The first place visited by David Morgan outside his native county was Closygraig, Carmarthenshire, the last day of February 1859. No converts disclosed themselves but the preacher declared, "I hear the sound of a troop coming." He preached at Emlyn the next evening and about forty of the converts were Closygraig folks. Thirty more were gained over the course of a few weeks. Yet the new movement though kindled thus early was but smoking flax for months. Contact with the Blaenannerch blaze towards the end of the year produced a marvellous intensification of the spiritual atmosphere and this church became like a hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of fire in a sheaf. One Sunday morning an elder rose to speak and his first remark was that the God they worshipped was without beginning and without end. ^^ Amen!" exclaimed a young girl in the highest notes of a lovely voice; " blessed be His name forever.'' This cry might be compared to the touch on the electric button that shivers a quarry into a thousand hurtling fragments. Scores leaped from their seats, and gathering in the vacant space in the centre, they gave vent to their pent-up emotions in outcries that were almost agonising in their ardour and intensity.
Let us visit them another Sunday morning. The chapel has been full of worshippers offering sacrifices of joy since before seven. At ten Dr Harris Jones enters the pulpit. Before his sermon is half through, Henry, his brother, leaps to his feet and begins to expatiate in burning words on the same subject. Each strives to excel the other in the congenial work of extolling the great Redemption through Christ, but by and by the fire and force of the preacher in the big seat prevail over the eloquence of the great pulpit orator. Dr Jones leans on the pulpit desk; big bright tears roll over his cheeks as he listens to the inspired layman on whose lips such grace has been poured. Straightway the contagion spreads from the big seat into the little pews: all the Lord's people are prophets, and speaking with new tongues, they declare the wonderful works of God. Now the service undergoes another change; it becomes a prayer and experience meeting combined. "0 Lord," cries one, *What dost Thou intend to make of us after these things? " " If I fall into hell," cries another, " I will praise God in the devil's teeth! " The lips of yonder lady hardly move, but she prays like Hannah in Shiloh, and those nearest her can hear her breathe — "O Lord, I want to touch the hem of Thy garment !" Look at this young girl standing up with the dignity of a prophetess and proclaiming with authority, "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." Her words pierce like tidings of doom, and a number of irreligious men fall to the floor, struck by the arrows of the Almighty. When the congregation disperses, the valley so rings with thanksgiving and the voice of melody that one old woman, hearing the echoes on the hillside, called to her husband, "Come out, John; the end of the world has come, and Christ has arrived on earth! "
From, 'The '59 Revival', by J J Morgan, pages 82-4.
Re built 1900