Sermons & Devotionals by D.M. Phillips

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF A MAN’S BIRTHPLACE Great importance is attached to the place where a man of fame is born. Should the place be unknown, it becomes the subject of close investigation and much theorising, and people seek for facts to confirm their suppositions regarding it. What is there in ones n... Read More

We described the house in the previous chapter, we come now to the family heads. Henry Roberts, the Revivalist’s father, was born at Loughor. His parents were David and Sarah Roberts. He was born in 1844, so that he is now drawing towards 62 years of age. Throughout the years he has worked hard and ... Read More

The 8th of June, 1878, was a great and extraordinary day in Island House, Bwlchymynydd. It was so because on it Evan Roberts was born. In the history of the family, the neighbourhood of Loughor, and Wales as a whole, we can rightly call it the ‘Day of the Possibility’. On that day was born one in wh... Read More

NOTE Mr. Evan Roberts has no part whatever in the bringing out of this Volume. He has permitted me to publish his First Sermon, his Sayings, his Letters, and his Poetry, and that is all. The Author, also, will not derive any financial benefits from its publication. Should the volume return any profi... Read More

In the previous chapter, for particular reasons given there, the birthday of Evan Roberts was called the day of the possibility. For the same reasons can his childhood be called the blossoming of the possibility in this period we find the wealth of his natures possibility beginning to open out. It i... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS AS A POET We cannot give a fair treatment to the life history of Evan Roberts without devoting a chapter to him as a poet. When the reader will have glanced over his poetical productions, which are found in this volume, he will see that we are amply justified in doing so. Some of these ... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS THE WORKING MAN. Everything in the history of Evan Roberts went, either directly or indirectly, to prepare his possibility as a Revivalist. We have no doubt but that his connection with manual labour played an important part in preparing his mental powers for revival work. And why not? ... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS THE WORKING MAN. VII. THE SEVENTH STEP — LEARNING THE TRADE OP A BLACKSMITH (1) Apprenticed to learn the trade — At last he has found a trade that he thinks at the time will give him his life-work, but he does not understand himself. God had purposed that he should do something far more... Read More

We now come to an important period in the history of Evan Roberts — a period that requires a great deal of explanation. In this the great preparation for his life-work was begun. That does not mean that he was not prepared by the blossoming of his possibilities, which we described in a previous chap... Read More

THE OPENING OF HIS POSSIBILITY AS A THINKER. The beginnings of the mental preparation were shown in an indirect way in the previous chapter, but the subject was not viewed in all its aspects. What was said there will suffice until he reaches his thirteenth year. At this stage the mental aspect of th... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE PREPARATION. We have had occasion more than once to refer to Evan Roberts’s religious life, but it was not dealt with in full. He regards the thirteen years between his entrance into church membership and the beginning of the Revival as a continuous preparation ... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE PREPARATION. HIS SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS. 1. FEELING THE INTENSITY OF HIS SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS The growth of the spiritual life in our subject was gradual. In his conversion there is nothing like that of Saul of Tarsus. The date of his regeneration he does no... Read More

THE STRUGGLES OF HIS SPIRITUAL POSSIBILITY. EVAN ROBERTS IN THE INWARD STRUGGLES The reader will recall the fact already referred to that Evan Roberts kept a Bible with him in the pit and the smithy, and read it habitually. The reading of it created self-reflection and continual meditation. The resu... Read More

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 pr... Read More

THE REVEALING OF THE REVIVALIST. EVAN ROBERTS BEGINS TO PREACH His commencing to preach was the realisation of an idea that had long been in his mind, though it had not taken any definite form between the age of ten and eighteen; but the desire was there, and it was one cause of the many struggles t... Read More

Saturday October 1st, Evan Roberts is again full of the idea of going through Wales on a mission tour. This day has a history like Friday. At Newcastle-Emlyn and Blaenanerch he understood that the Holy Spirit influenced powerfully the young people of New Quay; and the list of the probable ones to go... Read More

AWFUL REPETITION OF THE INWARD STRUGGLES Having passed the Provincial Examination for candidates for the ministry, Evan Roberts is now free to enter a school to prepare for the Trevecca College Examination. But the path is not yet open and clear. He is again undergoing a hard struggle. What can it b... Read More

THE PREPARATION AND HIS NEW ENVIRONMENT In the last chapter we followed Evan Roberts to school, and described his attitude in relation to it during his stay at Newcastle Emlyn. We have to deal with another aspect of his history at this time in the present chapter. The school and its connections, as ... Read More

EVAN ROBERTS FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST 1. GENERAL REMARKS ON BEING FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. WE have more than once suggested that it was no sudden thing for Evan Roberts to be called to his great work. God never calls men to do His most spiritual work without either direct or indirect preparati... Read More

A chapter each has been given to the relation between Evan Roberts and the school, his relation to his new environment, and the history of how he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This chapter will contain an account of his movements in other connections, and his correspondence during the weeks he sp... Read More