By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Roberts
THERE ARE no small number of Christians in Jamaica who have been praying for years for God to send a spiritual revival on the land. It is believed that a spiritual revival would change people from within and this would manifest itself in the moral, economic and political transformation of the nation.
For this reason, several local and overseas-based groups have been promoting intensive prayer asking God to send a revival, as it is believed that the moral, socio-economic and political decay are so extensive that only God can rescue Jamaica.
When people speak about how a revival can affect a nation, they often cite as the classic model, the 1904 Welsh Revival. That revival lasted for two years and it resulted in more than 100,000 persons accepting Christ as their personal Saviour and Lord.
EVAN'S PRAYERS
The central figure in that spiritual awakening was one Evan Roberts, an ex-coal miner and blacksmith's apprentice. Roberts, who was born in 1878, had been a member of the Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Church in Loughor, where he was the Superintendent of the Sunday school. He was not known to possess a great intellect or eloquence. But from his teen years he had been a devout Christian who prayed for a revival in Wales. His 26th year found him taking courses at a grammar school as a prelude for entry into a theological college. Then the revival came that year. He had been prayerfully seeking it for more
than 11 years.
It is said that Roberts had no time for youthful entertainment and pleasure. In a biography quoted at www.sendrevival.com, it is reported that day and night he prayed, wept and sighed for God to grant a spiritual awakening. His seemingly strange behaviour alarmed his landlady, who turned him out thinking he was possessed or somewhat mad.
INSPIRATION
Most historians agree that the Welsh Revival owed its origins in part to the prayers of Seth Joshua, an evangelist and member of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, who publicly prayed many times for God to raise up a man to lead a revival. Evan Roberts was at a church meeting where Joshua urged the congregation to pray "Lord bend me." Roberts fell to the ground sweating. It was interpreted as the Holy Spirit's anointing weighing heavily on him.
A few days later at a church prayer meeting, in his home church, Roberts preached a four-point sermon. He urged the congregation to:
1) Confess all known sins.
2) Deal with and get rid of anything 'doubtful' in their lives and to exercise forgiveness to everyone.
3) Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.
4) Confess Christ publicly.
Roberts was not an expository preacher and his method was prayer and exhortation, leading to the Holy Spirit bringing strong conviction for sins.
The meetings went on for
many hours - often more than
10 without a break. People
came to the meetings crying
for forgiveness, reconciling themselves after a feud, and paying up debts. The revival had started.
SPREADING THE REVIVAL
Soon Roberts, his brother Dan and his close friend Sydney Evans were travelling together over the country preaching and many were converted. People would attend Roberts' meetings and then go home to hold their own meetings and revival would break out there too. The revival spread like wildfire. Pockets of revival were experienced in other parts of the British Isles and even as far as Asia and Africa. No reliable record of the number of persons who got saved has been found. Historians, however, say at least 100,000 were saved during the two years the revival lasted. Some historians claim that up to 100,000 were saved in the first six months of the revival.
What seems clear is that the revival transformed much of the moral and socio-economic landscape. The web site www.openheaven.com cites a newspaper report of January 11, 1905 where it was published that 'The whole population had been suddenly stirred by a common impulse. Religion had the absorbing interest of their lives. They had gathered at crowded (church) services for six to eight hours at a time'.
AN UNLIKELY GROUP
Coalminers filled prayer meetings that often ended at 3 a.m. Then they would bathe and head straight to work. The web site quotes the London Times of February 2, 1905 where it is said, many men abandoned the dens of iniquity and employers noticed a great improvement in the production and productivity of their employees.
There were reports that bars went out of business for lack of adequate patronage. The theatres, dance halls and football matches all saw a dramatic decline in attendance. Men became more frugal much to the delight of their wives and children. Longstanding debts were repaid. Feuds, even between churches were ended.
In the courts, judges were presented with white gloves signifying that they had no cases to be tried. The jails and courts were deserted. The police found themselves without much work to do. As a consequence, some police officers closed their respective stations and formed singing groups that rendered musical selections at church revival meetings.
Before the revival came, the coal miners punctuated much of their conversations with profanity. Even the horses that hauled the coals were kicked and told obscenities.But when God touched their lives, they abandoned coarse speaking. When the coal miners got saved, they began treating the animals with respect and spoke to them kindly. This confused the horses as they did not understand kind language and they did not know whether to stop or go.
Throughout the revival and long after it, Evan Roberts declined to be called its leader. He was extremely conscious of divine leadership. "This movement is not of me, it is of God. I would not dare direct it - It is the Spirit alone which is leading us." David Matthews, who lived through the revival chronicled some of the events in I Saw The Welsh Revival. On the web site www.openheaven.com he is quoted as saying the Welsh Revival was not an orgy of emotions, but "a mighty outpouring of religious fervour bringing a whole nation to its knees at the foot of the cross in
adoration and praise."
