THE KING’S BUSINESS
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noting this, we shalL.understand the intimate relationship between the season of renewal in the heart of the individual believer and the time of reviving in the Church. If two harp- strings are in perfect tune, you cannot smite the one without causing the other to vibrate; and if one Christian is touched and agitated by the Spirit of God, think it not strange that all who are likeminded in the Church are moved by the same Divine impulse.” - BLESSING IN RADNORSHIRE. This proved to be true in the case of the revivalists moving into Radnor, where the outward conditions of revival seemed not encouraging. The people soon congregated from far and near. They walked many miles, and every evening the countryside roads, byways, and lanes were aglow with the lamps of bicycles and all sorts of vehicles as well as the lanterns of pedestrians. From the quiet surrounding hills it could be seen there was something unusual causing this stir in the district, and the joyous singing might be heard to advantage. On the night that the present writer was there people had come from long distances. Among the nine or ten ministers present the majority had travelled some miles. The congregation had not waited for the revivalists to arrive before opening the meeting. It was in full swing when they entered the building. The Brothers Jeffreys, in a very natural .way, gradually as- summed control by praying, then starting a chorus, reading a few verses of Scripture, followed by terse sentences adressed to the audience, sometimes with thrilling feeling and effect. Stephen afterwards invited testimony, and several responded, among whom were ministers. Although this was a good meeting, it was not one of the most powerful of the gatherings they had had. Up till then there had been
hearth and kindle the fire. In addition to that there was another disadvantage in the fact that the district is a sparsely populated, agricultural one. The evangelists could not, at first, see where they were to get their congregations from. They felt like Philip, when he had been commanded to arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem, into Gaza, “which is desert.” god ’ s m e t h o d e o r h i s w o r k ... That evangelist might not at first understand why he should leave the revival in Samaria to go right into the desert where there was no population. Having, however, obeyed the Spirit, he found an important audience in the Ethiopian eunuch and his attendants. Tradition says that they carried the revival to far away Ethiopia. It was Divinely arranged. The late Dr. A. J, Gordon has a striking passage on such arrangements, and as it is in connection with a reference to a revival in Wales, early in last century, it may be of interest to quote it here. Referring to Christmas Evans, the author, in his valuable book, “The Twofold Life,” observes:—“At the time that the Spirit fell on him (between Dolgelly and Machynlleth on the mountain side) it was falling on his brethren in distant places (in An- glesea). So it is always. God never makes half a providence any more than man makes half a pair of shears. He fits a preacher to declare His Word, He fits a hearer to receive that Word; if He moves one soul to cry, ‘What must I do?’ He has always moved some other servant of His to direct him what to do. Let us ponder the story of Paul and Ananias, of Peter and Cornelius, of Philip and the eunuch, if we would observe the mystery of the Spirit, His twofold ministry to preacher and to hearer, to counsellor and to inquirer. And
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