Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1914 — BOY REVIVALISTS IN WALES [ARTICLE]

BOY REVIVALISTS IN WALES

Children of 12 and 15 Said to Have Made Many Conversions in Country Places. Londofi. —Boy revivalists, who have converted not only boys and girls, but adults as well, by their eloquence are creating a stir at Swansea. The correspondent says: “Singing hymns in clear, sweet tones, and carrying wide banners with texts scrawled across them, a band of poorly clad hoys, whose ages ranged from eight to fifteen years, came marching in single file down one of the side streets in the poorer quarters here last night. They stopped singing for a moment and addressed the passersby, announcing that a revival meeting was being held in the Ebenezer Mission Hall, Ebenezer street “During the past week children have taken part In the revival. Little boys, aged from twelve to fifteen years, have worked the meetings up to a pitch of great excitement by their eloquent extempore praying. The Ebenezer hall is only a small place, holding a couple of hundred persons, and is situated in a poor street, jFet over 150 converts have been made there during the week, thirty -of these being children below the age of fifteen. A remarkable convert is Albert Harris, aged twelve, the son of a workman employed in the coal yards at the docks. Albert came into the meeting, and toward the end of it suddenly sprang up and began praying in a shaky voice, which moved numbers to tears, appealing to be saved. ‘I was passing down Ebenezer street with about ten playmates,’ l(e said, ‘and when I came to the hall the spirit went straight through me, and I had to go in and 1 just bad to get up and pray.’ "Even John Daviß, aged fifteen, the most eloquent of the boys who lead the meeting in prayer, Is a slight, pink cheeked lad. Throughout a whole evening’s fervor Evan will sit quietly, and toward the conclusion stand up and pray In a clear voice, free from self-consciousness. His language and phrasing are fluent, and there Is no doubt Evan is responsible for many of the 150 converts, r “A man named Phillips came to the revival meeting with his five daughters and his son, who - is quite a child. They .were all converted and when they returned home the little boy said to Mr. Phillips: ‘Father, I mustn’t tell lies any more. I took that penny you lost the other day.’ ”