1904 Revival

Evan Roberts – Welsh Preacher and Revivalist

Evan Roberts was born on June 8th 1878 at Island House near the banks of the River Loughor. His parents Henry and Hannah Roberts were committed Christians. They attended Moriah Chapel on Sundays and also for meetings during the week. The Bible was studied and held in honour in their home.

When Evan was nearly 12 years old his father had a serious accident in the coal mine where he worked which meant that he was unable to work for three months. Evan left school and went to help his father on his return to work. Evan became a doorboy. He took his Bible underground and read it at every possible opportunity.

He worked at the mines until 1902 when he became an apprentice to his mother’s brother – a blacksmith at Pontarddulais. He worked at the forge for about 15 months but his heart’s desire was to become a preacher of the gospel.

Evan Roberts

Island House

Broad Oak Colliery

The Origins of the Revival

Rev. Seth Joshua was a Forward Movement Minister in Cardiff at the beginning of last century. He had been praying for years that God would send an ordinary young man who worked in the coal mines or the fields to lead a Revival in Wales.

Early in 1904 at New Quay in Cardiganshire Rev. Joseph Jenkins was praying earnestly that a change might come over the churches of the area. One Sunday morning in February, a young people’s prayer meeting was being held at his church. He asked the young people to share with the others anything that had happened to them in connection with their religion. A young girl named Florrie Evans rose to her feet and said, “I love Jesus Christ with all my heart.” Immediately, the whole meeting seemed to catch fire. Young people found it easy to pray and to talk about their experiences.

The fire spread to other places nearby including Blaenannerch.

Seth Joshua

Joseph Jenkins

Florrie Evans

Evan at Blaenannerch

On September 13th 1904 Evan and his best friend Sidney Evans went to Newcastle Emlyn in West Wales. There they attended the Grammar School which prepared young men to enter Trefecca College where they intended to train for the ministry.

On September 29th Evan attended a conference at Blaenannerch with a group of young men from the Grammar School. Rev. Seth Joshua prayed during one of the meetings that God would bend the people in the congregation. Evan knelt in the pew and prayed fervently that God would bend him.

This proved to be a turning point in Evan’s life. Before this experience something seemed to hold him back from knowing the fullness of joy and certainty that he was forgiven by God. After this experience he felt ready to follow God’s leading in everything he did, everything he said and in the places that he visited. He was made utterly obedient and utterly willing.

Newcastle Emlyn Grammar School

Evan Roberts

Blaenannerch Chapel

The Dawn of the Revival at Loughor

Evan was unable to concentrate on his studies as his mind was in turmoil. He explained to the minister of Newcastle Emlyn, Rev Evan Phillips, that the Holy Spirit was urging him to return to Loughor to work with the young people of Moriah. He followed his advice and caught the train home.

Commencing on Monday night 31st October a series of prayer meetings were held at Moriah in which Evan made urgent appeals to the people to rise and confess Christ publicly. Each night the presence of the Holy Spirit became more powerful and more people confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

On Sunday 6th November a prayer meeting was held in Moriah vestry during which Evan told everyone to pray the same prayer, “O send the Holy Spirit now for Jesus Christ’s sake”. He descended with great fire upon the people present and they prayed until a late hour.

Rev Evan Phillips

Evan Roberts

Evan Roberts

Revival Meetings

The revival meetings were extraordinary; some people would be crying for joy; others crying for sorrow over their sin. Several people would be praying at the same time; for their friends, parents or children. Some would be singing; others telling people about the joy they now experienced. The chapels were filled to capacity and there were crowds of people on the roads outside. Yet there was no disorder in the meetings. They lasted until 2, 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning so that men coming off the night shift in the colliery met the people coming out of the meetings.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in a meeting did not depend on Evan Roberts being there. The Holy Spirit descended even in places which Evan did not visit. The Revival spread like wildfire from place to place all over the country where people had been praying that such a thing would happen.

Loughor Revival Team

Revival Meeting

Miners on the way to a Revival Meeting

The Effect of the Revival on Wales

Thousands of people were saved. Public houses became almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money getting drunk were now saving it and giving it to the church. They were using their money to buy clothes and food for their families.

Stealing and other offences became less and less. Often a magistrate came to court and found that there were no cases for him to try.

Men who blasphemed learned to talk purely. The miners put in a better day’s work but the pit ponies could not understand what had happened to the miners as they spoke to them more kindly. They were so used to being sworn at that they became disobedient!

People who had been careless about paying their bills or paying back money they had borrowed gave back all they owed.

People who had quarrelled forgave each other and were reconciled.

Society was changed and Wales became a God-fearing nation.

Moriah Chapel

Pisgah Chapel

Brynteg Chapel

The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Wales

The Revival storm that hit the hills and valleys of Wales in the autumn of 1904 soon became a hurricane that affected the whole of the Principality. November 1904 witnessed the hand of God in the widely separated districts of Rhos in North Wales and Loughor in South Wales. They independently and simultaneously knew powerful convictions and wonderful conversions. 
 
The staggering success of the Gospel could not be attributed to the instrumentality of one man; this was not the wisdom of man but the power of God. Evan Roberts travelled around Wales taking meetings, often accompanied by singers who had been touched by the Holy Spirit.
 
Society was influenced by these renewed, law-abiding individuals, with a puritanical honesty, a positive work ethos and a personal life free of the personal addictions of the time. They remained the spiritual stalwarts of churches and chapel for years. For them the Revival of ‘04/’05 was ongoing.
 

Evan Roberts Preaching

Magistrate's Courts Empty

Miners' Prayer Meeting

Evan Roberts – the later years

For two years between November 1904 and 1906 God anointed Evan Roberts to release a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit. The result of this was 100,000 Christians who profoundly influenced the spiritual life of Wales and the world.
 
Exhausted from a formidable schedule of meetings Evan Roberts suffered from extreme overtiredness. He found refuge in the home of William and Jessie Penn-Lewis in Leicestershire in the spring of 1906. By 1907 he had recovered his health and became a prayer intercessor, spending up to 18 hours a day in prayer. His close and constant communion with God gave him great authority when he was moved to speak or counsel. In 1924 he moved to Brighton and then to Worthing.
 
In 1930 Evan Roberts returned to Wales and lived quietly in Cardiff. He worshipped at a Welsh chapel there. He died on January 29th 1951 and was buried in the family grave behind Moriah Chapel, Loughor.

Evan in his 60s

Sydney & May Emma Evans

The effects on England & Wales

The Revival Abroad

Though Wales was a little known country on the Celtic fringe of Europe when the 1904 Revival began, within a short time people were flocking to see and hear for themselves what God was doing, and to share in the blessing.
 
Newspaper reports of the Revival spread the news of the awakening and visitors touched by the Spirit of God took the flame to their home countries. The Revival spread, as ripples of water on a pond, to Europe first, then America, and eventually to all five continents.
 
Missionaries from Wales inspired by the Revival, went to Madagasgar, India, China and Patagonia and promoted and confirmed the work the Revival. Colleges made a great contribution the spread of the Revival by providing the personnel for overseas mission and by creating a spirit of prayer for an awakening. The Revival importantly produced a world-wide movement in the Apostolic Church.