I know today is Halloween but in reality today is just a side show. The real event takes place tomorrow. Today is All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and tomorrow is All Hallow’s Day or All Saints Day. For hundreds of years the day has been a celebration of the Saints who have gone before, a time to remember their lives and their example.
Evan Roberts – The Revivalist
Having said that I always think of 31st October for a very different reason. It was on that day in 1904 that a 26 year old ex miner held a meeting in the Schoolroom next to Moriah Chapel in Loughor. Evan Roberts was considered to be a somewhat troubled young man. He had tried his hand at a number of different jobs including mining and working as an apprentice Blacksmith. Behind it all Evan held on to a very special commission that when he told people about it, it certainly divided opinion.
Evan and his family lived in a house close to the Loughor Estuary called Island House. For many years he had been seen as someone who experienced deep spiritual feelings and I think it’s fair to say some people were sceptical and others, including members of his own family, were worried about his mental health. After finally being accepted as a candidate for the ministry 1904 looked like it would be the start of an orthodox chapel career.
His studies took him to a Bible School in Newcastle Emlyn and whilst there he paid a visit to a church in a little village called Blaenannerch. At a service there led by the evangelist Seth Joshua he experienced a profound spiritual encounter that left him sobbing in the pew. All of his life he had wanted to be a minster and here was his chance, but the spiritual experience was so strong he decided to leave school and return home to Loughor to lead a worldwide religious revival.
The experience in West Wales was certainly a turning point but in later interviews with journalists he told stories of what had happened to him earlier in 1904. This is from a newspaper report in December 1904.
Evan Roberts Testimony of God’s visits in the night
“One Friday night last spring, when praying by my bedside before retiring, I was taken up to a great expanse – without time and space. It was communion with God. Before this a far-off God I had. I was frightened that night, but never since. So great was my shivering that I rocked the bed, and my brother, being awakened, took hold of me, thinking I was ill.
“After that experience I was awakened every night a little after one o’clock. This was most strange, for through the years I slept like a rock, and no disturbance in my room would awaken me. From that hour I was taken up into the Divine Fellowship for about four hours. What it was I cannot tell you; except that it was Divine. About five o’clock I was again allowed to sleep on till about nine.
Evan went further saying that he had seen a ‘cheque’ which had the sum of 100,000 souls written on it. This was his goal when he started his little meeting that October night. The ‘Revival’ he believed was coming started out quite slowly with only a dozen or so young people in the gathering. We have all heard the phrase ‘What will the neighbours say’. I think it’s fair to say his family weren’t totally convinced as the meeting seems to have been boycotted by his worried and sceptical family.
It wasn’t long until the nightly meetings moved from the schoolroom into the main building at Moriah. As the weeks passed the Revival fire spread across the whole of Wales before travelling right across the world.
Even as I write this I almost find it hard to believe. For a number of years this story consumed almost my every waking hour as I worked on the musical ‘Amazing Grace’. Some days I would drive to Loughor just to sit outside Moriah Chapel hoping that something of the spirit of Evan Roberts would inspire me.
What used to strike me as odd was that as I sat in my car I would see lots of local people wander past the church without paying any attention whatsoever to the statue that marks where the 1904 Welsh Revival started. What was even more strange was that occasionally I would see a bus turn up bringing pilgrims from as far away as Singapore or Korea who had come to pay their respects to the man who they acknowledged as being the one who lit the fire that had brought the good news to their countries far away.
The Western Mail said that for those 18 months Evan Roberts held the whole of Wales in the palm of his hand. Judges had no work to do as people turned from drink and crime to Bible Studies. Rugby teams disbanded. Pit ponies were left confused as their masters stopped swearing and beating them. Families once broken apart by alcohol were reunited as working men spent time in prayer meetings rather than the pub.
But as I researched the story it soon became clear that not everyone accepted the story that Evan told. By early 1905 he found himself being attacked by other church leaders. That year saw the relentless workload, pressure and expectations lead to a break down in Evan’s health and by 1906 after a raucous meeting in Liverpool where he accused the local clergy of actively working against the Revival, Evan retired from public life rarely preaching again.
In many ways after that Evan felt his life had been a bit of a failure. He didn’t really get the chance to see just how far the revival he had prayed for so earnestly and for so long would actually travel. Maybe instead of bobbing for apples or going trick or treating I might pop down to Moriah Chapel and think once again of the visionary boy who really did light a fire that went all around the world.