A NEW BOOK ON BILLY BRAY, PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2004 IN THE UK BY HIGHLAND BOOKS. THE BOOK HAS MUCH PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL, INCLUDING THE WHOLE JOURNAL OF BILLY BRAY.
An excerpt:
I am sorry there is a great many dead professors in our world that is not alive to God. There was a man that I knew and his name was John, and he was up in Devonshire when I was. We both came home to our own county, Cornwall, and went to meet with the people. He went to meet with the Methodists, and I to meet with the Bible Christians where I was put on the plan to exhort the people to turn to God. And many did turn to the Lord and was made happy, blessing and praise and glory and honour be to him that sits upon the throne for ever and ever.
When I was planned to the chapel near where John lived, he always came to hear me. When I had done speaking he would take his hat and leave the chapel. The reason that John left the chapel was because, after I had done speaking and come down out of the pulpit, we that was happy had what we call a Victory through the blood of the Lamb. Some of us singing, some of shouting and some dancing: that is what we call a Victory. It is not through a pope or a priest, but through the blood of that Lamb that was slain on Mount Calvary.
We had the blessed heavenly shower of divine love, and some called us fools and some called us mad men and women, but bless the Lord he made us glad and happy men and women. We did not care what they said, and John was one of them that had a bad attitude.
One Sunday I was planned to the chapel near where John lived, and John dreamed that same morning that he was going through a village, and there was in that village three houses. He thought in his dream that it was a Sunday, and it was.
When John came through the village he saw in his dream one house door open, and he looked in and thought he never saw so many plain looking people in a class meeting in all his life. One of the members came out of the house and walked along the road with him.
John said to him, "You are some plain ?partey class of people back there. What do you call yourselves?"
He said, "We are some of the old primitive Christians, and there is none like us in all the earth." Then he stopped, and said, "Accept little William Bray down at Twelveheads."
So I came to my plan that day to the chapel near where John lived, and spoke to the people in my usual way. When I had done speaking, and came down among my brethren, we contended for the Victory again. Some of us was singing, some shouting and some danced. But John did not go away, for the Lord had convinced him that we was right and he was wrong.
After our service was over that Sunday afternoon John came to me, and said, "Will you go home with me and have some tea, and see Jane my wife? For she want to see you so."
I went home with John and he told me how he liked to hear me speaking, but he did not like to see me dance and hear me shouting and seeming so. He said, "But the Lord hast convinced me in a dream that you are right and I am wrong."
John came many times to the chapel after that when I had been planned there, but he did not go away, for he joined with us in praising God. John lived a good life and died a happy death. I may say he is now in heaven, for I saw him when he was near death and I asked him whether he remembered the dream that he dreamed about me.
"Yes," he said," and if thou hadst thrown me over thy head I should think thee all right."
Reader, you may ask, "Who made you right?" Not Peter nor the pope nor the cardinal nor the priest. There was but one that could make us right, and that is the dear Jesus that died on the cross. He will make you right, as well as John and me, if you are willing to be made so. John is not tempted against shouting now he is in heaven, for there is ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands in that happy place, saying to him that hath loved us and washed us in his own blood, "To him be glory and honour and power, to the Lamb for ever and ever." *
* Rev 5:13
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THE VICTORY
This is not a term that is generally known today. It seems to be an ecstatic outpouring of faith. Billy writes about an occasion when the preacher orders the people to stop their meeting, and there may be a connection. I said unto him, "How did you come to stop our revival?" The preacher tells Billy, "Because they was offering of strange fire. They was making a noise for nothing."
In the early editions of The King's Son Bourne mentions the Victory, but puts the excerpt from Billy's Journal in the third person. "Some singing, some praying, some shouting, some dancing; scenes to be frequently witnessed when the Cornish people get what they call the ?victory' through the blood of the Lamb." In later editions of The King's Son Bourne omits the words through the blood of the Lamb. I find myself asking why.
The chapter in the later editions that contains the shortened reference to the Victory ends halfway down a page, so space was not a problem. (A chapter is often shortened during editing to prevent it over-running a page by a line or two.) Towards the end of the nineteenth century the Bible Christians were making moves to merge with the Methodists, and might not have wanted to put too much emphasis on their past exuberance. But why omit only Billy's last few words? Perhaps Bourne did not want to imply a scriptural authority for the Victory, but was unwilling to remove the whole account.
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So John have done with the doubters and he is got up to heaven with the shouters. They that love the dear Lord will praise him, because they feel his love in their hearts.
The 49,000 word Journal, written by Billy in 1864, contains many unpublished events in his life. Chris has transcribed the whole Journal for Billy Bray, Cornish Miner Dancing Preacher.
Published in the UK by Highland Books on 19 November 2004, the title is Billy Bray--In His Own Words by Chris Wright. ISBN 1-897913-73-7, line-illustrated paperback, 288 pages, price £8.99. You can order from your local Christian bookshop, any regular bookshop or from internet sellers such as Amazon.co.uk.
