“My comrades used to tell me that was no religion; dancing, shouting, and making so much to-do, but I was born in the fire and could not live in the smoke.” So said William “Billy” Trewartha Bray, the tin-mining, uneducated drunk that God transformed into a famous Methodist preacher known as “God’s man with a shout.”

Bray was born June 1, 1794, at Twelveheads, a village near Truro, in Cornwall, England. His dad died when he was quite young and he went to live with his grandfather, who sat under John Wesley’s preaching in the Methodist church. In 1811, at age 17, Bray left his grandfather’s home for Devonshire where, in his own words, he became “the companion of drunkards and during that time was very near hell.”

About 10 years later he married a woman named Johanna and fathered seven children. The unlettered Bray found work as a tin miner, but was so shackled by alcohol that his wife had to go fetch him out of the local pubs every night. It seemed Bray preferred to fritter away all his money on ale than provide for his family.

Then it happened. There was a terrible accident at the tin mine. The roof ruptured, barely missing Bray. This incident shook him deeply. He knew that he would have gone straight to hell if he had been killed – but he still didn’t seek the Lord. Soon after, in November of 1823, a friend gave him a book to read. Even though he had no interest in reading it, Bray found himself drawn to its pages anyway. After he read that book Bray began to seriously consider his lost spiritual condition. That book was John Bunyan’s “Visions of Heaven and Hell.”

Bray decided to talk with his wife about the Lord. She had been a Christian as a child, but over time she became lukewarm and backslid. Nevertheless, she told him that her memories of serving Jesus were wonderful and Bray went to bed that night knowing he needed to pray.

For whatever reason he felt uncomfortable praying in front of his wife. He just couldn’t seem do it. But at around 3 a.m. he got up from his bed thoroughly convinced of his sinful condition. With the episode at the mine still weighing heavy on his mind, he thought to himself that he could no longer wait for his wife to get right with God again. He had to talk to God himself. He didn’t want to die without his salvation. That’s when Bray finally got down on his knees and cried out to God.

No one had to wait long to see the fruit of change in his life. The next day was payday at the tin mine. That night the pubs would be filled with lively music and drunken miners, yet Bray would not be one of the patrons. For the first time in years, a sober Bray went straight home to his wife. After seeing such a dramatic change in her once wayward husband, within a week of his salvation Johanna recommitted herself to the Lordship of Christ.

From that day on, one of the most striking things about the born again Bray was his continual excitement and joy over his salvation. Much as it is today, many religious people Bray knew were often gloomy and sorrowful. “If they were truly born again,” he thought, “you would never have known it by their lives.” By contrast, Bray was always smiling, singing and shouting praises to God.

CLICK HERE to get a FREE issue of The Voice magazine.

When he was questioned about his abundant joy, Bray said, “He has made me glad and no one can make me sad. He makes me shout and no one can make me doubt. He it is that makes me dance and leap, and there is no one that can keep down my feet.” He also once said, “I sometimes feel so much of the power of God that, I believe, if they were to cut off my feet I should heave up the stumps.”

Many of the religious people of Bray’s day could be heard complaining about his dancing and shouting. They thought it was beneath a good Christian to act in such a way. But whenever he overheard his critics he would simply remind them of how the Prophetess Miriam and King David danced before the Lord, and of the cripple at Lystra who, after he was healed, leaped and walked, praising God. Billy declared that it was even prophesied that “the lame shall leap as a hart” (Isaiah 35:6).

“I can’t help praising God,” Bray insisted. “As I go along the street I lift up one foot, and it seems to say, ‘glory.’ And I lift up the other, and it seems to say, ‘amen,’ and so they keep on like that all the time I am walking. If they were to put me in a barrel, I would shout glory out through the bung-hole.” When Bray was asked if people sometimes got in such a habit of praising that they did not know what they were praising about, he replied, “I do not think that the Lord is much troubled with that class of person.”

When Billy heard about the death of a preacher who had opposed any emotion in the church, he commented, “So, he is done with the doubters and has got up now with the shouters.” Then, turning to some others standing by, he said, “Some can only eat out of the silent dish, but I cannot only eat out of that one, but out of the shouting dish, and jumping dish, and every other dish.”

God transformed Bray into a great evangelist to the poor miners of Cornwall. During his life he and his son built several churches, including Bethel Chapel, Kerley Downs Chapel (also known as Three Eyes Chapel because it was originally built with three large windows) and Great Deliverance Chapel.
Of the Kerley Downs Chapel, built only a mile from where Billy was born, he said, “When our chapel was up about to the door-head, the devil said to me, ‘They are all gone and left you and the chapel and I would go and leave the place too.’ Then I said, ‘Devil, doesn’t thee know me better than that; by the help of the Lord I will have the chapel up, or lose my skin on the down.’ So the devil said no more to me on that subject.

Sometimes I have had blisters on my hands and they have been very sore but I did not mind that, for if the chapel should stand for 100 years and if one soul were converted in it every year that would be 100 souls and that would pay me well if I get to heaven.”

Visions of Heaven & Hell By John Bunyan Read the book that changed Billy Bray's life! Only $8.99

The Real Smith Wigglesworth: The Life & The Faith of the Legendary Evangelist By Desmond Cartwright Reg $12.99 Save 20% Only $10.39

(Click on Book Covers for more information)

CLICK HERE to find more great books at www.TheVoiceBooks.com.


Subscribe to The Voice magazine online and receive a
FREE GIFT: A $5.00 Gift Coupon to use at TheVoiceBooks.com.
CLICK HERE or call 800.943.6490.


A doctor was present at Bray’s bedside at the end of his life. Lacking any bedside manner he told Bray that he was going to die. Bray, considering his words only for a moment, responded, “Glory! Glory be to God! I shall soon be in heaven.” Then he asked the doctor a final question, “When I get up there, shall I give them your compliments, doctor, and tell them you will be coming too?” This pointed question touched the hard-hearted doctor’s heart and demonstrated that even near death Bray’s joy was a powerful witness to the love of Christ.

One of Bray’s last words was, “Glory.” And right before he died he said of death, “What, me fear death? Lost? Why, my Savior conquered death. If I was to go down to hell I would shout glory! Glory, to my blessed Jesus until I made the bottomless pit ring again, and that miserable old Satan would say, ‘Billy, Billy, this is no place for thee: get thee back!’ Then up to heaven I should go, shouting glory! Glory! Praise the Lord!”

William ‘Billy’ Bray, God’s man with a shout, went on to be with the Lord and heaven’s other shouters on May 25, 1868. He is buried at the Kerley Downs Chapel in Cornwall but his legacy lives on to inspire all those who just can’t help but sing, dance and shout for the Lord.


Hungry for more?
Get The Voice magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe or call 954 456-6032.