II.
(Continued from p. 127).
We must now bring to your notice Daniel Rowland, who, according to one of the most sincere religious biographers, Bishop J. C. Ryle, is in notable ways unequalled since the days of the Apostles and of whom Whitefield spoke in terms which clearly indicate that, in his view, Rowland was moved and empowered by the Holy Spirit in a glorious and supernatural way and that the gracious effects of his ministry were overwhelming. He, like Howell Harris, was “arrested” by the Holy Spirit in 1735. Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho was born a year or two before Howell Harris. In 1735 he was converted under Griffith Jones, a very gracious clergyman who prepared the ground for the great Awakening in Wales and whose “life” is worthy of study. Young Rowland went through curiosity to hear this good man and the arrow of God made him a changed man. God dealt with him as with John Berridge. Already a preacher in the letter, he now preached in the Spirit and with mighty power and effect. Whitefield says of him “The power of God under the ministry of Mr. Rowland was enough to make a person’s heart burn within him.” “At seven in the morning I have seen ten thousand from different parts in the midst of a sermon crying ‘Gogoniant’ (Glory), ready to leap for joy.” As early as 1745 Rowland had 3,000 to whom he was accustomed to administer the Lord’s Supper, says the “Evangelical Magazine” for 1814. The “Church” turned him out for preaching beyond their prescribed bounds and the “Quarterly Review” for 1849 says “From every part of Wales—from the mouth of the Wye to the Dovey and the Conway—people flocked to hear the eloquence and to receive the Sacrament from the hands of one who had acquired the dignity of a martyr.” In a preface to his Sermons, published in 1778, it states—”For about 40 years” he has been “the most laborious and successful minister in Wales—to spread abroad the riches of God’s grace. No places are large enough to hold his audiences—though some are very large—above 100 ministers esteem him their spiritual father, most of them meet him four times a year to consult about the most likely means of promoting the Redeemer’s interests; some coming fifty miles.”—As early as 1743 Daniel Rowland commanded congregations of over 2,000 and he himself says on February 2nd, 1743—”There is an uncommon stirring; many come anew under conviction and ‘old worldly professors and backsliders return. Never before did I feel such power given. The Lord comes down among us in such a manner as words cannot describe.” Bishop Ryle (whose life of Rowland should be read by all) says, “The effect of Rowland’s ministry from 1742 (when he was 30 years old till his death (1790) was so vast and prodigious that it almost takes one’s breath away to hear it. We see unhappily so very little of spiritual influence to-day that the harvests reaped at Llangeitho sound almost incredible, but the evidence is so abundant and incontestable that there is no room left for doubt. Among his last words were ‘I die as a poor sinner depending fully and entirely on the merits of a crucified saviour.'”
These two spiritual giants of 200 years ago (Harris and Rowland) met at Defynog in 1737 and again God knit two hearts, and for many years they collaborated to the discomfort of Satan’s kingdom. It is impossible to give a true account of this period without making special mention of William Williams (called the Isaac Watts of Wales). It is difficult to say whether the part of Howel Harris, Daniel Rowland or William Williams was the greatest. It is, however, clear that they were, in God’s providence and plan, vital the one to the other. William Williams was born in 1717 at Cefn-Coed, but lived most of his life and died at Pant-y Celyn, a farmhouse which can be seen to this day. Hundreds visit it every year including some of the greatest men of our day. He was “born again” under a sermon by Howel Harris at Talgarth in 1738. Is not this another link in the golden chain? His success was wonderful. A great contemporary says of him (by then 28 years of age):—”He is a flaming instrument and is day and night on the stretch in his Master’s service.” His ministry, too, was abundantly blessed, and his labours, while they put present day preachers to the blush, were tempered with such trials and sufferings, that he was kept close to his only Refuge.
Last, but not least, we come to John Cennick, another star of the first magnitude in the firmament of God’s Great Awakening of 200 years ago. In 1735 when a lad of 17 the Holy Spirit “arrested” him in Cheapside, London, and within four years he was in company with Whitefield, to whom God had knit him in a remarkable way. Like Howell Harris, he loved Whitefield with intense love before they set eyes on each other and the love was mutual. His own account reads as follows:—”My heart cleaved to him (Whitefield)—I went straightway to pray if by any means God would permit me to come to a knowledge of this man—when I was on my knees I prayed and said, ‘Oh, Lord Jesus, who knowest well the sorrow of my troubled spirit; who alone canst give me a companion in my way to thee, permit me to be intimate with this thy servant, now sent forth to preach thy gospel in other lands. Incline him to stoop to hear me, and so speak humbly to me; and so join us together, that together we may be accounted worthy to rest in the Kingdom of God for ever.’ Before I rose up the Lord answered me; yes, while I was speaking, God showed me how I should be conversant with him, and be beloved by him; verily I believed this and rejoiced when I thought the day would soon bring it to pass. . . . I heard of his being come to London and lest he should be gone, I set out from Reading in the dusk of the evening and walked all night—I met my dear brother and ‘fell on his neck and kissed him.'” Cennick, like the other three whom we commemorate, was a fervent advocate of free grace and his short span of life—he seemed to flash like a meteor—left a mark that few have left in any generation whose allotted time was so short. His poetic gifts, as displayed in his best hymns, compare with those of the world’s greatest composers, and there is a vein of tenderness and pathos combined with the deepest piety and grace in the verses “found in his note book” that are in some ways without equal. Like Howell Harris he boldly faced the most cruel persecution and only miraculous interposition brought him through alive. The success which attended him as a preacher during the Great Awakening was astounding. He became a mighty power in the gathering, and conversion of sinners in Wiltshire, in Gloucestershire, in Berkshire and in London, but God owned him and blessed his labours in the greatest measure in Ireland, where his success was overwhelming. Here he cut his way through hosts of the devil’s agents; and at unbelievable risk to life and limb he led vast numbers from sin and damnation to the cross of Christ. At the early age of 37 following a ride on horseback from Holyhead to London, he died in a room in Fetter Lane, London, recently destroyed by the Nazi air raids in 1941. Thus we have a few of the outstanding features of the lives of these Pioneers in the Great Revival. They were inspired for their work and sensed the need of still more aid. Thus we find Whitefield praying:—”Lord, do thou spirit up more of my dear friends and fellow labourers to go into the highways and hedges and compel more sinners to come in.” His prayers were answered and in a few years the divine impetus towards the Great Awakening gathered a brilliant cluster of bright orbs in glorious array. Look at them linked in love divine. They are worthy of your attention, for through their instrumentality the whole face of Great Britain was changed and countless numbers of deep-dyed sinners were experimentally washed in the fountain of Christ’s precious blood.
Geoffrey Williams.