The Welch Revival

"At 9 a.m. the people came in crowds to the open-air meeting, and at 10.30 indoors, when the hall was again packed to the doors. The open-air meeting in the afternoon will never be forgotten by those who were there; the people came in crowds until the streets were full; and later in the hall so great was the crush that many fainted and had to be carried out. In the evening, hundreds had to be turned away, there being no room for them in the building. The meeting com­menced in the hall at 6 p.m. This made the seventh meeting of the day. As soon as I commenced it was evident the Holy Spirit was present, for the people began to cry to God for mercy, and by 7.30 it was plain that many were finding the peace they sought.

One man there was a great drunkard, but his wife was a Sunday School teacher at the Baptist Sunday School, and he ill-treated her when under the influence of drink, compelling her to seek aid from the magistrates. He had been imprisoned many times for assaulting his wife. I saw this man-who was of fine build and very strong-leave his seat in the hall and come towards the platform. He was crying very pitifully: "Oh, wretched man that I am, what must I do to be saved? I have been a devil to my poor lass, I know I have. She has done nothing but pray for me and pray with me, and I have done nothing but knock her about for it; and she is a good wife, is my lass; she do love God, and I am beating her for her love to God." Then he cried out to me: "Oh, mister, come and tell me what I must do, or I shall be in hell in a little time, I am such a sinner. Tell me-do you think God can and is willing to forgive me?"

With this he fell on the floor, crying as if his heart would break and moaning as if the sorrows of the lost had already laid hold upon him. When the people of God gathered around him and tried to console him, he replied: "Let me alone, for no one can do me any good but God;" and there he lay, crying out for quite two hours, after which he arose and said: "The Lord has had mercy upon me; He has pardoned my sin, He has blotted out my transgression as a thick cloud."
REV. JAMES OATEY 1881