A strange phenomenon when there is a revival

“But ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8)

How little one knows or enters into the grand realities of the new kosmos! This is, I believe, a momentous time.

We have been, like Israel of old, oppressed by the Philistines in the land. We have, as it were, to regain possession. We have been merely nominal masters of it. It is a grievous anomaly to be nominally heavenly, while not in heavenly power. Here is our lack, a high name with a low practice, heavenly in name without the practical traits of it.

It is a strange phenomenon that when there is a revival, even in the true sense, Christians are more occupied with the winning of souls than with standing for Christ themselves. I believe the former would not be deficient if the latter were paramount.

Recruiting is for the army; the more constant the fighting, the greater need for recruits; but to leave the front in order to recruit is not progress, it is only a cover to the conscience. No one was ever yet set for the glory of Christ and the extension of His name who did not rejoice in the conversion of earnest souls.

There never is finer recruiting than in the days of successful battles with the enemy. There is fighting, no doubt, to win a soul; but it is as one can plant the heavenly standard in presence of the foe, that we are witnesses for Christ. It is the witness that is wanted in this day.

Every witness is a trophy of the power of Christ on the field of battle. Without converts we could not have witnesses; but there are many converts who are not witnesses.

J.B.S.