The
Welsh holiness revival was central to the spread of Pentecostalism on the
European continent, as it was in Britain:

[G]lossolalia gained renewed
attention through the phenomena that accompanied the revivals in Wales, Los Angeles,
Christiania, Hamburg,
Kassel, and
other places. . . . [T]he revival in Wales
under Evan Roberts produced . . . psychological and physical abnormalities . .
. and sparked them also in other countries (California,
Norway, Denmark, Hesse,
Silesia)[.] . . . [O]pinions . .
. strongly diverged.  [Pentecostals]
viewed speaking in tongues and similar phenomena as a renewal of the gifts of
Pentecost and powerful evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit, but others .
. . pronounced everything to be a work of the devil and a deception of the
antichrist.^[1]

News of the
Welsh holiness revival brought “expectation . . . almost to a boiling point . .
. [i]n Germany
in 1904.”[2]  The groundwork for Pentecostalism had been
laid by Keswick continuationist “American Holiness evangelists”[3]
such as Robert Pearsall Smith and the central German Higher Life advocate, the
Lutheran Theodore Jellinghaus.[4]  Jellinghaus recognized that “the ‘doctrine of
the Keswick Conventions’ which he . . . taught for many years [was] the source
[of] . . . the rise of the Pentecostal movement.”[5]  Soon after 1904 “[e]very [German] Evangelical
journal published enthusiastic reports of the beginnings of the Pentecostal
Movement in Wales and India,”[6]
and, through such testimonials, charismatic phenomena began to arise all
through Germany
in hearts prepared for Pentecostalism by Keswick theology.  “Objections based on the Bible and systematic
theology were insolently rejected,” for Pentecostals argued:  “We do not need to investigate whether it is
biblical to speak of a baptism of the Spirit and a new experience of Pentecost,
for we can see all around us men and women, and not only individuals, who can
testify from their own blessed experience that there is such a thing.”[7]  In line with the Welsh holiness revival’s
repudiation of the mind, logic, and systematic theology, Pentecostals
taught:  “We need no more theology or
theory.  Let the devil have them. . . .
Away with such foolish bondage!  Follow
your Heart!”[8]  Although Pentecostal founders knew that “many
‘winds of doctrine’ blew at Asusa
Street” and there were “intrusion[s] of
spiritualists and mediums into their midst,” nonetheless it was clear to the
charismatics that the work was a real “revival [and] the beginning of a
historic awakening.”[9]  The international impact of the Welsh
holiness revival as the source of European Pentecostalism was truly profound.

Not
only was the Welsh holiness revival the spark of Pentecostalism in Britain and on
the European continent, but it was central to the rise of American
Pentecostalism also.  The Asusa Street Mission,
where “the Pentecostal movement ignited,”[10]
was “regarded by Pentecostal publicists as the place of origin of the world-wide
Pentecostal movements.”  Asusa Street was
established by W. J. Seymour, who had been seeing visions from his youth and
had adopted the Faith Cure theology of the Higher Life for the body, after
which he suffered from smallpox and became permanently blind in one eye.[11]  “Seymour
. . . in common with Evan Roberts’s leadership in the Welsh Revival . . .
preached very little, and more or less allowed things to go their own way.”[12]  Seymour’s work
found fertile soil in Los Angeles because of the
preparatory work of “Joseph Smale and Frank Bartleman . . . preachers who had
been influenced by the revival in Wales.”[13]  As the Higher Life continuationist foundation
for Pentecostalism was being laid in Los Angeles, the “religious life of the
city was dominated by Joseph Smale, whose large First Baptist Church had been
transformed into the ‘New Testament Church’ due to the effects of the Welsh
revival which were being felt in Los Angeles at the time.”[14]  Smale’s transformation from a Baptist into a
continuationist gift-seeker is paradigmatic of the type of influence the Welsh
holiness revival under Evan Roberts exerted. 
The methodology and practices of Evan Roberts had swept into Los Angeles in 1905, being concentrated in Smale’s First Baptist
Church.[15]  “The revival in Smale’s church was sparked by
news of the great Welsh revival of 1904-5 led by Evan Roberts.  A trip to Wales
by Smale and an exchange of letters between Bartleman and Evan Roberts
demonstrate a direct spiritual link between the move of God[16]
in Wales and the pentecostal
outpouring in Los Angeles
in 1906.”[17]  After Smale “returned from Wales,” having
“been in touch with the revival [there] and Evan Roberts, [he] was on fire to
have the same visitation and blessing come to his own church in Los Angeles. .
. . They were waiting on God for an outpouring of the Spirit there.”[18]  Instead of preaching only the Bible, Smale began
to “preac[h] . . . on the revival in Wales.”[19]  Meetings in his church were carried on in a
manner identical to that of those with Evan Roberts.[20]  Soon “Pastor Smale [was] prophesying of
wonderful things to come.  He
prophesie[d] the speedy return of the apostolic ‘gifts’ to the church,” as
others, prepared by the testimonials to the Higher Life and marvels worked in Wales, had
“been expecting just such a display of . . . power for some time,” thinking
that “it might break out any hour.”[21]  After fifteen weeks of daily meetings, Smale
and those he had led away from Baptist convictions separated themselves from
those who wanted the old paths and organized the “New Testament Church” to
continue to spread the innovations and strange fire from Wales.[22]  As tongues began to break out at the Asusa Street Mission,[23]
“Brother Smale had to come to ‘Asusa,’” for many of his church members were
there, speaking in gibberish.  Smale
“invited them back home, promised them liberty in the Spirit,” and tongues were
“wrought mightily at the New Testament Church also.”[24]  “Brother Smale was God’s Moses, to lead the
people as far as to the Jordan”
in preparing them to speak in tongues by introducing the practices of Evan
Roberts—then “Brother Seymour led them over” into the tongues experience.[25]  Tongues were present “at Azusa Street [and] at the New Testament
Church, where Joseph
Smale is pastor; some of his people were among the first to speak with
‘tongues.’”[26]  Not long afterwards “Brother Elmer Fisher”
led the “baptized saints”—those who had spoken in tongues—“from the New
Testament Church” to found “the ‘Upper Room’ mission,” which “became for a time
the strongest mission in town” to spread the Pentecostal experience.[27]

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