05 - Immedieate Practical Results
CHAPTER V IMMEDIATE PRACTICAL RESULTS
THOSE privileged with an opportunity of attending the Revival gatherings will hardly need further proof that they were experiencing one of the long series of remarkable periodical sheddings-forth of the Holy Spirit in power. Others, bereft of that privilege, would naturally seek to know whether the spiritual fervour of the meetings was the only token of the genuineness of the work. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is a Divinely appointed test to be applied to Revivals as well as to prophets. THE SPIRITUAL SUPREME Let us then endeavour to speak of those "practical" tokens which tell of the Divineness of the movement. That something very extraordinary was afoot was seen in the fact that the "daily bread", usually uppermost, had become a matter of secondary importance. It has already been stated that the meetings were held all day, every day -morning, afternoon, and night. Work in the mines and factories was, for the moment, entirely dislocated; hundreds of men, instead of going to their daily employment as usual, attended the all-day meetings. There could be no clearer proof than this that matters spiritual were, at that time, the matters of supreme urgency. .
STRIKE EFFECTS HEALED
What would readily be regarded as an undoubted "practical" result was the Revival’s effect in the matter of "strikes". Bethesda, North Wales, the centre of the widely known and protracted bitter "Penrhyn Strike", had for years suffered acutely from the social, domestic, and religious dis-union which that struggle occasioned. Families and churches were rent in the unfortunate dispute, and life-long friendships shattered. So bitter were the divisions, that many qualified to judge said that there could be no restoration within that generation. The Revival came; and, with it, a transformation as complete as it was sudden. Women who sued one another in the courts, prayed side by side in the same meeting! Members of families who had not spoken to each other for years met in cordial love. In one fortnight the normal order of things had been restored by the power of God. Feuds and differences were forgotten; peace and harmony took the place of discord and enmity.
DISUNITY VANISHES A correspondent of a weighty journal, * early in 1905, gave an interesting account of the Revival movement among the miners of South Wales. An old miner, speaking of the feuds between Unionists and Non-unionists at the collieries, is reported as having said, "I have seen neighbours refuse to speak to each other, although they had been great friends. I have seen some refuse to descend the mine in the same cage with men who did not belong to the Federation, or to speak to them below ground, except with an oath. The Revival has stopped all that, and colliers look upon each other, spite of all the differences, as friends and companions. Some of the Non-unionists were among the best of men, and, at the meeting I have just left, one of them was leading the prayers, and Unionists joining in !" To this may be added the remainder of the same collier’s testimony, "The characters of the people have now been changed. The brutal sport of rabbit-coursing is stopped. Men have sold their dogs, in which not long ago they took the greatest pride. They go home at night sober men without touching a drop of beer or spirits, and, before commencing work in the morning many of them join together in prayer. You do not hear the words ’Unionists’ and ’Non-unionists’ spoken. No one talks of the Federation now."
* The Iron and Coal Trades Review. To this testimony might also be added that of the employers who spoke highly of the improved quality of the work put in by the miners. Waste was less, and men went to their daily toil with a new spirit of gladness in their labour.
FALLEN DENOMINATIONAL BARRIERS
Thus the one Spirit of God, when poured out, puts an end to sectionalism and suspicion. This was found to be the result, not only in industrial, but also in religious circles. Denominational walls, as high perhaps in Wales as in most countries, fell down as did Jericho’s walls. "Sectarianism melted in the fire of the Holy Spirit, and all men who believed became one happy family." In this respect, one might pause for a moment to reflect, the Revival of 1904 shows a decided advance upon that of ’59. Religious unity was still a desideratum in Wales during that period of blessing. The record of it shows that one at least of the great denominations in the Principality hesitated to mingle with the others. In 1904, however, there was no such holding back, and, strangely enough, the somewhat intransigent body of 1859 was, so it is commonly asserted, the one that advantaged most from, and perhaps, contributed most to, the Revival of 1904. Not only did Nonconformists of all hues blend together, but the wider gulf between Nonconformist and Conformist was also wonderfully bridged. Anglican clergy, as well as Free Church ministers, recognized the work as of God. Anglicans were seen in Nonconformist pulpits, and unordained revivalists welcomed in Anglican pulpits. What agitation and legislation could never have effected, to the Spirit of God was but the work of a moment. When the peculiar state of Wales at that time is recalled the greater appears the miracle. The Disestablishment fight had aroused feelings of no slight intensity and acuteness in the Principality. How true it is that, in the clear, pure light of the vision of God, all things are seen in their right proportion and perspective. The Revival proved the truth of the late Bishop Moule’s characteristic words written at that time, "Our Christendom," he wrote in The Record, "needs a new effusion of the Spirit. If anything in this aeon can heal ‘our unhappy divisions’ ... it is the putting forth of the power of the Paraclete to ’convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment’, and to ’glorify’ the Christ of God. ‘Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come!’ "
HUMANENESS
Reverting to the mines, conditions there were such as needed a radical change, and that in ways other than those already mentioned. That change, in a most marked degree, came with the Revival. Even the pit ponies soon felt that something had happened. But let the correspondent of The Daily News (December, 1904) tell the story, "The worst class of worker in the colliery is the haulier, who has charge of the poor horses doomed to perpetual underground darkness. These men, as a class, are proverbial for their profanity and cruelty, but now the change is so marked that the poor, bewildered horses do not know what to make of it. Accustomed to words of command, everyone of which is either a curse or an obscenity, they hardly know how to obey the requests now couched in quiet and gentle phrases." Even the "creation" will know deliverance from its bondage and vanity when the sons of God are revealed.
SELF-DENIAL AND DEBTS
"The supreme test of a Revival," said the late Dr. F. B. Meyer, "is the ethical result." As to this the testimony at the time was unanimous. To borrow another’s words, "Not merely were all the grosser vices reduced to vanishing point, but the subtler sins of unforgiving rancour, non-payment of debts, dishonest work are abated." In nothing was the Revivalist clearer and more emphatic than in his insistence upon forgiveness of injuries, unless it was upon the duty of the payments of debts. Again and again he would say, "How can there be blessing when there are family feuds and personal animosities, churches torn by little dissensions, members cold towards each other?"
All this was but stressing what the Spirit commanded. At such a time the light of the Spirit penetrates into the forgotten and hidden recesses of the past, revealing again sins easily tolerated in times of declension. Revival brings conscience to something like a new birth; at least, it uncovers its eyes, releases it from its gag, and gives it new tone and vigour. Judged by this test the Revival of 1904 stands vindicated as a real coming down of God. Tradesmen felt the effects thereof immediately in a peculiar and unexpected way. One of them at the time confessed that he had taken less money the first fortnight of the Revival than at any time for years. He explained it by saying that, in his opinion the people who had run into debt were now paying off what they owed, and, in order to do that, were simply living on the bare necessaries of life! He added that he had very few debtors in his business, which explained why his own takings were so small. He knew, however, that in the long run he would benefit, and that, when people found themselves out of debt, they would begin again to buy more food and clothing for themselves and their children.
RESTITUTION
Many stories of old debts paid could be told, but considerations of space counsel their being represented by this one only: A well-known provision firm, ere the Revival was two weeks old, received the following letter, "Gentlemen, I have pleasure in sending you the enclosed Postal Order for two shillings. A child of mine received a two-shilling piece instead of a penny as change in your shop eighteen months ago. Lately the child told me of it; and I am greatly pleased to return same to you at the child’s request. I sincerely trust that it has not caused you to lose confidence in any of your servants. I remain, Yours respectfully, The Child’s Father. P.S. The child is now eleven years of age." Sin troubles only when conscience has been re-baptized into sensitiveness. When God draws near the lips of even an Isaiah begin to feel unclean.
All this, of course, is but illustrative of much more. It proves the correctness of the impression of an American visitor who, after some weeks in the Revival, in a characteristic way testified, "This is not the fizz of a pop bottle, but the fizz of a fuse with the dynamite behind it." It certainly required "dynamite" of no ordinary sort to enable men to confess sin, make restitution, and deny self in the way the words just written indicate. THE CRIPPLED "TRADE"
Some slight reference has already been made to the influence of the Revival on the habits of the people as a whole. The effect on the drink-habit of many was very striking. The public-houses, almost at a stroke, became practically empty. Brewery concerns found, in this movement of the Spirit of God, something that seriously affected their dividends. Publicans were badly hit, and openly confessed the tremendous diminution in their takings. Bankruptcy overtook some, but, better still, some of them were converted and surrendered their licenses. In one place a public-house was turned into a house of prayer, so was a drinking-club, in another district. Even men who were not converts were ashamed to be seen entering such places.
WORLDLY PLEASURES The theatres, likewise, went out of business owing to lack of patronage. The paucity in the attendance caused, as was credibly reported at the time, the receipts to drop to about one-tenth the usual amount. Some theatres became venues of Revival gatherings.
Football, it has been said, had the same hold in Wales as horse-racing in England. Vast sums were spent on Saturday afternoon in railway fares and admission to football matches. No revivalist mentioned football, and yet football and other popular games dwindled as God laid His withering touch upon them. Doubtful things, as well as unquestioned sins, became intolerable in the light of the vision of holiness. A special train was ready to take the usual crowds to the International Trial Match, and at more than one station in the populous Rhondda only four or five passengers appeared; the others were at the Revival meetings, or had been otherwise attracted to things of eternal-profit and joy. At the match itself, there were about four hundred people instead of the usual thousands. In several places the football was burned and the teams disbanded.
Times of Revival also do not seem to favour some other forms of recreation and interest usually regarded as not only harmless but even edifying. High-class concerts, eisteddfodau, etc., institutions very popular in musical Wales, somehow, in those wonderful days, sickened and almost died. The interest of the populace had been raised to higher things. Very few concerts and eisteddfodau were held, and even when held they somehow had a Revival tinge. Several of the trained, professional vocalists of Wales were won; some becoming "Sankeys" and "Alexanders"; others bursting out, in the few concerts held, in such songs as "Throw out the life-line" ; the concerts ending in hymn-singing and prayer!
Politics also received a very definite quietus. Political meetings, so deemed the spiritualized sensibilities of the people, were out of the question. Those arranged for before the outburst had to be abandoned. No political speaker, be he ever so eminent, could at that time attract the people who had suddenly become engrossed in the matters connected with their souls’ salvation.
REVOLUTIONIZED HABITS The reference to public-houses will have suggested what might, were there space, be said concerning the police and police-courts. The effect of the Revival upon the general community was immediately apparent, as anyone who would care to examine the records of the police-courts at that time could see. All over Wales magistrates found themselves presented with white gloves, a token that their employment was gone. The charge sheets bore an appearance that was unprecedented. The usual hundred or so cases of drunkenness in the populous centres were reduced to less than a fifth. The correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post reported in December 1904, that there had been no arrest for drunkenness in Rhos since the Revival had started. Even in the South Wales ports-the rendezvous of all sorts and conditions of seafaring men and others-the magistrates were through with their business in a phenomenally short time. A well-known solicitor, since honoured with knighthood, a gentleman with an extensive police-court practice, stated at the time that advocacy work was practically all gone, that police charges in his district were a mere fraction of the average, that private quarrels and assaults had become practically nil. The earnings of the workmen, instead of being squandered in drink and vice, were bringing a world of happiness to the child-life of the community. He had, he said, come across some wonderful practical results in his professional capacity, notably how "hopelessly bad debts" had been repaid. He closed his testimony with the words, "Surely no person could be found so basely selfish as to deplore a diminution in fees as a result of this blessed consummation." Such words rather suggest that the advocate himself had had some taste of the general blessing. And so he had.
CHANGED PARENTS
It is of value to be able to quote the magnanimous, unbiased, expert testimony of trustworthy men, and so, to that of the advocate just heard, let there be added the voice of an inspector of the N.S.P.C.C. He told a newspaper reporter how in the mining valleys of Glamorgan the Revival had had a marvellous influence on the conduct of parents in a few "slummy" parts toward their children: "Homes that I have had under observation for some time," he said, "have undergone a complete transformation through the parents having been brought to a better life through the Revival. The children throughout my district are now kept in a much more clean condition, and it can be confidently said that in my line things are decidedly slack. A couple of cases that I was visiting, and in which I thought I should have to prosecute, it is no longer necessary to watch, owing to the improvement brought about, in one case by the conversion of the father, and in the other by the conversion of the mother. This time last year I was compelled to prosecute at the rate of two a month. Now I have had no prosecution since November."
"TRAMPS"
Even that community known as "tramps", the workhouse casuals, were reached. One of the most romantic stories of the Revival of 1904 is that which could be written on this subject. Its incidents are thrilling and, perhaps, some Harold Begbie or Hugh Redwood will some day undertake its writing. The main road between Cardiff and Swansea is a favourite one with many of the type referred to. A minister, in humble circumstances, whose church lay in a town on this road about midway between the two points named, felt moved of God to a special ministry to the "tramps". Every morning he would meet them as they tramped through the town, invite them to the school-room of his church, give them a meal, and-the Gospel. The repute of the work, as can easily be imagined, soon spread among this community concerned, with the result that, some mornings, he would have as many as forty or more guests! Gifts of money, in answer to prayer, to cover the. cost of the breakfasts, came in, and also gifts of clothing-he knew not whence; only he knew that the Lord had prompted their being sent. Many were the conversions at these breakfasts, for this brother had received a most special gift for ministry to this class of men. Tramps, indeed, to speak but the literal truth, were his "speciality", and, quite as wonderful it was to note that, somehow, they too seemed to know it. In towns other than his own no tramp would pass this brother without some kind of mystical recognition and attraction. Frequently has he been seen kneeling on the roadside, in town and country, leading a tramp to the Saviour. Once, on a London street, this brother to his astonishment heard his name shouted from the dickey of a passing hanson. The cabman was one of the many converts at the "tramp" breakfasts at B--! A RUN ON BIBLES
Turning in still another direction for the "practical" results of the Revival, let it be said that it made every one read his Bible. It was, to many, almost a re-discovery of the old Book. And people now read it for practical purposes. Young Christian workers, for example, were anxious to learn how rightly to dispense the truth to needy souls. The records of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Oxford University Press, and other Scripture publishers could tell a remarkable story. The supplies of Scriptures from the B. & F.B.S. alone during November and December, 1904, more than trebled those of the corresponding period in the previous year. Publishers of spiritual literature could add a similar testimony. Commentaries and other religious books were, in many cases, paid for with money that otherwise would have gone for novels and intoxicants. A touching story came out in a meeting held by Mr. Evan Roberts at Tonypandy in Christmas week. In one of the meetings the Revivalist asked all who read the Bible daily to stand. One hardy toiler said that he could not read; but he was doing his best, and spelling the words the best way he could! THE COLLEGES The movement was in no wise confined to such as the illiterate miner just referred to. The influence penetrated also to the, corridors and class-rooms of the centres of learning. Students at one Collegiate School marched in a body through the streets, and held several meetings; several conversions being the result. At a Theological College, while the professor lectured, the Holy Spirit so wrought that all-professor and students-were bent to their knees, the class merging into a prayer-meeting. Incidentally, it may be mentioned as being quite a remarkable thing that everywhere, directly the Spirit of God moved upon the people they almost invariably fell on their knees-they were "bent"! At that time it almost came to pass that a whole nation was on its knees in prayer. A casual group of students at one of the University Colleges of Wales were discussing the Revival. Suddenly one of them exclaimed, "Really, chaps, it’s a real thing." "I should like to feel as some of those saved people feel," said another. After a moment’s awkward pause someone started a hymn. Then came prayer, and then some more hymn-singing, the sound of which reached other students, with the result that lectures were "cut" right and left. The smoke-room became packed; a Revival meeting was soon in full swing. Later, a procession of hundreds, mostly students-men and women-formed and marched through the streets with very remarkable results. High browism was thus one of the "mountains" which "flowed down at the presence of God" when He had rent the heavens and come down.
TESTIMONY OF THE PRESS And so the wonderful story could go on and its thrilling incidents be recalled. It is extraordinary the attention devoted by the secular press at that time to what the late Rev. Evan Hopkins rightly called a "modern Pentecost". Some, it goes without saying, were cynically critical, but most were definitely and warmly sympathetic, and this, we may be sure, because the movement was solving so many practical difficulties which no amount of social or political effort could touch. The London Daily News, in one of its daily reports of the Revival, stated, "Silently, but steadily and surely, the moral results of the Revival are making themselves seen and felt everywhere . . . and the hearth burns more brightly this Christmastide (1904) than it has for many a long day in thousands of Welsh homes."
More impressive still are the following wise words from a leaderette in a well-known medical journal,* dealing with the criticisms of Mr. Henry Labouchere in his paper, Truth, "Every adverse criticism of the movement has been founded on an entire misconception of the Welsh character, and upon a distorted idea of the services which are everywhere being conducted in Wales. There must, of course, be some unavoidable excesses in all great religious movements; there must too be some harmful incidents; but a great upheaval like the Welsh Revival must be judged by the sum of its
* The Lancet. results. It is even yet early to estimate, but the vast majority of the Welsh people who are in touch with the movement, and who feel its influence, already regard it as something far above carping criticism. At all events, its triumphs are not scanty. Whatever of ill may be imagined against it by uninformed critics, the good results of the Welsh Revival are tangible, and, we believe, lasting. Mr. Labouchere shows how little he has read or understood of the movement, when he describes the services as ’a mob shouting, singing, and groaning, with a man on the platform dancing in ecstasy’. He shows the shallowness of his inquiry into the matter when he presumes to criticize by speaking of ’hysterical tomfoolery’, and ’orgies of religious hysteria’. How long is it likely to last? he asks. The day and night prayer meetings may not last for ever; but if they ceased to-morrow they would leave a lasting impression upon the public mind, an impression all for good. In the past, religion in Wales has been immeasurably strengthened by revivals which partook of much the same character as the present one, and what was done forty-five years ago is being done to-day. It is surely better that the scenes which are happening in South Wales to-day-call them ‘orgies of religious hysteria’ or whatever else the scoffer may please-should be indefinitely continued than that the daily press should reflect the prevalence of orgies of a very different character." Thus, in journals, not professedly religious, is found the crushing answer to cynics blind to the meaning of what God was doing. THE REVIVAL AND SOUND DOCTRINE
One further note in the evidence may fittingly be added, this time from the pages of the Saturday Review. Its words point to the interesting and welcome fact that the old Evangelical Faith was at the heart of the movement. These are the words, "The London press says much about this Revival, but it conceals the fact of its intensely orthodox character. Indeed, it is largely a popular protest against the undenominational and ’philosophic’ Christianity preached by the ministers whom the Welsh University Colleges have trained." The correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post, interested chiefly in the movement in North Wales, after a visit to Rhos, and referring to the South Wales minister in whose mission in that town the Revival there had burst forth, wrote, "If I had been asked a month ago whether a Revival was probable in Wales, I should have answered, No. It seemed to me that the ’higher criticism’ had wrecked the ordinary machinery of a revival, and that, until theology had been reshaped in accordance with its conclusions, nothing would happen to disturb the prevailing apathy. Oddly enough, the revivalist himself is one who, according to his own confession, was at one time deeply interested in the ’higher criticism’, and preached the ’new theology’. He felt, however, that there was a certain emptiness and coldness in his sermons. Attendance at a convention held in Llandrindod led to a crisis in his life. He felt himself to be a new man, and since then the writings of the higher critics have lost their attraction for him." It will at once be recognized that the lesson of the great Revival regarding the matter of these paragraphs is too clear to be mistaken. Errors in theology share the fate of vicious habits when the Lord has rent the heavens and has come down. Would that the significance of this were taken to heart. As to heterodoxy, to vary a famous phrase, it is the mule of theology; something altogether barren of beneficent spiritual results, and absolutely incapable of producing revivals. Not only so, a· spiritual revival and rationalism in Divine matters are inherently incompatible. The heart-experience of God and of salvation in Christ, which every true revival begets, is a deathblow to all the errors characteristic of rationalistic criticism of the Bible and "new theology". The Revival of 1904 released many a minister and others from the grip of wrong doctrine and severely checked the advance of various forms of religious heterodoxy.
MELTED MOUNTAINS The closing thought, as all these and other immediate results of the notable upheaval of 1904 are reviewed, is that there are very few, if any, of our political, social, industrial, ecclesiastical, moral, and mental problems which a Revival cannot solve. What legislation and organization throughout the years fail to do, Revival accomplishes in a few days, a fact which, among other things, shows that the insurmountable obstacle in the way of every true reform has its strength in the human will. That "mountain", the perverted human will, is immovable until God rends the heavens and comes down, and then, without the aid of any human agency, it causes the mountain to "flow down at His presence". Said an old Brymbo miner in ’59, "When I was a boy, we dug out the coal with chisels; after that came dynamite, and with this we mine a much bigger quantity of coal. Till this week I have seen nothing but chisel work in religion, but now here is God’s dynamite at the work!"
Oh, when will the world, nay, when will even the Church learn this lesson, so repeatedly taught during the centuries? Prayer for Revival, when this lesson is learned, will then replace the fussy, futile attempts at mending matters by human machinery. Surely, at the present time, a Revival such as that of 1904 which had such blessed results, even with its "emotion" thrown in, would not be unwelcome where once it was despised. In one of the meetings in December, 1904, the Rev. John McNeill offered prayer, and said, "They call the Revival debauched emotionalism; but if it is so, O Lord, may we be sober no more." One is tempted to close this chapter with a free rendering of a Welsh verse by one fired in the great ’59 Revival in a town in Wales:
"The foolish world, so proudly sage, Thinks I am drunk, or mad with rage;
Drunk? doubtless; yes, I’m drunk and odd;
But, drunken with the wine of God." vi
LASTING FRUIT "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."
"Awake, 0 north wind, and come; thou south;
Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, Let my Beloved come into His garden And eat His precious fruits."
- Song of Solomon 4:16 (R.V.).