not see clearly the way of the better life. In their perplexity they decided to write to a well-known London minister, begging him, if possible, to find time to meet a company of ministers in Glamorganshire to give them spiritual counsel and help. He replied that he could not come just then, but told them of the coming Conference, when he would gladly give them a private interview.

At the very same time—the spring of 1903—in a district in Glamorganshire, four young men, only 18 years of age, were found on a mountain-side holding a prayer-meeting, and pleading with God for a revival in their church, which was in a cold and formal state, converts being few and far between. It transpired that these young men had held their prayer-meeting on the mountain every night for a month past! When this prayer-circle became known, the majority of the church viewed the proceedings with suspicion, and some ignored or mocked the “enthusiasm” of the lads. But they continued to pray on the mountain-side for two whole months, and, to the astonishment of the church, people joined them, and prayed with them, who never visited any place of worship! Some twelve or fourteen were now praying fervently for a revival, until at length the church members were touched, and all became moved with a spirit of prayer and passion for souls. The meetings attended only by four at first now increased to scores, and all testified to the power of God in a special manner.

By this movement among the young people the Pastor himself was drawn to the searching of his own heart and life, asking himself whether he was fully surrendered to Christ, and had received the Holy Ghost. Finally he entered a new plane of spiritual experience and knowledge of the power of God.

There are many other indications of the river of God beginning to rise in the early months of 1903, and unmistakable signs of God working in preparation for some mighty movement of the Spirit. At this crucial point, by the providence of God, came the long-prayed-for Conference, which was held at Llandrindod Wells in August, 1903.

The gatherings were strikingly representative, numbers of clergy and ministers from all parts of the Principality being present, together with some forty of the ministers and evangelists of the “Forward Movement” of the Presbyterian Church of Wales.* So noticeable was the ministerial attendance that a well-known missioner involuntarily remarked, “ Wales may be the cradle of the evangelists for the coming Revival!”

There was no set programme for the meetings. The messages of the Lord’s messengers bore directly upon the experimental aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer. The putting away of all known sin, deliverance through identification with Christ in His death, and the definite reception of the Holy Ghost as an absolute necessity for all in the service of God, was emphasised, and carried home to hearts by the power of God in such intensity, that on the last two days it was manifest to all that the Spirit of God had come down in the midst.

And what of the group of three who had sought the help of the London minister? One wrote: “Six of us went! [to the Conference.] But the history of that week can never be written—some believed, some doubted, some rebelled! But in a few days each one entered the promised land. We have met once a month ever since, coming from long distances, and we spend a quiet day with God. Our meetings have been indescribable, and we have had a number of Pentecosts.”

Many of the ministers and workers returned to their various spheres of labours with new visions and new hopes. As one said, “a new world” had opened to them—and they could not but lead others in! Local conventions began to be held in various places, and the ministers themselves became channels of blessing to their fellow ministers. One Pastor writes that later in 1903, he came in contact with one of these, and saw at once that he had a spiritual experience which he himself had not, but which he had for months been seeking. It was not long before he, too, received the fullness of the Holy Ghost.