The article states:
"Under the title of 'A Modern Miracle at Merthyr,' the daily papers report: "An unusual occurrence has taken place at Penydarren, near Merthyr. A young lady, twenty four years of age, named Annie Griffiths, living with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Griffiths, at 74 Brynhyfryd Street, who had been laid up with an affliction of the hip for some weeks, and who it was thought would not recover the use of her limbs without the aid of crutches, got up completely cured as the result, it is claimed, of faith-healing. Two ministers, the Revs. Mr. Owen, of Elim Baptist Chapel, and MR. Francis, Aberdu, Cabdiganshire [Possibly reads Casdiganshire], visited her, and prayed earnestly for her recovery on the Saturday evening, , and shortly afterwards she got up, dressed herself without assistance, and came downstairs. The following day she took part in all the chapel services, and is evidently completely cured, for she can walk about the neighbourhood, to the astonishment of the residents, without assistance, and looks in better health than ever. She is a young lady of a religious turn of mind, and regards her recovery as having been brought about by the intervention of the Divine will. She says her faith was strengthened owing to the reading in a pamphlet of a similar recovery. Miss Griffiths, although deeply interested in the revival, did not take an unusually prominent part, but in the course of the year her interest in religious matters has become more intense, and her pastor had been much distressed at the fact that she was so very ill."
It is followed by another short article:
"The Doctors Testimony
Dr. Morrison, of Merthyr, said that he diagnosed the case as one of tubercular disease of the hip-joint. His opinion was confirmed by his chief, Dr. Cresswell, and he last saw Miss. Griffiths on Friday, Sept. 15. On September 18 he was astonished to see her walk into his surgery without the trace of a limp (see picture below). "I am cured now," said Miss Griffiths, in reply to the doctor's question. "You have been very kind to me and done all you could for me, but of course you are only an earthy physician and I took my case before the heavenly physician, and here I am well." Dr. Morrison added: "There is no humbug about it. She walked into the surgery apparently well."
The picture supplied is here:
All of these confirm what my Great Grandfather Price Davies [Annie's husband] recorded in his personal testimony shortly before he died. He wrote in a document entitled,
A TESTIMONY, and a brief record of the of the BEGINNING of the PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT in the MERTHYR BOROUGH, BEDLINOG AND THE
"...In 1904-1905, at number seventy four Brynhyfryd Street, [i] Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil, where Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Griffiths lived with their family, their daughter Annie Griffiths was bedridden with a Tubercular Hip (Hip disease) a large growth on her hip and the one leg shorter than the other, she was a helpless, hopeless cripple. The doctors gave no hope of her ever being able to walk again. The family were members of Elim Baptist Chapel, Penydarren, where Mr. Thomas Griffiths was a deacon, the minister was the Rev. O. M. Owen [ii] who had been wonderfully blessed of God during the early days of the Welsh Revival, and he was for many years the Secretary of the Keswick Convention at Llandrindod Wells. Mr. Owen was very friendly with the family and used to visit Miss Griffiths often and was very much grieved and burdened at seeing her sad plight and suffering as she was. He was spending much time in prayer with God on her behalf and also on behalf of the family as a whole. On one of his visits he asked Miss Griffiths if she believed God could work a miracle in our time and heal her. She said “Yes Mr. Owen, I believe God can do all things.” “Well Annie,” he said, “I don’t believe it is the will of God for you to be lying there suffering like that.” He gave her a tract to read that told of a young woman that had been healed in answer to prayer of Spinal Trouble. He also asked her to read some Scriptures especially James
One
Saturday night, Miss Griffiths was in fact due to go into hospital the
following Monday so that she could be made more comfortable on an Air Bed and
also that her mother might be relieved a little; that evening another Baptist
Minister from Aberduar, West Wales called.[iii] His name was Mr. Francis and he was on his
way to Fochriw to preach but lost his connection at Dowlais Top and so called
at Mr. Owen’s house. During their
conversation Mr. Owen asked Mr. Francis if he believed God could perform a
miracle today in answer to prayer. “Of
course I do, why not?” said Mr. Francis. So Mr. Owen told him about Miss
Griffiths. They decided there and then
to visit the home and have a definite time of prayer with her father for her,
so they came. After a little talk with
Miss Griffiths the three of them knelt and prayed that God would touch
and heal her.
These
are Annie's own words to me, (after the ministers and her father had prayed
for her and as she was about to ask the dear Lord to heal her), she felt the
Lord was there by her bedside and laid His Hand on her head and the Power of
God came upon her and went right through her whole body and took the disease
away, the bed itself shaking with the Power of God. Glory be to God she was Wonderfully and
Miraculously Healed. She told the
ministers and her father that if they would leave the room she would get
dressed. Praise the Lord for ever. One minute a helpless, hopeless cripple
unable to move without help, the next minute Gloriously Healed by the touch of
God. Hallelujah.
She
asked her mother for her clothes and then got up and dressed; then she walked
from the front room where her bed was, through the middle room to the
kitchen. When her father saw her, he
leaped for joy shouting “Hallelujah” with a loud voice. Mr. Owen asked her if he would see her in the
meeting, the following, Sunday. Her
father said “You tell Mr Owen that you will be there before him tomorrow
morning” ... and she was. Praise
God. Oh what a stir that miracle caused
in the Borough. Elim chapel was thronged
with people night after night for weeks, Open Air meetings were held on the
bottom of the street. [iv] I remember Dai Ruth (D. R. Williams) taking
his coat off in one of those meetings and laying it on the ground for people to
kneel on it and get converted.[v] That miracle was published in the Daily Papers
and the Christian Herald.[vi] I remember reading the report in the South
Wales Echo September 1905. Some may ask
“Are healings permanent?” Annie Griffiths was healed of a Tubercular Hip when
she was twenty one years of age, she passed out of this life to her reward in
heaven at seventy eight years of age with never a return of the complaint. Diolch Iddo Bendigedig."
Roy [A second cousin I believe] made some annotations to describe more of the historical settings and facts concerning the comments in this part of Price's testimony. Where these annotations were made has been indicated in the text. I'll be sharing those in part 2.
Roy [A second cousin I believe] made some annotations to describe more of the historical settings and facts concerning the comments in this part of Price's testimony. Where these annotations were made has been indicated in the text. I'll be sharing those in part 2.
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