Daniel Rowland And Preaching for Divine Impression, Part Two 

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 22, number 35, August 31, 2023

“Preach the word. . . do the work of an evangelist.” -2 Timothy 4:2,5

Do you ever fall asleep at church as you listen to your pastor preach? If you watched the movie Saving Private Ryan, did you fall asleep at the opening scene as U.S. troops stormed the beach at Normandy? You probably answered “yes” to the first question and “no” to the second one. Why? Perhaps the preaching puts you to sleep because it does not grab your heart while the tension of the opening of Saving Private Ryan grips your heart with a deep impression of fear and amazement at their heroism. 

Wouldn’t you love to see your own congregation caught up in glorious worship of Christ as they hear your preacher proclaim His excellencies? We all know how the charismatic churches are able to evoke great emotion from their congregations through music. I am not saying that is all bad, but certainly it can easily lead to manipulation. How much more glorious if a genuine response of heartfelt worship came from those who heard the preaching of the word and were moved to awe, wonder, amazement, love, fear, and tears of rejoicing!

Thomas Charles, another of the great late 18th century Welsh preachers, in seeking to describe Daniel Rowland’s preaching, wrote to a friend saying, “Rowland preached repentance until the people repented; he preached faith until men believed. He portrayed sin as so abhorrent that all hated it; and Christ so glorious as to cause all to choose Him.” 

Early in his ministry Rowland thundered the law of God with great earnestness and effect. The response from his hearers was sheer terror at being damned. He listened to the advice of the Reverend Pugh who said, “Preach the gospel to the people. Apply the balm of Gilead to their spiritual wounds, and show them the necessity of faith in the crucified Savior.” When Rowland said that he doubted he had that faith in full active strength himself, Pugh responded, “Preach it until you feel you have it. If you continue to preach the law in this way you will kill half the population of the country. You thunder forth the threatenings of the law, and preach so fearfully, that no one can stand before you.” Rowland later became a “Son of Consolation” and the response from those who heard him changed from terror to overwhelming joy and humility at the grace of God in Christ.

Here’s another example of preaching for the divine impression. Thomas Charles was born in the north of Wales in October, 1755, twenty years after the great Welsh revival began in south Wales under the mighty preaching of Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris, William Williams of Pantycelyn, and many others. Griffith Jones, whom God used so powerfully as an instrument to begin that great revival, died in 1761 when Charles was only six years old; and by this time much of the revival fire had dissipated to a dying ember, especially in the north of Wales where it had never taken full control in the first place. No one since Griffith Jones had labored to preach the true gospel in the north which quickly became bereft of experiential holiness. Thomas Charles, as so many in his country, grew up in the established Church of England which was generally a dead church, as was the Non-conformist church. The Calvinistic Methodists, most of whom were still members of the Church of England, were the major players in the revival. Charles’ parents had only a nominal Christian faith, being ignorant of true religion, and he was not at all affected by Christianity until his early teens. He became convicted of his sin and began to seek God through reading the Scriptures and prayer. He devoured as many good Christian books as he could find. He read John Bunyan’s The Doctrine of Law and Grace Unfolded, a work on the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Charles says this book, which vividly describes the hopeless condition of all still under the covenant of works, deeply troubled him, numerous times bringing him to great weeping over his lost condition. He also sought out believers who could answer his questions, advise him, and pray for him. He was mystified that so many who claimed to know Christ had little interest in spiritual matters. There was an old man in his town, however, named Rees Hugh with whom Thomas Charles would spend hours several times a week. Hugh was a disciple of Griffith Jones, financially poor and with little training other than in the things of God, one with nothing to offer Thomas but the gospel of grace. Thomas heard him gladly.

It was not until Thomas was eighteen years old, however, in January, 1773 that he gained assurance of his salvation. He heard the powerful Daniel Rowland preach on Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” He experienced the “divine impression” and said that ever since that day he lived in a new heaven and a new earth. He said that a blind man who received his sight had not a greater change than he experienced in his mind and heart. One of the first changes he noted was giving up completely any striving to justify himself by his own self-righteousness. His constant cry was to be found in Jesus. Charles very soon sensed a call into the gospel ministry and he thus desired further education at Oxford. This seemed impossible since his parents did not have the money to educate him. However, God marvelously provided a benefactor who promised to fund his entire education. So Thomas made his way to Oxford, Jesus College, at the age of twenty and immediately found the fellowship of other brethren who also earnestly desired to follow Christ.

He was offered a curacy, what we may call in our setting a pastoral internship, at Queen Camel Church, Somerset, England after his third year at Oxford. Due to the small congregation in a rural setting Charles had plenty of time for Biblical and theological studies and he took full advantage of the time. He did not, however, limit himself only to study. Perhaps his greatest attribute, being a man of action, became noticeable while at the church in Somerset. He began catechizing the children and visiting members of the parish from door to door. His time there, however, did not go well. The rector at Queen Camel was not an evangelical man and quickly became upset with Thomas Charles’ evangelical message. He condemned him as a Methodist (a repugnant term to Anglicans who were not sympathetic with the revival movement) and instead of telling him directly that his services were not respected, he sought to starve him into leaving by reducing his already paltry salary by nearly fifty percent.

Early in his ministry Charles observed the small number of chapels in which he and others may preach. Since the Church of England pulpits were generally kept from him, he moved about the north of Wales preaching in barns, homes, and the open air when a chapel was not available. He helped generate funds in various places to make sure chapels were built in order to house the preaching of God’s word. And he also noted that young children were ignorant of reading and writing, as well as basic Bible doctrine. Thus he established a Sunday School program whereby children were taught these things. It is true that Robert Raikes, typically called the father of the Sunday School, began in England in 1783, four years before Charles did in Wales, but their approaches were very different. Raikes went to the poorest children of an urban setting in order to teach them to read and write and to teach them the Bible. Charles, on the other hand, brought all the children to the Sunday School, not simply the poor. On one occasion the annual fair, which generally declined into a drunken party replete with fornication, dancing, gambling, and prostitution, was coming soon and Charles addressed it with his Sunday Schools. He developed a catechism which brought questions on these issues with Biblical answers. The children were taught this catechism before the annual fair. On the day of the fair he had the children stand in the center of town and recite the answers to the questions. The people were so ashamed of their behavior, seeing it openly rebuked by the children, that they repented and the fair became a modest, sober celebration for many years.

What drove Thomas Charles in ministry? He sought the “divine impression” in all of his ministry. Clearly he saw the countless needs described above, but something far greater motivated him. He was zealous for the glory of God, and that glory pushed him forward to spend and be spent for the sake of the gospel. He believed the Calvinistic doctrines of God’s sovereignty and man’s utter sinfulness, the sufficiency of Christ, and our complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit to regenerate, justify, and sanctify. He longed for the glory of God to shine in the faces of the Welsh people. Upon his conversion he immediately received a new vision for life, living, as it were, in a new heaven and a new earth. He found a new passion for life, the propagation of the gospel to all of Wales. And he found a new mission for life, seeking to address every spiritual need he uncovered in his journeys.