Preface

For more than a century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermons have been 
consistently recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued 
to the present day, even in the outdated English of the author's own day.  
 
Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and 
proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing?
The answer is obvious.  To increase its usefulness to today's reader, the 
language in which it was originally written needs updating.

Though his sermons have served other generations well, just as they came 
from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be 
lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the 
language is neither readily nor fully understandable.

My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the 
vernacular of our day.  It is designed primarily for you who desire to 
read and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time.  Only 
obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not 
totally familiar in our day have been revised.  However, neither 
Spurgeon's meaning nor intent have been tampered with.
                                                  Tony Capoccia


All Scripture references are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL 
VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of 
Zondervan Bible Publishers.  

                              Revival Work
                                   by
                   Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

   A Sermon, delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Piece Hall, Halifax,
                 on Wednesday evening, April 7th, 1858.

                    "O Lord, revive Your work" (KJV)

Our hearts have, during the last few weeks, been full of joy and 
gratitude at the good news which has come across the sea from the land of 
the West.  We hear that one of the most extraordinary religious 
awakenings has taken place in the United States.  As many as fifty 
thousand persons are reported to have been added to the churches there in 
one month.  There never has been known, since about a hundred years ago, 
in the days of Jonathan Edwards, such a thorough shaking throughout the 
length and breadth of the land, in religious matters.  Now, what is there 
standing in the way of Great Britain, that we should not see the same?  
Why may not every Christian in England pray for the same?  Why shouldn't 
he work for the same, and why shouldn't we have it at last?  

There is one curse in America that we do not have, we call no men slaves; 
but, if even there, the great work of God's Spirit has been carried on, 
we have at least one more probability why we should have the like.  Only 
let us strive in prayer, let us labor diligently, and the day shall yet 
come when we shall see a great revival, when the name of our God shall be 
glorified, and His Churches shall be greatly increased.                  

It is on that subject I shall address you tonight, from the well known 
words in the prayer of Habakkuk, "O Lord, revive Thy work" (KJV).

It is very clear that there are three truths taught in our text:

1. Salvation is God's work.
2. God's work of grace sometimes need reviving.
3. No one can revive God's work but God Himself.

             I. The Great Salvation which God has sent into 
                   the world is entirely His own work.

Whether it be in the mass or in the individual, there is no true religion 
except it comes from above.  A thousand mistakes have been made about 
this matter; and there is but one way of proving this truth, which is so 
explicit as to deny every error.  Some say that religion is, in part at 
least, the work of ministers.  Certain men, gifted with peculiar powers, 
conferred on them by ordination, are set apart to the office of the 
regular ministry; and when they read certain prayers, or when they 
preach, it is supposed that there is in them a special measure of power 
by which the Church and the world are blessed.  

Yes, my brethren, God does make use of His ministers to establish His own 
work; but no so-called "minister" ever yet had power to intermingle with 
God's work.  We may be the instruments, just as Milton's pen was the 
instrument for writing "Paradise Lost," but the pen might as well claim 
the authorship of that wondrous poem as any of us claim the slightest 
iota of glory in the work of salvation.  God, from first to last, must 
have, and shall have, all the glory--neither minister, nor evangelist 
shall share in it.  There will be a curse and a blight on that man's 
labor who does not always stand behind his Master, and declare that 
without Him he can do nothing.

There is another phase of error which also is opposed to this truth.  I 
believe that many of my brethren, of whom I am now about to speak, do not 
see the tendency of certain doctrines they preach; but there are some 
preachers who teach doctrines, which, when refined, come to this, "That 
man is to help God in the work of salvation."  I do not care who the man 
is who says that, he is in error.  Man, when he is moved by the Holy 
Spirit, and empowered by Him, may help as an instrument in his own 
salvation after he has been revived; but the first work of conversion is 
altogether irrespective of man, as to its channel.  God the Holy Spirit 
stimulates the sinner who is "dead in transgressions and sins."  He asks 
of the sinner neither "will" nor "power," but, finding him without 
anything, He gives him everything.   "Salvation comes from the Lord" 
alone.  Jonah learned that truth in the belly of the fish, and if some 
preachers I know were sent to a place like that, they might learn it too.  
A little more trouble with the soul, a little more deep experience, would 
make them come out with this grand old truth, that is sometimes called 
Calvinism, but which, after all, is only Christianity in its bold, naked 
form: "Salvation comes from the Lord."

We call that man an agnostic who says that the world was not created by 
God; but he is worse than an agnostic who takes away the glory of 
salvation from God.  If I wished to choose one out of two sins, the sin 
of denying God's glory in creation, or in salvation, I would prefer to 
deny, against my senses, that God created the world, rather than deny 
that God saves souls.  If I must commit a sin, let me commit the lesser 
one; for it surely is the greatest guilt to try to steal the brightest 
jewel in the crown of God, and that is the jewel of the glory of man's 
salvation.  

No, my hearers, you may criticize this doctrine if you will; but there 
it stands, and you must confess its truth, or else, denying it, you will 
be forced to find it true in this life, or in the next.  Salvation is 
God's work, from the very first holy desire that is breathed into the 
sinner, till the last dying wish with which he enters into Heaven.  God 
shows the sinner his need; he neither could nor would know his need 
unless God showed it to him.  It is the Holy Spirit who gives the sinner 
an insight into the all-sufficiency of Christ; he would never understand 
that unless he were taught of the Spirit.  It is, then, the Spirit who 
touches the will, influences the conscience, guides the sinner out of 
himself to Christ Jesus, who saves him; and after that, it is still all 
of God.  He who was the Alpha must be the Omega.  He must work all our 
works in us, or we shall never see God's face with acceptance.  Of this I 
am persuaded, if I should even get my feet on the golden threshold of 
Paradise, and my finger on its pearly latch, unless I had all-sufficient 
grace to take the last step, I should die and perish on the, very doorway 
of Heaven.  Every Christian should say, 

                        "Grace led my roving feet
                       To tread the Heavenly road;
                    And new supplies each hour I meet
                        While pressing on to God."

                     "Grace taught my soul to pray,
                       And made my eyes overflow;
                   Twas grace that kept me to this day,
                        And will not let me go."

But without grace from God, there is no salvation; for "Salvation comes 
from the Lord" alone.  This doctrine, I hope, we are all ready to 
receive.

             II. The Work of Salvation Often Needs Reviving.

If you know anything of the work of God's grace in your own heart, you 
will frequently have to pray, "O Lord, revive Your work."  Today you are 
full of faith, tomorrow you may be full of doubts.  One day you can sing 
like an angel, the next day your throat is dry, and not a note rises from 
your soul.  One day you stand on a mountain's summit, and another day the 
dens of the leopards are your dreary habitation.  You are at times full 
of zeal, and then nothing is too hard for you; you feel that you could 
give your body to be burned, if it were necessary, to magnify His name.  
But, finally, perhaps there comes a long season of backsliding, and your 
soul grows cold and dead; joy flies away, lukewarmness comes and cools 
your love, all your happiness departs, and your fervor becomes quenched 
in a frost of cold insensibility.  

You often need to be revived; no, more than that, you know that the text 
may be read, as it is in the Hebrew, "O Lord, preserve Your work," for 
there are times when, not only does the work want reviving, but it seems 
as if it were almost gone out, and it must be rekindled and preserved.  
Blessed be God, if any of you need reviving, you have the promise that 
you shall have it, if you seek it with diligence.  "A bruised reed he 
will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out."  He 
carefully takes the wick, and blows it with His own sweet breath; and 
when one spark appears, He gently blows it until there is another, and at 
last the flame becomes bright, and strong, and mighty.  So may it be with 
each of us in our own hearts, in the hidden man of the soul!

I am sure that it is so, too, with the Church at large.  We need to pray 
earnestly, "0 Lord, revive Your work."  There comes, every now and then, 
a mighty stir in our churches.  God sends a George Whitefield, or a John 
Wesley, and a great wave seems to arise upon the surface of the Church, 
and it rolls over the sands of man's indifference.  Gradually it falls 
back, and perhaps there follow fifty more years of sloth, and dull 
routine.  Again God appears in a marvelous manner, and once more He shows 
His power and might; but then once again the revival dies out, and the 
light of Israel seems once more to be quenched, and the glory to have 
departed.  It strikes me that, at this period, we are somewhere between 
the two great waves.  I pray the Lord God that we may very soon, by His 
infinite mercy, see another great wave of blessing arise mightier than 
any that have ever gone before.  

Look at our churches; you will see almost everywhere--I would not speak 
too harshly--you will see nearly everywhere a coldness which cannot be 
too much lamented.  There is a little awakening just now; some of our 
ministers are finding out that they have tongues, and they are beginning 
to speak to "the common people," speaking, too, in good old-fashioned 
language.  They have begun to find out, also, that if they would be the 
instrument of the salvation of souls, they must preach as if they meant 
it; they must not leave their hearts in their studies, bringing their old 
dry manuscripts with them, and stand droning in the pulpit for an hour.  
There is a little awakening, but there is still a need of far more of the 
arousing spirit than they have yet received.  I am sure, if you look 
around you, if any thoughtful man considers the signs of the times, he 
will admit that the doctrine of the text is a doctrine of fact, and that 
the Church often needs reviving, and that she always needs preserving.

           III. No One Can Revive God's Work but God Himself.

I shall presently come to an earnest exhortation; but just a word first 
on this doctrine that is included in my text: "O Lord, revive Your work."    
I have not the slightest atom of faith in any professional revivalism; I 
have never seen any real good come of it.  This I have seen, while the 
revivalist has been holding special services, the people have been 
stirred and warmed, and many have professed to be converted; but, then in 
far too many cases, a blow and a blight have been left on those churches 
for years afterwards, and an injury has been done them from which they 
seemed never to recover.  A man-originated revival is a sort of spiritual 
intoxication, producing a kind of arousing of men and women, yet really 
leaving them flatter and duller than they were before.

But though this kind of revivalism does no good, I know that there are 
true and genuine revivals, and in each of these there is this prominent 
mark, that they are most visibly and eminently of God.  In the great 
revival in New England, you remember it was at first produced under a 
sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards.  There was an ordination, I think, 
and he attended it; but the expected minister did not arrive, and 
Jonathan Edwards was asked to preach.  He had one sermon in his pocket, 
for he always wrote his sermons, and read them; and he was by no means a 
mighty speaker, in the common acceptance of the term.  So he took out his 
manuscript, held it up close to his eye, and stood still, almost without 
motion, except now and then the lifting of his hand; thus he read his 
sermon through from beginning to end.  

The Lord seemed to move among that assembly of people.  A mysterious 
influence entered into all hearts.  Men returned to their homes, and they 
told of the great things they had heard and experienced within.  
Ministers went home, and they began to preach differently from what they 
had done before.  Church members went home, and they began to pray more 
earnestly; and, on a sudden, from the spark that seemed to be kindled by 
the accident of Jonathan Edwards being called upon to preach, there came, 
as it were, one mighty sheet of fire, which spread throughout the land, 
as the consuming element sweeps over the prairie.  So, in the present 
revival, the same fact must be noticed.  There are no great revivalists 
in America now, who are making any wonderful stir.  God just sent them 
somewhere else, and said, "Now, gentlemen, I am about to revive My own 
work."  He began it Himself, and He is carrying it on.  He has aroused New 
York, and all New England with a mighty blessing, the end of which no one 
can tell.  The Lord Himself has done it; and however we may talk about 
revivals, the Lord must do the work Himself, and Himself alone.  We must 
pray, "O Lord, revive Your work."  We must pray the revival down; it is 
ours to use all right means, methods, and instrumentalities, but it must 
be also ours to recollect that all the strength, and all the might, and 
all the success, must come from on high, even from God the Holy Spirit.

Are there any of you here who were converted by a man?  If you were, you 
have grave cause to suspect your conversion.  If one man can convert you, 
another may unconvert you.  That which man can do, man can undo.  Have 
any of you had your churches revived by a man?  Then probably they may 
fall back again; but if the revival be a genuine work of God, a 
supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, then not death, nor hell, can ever 
destroy God's own work; stand it must, and prevail it shall.  "O Lord, 
revive Your work."  "Will You not revive us again, that your people may 
rejoice in you?"
  
Thus I have set before you the three truths in my text; and now, with all 
my might, I desire to speak to you on the subject of a revival, and to 
endeavor to stir up your minds, by way of remembrance, that you may be 
led to seek after a genuine revival of Christianity from the Lord.  I 
beseech you, men, brethren, and fathers, strive with God, both by day and 
by night, for a revival of Christianity in our midst.  My first argument 
is this: you may well be urged to pray earnestly when you consider some 
of the effects of a true revival.

When revivals come into a church, they make a great stir, and effect many 
changes.  There is the minister.  He used to preach at an average rate of 
three miles an hour; he certainly never went beyond that.  He was 
diligent, too, all the week through, in trying to pick out long words of 
many syllables, and thrusting them into his discourses, because, as there 
are hard seeds in fruit, he thought so there ought to be hard words in 
sermons!  It was very seldom that he ever stirred himself in his pulpit; 
had he taken but a pinch of snuff, the people would have noticed it.  It 
would have been a new thing with him, for he was so regular a discourser 
that he had gone on in the same old rut for full twenty years.  

But there came a revival, he did not at first know what to make of it; 
but, somehow or other, he brushed himself up, brought his energy into 
play, and, it is currently declared, the next Sunday he actually told an 
anecdote!  He finds a tear unwittingly come into his eye; and, he does 
not exactly know how it is, but the people actually seem to understand 
his words.  Another Sunday, and the man grows more earnest still; and the 
good old woman in the balcony, who had never been disturbed in her seat 
before, asked, "What has come over our minister?"  It was said by some 
that he was "growing quite young again," but the fact was, the dear man 
was growing quite good again, and God was pouring out His good Spirit 
into his heart.  He put all his old sermons under his bed, and set to 
work to find a few good, homely thoughts, that he might earnestly speak 
to the people.  

His congregation were so struck that they could not make it out at all; 
he was once so dull and drowsy, and now so changed!  But Monday night 
comes, and with it the prayer-meeting.  Never were seen so many present 
before.  The church was half full; how wonderful!  And the Monday after, 
better still, quite full!  But the best of it was yet to come, they had 
to turn into the chapel at length, for lack of room in the main church 
building!  And, what was almost regarded as a miracle, the good old 
senior deacon, who used to begin in such a boring manner and drift into 
idle talk for twenty minutes, actually prayed a half-a-dozen times over, 
"O Lord, save souls, for Jesus Christ's sake!  "And more than that, all 
the praying brethren, when they prayed, pleaded earnestly that God would 
bless their pastor, and prosper him in his work!  Well, next, the 
blessing reached the Sunday-school; the teachers began to seek more 
children to attend; and the children became more thoughtful, yes, some of 
the dear boys and girls were converted to God.  And then followed the 
good effects of the revival all around.  The members of the church began 
to attend more regularly, and they not only came to the services both 
morning and evening on the Sunday, but they actually came on time!

Thus the empty seats in the chapel soon became filled, for the members, 
brought strangers with them.  And, better still, the church was full too.  
The minister called an enquirers' meeting [an evangelistic meeting for 
the unsaved], and, oh! such a number came; and the good man was ready to 
say, "Who has brought me these?"  But the most gratifying thing of all 
was, that those whom the Lord added to the church stood firm; they did 
not run away from her services.  It was God's revival, and God's revivals 
are not spurious.
                
"The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved," and 
these whom He added were still steadfast months later, and many of them, 
in the future, became ministers of the gospel, and some of them were sent 
into foreign lands, to preach among the heathen the glad tidings of 
salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Oh, how I should like to see 
such revivals as these in your good Yorkshire chapels!  Some of our 
churches down London way, in Essex chapels especially, have never done 
anything, I do believe, for the last fifty years, that their great, great 
grandfathers did not do.  If you went into a village, and proposed to 
preach in the open-air, you would be met by numerous objections.  "It is 
not Calvinistic, for the Wesleyans do that."  Well, well, if others do a 
good thing, why should we not follow their example, and do as they do?  
If a special Wednesday prayer-meeting is proposed, the portly deacon 
asks, "What is the use of it?"  Another old preacher says, "The people 
are too busy, also the market comes on a Wednesday, and it would prove 
such a great interference with business."  Then a third chimes in, "No, 
we had rather not, there are too many meetings already."  They are very 
good men, but not quite up to the times, or else they would have seen 
that, now and then, extraordinary means must be used to produce 
extraordinary effects.

Some of our respectable churches would be frightened out of all manner of 
propriety, if God the Holy Spirit should once begin a work of this nature 
in their midst.  There are good old deacons and church-members everywhere 
to be found who, if more than one candidate a month presented himself for 
church-fellowship, would exclaim, "Surely, they can't be good ones" and 
they would begin to try to pump the poor souls dry, by plying them with 
deep theological questions about "the Bible" and "a deep experience" and 
difficult doctrines; and if the candidates made any little blunder, they 
would at once say, "See, you are not up to the mark, and ought not to be 
received; you had better wait a few months until you gain more knowledge 
of the deep things of God."  The effects of a true revival among all our 
churches would be positively astounding; it would do ministers good, 
members good, deacons good, and, above all, it would do sinners good, by 
bringing them to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christian men and women, I beg you, pray that God would pour out His 
Spirit upon us.  The devil is wide-awake, hell is active, unbelief is 
rampant, Roman Catholicism is making mighty strides, every system of 
error is on the alert.  Rise up, rise up, you guardsmen of the truth!  
Rise up, rise up, you mothers in Israel!  Rise up, rise up, for God and 
for His cause!  Cry to God that, as the enemy is becoming mighty, that 
He, God, would prove Himself almighty.  Remember how your time is flying; 
you can only do little for Christ, should you even be spared to live to 
eighty years of age.  What are eighty years?  How little to spend for Him 
who gave His life for us!  Oh! when we think how little we can do, it 
should stir us up to do all we can, and to ask that God, if He will not 
lengthen our years, may double their effect, by making us doubly 
laborious, and doubly useful.

Remember, too, that while time is flying, men are dying, souls are being 
lost, sinners are being hurried away to the bottomless gulf.  Does not 
this thought move your hearts?  Would you not seek to save sinful men and 
women, if you could hear the shrieks and groans of those who have 
perished in their sins, and are now past hope?  And some of these, whom 
you might seek to save, are your own sons and daughters, your own flesh 
and blood.  You have every cause for a revival, for there are among you 
wives who have drunken husbands, and there are husbands here who have 
drunken wives; there are parents here who have ungodly children, sons and 
daughters who make their hearts to ache.  If you will not plead for the 
conversion of other sinners, at least pray for a revival that your own 
offspring may be saved by grace.  If this argument does not touch you, 
what other one can I use?  "He that does not care for his own relatives 
has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."  

Oh, how sweet it is to parents when they see their children brought to 
Christ!  I met with a remarkable instance of a happy woman, not many 
months ago.  A widowed mother had two sons, who were nearly full-grown 
men.  They had been excellent children in their boyhood, but they began 
to be headstrong, as too many young people are prone to be, and they 
would not submit to their mother's control; they would spend their Sunday 
as they pleased, and sometimes in places where they should not have been 
seen.  Their mother determined that she would never give up praying for 
them, and one night she thought she would shut herself up in the house, 
and pray for her sons' conversion.  

The very night she had set apart for prayer on their behalf, the older 
son said to her, "I am going to hear the minister that preaches down 
Southwark way; I am told he is an odd man, and I want to hear him 
preach."  The mother herself did not think much of that minister, but she 
was so glad that her boy was going anywhere within the sound of the Word, 
that she said, "Go, my son."  He added, "My brother is going with me." 
Their mother stayed at home, and earnestly prayed for her sons.  Those 
two young men came to church, and that odd minister was blessed to see 
the conversion of both of them.  When the mother opened the door, on 
their return home, the first one fell upon her neck, weeping as if his 
heart would break.  "Mother," he said, "I have found the Savior; I am a 
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ."  She looked at him a minute, and then 
said, "I know it, my son; tonight I have had power in prayer, and I know 
that I have prevailed.  I knew it would be so."  "But," said the younger 
brother, "Oh, mother! I too, have been cut to the heart, and I also have 
given my heart to Jesus."  

Happy was that mother, and I was happy, too, when she came to me, and 
said, "You have been the means of the conversion of my two sons; I have 
never been baptized before, I see it now to be the Lord's command, I will 
be baptized with my children."  It was my joy to lead the whole three 
down into the water, and to baptize them into "The Name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Why should it not be so in your 
case?  If God should send a revival of Christianity in the midst of your 
church, you may hope that your children will be included in the blessing.

Now, if other arguments have failed, let me give you one more reason why 
you should seek a revival.  There, on the cross, hangs your Savior 
bleeding to death, He looks at you.  I think I hear Him say to you 
tonight, "Love sinners; I love you; do you not love Me?  Do you not love 
sinners for My sake?"  I think I see Him with His blessed hands nailed to 
the cruel cross, and as He hangs there, He looks on you, my brother, over 
there, and He says to you, "Sinner, I am bearing all this for you; what 
will you do for Me?"  What will you do for Jesus Christ, who died to save 
you?  Brothers, sisters, what will you do?  Ask your hearts the question, 
and answer it as you mean to carry it out, "What can I, what shall I, do 
for Christ Jesus my Lord?" one of you says, "I will give my money for 
Christ." Amen!  Another says, "I will use my pen for Christ." Amen! 
Another cries, "I will give my all to Christ; all I am, and all I have, 
shall be hereafter and forever Yours, my Savior." Amen and Amen!  
Practice your resolves; go and live in the world, but no longer as of the 
world, "for you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your 
body."  God grant that so great a revival may spring up in our land!  
"O Lord, revive Your work."

Now I shall conclude by trying to show you how you can, as Christians, 
each of you, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, promote a revival.  It is 
hard to tell, dear friends, what is the best thing that a man can do 
towards the salvation of souls when his heart is right; for, sometimes, 
the very strangest act becomes the most useful.  I will tell you a 
strange but true story.  That holy man, George Whitefield, was once 
staying at Rhode Island, at the house of a sea captain who was a rich and 
honorable man.  The family was very much attached to the preacher, and 
they did everything to make him comfortable.  Whitefield was accustomed 
always to speak to the persons where he stopped, and to warn them to 
"flee from the wrath to come."  But this captain was a man so respectable 
that he did not like to introduce the subject; the devil said to him, 
"George, don't say anything to the captain, he will get right in time, he 
will be sure to come around; see what a nice sort of a man he is; it 
would not be respectful of you, either, to be imposing your religion on 
him; and, besides, he hears you preach, and that is sufficient."  So 
George let day go after day, and did not say anything to the captain, his 
wife, or his family.  

At length, the last night came, and George Whitefield went to bed with an 
aching heart, for his conscience said to him, "Whitefield, you have not 
done all you could for the salvation of this family, and therefore you 
are guilty."  The flesh said, "No, no, Whitefield, you do a great deal 
other good work; God will excuse you letting this one family alone."  
Again the Holy Spirit said, "Not so, not so, Whitefield, you must say 
something."  Well, poor fellow, what to do he could not tell, for he felt 
he could not summon courage to speak to the captain on the last day.  He 
said, "If I had done it before, I could have done it well, but not now." 
At last, this thought struck him; he had a diamond ring on his finger; (I 
never knew the use of those things till I heard this story!) He went to 
the window-pane, and wrote these words, "One thing you lack."  Whitefield 
went his way; this was all that he did, and his heart still ached, for he 
felt sure he had not done all he ought to have done.  He was no sooner 
gone from the house than the captain, who, loved and venerated him, went 
upstairs, and said, "I will look at the bed where this holy man slept." 
The writing on the window-pane at once caught his eye; he stood and 
looked, and looked, and wept, and wept again.  He then went to the head 
of the stairs, and said, "Wife, come up here."  She came, and he, 
pointing to the window-pane, said, "There, you and I thought we had made 
this good man comfortable, and we fancied that he had forgotten our 
souls; but, you see, he was troubled about us; he did not like to speak 
to us, yet he could not go away without leaving a message, for his heart 
was sad about us." "Oh!" she said, "I wondered why he did not seem 
concerned about us, but I see it now;" and she began to weep with her 
husband.  He said to her, "Let us call the children up," so they called 
them up, and said to them, "Look there! Read that!" They read it, and 
there and then the Spirit of God convinced them of sin, and led them to 
Christ.  I know the person who now has in her possession the pane of 
glass bearing this very writing cut with the diamond, and it is kept by 
the family as a memento of the most sacred kind.  Who can tell how little 
a thing may do good?  Only get your heart right, have an anxious desire 
to do good, and you cannot tell how you may be the means of promoting a 
revival, and so bring about the conversion of your friends.

But if you want a large blessing, let me say, first of all, "Meet for 
prayer."  What a grand thing a good prayer-meeting is!  I like the 
"Amen!" when people do not shout it out too loudly, and when they put it 
in the right place.  To hear it sometimes makes a man respond, "Amen! 
Amen!" he cannot help it.  I was once at a Primitive Methodist meeting 
where a good brother was intent in prayer, so, they said to him, "Plead 
the blood, plead the blood, brother!"  It frightened me at first, till I 
remembered where I was.  The poor man did plead the blood of Jesus, and 
we had a blessed prayer-meeting indeed.  What we want is, more life and 
earnestness in all our prayer-meetings; briefer, more fervent, burning, 
believing praying.  If we all prayed as we would plead for our own lives, 
if we all said no more words than were needed, and quit when we had done 
praying, then we should have good prayer-meetings.  Some of our brethren 
evidently have an idea that they must keep up to the orthodox twenty 
minutes, and there they stand, telling God everything in the world, but 
not praying even one little petition.  

One night, I told one of our friends who had asked the Lord to forgive 
him for his shortcomings, that he should have prayed to be forgiven for 
his longcomings.  He kept praying for such a great while that he prayed 
us into a good spirit, and then prayed us right out again.  Our prayer-
meetings must not be shams; all the deacons must be present, whosoever 
else may be absent.  If they do not lead in attendance at all public 
services on Sundays and on week-nights, how can we expect the members to 
be present?  The prayers must be real prayers, five minutes apiece, ten 
at the outside; and those who do pray, must be earnest; one cold prayer 
dampens and spoils a whole prayer-meeting.

Then, again, if revivals are to become more numerous, we must become more 
consistent.  We have rich men, members of our churches, grinding the 
faces of the poor; and while this is the case, God will assuredly 
withhold His blessing.  Some men, when they resolve to become rich, seem 
as if they constructed a great cauldron, into which they are ever ready 
to pitch their poor clerks and working people, with their wives and 
children, crying, "Never mind them; do not trouble about their comfort;" 
and thus they go on, until curses follow them as they walk the streets.  
They seem to say, "Boil them all up, and then let us go and receive the 
Lord's Supper."  Detestable hypocrisy!  And, you, shopkeepers, too, when 
the poor come to deal with you, be sure that you adulterate all the 
things they buy; if you must sell at a large profit, do it; that's the 
way some get on in this world.  People say they must live; I wonder, if 
they have forgotten that they must DIE!  

We cannot expect to have God's blessing until storekeepers, salesmen, 
masters and workmen, employers and servants, feel that the Holy One is 
their Master, even Christ, and that all they are brethren.  Some men, who 
are members in our churches, are as bad as their masters; they merely 
"put in their time at their jobs."  Some people think it is very bad that 
a boss oppresses his workers, but it is equally wrong for the worker to 
cheat his boss.  There are some men who pray most delightfully, but I 
would not give them six pennies a day for their work; they don't mind 
eating other people's bread, but never know what it is to earn their own.  
The commandment in the Bible is, "Six days you shall labor and do all 
your work."  Some people make a fuss about keeping the Lord's Day holy 
and special, but they are not so careful to labor the "six days."  Work 
during the six days, then rest on the Lord's Day.  God will not hold the 
man guiltless who observes only one half of His commandment.  A partial 
obedience is positive disobedience.

You see, I am treating you all alike; there is a piece for everyone, and 
if the cap fits anybody, let him wear it to his heart's content, and 
"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance."

I was preaching in the shoe manufacturing area, some time ago, when the 
shoes where being sold for six pennies per shoe, and the workers 
applauded me; so I said a few more things, and they applauded me again; 
then, when I tried to talk straight to the workers, the masters began to 
applaud.  I have tonight said something for all of you, for it seems that 
all need the word of reproof.  Oh, if we could all love one another!  
Down in the cotton districts, in the wool country, and in the iron 
districts, we do not love one another as we should.  "In everything, do 
to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law 
and the Prophets."  

In London, the old idea about loving one another, the master loving his 
worker, and the mistress her servant girl, is deemed Utopian and 
ridiculous, and the question is asked, "Who can do it?"  I wish, though, 
we could get the old idea back again, and love one another.  Why, men 
would work ten times more cheerfully, if they could only feel that their 
masters loved them, and took an interest in them, and masters would be 
better served.  When this comes to pass, then we shall see a great 
revival of Christianity.  But the present clashing of interests, the 
knocking one against another, prevents the growth of Christianity.  

The poor man says, "I shall not go to church; look at the deacon, he is 
such a harsh man."  Then there is the church where most of the members 
are poor, and the master says, "I shall not join them, they are only my 
workers."  So both of them are kept from the place where God would bless 
them, because they have not learned the great truth that God has "From 
one man made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole 
earth."  Until that truth is fully recognized, men will not know how to 
have love one to one another.  We must try to set this matter right, and 
then God will bless us, He will bless us, and right away.

Let us go to our pulpits, my brethren in the ministry, praying for a 
revival.  Deacons, go to your offices, asking for a revival.  Church- 
members, take yourselves to your prayer meetings, and plead for a 
revival.  And, oh, you who are unconverted, remember, it is for your 
sakes we want a revival!  Hear me, you who are unsaved, while I preach 
the gospel to you for a minute.  You are lost, you are ruined, you are 
utterly condemned.  Christ Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, to 
save sinners, to save you.  "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be 
saved--you and your household."  

Cast yourself entirely on Jesus; say, "Sink or swim, I take Jesus to be 
my only hope.  I give up everything else, and take Christ to be my all, 
and in all."  If you are able to say that from the heart, believing 
wholly and entirely on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you may rejoice 
that you are safe now, and you will be safe when the earth will reel and 
stagger, when the pillars of heaven will stagger, when the stars will 
fall, and when all created things will pass away.  

Believe! Believe! Believe! Look, Look, Look, and Live!  The Lord is ready 
to save you.  He Himself invites you, yes, commands you to turn to Him 
and be saved: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I 
am God, and there is no other."  I have often told the story of how that 
text was blessed to my soul's conversion; it is a Baptist text, and an 
Independent text, and an Evangelical text, too.  We may not agree in all 
things; but, poor sinner, we are agreed in telling you to look to Jesus 
Christ for salvation.

                    "Venture on Him, venture wholly,
                       Let no other trust intrude;"

                    " None but Jesus, none but Jesus,
                     Can do helpless sinners good."

Oh, that there may be some here tonight who will now look to Jesus!  
Spirit of the living God, hear our prayers!  Save sinners; grant a 
revival to the whole Church of Jesus Christ, for His Name's Sake!  Amen 
and Amen.


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