When the Heavens Split Over Wales

In the autumn of 1904, a twenty-six-year-old Welsh coal miner named Evan Roberts could barely sleep. For thirteen years he had prayed the same desperate prayer: "Send the Spirit, Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake." Night after night in his small room in Loughor, he wrestled with God until the early hours, his pillow damp with tears, his heart aching with a longing he could hardly articulate.…