Stansbatch (1859)



"Nor is this influence confined to the town—it more or less pervades the whole neighbourhood. The revival is very powerfully felt at Stansbatch, a little place about four miles from here. Upwards of thirty have been recently converted there. We have union prayer-meetings there also. At one of these, not long ago, eleven declared them­selves on the Lord's side. At this meeting, the wife of a man who had been recently converted meekly said that she had found peace in the Lord Jesus. She was converted in answer to her husband's prayers. He was asked to tell the meeting how the Lord had answered his prayers. He did so with tears of joy flowing down his cheeks, which deeply affected us all. He said, that since he had deter­mined to follow Christ, his wife very much opposed him, and was the source of much trouble and anxiety to him. She would often say, I can't think what you want at those meetings.' He said, I resolved to pray for her, and one evening when I was conducting family worship, and reading the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, she cried out in deep distress, ‘O Charles, what shall I do? what shall I do? will you pray for me?' He said, 'Yes, with all my heart.' They knelt down and continued in earnest prayer till ten o'clock when it pleased the Lord to speak peace to her soul. At the same meeting, a little girl came forward, seeking the Lord in deep distress. When we were directing her to the Saviour, a man was heard sobbing and weeping bitterly, and crying aloud for mercy.‘O God,'he said, 'have mercy upon me; oh! save me or I die.' He was the little girl's father. He rose and moved on to his little daughter, and threw his arms round her neck, and both, weeping and broken-hearted, knelt down and continued in earnest prayer for about fifteen minutes. The father continued in great distress for many days. At a subsequent meeting he told us, to our great joy, that the Lord had had mercy upon him—that his burden had been removed—that his sins had been forgiven—and that he knew now what it was to rejoice in Jesus."

" This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." (Psalm cxviii. 23.) To him be all the praise!

"The Lord has poured out His Spirit in this great revival, in answer to the fervent prayers of. His people. It is a glorious truth—oh that the Church—the universal Church—realised it—that the prayer of faith prevails with God!

"This revival is altogether a REVIVAL OF THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER; it takes its embodied form in CHRISTIAN UNITY.

“These constitute the strength of the Church. Let the Church pray—unitedly pray, and unitedly strive for the faith once delivered unto the saints,' and the world will soon feel that Christianity is a power—a power which it is altogether unable to withstand. Let Christianity but be presented, not as it is found in our conventional theology, nor through the medium of a sect, but as it is found. in the Book, with genial and loving warmth, and, under the influence of God's Spirit, it will soon move and captivate the world.

" Let party names no more

The Christian world o'erspread;

Gentile and Jew, and bond and free,

Are one in Christ their Head."

" Let the Church—the whole Church say, For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth"

From ‘The Welsh Revival’ by Thomas Phillips.

Additional Information

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