Dafydd Morgan

Dafydd Morgan (1814-1883) was a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist pastor who was used greatly in the Welsh revival of 1858-1860. He began to preach in 1842 and was ordained in 1857. In the following year he came into contact with Humphrey Jones who had just returned from America, having been greatly influenced by the revival that was then sweeping that country. This had a very marked effect on Morgan who went to bed one night in October 1858 and when he woke up he realised that something dramatic had happened to him. He went to bed "a lamb" and woke up "a lion" and felt great power. Over the next two years or so he journeyed through every part of Wales, preaching the Gospel, often holding three or four services a day and in the process saw a multitude of people come to Christ. Somewhere in the region of 100,000 people were brought to Christ during the revival in Wales.

On the last day of 1858 he had been preaching at a remote chapel in the hills above Tregaron and afterwards spent several hours on the mountain experiencing something he described as so glorious that he wasn’t sure whether he was in the body or out of it. When he returned home he was hardly recognisable with his clothes dishevelled and an unusual expression on his face. When asked what had happened he simply replied that he had wrestled for a blessing and had received it. When he preached the next day it was said that his words were so like fire as to create terrible convictions.

After the crest of the revival had passed, he returned to normal pastoral duties again. He went to bed one night and "the lion" became "a lamb" once again. It was, he said, as if his locks had been shaven, although in his case there was no Delilah in his life! He continued for fifteen more years as a faithful preacher of the gospel.

Netta Rowlands

In 2008 I had the privilege of meeting up with Dafydd Morgan’s great granddaughter Netta Rowlands who lives on a farm just outside Mold, North Wales. This is a picture of her with her daughter and granddaughter. My late wife and I met up with her again at the commemoration of the revival on 9^th May 2009 at Ysbyty Ystwyth (not far from Aberystwyth), which she organised.