Nine-tenths, at least, of our church members never think of speaking
for Christ. If they see a man, perhaps a near relative, going right
down to ruin, going rapidly, they never think of speaking to him about
his sinful course and of seeking to win him to Christ. Now certainly
there must be something wrong. And yet when you talk with them you
find they have faith, and you cannot say they are not children of God;
but they have not the power, the liberty, the love that real disciples
of Christ should have.
A great many think that we need new measures, new churches, new
organs, new choirs, and all these new things. That is not what the
Church of God needs to-day. It is the old power that the apostles had.
If we have that in our churches, there will be new life.
I remember when in Chicago many were toiling in the work, and it
seemed as though the car of salvation didn't move on, when a minister
began to cry out from the very depths of his heart:
"Oh, God, put new ministers in every pulpit."
Next Monday I heard two or three men stand up and say, "We had a new
minister last Sunday--the same old minister, but he had got new
power," and I firmly believe that is what we want to-day all over
America--new ministers in the pulpit and new people in the pews. We
want people quickened by the Spirit of God.