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The Revivals
From: Classic Books for Today #156
By S. B. Shaw (1905)
(Used by Permission)

"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?"   Psalm 85:6

The Church of God needs Three Things

It needs first to set itself to get things out of the way for God. I appreciate the almost puzzled look upon some of your faces. What things? I do not know. All the things that are in His way: Your habit that you know is unholy; your method of business that will not bear the light of day; your unforgiving heart towards a church member. Oh, God, forgive me that I mention anything! You know, you know. They are in God's way, these things. They must be cleared out. That is the first thing.

There may be other things in God's way. Any organization in church life that does not make for the salvation of men is a fungous growth, and the sooner we drop it off the better. Oh, I know churches where classrooms are so tremendously full there is no room for a prayer-meeting. Are we ready to put things out of the way for God? I think we are. I think that if God manifests Himself, and men begin to be saved, I do not think there is a Guild Social we will keep. I do not think there is any bazaar coming on that will hinder it! Oh, if there is anything, we must be pre-pared to sweep everything out for God to have highway. That is the attitude the church must be pre-pared to take.

Now let me say also to the other churches, that is the true attitude.

There is nothing so important as the saving of men, and when the church says that, and is ready, God will come. We need then to wait upon Him in earnest, constant prayer. Oh, brothers, sisters, pray,pray alone: pray in secret, pray together; and pray out of a sense of London's sin and sorrow. It is so easy to be familiar with these things, until they have lost their power to touch us. Oh, the sin and the sorrow of London! May God lay it upon our hearts as a burden. And out of that agony let us begin to pray, and go forward the moment He opens the door, and indicates the way. I do not expect -- and specially to young Christians do I say this -- I do not expect just the same kind of manifestation.

God always manifests Himself through the natural temperament, and you can never have the poetic fire and fervor of a Celtic revival in London. But you can have a stern, hard, magnificent consecration, and results that characterize your own nationality. Are we ready for God? I feel like apologizing to you tonight for this broken talk. I have talked out of my heart. I have tried to talk of fire that can not be described. I have tried to talk out of the tremendous sense that God is abroad, and I talk out of the desire that I can not express --that somewhere, some when, some-how, He may put out His hand, and shake this city for the salvation of men.

Selections From English Papers

The Revival At Carnarvon
(British Weekly special)

Last week you published a most readable account of the revival at Talysarn, Carnarvonshire, and it may interest your readers to know something about the movement in Carnarvon, the capital of North Wales.

Carnarvon is the most Welsh of all the Welsh towns; it is Noncon-formist to the core, and can boast some of the largest chapels in the northern part of the Principality; but, in spite of all the facilities it possesses, a great bulk of the inhabitants were altogether indifferent to-wards all things religious, and the places of worship on Sundays were poorly attended. None but the faithful went to the week-night prayer-meetings, and often there would not be more than a dozen or two present at each chapel.

A wonderful change has come over the scene within the last fort-night or so. Prayer-meetings, which were never so popular, are held nightly -- and often twice daily --in all the chapels, and they are at-tended by young and old, rich and poor, and many are the converts. The young people seem to take greater interest in the meetings than the grownups and the revival, so far as Carnarvon is concerned, may be said to be the result of an awakening among the young people of the town.

The conversation of boys in the streets turns upon the revival, and it is nothing unusual to hear one asking the other if he is going to the prayer-meeting. The services are throughout spontaneous, resembling a Quakers' meeting, and at a Congregational Chapel a few miles from Carnarvon, a boy of fourteen years went forward to the big pew to pray. He asked the Lord to for-give his sins, saying that he had been in the habit of reciting verses from Scripture in chapel on Sunday evenings, and afterwards smoking cigarettes and swearing. He declared that from that day on he would never do it again, and that he was going to lead a new life. This is but one instance of the effect the revival has had upon the young people.

Young men and women -- whose voice had never before been heard at a public gathering of any kind --take part freely in the meetings, and some remarkable scenes have been witnessed. On Sunday night last at Pendref Congregational Chapel --the oldest chapel in the town -- four young women prayed so impressively and so earnestly that many in the large congregation were moved to tears. One old backslider overcome with emotion, appealed to the people to pray that he might receive strength to resist temptation, and to lead a better life. Thereupon a young woman rose in the body of the chapel and prayed fervently for him, and afterwards the congregation broke out into singing the well-known hymn -

"Diolch iddo byth am gofio llwch y llawr."

An intense feeling of devotion permeated the meeting, which will be long remembered by those who had the privilege to be present. Two men who had followed afar off for many years gave themselves up to Christ, and the same night, at other chapels in the town, there were many converts. Prayer meetings are being held this week again, and by request all the shops are closed at an earlier hour than usual to enable shop assistants and others to attend the meetings. The revival has al-ready purified the moral atmosphere of the town. The public-houses are losing their customers -- the people think of nothing but prayer-meetings -- and drunkenness in the streets is becoming a rare occurrence.

A strange place wherein to hold a prayer-meeting is certainly a rail-way carriage, yet this is what took place on the railway near Carnarvon the other day. In the quarries at Llanberis and Nantlee Vale prayer-meetings are held daily by the menduring the dinner hour. There was a time when the quarrymen could not get their dinner over soon enough to play cards, but now they want to finish their dinner as quickly as possible in order to participate in the prayer-meetings.

From the villages surrounding Carnarvon reports come of most excellent meetings, and the converts are many.

Remarkable Scene In A Coal Mine

While in the Mid-Glamorgan district last week I spent a few hours in the Llynvi Valley, which so far has not been visited by Evan Roberts. However the whole valley is aflame with the revival spirit, and wonderful scenes are being witnessed both above and under ground. At the invitation of the manager of the Coegnanat pit, one of North's Navigation Collieries near Nantyffyllon, I descended the pit at six o'clock the other morning. Reaching the bottom, I walked along the "partings," till I reached the "Baltic" seam. My guide, after explaining the workings of the mine, piloted me to a recess in this seam where a number of colliers had assembled.

Presently the numbers increased, till over three hundred men, each with safety lamp, were gathered in a strange crowd. Some were seated on the floor; others knelt, and numbers were standing. One of the number struck up "Diolch Iddo" (Thanks be to Him); this was taken up by the others, and repeated again and again. An old collier jumped up, and told in Welsh how after five unsuccessful at-tempts to get a fellow-workman to give his heart to God, he had at the sixth attempt the previous night triumphed. "Diolch Iddo" again rang through the galleries. Two men prayed simultaneously, one in En-glish, and one in Welsh.

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