DR. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN AND THE WELSH REVIVAL

Westminster Chapel, London, has pulpits on two levels, one above the other. The top-most podium, designed by Dr. G. Campbell Morgan a century ago, is very spacious, drum-shaped with excellent eye-contact to the two levels of balconies above it. The smaller one directly below, is nearer the main floor, is less pretentious, but has a special significance. Today, it contains the handsome wooden lectern that belonged to Doctor Morgan. Drs. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, R.T. Kendall, Billy Graham, and others, have stood behind it. Each time I have preached at Westminster and used this lectern, I have been very conscious of the privilege given me. Dr. Morgan (1863-1945), was not only a long-time pastor at Westminster Chapel but an intimate friend of D. L. Moody. In America, he was hailed as Moody’s successor. In England, he preached in the pattern of C. H. Spurgeon. I am indebted to my friend, Philip Evans, Editor of the Westminster News, for the following account of Dr. Morgan’s visit to the Welsh Revival. You will benefit from this article's historical accuracy and spiritual evaluation. Read it prayerfully.

Dr. Morgan had been Minister at Westminster Chapel for only a few days when news of the Welsh Revival reached London in November 1904. He visited Wales during the week before Christmas and reported what he found there at the following Sunday evening service, Christmas Day. The sermon was published and subsequently edited repetitively for various journals. Reproduced here is the most complete version of Dr. Morgan’s report, collated from a number of sources including a transcript of his sermon and a leaflet he published which inspired the men instrumental in the Azusa Street Revival. --- Philip Evans

For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Acts 2:15-18.

These words are not a text but an introduction to what I desire to say concerning the most recent manifestation of Pentecostal power. I refer to the great work of God that is going on in Wales at this time. In the simplest way, I want to speak to you of what my own eyes have seen, my own ears heard and my own heart felt.

Yet I cannot help reverting, before going further, to the above passage from Acts. Peter stood in the midst of one of the most wonderful scenes that the world has ever beheld. When men said of the shouting multitudes that they were drunk, Peter said, No, these are are not drunken as you suppose; but Athis is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. If any one shall say to me, AWhat do you think of the Welsh Revival? I say at once, This is that.

This is no mere piece of imagination--and it certainly is not a piece of exaggeration. AI will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. is the promise now evidently fulfilled in Wales. If you ask for proof of that assertion, I point to the signs. Your young men shall see visions! That is exactly what is happening. It does not at all matter that this cynical and dust-covered age laughs at the vision. The young men are seeing it. And your old men shall dream dreams, and that is happening. The vision goes forward, the dream goes backward; the old men are dreaming the Welsh Revival of 1859 and feeling its thrill again. Yea, Aand on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. It does not at all matter that some regular people are objecting to the irregular doings. This is that. If you ask me the meaning of the Welsh Revival, I say, without one single moment’s doubt, it is Pentecost continued.

Let me talk familiarly and quietly, as though sitting in my own room. I left London on Monday, reaching Cardiff at 8:30 that evening and my friend who met me said to me, What are you going to do? Will you go home or will you go to the meeting? Oh, I said, I would rather have a meeting than home. We went.

The meeting had been going on an hour and a half when we got there. We stayed for two and one half hours then went home, and the meeting was still gong on. I had not then touched what is spoken of as--it is my phrase, but it is expressive—the fire zone. I was on the outskirts of the work. It was a wonderful night, utterly without order, characterized from first to last by the orderliness of the Spirit of God.

The next day it was my holy privilege to come into the centre of this wonderful work and movement. I spent the whole of Tuesday in the village of Clydach Valoe, eight hours in the actual meetings and the rest of the time in the company of Evan Roberts. Arriving in the morning, everything seemed quiet, and we wended our way to the place where a group of chapels stood. Everything was so quiet and orderly that we had to ask where the meeting was. And a lad, pointing to a chapel, said, In there. Not a single person outside. Everything was quiet.

We made our way through the open door, and just managed to get inside, and found the chapel crowded from floor to ceiling with a great mass of people What was the occupation of the service? It is impossible for me to tell you finally and fully. Suffice it to say that throughout that service there was singing and praying and personal testimony, but no preaching. It was a meeting characterized by a perpetual series of interruptions and disorderliness. It was a meeting characterized by a great continuity and an absolute order. You say, How do you reconcile these thing? I do not reconcile them. They are both there. I leave you to reconcile them.

If you put a man into the midst of one of these meetings who knows nothing of the language of the Spirit, and nothing of the life of the Spirit, one of two things will happen to him. He will either pass out saying, These men are drunk, or he himself will be swept up by the fire into the kingdom of God. If you put a man down who knows the language of the Spirit, he will be struck by this most peculiar thing. I am speaking with diffidence, for I have never seen anything like it in my life. While a man praying is disturbed by the breaking out of song, there is no sense of disorder, and the prayer merges into song, and back into testimony, and back again into song for hour after hour, without guidance. There was no human leader.

Gentle Conquest March 2002