Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. I've never been to one

and I can't say as I have ever heard one firsthand but I'm told that at Welsh

football or soccer games all of a sudden the crowds will break out into singing.

And sometimes they'll sing hymns. Of course they won't always sing hymns, they'll sing some other songs.

And apparently quite a phenomenon is that an entire

stadium filled of Welsh football fans can sing their national anthem in

perfect harmony. How is this possible? Well this their National Anthem in Perfect Harmony.

How is this possible?

Well, this, as I've uncovered it

and learned from others, is a result of an event

that occurred over a century ago the Welsh Revivals.

This is from 1904, 1905.

This was a time of intense revivals all over Wales. It started with a man by the name of Evan Roberts.

Evan Roberts was born in 1878.

His family did not have significant means.

As a young child he was working in coal mines.

He apprenticed as a blacksmith, but all along he felt a calling to preaching.

And he would preach.

He started off in a group that was more of the Calvinist

Methodist conference. This would be a group that in many ways could trace its lineage back to the

revivalist of the Great Awakening, George Whitfield.

He migrated to more Presbyterian communities and there was recommended to him to go to seminary. There was a recognition that this young man

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