Pendref Congregational Chapel - Caernarvon (1818)
But a revival was already in progress among the Congregationalists before this date. John Griffith, who had laboured with Congregationalists at Caernarfon for many years, died in mid-February 1818. His son William, who was training at Neuadd-lwyd under Dr Thomas Phillips, was called home to bury him. He gives the following account:
My Carnarvon friends urged me not to return to Neuaddlwyd, but to stay and serve them in their bereavement till the time of my entering College. And this I did for six months. During this time the Lord visited His people. We had a considerable revival, and people were added to the church. In the meantime John Elias came there to preach. His text was, ‘Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?’ (Jer. 23, 29). Referring to my father’s death, he said that many a good and faithful old servant had spent his strength in boring the rock, and had descended into the grave before the blasting thereof; but that subsequently the Lord had made use of a small boy to apply the fuse to the powder, and that in consequence the powers of the world to come were felt. Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
John Lewis, A Memoir of the Rev. William Griffith, Holyhead(Liverpool, n.d.), pp. 18; E. Cynffig Davies, Cofiant y Parch. William Griffith, Caergybi, Dolgellau, 1883, pp. 15-16. There is however no record of John Elias preaching on Jer. 23:29 at Caernarfon in 1818 in his Memorandum book (NLW, CMA Bala 56).
Additional Information
Built in 1791, rebuilt 1822, 1838, 1862 and 1891.