I love reading accounts of historical revivals. In Wales after New Year’s Day 1905 a revival began in Welsh Methodist churches. They quickly started to see the effects in society.
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Not a single arrest for drunkeness in Swansea County.
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In Cardiff the jail population was reduced by 40%.
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Taverns were struggling economically.
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Prayer meetings were happening in coal mines.
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Bibles were being sold out.
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Criminal courts were empty, and police were being laid off as a result of nothing to do.
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Stolen goods were returned to the stores they were taken from.
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My personal favorite: it is reported that “Cursing and profanity were so diminished that… a strike was provoked in the coal mines… so many men had given up using foul language that the pit ponies dragging the coal trucks in the mine tunnels did not understand what was being said to them and stood still, confused.”
Such a radical change even the pit ponies took note! This revival spread into all of Great Britain, and the effects were seen in much of the English-speaking world.
