This is the first monthly report from the Salvation Army station here.
This great mining centre, round which 40,000 people cluster and thrive or starve as times change, has long attracted our attention. We have got there at last in the person of a good woman and her daughters who, although unable to buy themselves so much as a bed to lie on at first, have conquered already.:-· .'
Bless the Lord we have some of the biggest drunkards in Aberdare converted and they are not ashamed to come and stand by us in the open air. They say they were not ashamed to serve the Devil, and they are not going to be ashamed to serve God. The people can't understand the change in them, and the poor wives are so thankful to God; and the people say, 'Look at so and so, how respectable he is getting,' and so on. The Lord is blessing us greatly. Mind we have not got any respectable sinners, they are all the worst sinners m the place. We have got about thirty converts since we have been here.
From, The Christian Mission Magazine,' October 1878, pages 256-7.
The Lord is still blessing the Salvation Army here in Aberdare. On Sundays, we have six bands out. Some of the greatest drunkards have been saved. We have twelve open-air and four indoor meetings on Sundays, on which day the Temperance Hall is full, and thirty meetings a week. Our men are going on gloriously. They love to go in the open air to talk to the sinners and their old companions and tell them of the love of Jesus.
There was one of our men speaking in the open air on Sunday, telling his old companions and his neighbours that they knew what a great sinner he had been, and about coming home from work, never washing himself but lying down like a pig, and his house was hell upon earth. But now he is in his right mind, and instead of being hell upon earth, it is heaven upon earth. Praise the Lord for such a change! There was such an influence in the open-air meeting on Sunday that all the people were bathed in tears: hundreds listening to the men that they knew had been servants of the devil.
From, 'The Salvationist', April 1879, page 101.
A report from William Booth shows they were still moving forward even though there had been no reports for a while.
"In the evening we had some open-air work and processioning, and then I spoke for a couple of hours in the SALVATION MILL. Crowded with people, and every now and then made like heaven on earth by the presence of our Father.
From, 'The Salvationist', November 1879, page 285.
More reports can be seen in the 'War Cry' that began in January 1880.
I do not know where in Cynon Street the Temperance Hall was.