For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” ~Isaiah 57:15

The Welsh Revival of 1904-1906 was part of a global movement of God making Himself known to His people early in the 20th century. Evan Roberts had been praying since he was 13 that revival would come to his native Wales, and by early 1904, Roberts was spending most nights in prayer alone with the Father. On October 31 in Loughor, he spoke to his hometown church to a crowd of 17 people… within weeks he was speaking to thousands, and within the next 10 months, over 100,000 new Christians were swept into the churches of Wales.

Was God manifesting His Presence to His people? In Isaiah 57:15, God reveals that He inhabits eternity, where time ceases to exist. In the article excerpt below, a secular newspaper reporter with the London Times describes the environment of one those first meetings in November 1904.

While he is still speaking the people give vent to their feelings in a hymn of thanksgiving repeated as before again and again. Thus the hours creep on. It is long past midnight. Now here, now there someone rises to make his confession and lay bare his record before the people or falls upon his knees where he is and in loud and fervent tones prays for forgiveness. Still unwearied, the people sing. Hymns seem the only adequate channel for expressing their joy and thankfulness. It sounds incredible, but this succession of prayer, of address, of confession, of singing, went on from 7 o’clock at night until 3 o’clock in the morning. “Succession” was not always an adequate description, because several times during the night, when the excitement was at its highest, the outbursts were not successive, but literally simultaneous. These cross-currents were confusing, and once or twice one felt as if the whole scene were a dream or a nightmare. Most amazing of all was the endurance of the men and women. There they were, through all those long hours, eager and earnest to the last, as if wrestling for life with an unseen power. At 3 o’clock the “hooter” sounded from distant colliery. Whether this or mere physical exhaustion brought them back from the world of timelessness, I could not tell. Soberly and reverently they went out into the morning air, eager as themselves. Many of the colliers [coal miners], I know, had “only time for a wash and breakfast” and were at the colliery to join the morning “shift.”

Source: “The Welsh Revival (by a Welsh Correspondent).” The London Times (London), January 3, 1905.