EVAN ROBERTS IN PRAYER
Evan Roberts is so remarkable as a man of prayer, that a chapter must be devoted to him in this aspect We shall not presume that he is the most wonderful of all in prayer, but unhesitatingly state that we have never known his equal. He does not know himself when he began to pray for it is one of the first things that he remembers himself doing. From childhood, praying was to him as natural as breathing. Truly, prayer was one of the inherent instincts of his nature. Of all the conditions at work in preparing his spiritual possibility this was the most effectual. What is there that can be compared to communion with God as a means of drawing out the devotional powers of a man’s soul? Indeed nothing else can do it to perfection. It is by intercourse between Himself and man. God has intended to effectually develop the resources of the soul. The case of Evan Roberts affords a splendid example of this. He testifies that nothing has influenced him so powerfully as communion with God. Owing to the desire that was in him for prayer, he came to take part in the public service when very young, and habitually prayed at home, while walking along the road, and often at work. When at a very early age, he would completely lose himself in prayer, and he affirms that he often preferred praying to his meals. He felt something drawing him constantly into communion with his Heavenly Father. During the years preceding his entrance into ministerial study, he had attracted the attention of his family by his constant habit of prayer. Often, as we have before mentioned, though in want of food, he would not sit at the table ere he had sought the secrecy of his room, and there held communion with Heaven. At times he would spend hours in prayer in his library, when all the others had retired to bed; on other occasions, he would rise from bed in order to pray. He developed in this as time went on, until eventually he used to spend hours on his knees every evening. We shall again have occasion to tell how he spent a long time every night in prayer, when he was preparing for the Provincial Examination. Who would do this except one with the devotional instinct in his heart by nature? He recalls once having been on his knees, until the dawn of day. Gradually, he reached a state in which he could not take his meals before praying first of all. After entering the Preparatory School, this desire greatly increased, and he devoted to it the best part of every night. His prayers as a rule did not take the form of audible words, but silent communion with his creator. This habit seemed so strange to the family with whom he stayed at Newcastle-Emlyn, that they began to feel uneasy with regard to him. He would at times pray for hours downstairs; on other occasions in his bedroom. Mr. John Phillips, his master at the School, relates of one very strange petition of his at Bethel, Newcastle-Emlyn, when the Rev. Seth Joshua was there. Mr. Joshua asked if there were any in the meeting who could stand up and sing with him, O HAPPY DAY! Evan Roberts was one of the few who stood up. On the following night, Mr. Joshua invited people to confess Christ and bend to Him, and Evan Roberts went on to the seat next to the big pew, and prayed with extraordinary intensity. He sent his supplications up to Heaven while on his knees with such yearning of spirit and agony of soul that Mr. Phillips had never heard the like of it. His tutor then understood that something extraordinary had taken hold of him. He was convinced that Evan Roberts’s ‘Oh’ could not be but the outpouring of a soul in great distress. It came from the depths of his spirit with such feeling as to melt one as he heard it. The great characteristic of our subject in prayer is his intensity of feeling. I have never known anyone who could, like him, lose himself so completely in spiritual supplication.
Some people cannot understand why he does not pray in the meetings, and criticise him accordingly. It would be well for such to bear in mind that no one supplicates more than he does, although he does not do so audibly. I have seen him engaged in silent prayer in the pulpit for an hour and a half. When quiet and his face buried in his hands, as a rule, he is then praying, and praying so fervently, and with such earnestness, that it tells on his whole constitution. Because of this, the meetings in which he speaks but little, cost him very dearly. They often leave him in a weakened state. Yes, he prays a great deal in the meetings, and I have often been awe-struck with his strange intensity, as I stood near him. At times he stands in the pulpit, leaning on the Bible; but the only intimation we get that he is praying is to see his lips moving.
I stated that his prayers, though silent, were extraordinary in power. Another thing that I wish to add in this connection is the hold that his prayer takes upon his whole body. In this, he is the most extraordinary person that I have ever seen. One would think that every word is the product of his whole being, body and soul. His sighs seem to rise from the depths of his spirit, and pass along every nerve. From this we can imagine how much agony of soul and physical effort an hour or two in a meeting cost him. At the beginning of the Revival, he would utter a short prayer in public, and that often on behalf of those who refused to give themselves up to Jesus. I remember him doing this on behalf of a man who remained obstinate. All the words of the prayer were these ‘O Lord, save J—— D —— for the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen.’ As he spoke the last word, the man rose to give himself to Christ. At that time his short prayers went through the congregations like electricity, and hundreds when they heard them would seek the throne of Grace.
Some of the strangest things in his career as Revivalist are the prayer-meetings in the houses where he stays on his journeys. They leave a lasting impression on all present, and do not fill people with an unnatural sadness, but with divine joy. In these meetings, he himself is so natural that all those with him feel likewise. When most intense in prayer, he becomes unconscious of everything else. Time to him does not exist. Hours glide away as a moment. He is insensible to all that happens around him. We have often seen him in the middle of a conversation being drawn away to hold communion with his God.
One of his chief endeavours is to get others to pray. When at home he wrote prayers for many of his young companions, in order to get them to take part in public worship. He cherished in his mind the idea of getting every young man in Pisgah, the branch of Moriah, to join in the prayer-meeting, and he succeeded in all except one instance. It is seldom we see all but one of the young men of a Church taking part in a prayer-meetings. So it was in Pisgah, and that through the instrumentality of Evan Roberts alone. No doubt it is the spirit of prayer that is in him which draws such a flood of prayers out in his meetings. We have often seen hundreds praying simultaneously, only because he has said, Where is the prayer, friends? He does not believe in a definite order and close formality; but in everyone approaching God in his own way when prompted with sincerity and faithfulness of heart, and without a shadow of self in the entreaty. His aim is to reach a stage when his entire life will be one great and continual prayer. This is his ideal. He is rapidly drawing near to it. He prays silently now for hours every day. On February, 21st, 1905, while at Pontrhydyfen, he told me, I would like to reach a state in prayer when my life would be naught but one prayer from morn till night. I shall not be content until I experience that. At times now I fail to go on my knees by the bedside at night and morning, because I am in an attitude of prayer constantly, and am continually praying inaudibly. Owing to this I feel there is too much formality in going on my knees. With regard to prayer, his ideal is one of the highest possible. The aim of Jesus, the Holy One, was in nature the same as this, excepting that His was perfect, as He was sinless in His Person. Evan Roberts’s aim is to reach a stage when
Every breath exhaled, shall praise
The wondrous glory of His grace.
One very strange thing in this connection is that he often understands when people are praying for him. In two places where I was present with him, he suddenly said, There is a multitude praying for me now, and he could not hearken to the conversation of the company any more. For some time he would listen attentively as though he could hear the prayers, and then he would come to himself again, and converse with us. I afterwards made enquiries, and found out that great numbers were praying for him at the very moments that he had referred to. This is a mystery that cannot be explained on natural grounds. It seems to me that by soaring near to God some communion between spirits is possible, which otherwise is impossible. From the mountain tops men can have fellowship with one another that they cannot in the valleys below, where the mountains hide them from each others view. But having ascended to the mountain peaks, they see and are able to converse together. It is something similar in a spiritual sense. By ascending to the tops of God’s mountains in prayer, spirits in some way perceive one another, and have communion, which they cannot have but through prayer only.
He is one of the quickest to know whether a man is honest and sincere in prayer. This, perhaps, may be attributed to the fact that he himself is constantly in the spirit of prayer. The tone of his spirit enables him to recognise that of a different kind. When a man prays truly, something particular characterises his words, and they that are in the true spirit of prayer do not fail to recognise it by spiritual intuition. Evan Roberts is so alive to this at times that he has to stop people from proceeding in their prayers, for he knows that they are prompted by false motives. It is as fire to his soul to hear a deceitful man before the Throne of Grace. We have seen his eyes on many an occasion flash with holy indignation when hearing such engage in prayer.
The burden of his prayers as a rule will be one of the following — Beseeching for purity of heart, for a spirit to do the work worthy of Jesus, to be bent more completely to the will of God, to bend the Church and purify it in its life and conduct, for its members to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they shall be made fit instruments to save the world. He lays great stress in his prayers on the importance of having a powerful out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation. The latter was the theme of a prayer that opened the way for the Revival at Loughor. One night, as we shall point out in another chapter, he asked all to pray. Send the Spirit now, for the sake of Jesus Christ. He strongly emphasises the importance of having the Holy Spirit in the services, the impossibility to worship without Him, and holds that prayer is the only means to get Him. His desire to glorify Christ, and increased love towards Him, is also very prominent. He longs for a manifestation of God’s love, and for the salvation of the world, and he also prays for all who are in difficulties of every kind.
His faith in the power of prayer is boundless. He believes, and rightly too, that were the Church to go truly on her knees, that the world would be on its feet in no time. If the church as a body were to pray honestly, then no power could stand in her way. If Evan Roberts himself has done such wonderful things through the power of prayer, what would the Church of God do if filled with the Holy Spirit? In his faith in the efficacy of prayer lies the secret of his strength. As we have shown, there are many elements in Evan Roberts that are of a superior kind, but above them all is his peculiarity as a man of prayer. We might get many to rank side by side with him in understanding and other things, but it would be very hard to get any to approach him as a prayerful man. He has been saturated with faith in prayer to a more remarkable degree than the most godly of young men in general. We admire many a natural virtue in him, but his unflinching belief in the efficacy of prayer as a means to overcome with God and man eclipses all. It is here we see the highest glory of Evan Roberts. His greatness is manifested when he is linked to the Infinite Trinity of Persons. Looking at the work which he, as the instrument, accomplished during the last months, he can say, I was able to do all through God, who was helping me. He believed in God’s readiness to answer prayer, and, like Jacob of old, strove with Him for the blessing. If we had one half the Church to think, believe, and act as he does with regard to prayer, the listeners and the world’s greatest sinners would soon be swept to the Saviour’s feet.
After close observation during the greater part of a year, his experience is that the success of a meeting in saving souls was in proportion to the amount of honest praying that was there. He often calls upon the people to cease singing, as it is far from being so effective as prayer in the salvation of souls. At Bala, he told Dr. W Sanday, of Oxford, When there is much singing, there is never much saving. A full account of this interview with the Doctor will be given in another chapter. Evan Roberts perceives that it is by prayer that the power of the Church is joined to the Infinite Power of God to save and to sanctify.
His belief in the virtue of prayer is very extensive. He does not believe in its power in some directions only, but that all things are possible through prayer that are attributed to it in the Bible. Hence, whatever he stands in need of, he takes it to the Lord in prayer. He believes that prayer is the most powerful means of perfecting the spirituality of the man himself, and in the saving of sinners; that next to Jesus Blood, it has the greatest influence on the heart of God. Again, as we mentioned above, he believes in constant prayer. It is not to be occasionally, but habitually performed. Yet, care must be taken lest it become a mere habit. It is to be produced by personal need. Spiritual want ought to drive the man to the Throne of Grace. According to Evan Roberts there are three great needs necessary to prompt prayer: — (1) Personal need, (2) Love towards Christ, and a passionate desire to save the world; (3) a deep yearning to worship God, and have communion with Him. When a man is driven to the Throne by these needs, then his praying is in no danger of becoming a mere formality. According to his idea, it is through prayer that we can get the Holy Spirit in these spheres. This is how he himself received the Spirit, and he believes that the Spirit is given in this same way to all.
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