Prayer Meeting at a Party Scene

Prayer Meeting at a Party Scene
Morlais Castle is a place where, on fine Sunday mornings, scores of the worst characters [from the iron-works] meet to drink and fight. They buy the beer on Saturday night, and carry it up there about four o’clock on Sunday morning. There is no house near; they cannot therefore get the drink in any other way. You may imagine what a den of wickedness that place is on Sunday morning. On a fine Sunday morning in June last, about twenty young lads could be seen wending their way thither, and they reached the polluted spot about half-past five. There were scores of the characters mentioned in the place before them, who had already commenced their evil doings. One young lad said to them, that they had come to hold a prayer-meeting, at which idea the drunkards scoffed. But at such a welcome they were not discouraged. A Testament was opened and a part of a chapter read; a hymn was sung, and most melodious it was in the breeze of the morning. By this time all had become quite serious. Not a laugh or a jest passed—nothing was heard but prayer and praise. Many a rough face was bathed with tears. When the meeting closed, every one went home. All was serious and quiet. The beer was thrown away. Many swore emphatically that they would never go to Morlais Castle again for such a purpose. Many of them are known to have kept their word. This was continued for several Sabbath mornings, and in less than a month hundreds met on the highest summit of Morlais Castle to worship their Creator.
-pp. 126-127
Excerpts from “The Welsh Revival” by Thomas Phillips, Banner of Truth Trust 1989 (First published 1860)