THE extraordinary, not to say the marvellous, incidents that marked the visit of Mr. Evan Roberts, the central figure of the great Welsh Revival of 1904-5, to the city of Liverpool, and the widespread interest they aroused, call for a permanent record; and the request has reached me from many quarters for a reproduction in book form of the sketches which, during those never-to-be-forgotten three weeks, it was my duty to telegraph each evening to the South Wales Daily News. I am indebted to Messrs. D. Duncan and Sons, the proprietors of that newspaper, for their kind permission to comply with this request, and the enterprise of Mr. E. W. Evans has made possible the reproduction of the sketches in the form they now assume.

For these sketches no literary merit is claimed. Slip by slip the copy had to be written hurriedly each evening in the heat and excitement of crowded gatherings and handed to telegraph messengers in waiting, for transmission over the wires. Thus, often, the first, half of each evening’s message would be set up in type in the printing office 170 miles away ere the second half was completed. For this reason the sketches undoubtedly lack in literary polish; but for the same reason, they have, I venture to believe, the compensating quality of conveying to the reader the vivid impressions produced by the many incidents at the very moment of their happening.

The Liverpool meetings will be memorable for the new phase therein revealed of Mr. Evan Roberts’ wonderful powers.

It was in November, 1904, that after a short term of six weeks at the Newcastle Emlyn Grammar School, he suddenly returned home to Loughor, and there, in his native village on the Glamorgan border, kindled the first spark of the revival which, by the end of February, had set the whole of Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, and East Carmarthenshire ablaze and added 80,000 converts to the churches. Then, suddenly at Neath he withdrew into silence and solitude. For seven days and seven nights he kept to his room “commanded of the Spirit” to remain mute, and commune only with God. Emerging from that retirement, he divested himself of all worldly possessions, sharing his savings (amounting to £350), among a number of churches, and travelled to Liverpool in literal obedience to the Divine command — “Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money.”

In Liverpool, we saw the missioner turn prophet. We heard his predictions and marvelled as we witnessed their fulfilment. We listened — often in pain — to his denunciations of the secret thoughts of men around him; but, looking back, I cannot recall a single condemnation of the kind that was not afterwards fully justified. Theologians and psychologists may explain these things; my province is that of the historian.

As to the beneficial effects of the mission, let it suffice that during the three weeks 750 converts were added to the churches; that professed Christians enjoyed a real deepening of the spiritual life; and that numbers untold have been compelled to turn serious thoughts to the great issue of “the life beyond.”

GWJLYM HUGHES.

Cardiff, April, 1905.