::1905 WELSH REVIVAL::
It was in 1904. ALL WALES WAS AFLAME. The nation had drifted far from God. Spiritual conditions were low indeed. Church attendance was poor, and sin abounded on every side.
Suddenly, like an unexpected tornado, THE SPIRIT OF GOD swept over the land. The churches were filled to capacity; the meetings ran day and night. Evan Roberts was the human instrument, but there was very little preaching. Prayer, testimony, and singing would sweep over the congregation in torrents, and hundreds of souls would surrender to God. Indescribable scenes took place; nothing had ever come to Wales with such far-reaching results. Everywhere THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD was felt; in the street, in the stores, in the trains.
INFIDELS were converted, drunkards, thieves, and gamblers were saved, and thousands were reclaimed to respectability. Confessions of awful sins were heard on every side. Old debts were paid. Thearers and saloons closed for lack of patronage. Police courts were idle.
In five weeks twenty thousand conversions were recorded. Another writer states that within ninety days there were 150,000 conversions.
The Welsh revival was a Devine visitation, in which God said, "See what I can do without the things you are depending on? See what I can do with the simplest who are ready to fall in line and depend wholly upon Me? See what I can do in answer to praying people."
This Welsh outcropping of glory affected all nations. Most Chrsitians have been unaware of the world impact of this global revival. Within a decade it could well have added over TEN MILLION new converts to the church of Jesus Christ.
::1905 WORLDWIDE AWAKENING::
EUROPE: Thirty ENGLISH Bishops openly supported the revival after one Bishop, deeply moved, told of confirming 905 new converts in a small country parish. It is difficult to count converts in the Church of England, but in the years 1903-1906, the Free Churches of England gained a total of ten percent, or 300,000. The Awakening also swept SCOTLAND and IRELAND. Under Albet Lunde a work began in NORWAY, which impacted SWEDEN, FINLAND, and DENMARK. The Lutherans there said that it was the greatest movement of the Spirit since the Vikings were evangelized. It broke out in GERMANY, FRANCE and other countries of Europe, marked everywhere by prayer and confession.
ASIA: INDIA saw a great awakening in every province in 1905-06. Meetings often lasted five to ten hours. The Christian population jumped 70%, sixteen times faster than the Hindu population. KOREA was swept with three waves of revival in 1903, 1905, and 1907--quadrupling the membership of the churches in a decade by 70,000, creating a national church from almost nothing, and rolling on into the 1980's. Located in Seoul today are two of the largest churches in the world. Korea, has become the first Oriental nation to become Christianized, largely due to the impact of the revival of 1905. Today it is sending out missionaries to all the Far East and even throughout the world.
CHINA: In MANCHURIA the protestant church doubled in a decade to a quarter of a million under the ministry of Johathan Goforth. throughout all China the Christians increased to over one half of a million. INDONESIA: The 100,000 evangelicals in 1903 tripled in a decade to 300,000. The PHILLIPINE ISLANDS were the first to be evangelized.
AFRICA: More progress was made throughout all Africa in the first decade than ever before. From 1903-1910 believers jumped from 300,000 to 500,000. 100,000 of these were added through the holiness and healing ministry of John Lake alone. Over 500 churches were born in the wake of his early crusades.
SOUTH AMERICA: South America saw real inroads in Brazil and Chile during the first decade of the twentieth century preparing the way of the explosive growth of the successive decades: 50,000 in 1900; more than 1 million in 1930; 1940's two million; 1950's five million; 1960's ten million; 1970's twenty million.
::THE SOCIAL AND MORAL IMPACT::
This 1905 global awakening was considerble and recognized by church and civic leaders worldwide.
In BRITIAN, there was utter unanimity on the part of the observers regarding "the high ethical character" of the movement. Revival has been described as a new beinning of obedience to God. Renewed obedience to the four great social commandments--reduced crime, produced chasity, promoted honesty and trughfulness, and incalculated a spirit of benevolence throughout communities. Drunkeness and gambling was sharply curtailed.
On MISSION FIELDS, missionaries multiplied their schools and hospitals. In twenty years, pupils in Christian schools in INDIA doubled to 600,000; 90% of nurses were Christian, mostly trained at mission hospitals. In CHINA, missionaries pioneered secondary and higher education and thus laid the foundation of the medical service; beginnings of AMERICA's educational and medical system were likewise due to the missionary impulse of the 1905 revival.