THE PASTOR PREACHER ONLINE

Let me ask you, instead of grumbling at your minister, instead of finding fault with the different parts of the Church, let me ask you to cry out, “O Lord, revive your work.” “Oh!” one says, “Oh, that we had another minister! Oh, that we had another kind of worship! Oh, that we had a different sort of preaching!” Just as if that were the simple solution; but my prayer is, “Oh, that the Lord would come into the hearts of the men you have! Oh, that he would make the forms you use to be full of power!” You don’t need fresh ways or new structures; you need life in those that you have. There is an locomotive on the railroad tracks; but the train will not move. “Bring another locomotive,” one says, “and another, and another.” The locomotives are brought, but the train still does not move. Light the fire and get up more steam, that is what you need; not new engines. We do not need new ministers, or new plans, or new ways, though many might be invented, to make the Church better; we only need life and fire in those that we have. With the very man who has emptied your church, the very same person that weakened your prayer-meetings, God can yet make the church to be crowded to the doors, and give thousands of souls to that very man. It is not a new man that is needed; it is the life of God in him. Don’t be crying out for something new; it will no more solve your problem than what you now have. Cry out, “O Lord, revive your work.”