The 1904 Welsh Revival: Lessons of Hope (Part 2) — Tim Williams

Paul’s Account of the Thessalonian Revival

We've come to a remarkable passage of scripture, in which the Apostle Paul, after making his greetings and mentions his prayer, he comes down and he begins to talk about them, how thankful he is for the Thessalonians.

But something remarkable is stated in here that I want you to note. He comes to them in verse 5, he says, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and the Holy Ghost, and much assurance, and we know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

And then later on, down in verse 9, he says, For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. In this passage of scripture, the Apostle Paul is outlining indeed how there was an alteration among the Thessalonians when the gospel of God was preached.

It did not come in word only, but it came in the demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God. And as a result, these men were transformed and they turned from idols to the living God. And that's something that we must always remember.

The Gospel as the Power of Transformation

The gospel is the only thing that will turn men around. It's the only thing that will take them from their utter sinfulness and an abominance of sin and deliver them. We try to trifle with things like AA, and try to get men out of drugs and all of these different things, but there's one thing that will do it, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, that's what happened in the Welsh Revival of 1904, and that's what I want to talk to you today about. I want to talk to you about the results of the Revival. Let me put it another way. I'm sure that you recall the story of the man who brought his son to the disciples.

The man said of his own boy, he's a lunatic and sore-vexed, for oftentimes he falls into the fire and often to the water. And while the man brought him to the disciples, the desperate man reported, and I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him.

You see, it's not just the church. It's not just the disciples that can do it. God must do a mighty act. And then Jesus rebuked the demon within the boy and the boy was healed the very same hour. You might imagine the perplexity that the disciples had, because up to this point, Jesus Christ had granted them the power indeed to heal and to cast out demons.

They asked him, why could not we cast him out? With regard to the social and the individual ills about us, it is an important question for the modern church to ask Christ. Why can't we cast these ills out?

But Christ answered with these words, how be it? This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting. And this simple answer is the very truth that the church of Jesus Christ needs to learn today. Men's opinions and their schemes cannot solve the kind of predicament in which we find ourselves in the modern, post-modern era.

In fact, it is man's opinions and schemes and plans that have led the modern man into the very problems that he currently finds himself. We need a radical movement of God to change and alter the situation about us.

And we must remember that this kind goes out only by prayer and by fasting. It is not something that man can do in his own wisdom. Not something that man can do in his own strength. However, when God moves, then something will take place.

God can and has done it in the past. And this is surely the case of the 1904 -1905 Welsh Revival. In our day, we feel that if we can simply get in the people to the Supreme Court, if we can just get in these conservative judges, then we will see a real and lasting effect.

Revival and the Limits of Political Change

The focus and attention everywhere is upon the political scenery. Before the Revival, the Welsh did the same thing. Then something remarkably happened. God came down. In the January of 1905, there was a political meeting that took place in Northern Wales.

It was a political meeting for a Member of Parliament and then later Prime Minister of England, David Lloyd George. But this political meeting naturally and irresistibly turned into a religious meeting.

When the two political speakers walked on the platform, they were hardly noticed. Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? The audience sang a Welsh hymn with unusual fervor, and a blind man led in prayer. Concern over their souls had taken precedence over their concern over politics.

An eyewitness of the Revival wrote this. Politics also received a very definite quietness. Political meetings so deemed the spiritualized sensibilities of the people were out of the question. Those arranged before the outburst had to be abandoned.

No political speaker, be he ever so eminent, could at the time attract the people who had suddenly become engrossed in the matters connected with their soul's salvation. Now we have to understand that even the politicians were not impervious to the Revival.

Lloyd George, who was Welsh, he compared it to a tornado sweeping over the country and bringing its far-reached national and social changes with it. He called it an earthquake that shook the nation. Here is a man of great political significance, and yet he was wise enough to see the real remedy for the nation's plights.

And this was of great significance to us. I believe that Atheon Evans captured this issue very well and stated this. The vices of the semi-Victorian era might seem a trifle naive to the sophisticated society of subsequent generations.

Evil has many faces, but its variety does not atone for its disastrous toll on the souls of men. Nothing short of a powerful spiritual movement, strong enough to renovate the decaying civilization, can halt the modern slide to moral suicide.

And the 1904 Revival did just that because it was of God. Today the remedy lies with him, he says. Having set forth my thesis that Revival is the divine solution in renovating a decaying society and arresting society's slide into the precipice of destruction and moral chaos, I must now show you how this took place in the 1904 Revival.

How did this Revival effect society? What was its effect upon it? Or I should say, I'm sorry, effect upon it. The Revival affected the entire character of the Welsh people. I want to narrow my focus then a little bit from just saying the entire part.

I want to talk to you how it affected the intellectual and the economic and the domestic and the moral and the religious life of the Welsh people. First let me say that the Revival had a great impact upon the intellectual life of the nation.

Revival’s Influence on Literacy and Welsh Culture

True Christianity always has a wholesome impact upon literature and art and music and language in general. You take your books that you consider to be classics, most of them came out of an era where Christianity was dominant.

Wherever its life-giving forces are felt, it leaves its divine imprint. It allows the imagination to breathe. I realized this connection to the Welsh Revival when I was visiting the National Gallery in Cardiff, Wales.

I was speaking to the curator and we were discussing this very issue and he recommended me to me a book by a friend of his at the University of Wales in Aristotle. The premise of the book was that the Revival had an impact upon the art and the culture of that nation.

On a more practical side of this issue, we need to mention the Revival's impact upon the level of literacy. Reading was always taught in the Sabbath school and the reason was so that children could learn how to read the Bible for themselves.

A touching story came out of one of the meetings held by Evan Roberts at Tony Pandy on a Christmas week. In one of the meetings, the Revivalist asked all who read their Bible daily to stand. Oh, I want to ask you that.

But one hardy toilet said that he could not read, but he was doing his best and spun the words the best he could. Many of the illiterate, like this man, learned how to read because of the Revival. It put a great desire to know the Savior who had forgiven their sins.

I want to know about him. I want to know this one who has indeed pardoned me. And a whole new world was opened to them as they learned how to read. Grown men wrestling over just a few words trying to see how they could come about knowing their Savior through the Bible.

The Welsh language was preserved. As it is today, the language had deteriorated prior to the Revival. People were lazy and they would fail to follow the sophisticated rules of the language. However, in the churches, Welsh was spoken with greater purity and precision.

But what happens, the churches were desolate. Nothing was there. No one was coming to the churches. But when the churches were restored by crowds coming in, the language was restored. Sir John Morse Jones, who was a prominent Welsh literary figure, was impressed.

He said, by the gift of speech evident in the sum of the least likely, I never heard anything as powerful as the prayers of certain young men to whom I could credit no literary gift whatever. This is no small compliment, noting that the Welsh have always had a flair for poetry.

This man is looking and saying, who taught these men? Well, I'll tell you who taught them. The Holy Spirit taught them. My point is that the intellectual culture of the Welsh nation was lifted from the vulgar and the profane and the degradation in which it had fallen.

And I believe that many people share the same concern I have over the intellectual culture of our day. It is marked by a relish in the profane and the irreverent. It has become so debased in every form.

The remedy is a divine outpouring of God's Spirit upon our nation in a mighty revival. Well, that's the intellectual. But I want you to know that it also had a great impact upon the economic life of the nation.

The first thing that I have to underscore about this is that whenever the gospel comes into the life of a man, it makes almost his conscience reborn. One of the things I was not ready for when I got into the ministry is I remember a man by the name of Kevin came to me and he said, you know, I employ, and members of Christian, I employ hundreds of men, but the worst of all the people I employ are Christian men.

But I want you to note that what happened at this time is that the workers were now imbibed with a divine wine. We find that indeed this was the case with the coal miners in the mines. The managers of the mines testified that the workers were better coal years.

They gave testimony that the men affected by the revival were of a greater regularity in the attendance. They were even more cheerful in their work, which was from all human advantages, sheer drudgery.

There is nothing harder than coal mining down in the pits. Underground souls were converted and the coal scenes were filled with the praises of men who had come to know the grace of God in Christ. A scene of such had an impact upon the workers is recorded for us in the Western Mail, which is a daily newspaper.

They said this. Can you imagine having this in the Daily Herald or the newspaper in our community? The workmen on the night shift had gone down half an hour earlier than the usual time so as not to interfere with the operations of the pit.

Seventy yards from the bottom of the shaft in the stables, we came to the prayer meeting. One of the workmen was reading the sixth chapter of Matthew to about eighty comrades. He stood erected amongst the group, reading in a dim, fantastic light that danced with the swinging lamps and vanished softly into the surrounding darkness.

A number of lamps were attached to a heavy post, closely wedged to support the roof. Around the impressive figures, the coaliers grouped themselves, earnest men, all of them. Faces bore the scars of an underground toilet.

Downcast eyes that seemed to be the homes of silent prayer. Strong frames that quivered with a new emotion. When the meeting was complete, the men would go to work. And throughout the prayer meeting, this is what they would cry out before their work.

Not once, but many times, that God's blessing would be upon the work. That honest and proper execution of that work would be done. I tell you that every owner of a business would love to see this. That these people would come in before the work, not to trifle with the work.

Lord, help us to be honest and help us to be proper in execution of it. Help us to be good employees. I say the revival transformed the workers and made them, even the managers, stand in awe of God's transforming power.

The revival had an impact upon the economy in another way. The worker strikes and Bethesda Wells were brought to an end through reconciliation of the workers to the employers. One of the bitterest strikes was the Penryn strike.

For years there was a dispute among the two, the workers and the owners. But there was also this broke out into families and churches and societies that were rent by the discord. The rent was so deep that many believed it was irreparable in that generation.

However, the revival suddenly altered it. One witness of the 19th revival put it in these terms. The revival came. And with it a transformation as complete as it was sudden. Women who sued one another in the courts prayed side by side in the same meeting.

Members of families who had not spoken to each other for years met in cordial love. And one fortnight the normal order of things had been restored by the power of God. Feuds and differences were forgotten.

Peace and harmony took the place of discord and enmity. I tell you this is what is greatly needed in families and churches. And there were economic effects more than just this. One man wrote this. Not merely were all the gross revices reduced to vanishing point, but the subtler sins of unforgiving, rancor, non-payment of debts, dishonesty, work was abated.

Men and women were paying off their debts by living off the bare necessities. A well-known lawyer stated that the hopelessly bad debts had been paid. And moreover men and women began to pay restitution for stealing.

I tell you this is what God's work always does. Isn't this the case with Zacchaeus? He says, I will now repay. And these men, gripped by the Spirit of God, their conscience once again anew, began to say, how can I do this?

How can I have restitution? Let me give you an illustration of this. It's recorded by an important minister of the Revival. He says this. A well-known provision firm, ear of the Revival, was two weeks old, received the following letter.

Gentlemen, I have pleasure in sending you the enclosed postal order of two shillings. It's like a money order. A child of mine received two shillings a piece instead of a penny as change in your shop 18 months ago.

Lately the child told of me. And I am greatly pleased to return same to you as the child's request. I sincerely trust it has not caused you to lose confidence in any of your servants. I remain yours respectfully, the child's father.

P .S. the child is now 11 years of age. The Spirit of God took that little teeny conscience and began to speak to him about what he owed. As one would imagine, such a revival and such an impact also had a withering influence upon the liquor industry.

And it did. Overnight the public houses were emptied. Bankruptcy overtook many breweries. Many of the owners were converted and surrendered their licenses. On a number of occasions the taverns were turned into gospel halls or prayer houses.

And instead of drinking their money away or squandering upon vice, the workmen took their weekly earnings and used it to bring happiness to the children of the community. The theaters went out of business.

Oh, I wish that were the case. Owing to the lack of interest. As the revival pressed on, the numbers attended dwindled until it was not feasible for them to keep their doors open. Some of the buildings became meeting places for prayers.

And many of us were concerned about Hollywood. I believe that the answer is not found in regulation ultimately, but it is found indeed to revival and the alteration and the change of men's hearts so they will not like the froth and the foulness and the vileness that comes out from it.

I believe the answer is found in the events which we have been alluding to. But everywhere in Wells, the revival had an impact upon the economy of the nation. Now we don't want to give the impression that God blesses just the whole purpose of it.

But I say to you the Protestant work ethic is the result of principles inherent in Christianity. And when the spirit of God comes in power and exerts that power in revival, there are sure marks impressed on the economic life of the community.

A reporter from a well-known London paper was sent to report on the revival. Can you imagine London seeing what was going on in this nation? So we need to find out what's going on. Let's send this man.

Upon his revival, he heard about the unusual effects upon the business of the nation. He states this. Businessmen told me they never witnessed anything like this. They were scarcely doing business because the people were too occupied with the revival.

But nevertheless, money continued to come in. Old and forgotten debts were paid and often with interest at the insistence of the debtors. The jails emptied and the police had little to do. The only objections that this man heard were made by the saloon keepers and their like.

A Reporter’s Conversion and the Revival’s Social Effects

I want to give you just a short what happened. This man is not saved at the time he came down. So I want to give you the Paul Harvey side, the rest of the story. The reporter came to a meeting. He fought his way through the crowded building and he climbed into a gallery to find an unoccupied seat.

He had to climb up it, by the way. This was very difficult for him to do. After some fervent singing, Evan Roberts began to speak. His words were like fire from heaven. Convicted people cried to the Lord to save them from their sins, not even waiting for the service to end.

And while some went forward with pentant tears running down their cheeks, a shout was heard from the second gallery. I'm a lost sinner and I need Christ. Pray for me. He was our newspaper man. Eventually he returned to London and wrote the article that I quoted from.

And he was fired for it. And yet while the world despised his conversion, there was joy I say unto you before the angels in heaven. This, it changed. And it's confirmed by this man and many others that it changed and had an altering effect upon the economic life of the nation.

Can you imagine the national debt would be decreased? All the credit cards are out there. Men are in bondage to. And all of a sudden a revival would come into our nation and sweep it away. Almost overnight.

Revival in Welsh Homes and Families

But thirdly, the revival had a great impact upon the domestic life of the nation. Wherever the spirit of God moves in his saving and sanctifying power, there is an impact upon the home. In addition to the reconciliation of family members alluded to already when I mentioned the economic benefits, there were domestic results to this revival.

One of the men who inspected the homes in Wells as a social worker for the government noted that the revival had a marvelous influence on the conduct of parents. He stated, Homes that I have had under observation for some time have undergone a complete transformation through the parents having been brought to a better life through revival.

The children throughout my district are now kept in much more clean conditions. And it can be confidently said that in my line things are decidedly slack. A couple of cases that I was visiting in which I thought I would have to prosecute is no longer necessary to watch owing to the improvement brought about.

In one case by the conversion of the father and in the other by the conversion of the mother. This time last year I was compelled to prosecute at the rate of two a month. Now I have had no prosecution since November.

That was a few months earlier. The children were not strangers to the power of God's presence in revival either. In addition to being converted they were interested in the welfare of others. They were often found congregating in small groups to pray.

They even used their precious playtime or recesses for that purpose. Can you imagine taking your child out for the recess to pray? We have sometimes a hard time getting them to stay in church and like it.

One story is told of a concerned young man for his cousin. He sought his cousin and having found him in the gallery he stood beside him and laid his hand upon his shoulder and prayed, Here he is Lord, you know about him.

He has drunk gallons of beer but now give him the water of life. That's much better than beer. Later in another meeting the same young man pleading for his cousin at the throne of grace said Christ's crumbs are better than the world's loaves.

One man gave this testimony which I hope is true of your home. There is a blessed change in our family. For the first time ever we have held family worship. This also is the work of the Holy Spirit. And while I was away from home last Wednesday before the meeting they had a prayer meeting at home in which my father took part.

The first time he ever did so in their hearing. Oh father, if you don't have family religion in your home I say you need to be revived. It's a shame to you. It's no better than if you were an infidel.

Oliver Wells' families were brought together. The London Daily News reported the hearth burns more brightly this Christmas time than it has for many a long days in thousands of Welsh homes. The vices that undermined the family's well-being were removed.

And God turned a father's heart once again to their children. And husbands and wives came to know the mystical union between the church and Christ. And as a result their own marriages reflected that mystery.

Love now reigned where sin and selfishness once had sway. Fourthly, the revival had a great impact upon the moral life of the nation. This has already been mentioned but I want to highlight it. This revival was not an orgy of emotionalism.

The Ethical Test of Genuine Revival

It was not something that was merely psychological. It was not something that was political. It was something that God did and this was evidenced by the lasting quality of a transformed life. F .B. Meyer once stated this, The supreme test of revival is the ethical result.

You see, it's not a matter of a man comes forward. It's not a matter of, oh, I believe Jesus. Your belief in Jesus, let me be very honest about this. Your belief in Jesus means diddly squat. If you do not live a life that resembles Christ.

Really. I say that with all the fervency I can build in my soul and try to portray to you. It's not what a man says. But what a man says and what he believes will show forth in his life. I say all this because wherever the spirit of God moves, there's a real freedom.

This freedom is not the freedom the world promises and seeks. But a freedom to serve God. And as such, wherever true revival takes place, saints and sinners are transformed. This is the reason why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel.

He was not ashamed because the gospel was... He didn't say, oh, I'm not ashamed because it's eloquent. He didn't say because it's some pleasing philosophy. It's not because I could sit there and say, oh, look how wonderful and intellectual I am.

He says because the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believes. It really works. The gospel really saves. It reforms the vicious. And puts the profane to praying. And makes God-fearing men of drunkards.

And subdues the passions. It establishes the law of kindness. And binds the discord elements of society by the chain of charity. Who then would despise such a mighty work? But let me give you a humorous illustration of this.

Changed Conduct Among the Welsh Colliers

The revival impacted the life of the court-on-cultures. To the point that their behavior was radically changed. As a result, the pit-ponies soon felt that something had happened to them. Here is a daily newspaper that's called the Daily News.

And it tells the story. The worst class of workers in the colliery is the haulier. The person who hauled. Who was charged with the poor horses. Doomed to perpetual underground darkness. These men as a class are proverbial for their profanity and cruelty.

But now the chain so marked. Is so marked that the poor bewildered horses do not know what to make of it. Accustomed to words of command. Every one of which is either a curse or an obscenity. They hardly know how to obey the request.

Now couched in quiet and gentle phrases. The moral influence begins with the conversion of the sinner. J .V. Morgan noted that during the revival. Some of the worst characters in the district were converted in the Rolando Valley.

He goes on to say. Some who were on their way to the theater. And the billard room. And other places of amusement. When they heard the singing in the chapel. Felt constrained to retrace their steps. And enter the building.

As a result, they made a confession. And expressed a desire to lead a different life. The conversions that we hear about are real conversions. That changed the men and women. They were not merely professions of faith.

They were not like the dandelions on the lawns. Appearing in the morning and disappearing by the night. The God sent revival truly transformed the men. One stated this. As Christmas approached. One convert drunkard resolved.

I shall spend this Christmas in a different way from others. I used to think of nothing but getting drunk. But this year, I shall drink pure wine from Calvary's cellar. During his Christmas vacation. A student was struck with the witness of a converted man.

He said this. At the square that night. I joined a crowd. Listening to someone speak from a platform. When I saw who it was. I could hardly believe my eyes. For I knew him well. And everyone else knew him to be one of the profanest characters in the area.

There he was. With sentences of verses of scripture pouring forth from his lips. I did not know the story of his conversion. But I knew of the fluency and blasphemy of his oath previously. That sudden view of him so fervently commending salvation which is in Christ.

To the surrounding crowd shook me. Everyone saw the change in the morals of the nation. The London Daily News reported silently but steadily. Surely. The moral results of the revival are making themselves seen and felt everywhere.

Falling Crime and Moral Reform

One of the Colliers gave this testimony. That the character of the people have now been changed. The brutal sport of rabbit coursing is stopped. Men have sold their dogs. In which long ago they took the greatest pride.

They go home at night. Sober men. Without touching a drop of beer or spirits. And before commencing work in the morning. They join others in prayer. The court and the police records of this time reveal.

An immediate impact on the revival upon the morality of the nation. All over Wales magistrates found themselves presented with white gloves. A token that their employment was gone. The usual hundred or so cases of drunkenness in the popular centers.

Were reduced to less than a fifth. The correspondent for the Liverpool Daily Report. In December of 1904 reported. That there had not been any arrests for drunkenness in the city of Rose, North Wales.

Most of the time in December. That's the worst time of drunkenness. In Bethesda, North Wales. One of the ministers reported the effect of the revival. He said the policemen tell me. That the public houses are empty.

The streets are quiet. And the swearing is rarely heard. Things are easy for policemen here now. I hope that they have a glorious holiday. And the district is quite prepared to support them for doing nothing.

All this must be underscored. To show that this was an act of God. You shall know them by their fruits. That's the test for both prophets as well as revivals. If it's a work of God. It will have a moral impact upon the community.

And the Welsh revival surely had this mark of God's hand upon it. Is it not what we need in our nation? Is this not the case that we stand in a desperate need of something that would come. And shut down the taverns.

Shut down the bars. Alter homes. Change men who are addicted and in bondage to wicked drugs. And dope at every type. And every illicit sexual desire. And every foul desire. Wouldn't it be wonderful if God came in and swept into our community.

And delivered men and women from such. The revival brings a moral transformation. But fifthly the revival had a great impact upon the religious life of the nation. This would seem to be obvious from all that we have said previously.

Revival’s Impact on Churches and Religious Life

But nonetheless it must be mentioned. During the revival. Church members were solemnized. What I mean by that is they got to business. They come and they go. But they said you know this is what we need to do.

And they became fervent in their prayers. Numbers were converted. Church meetings were filled with crowds. And yes there was much more than that. A new vitality filled the slumbering church of Christ.

One of the effects upon the religious life in Wells. Was that the sectarianism that so dominated the church. And often divides truly evangelical churches today. Was eliminated. Now we must not mistake this for ecumenism.

This was not the case. There was no alliance with Rome or apostate groups. We have already mentioned that during the revival. Orthodoxy was restored to the churches. And ministers. And laymen alike were delivered from the bondage of liberal theology.

But rather those who were truly Christians. Saw a unity in Christ. That surpassed their denominational lines. Another result in the religious life of the nation. Was found in the run on Bibles. One man wrote this.

Let it be said that it has made everyone read his Bible. It was to many almost a rediscovery of the old book. I really believe that is what a lot of people need in our churches. The British and the Foreign Bible Society.

And the Oxford University Press and other publishers. Saw a noted record-setting sales of Bibles. The British and the Foreign Bible Society more than tripled their sales. From the previous year. Publishers of Christian literature also record the same phenomenon.

It was recorded that commentaries and other religious books. Were in many cases paid with the money. That would otherwise have gone for novels and intoxicants. The theological colleges also felt the revival.

The instruction was often aborted and substituted with prayers. Many of the students and the professors were converted. The story is told of a casual group of students. At one of the university colleges of Wales.

And they were discussing the revival. When suddenly one of the men explained this. Really chaps is a real thing. Another confessed I should like to fill some of those saved people. And that led to a prayer meeting.

And then a hymn. And when all the other students heard this. The smoke room where they had been meeting. Was soon filled. Lectures had to be cut short. And as a result hundreds. Mostly students men and women were converted.

And they took their message to the streets. Professing Christ to others with great results. We must remember that all these results. Are from God's work within the heart of men and women. These changes in the intellectual.

And the economic. And the domestic. And the moral. And the religious fears of the nation. Do not come about overnight. Because of some new philosophy or some political scheme. Not because of some emotionalism.

It's not like these certain people. They must be taken up by some emotionalism. It's not how it is at all. It is not indeed. Something that will produce any other way. Than by the altering the very hearts of the men and women.

Conversion as New Creation and the Simplicity of Salvation

When a man or a woman is converted. They become a new creature. All things pass away. Is it not true that such were some of you. But you have been washed. And you have been justified. And you have been set aside and sanctified by the spirit of God.

Isn't this what happened in your individual life? Well, this is what took place in a mighty, sudden, copious, profuse pouring out of the spirit of God. Suddenly upon an entire nation. And this alteration comes about at the time when you believe the gospel in Christ.

The gospel in Christ found in the gospel. Now I wonder. If you need this alteration in your life. It only comes by believing the gospel. We know this simple. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son.

That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For this is a faithful saying. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners upon whom I am cheap. The terms of salvation are very simple.

You believe in Christ and his work to save you. And I hope that you might be able to give the same testimony that one of the converts of the revival gave. He said this. Having sat down on returning home.

I realized quietly. See there is no emotion here. Without great commotion he says. That is by believing we receive salvation. Not through our effort or anguish in prayer all night or on my part. But through the wrestling of another for me in the garden.

But on the cross. Yes by relying on him and his bloody sweat and dying agony. Oh what deliverance, what peace. I believe because the way of life has been unmistakably revealed to me. Well, well. Simple, so near, so free.

The way of salvation is so endearing in its conditions. That is what the man said. And I believe that everyone who has come to Christ knows that this is the case. So simple, so near, so free. The way of salvation is so endearing in its conditions.

And it alters and it works and it saves. And that is what is offered to you and to me. If you have never come to know and taste that the Lord is good. I invite you in Christ's name to come and see that the Lord is good for you.