Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the middle of the years… I. THE CHIEF NEED OF THE WORLD TO-DAY IS A GENERAL REVIVAL OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. The preconceptions of most of us are not favourable to revivals. Theories, however, cannot stand for a moment against stubborn facts. There is one fact which renders a revival necessary for a vast number of people. All scientists recognise that retrogression is as much a fact of nature as is evolution or progress. History is full of illustrations of the decay of races and the decline of nations. Only one remedy is open to us, when the decay concerns our religious life. It is a revival — the regaining, by a supreme moral effort, of the spiritual heights which have been lost. II. REVIVALS ARE NORMAL. We are inclined to think that with the world and the Church in an ideal state, a movement closely corresponding to revivals would still take place. Life moves in periods or cycles. III. BOTH THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE CONFIRM THIS VIEW OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. The Church has always made her great conquests under revival influences. Revival of religion was inaugurated by the Wesleys and Whitefield. was a great religious revival. The began as a revival of religion. The Christian Church was born in a revival which swept three thousand souls into the kingdom on the day of Pentecost. IV. HOW MAY WE PROMOTE A REVIVAL? 1. By earnest prayer. 2. By determined, personal effort. (J. W. Bashford.) Parallel Verses KJV: O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. |
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