This sermon, titled Revival Work, was originally preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Wednesday evening, April 7, 1858. It came from the book of Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 2, O Lord, revive thy work. Listen now to the updated version. During the past few weeks, Our hearts have been full of joy and gratitude at the good news which has come from America. We have heard that one of the most extraordinary religious awakenings has taken place in the United States. As many as 50,000 persons are reported to have been added to their churches in just one month. Since the days of Jonathan Edwards, about a hundred years ago, there has never been such a sweeping revival of Christianity throughout the land. Now I ask you, what is there standing in the way of Great Britain that would prevent us from experiencing a revival like that? Why shouldn't every Christian in England pray for that kind of revival? Why shouldn't we be working for that kind of revival to happen? And why shouldn't we finally experience it? There is one curse in America today that we do not have. We call no men slaves. But if the great work of God's spirit has been carried on despite America's legalized slavery, then surely we have at least one more probability that a revival may start here. Let us strive in prayer. Let us labor diligently. And the day will yet come when we will see a great revival, when the name of our God will be glorified and his churches will greatly increase in numbers. It is on that subject that I address you tonight, which comes from the well-known words in the prayer of Habakkuk, O Lord, revive thy work. It is very clear that there are three truths taught in our text. Salvation is God's work. Secondly, God's work of grace sometimes needs reviving. And thirdly, no one can revive God's work but God himself. The first truth taught in our text is that salvation is God's work. The great salvation which God has sent into the world is entirely his own work. Whether we speak of large groups of people or individuals, there is no true conversion to Christianity except that which comes from above. A thousand mistakes have been made about this truth, and there is only one way of proving it, which is so clear that it will easily show the falseness of the errors. Some say that conversion to Christianity is at least in part the work of ministers. Certain men, gifted with unusual powers, conferred on them by ordination, are set apart to the office of the pastor-preacher, and when they pray 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, it is true that God makes use of His ministers to establish His own work, but no so-called minister has ever had the 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 to allow the pen to also claim the authorship of that wondrous poem would be the same as any of us making the slightest claim of glory in the work of salvation. God, from first to last, must have and will have all the glory. Neither the minister nor the evangelist will share in it. There will be a curse on that man's labor who does not always stand behind his master and declare that without the master he can do nothing. There is another kind of error which is also opposed to this truth. I believe that many of my fellow ministers in this land, of whom I am about to speak, do not see the tendency of certain doctrines they preach. There are some preachers who teach doctrines which simply say that man is to help God in the work of salvation. I do not care who the man is who says that. He is wrong. 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 completely irrespective of man as to its source and its power. 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 their soul, a little more deep experience would make them cry out this grand old truth that is sometimes called Calvinism, but which after all, is only Christianity in its bold, naked form. And that truth is, salvation comes from the Lord. We call a 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 had to choose between committing one of two sins, the sin of denying God's glory in creation or in salvation, I would prefer to deny against my own senses that God created the world rather than to 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. Know, my listeners, you may criticize this doctrine if you want, 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 request 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 Jesus Christ, 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 of our works in us, or we will never be acceptable to God, nor see his face. I am persuaded that if I ever should get my feet on that golden threshold of paradise and my finger on its pearly latch, unless I had all sufficient grace to take the last step, I would die and perish on the very doorway of heaven. Every Christian should say, grace led my roving feet to walk 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. It was 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. I hope that every one of us are ready to receive this doctrine. The second truth taught in our text is that God's work of grace sometimes needs reviving. 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, oh Lord, revive thy 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 mountaintop and the next day you're living in a dark cave. You are at times full of zeal and nothing is too hard for you. You feel that you could give your body to be burned at the stake 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 thy work, for there are times when not only does the work need reviving, but it seems as if the fire had almost gone out, and it must be rekindled and renewed. Blessed be God, if any of you need reviving, you have the promise that you will 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 then when one spark appears, he gently blows it until there is another, and finally the flame becomes bright and strong and mighty. So may it be with each one of us in our own hearts, in the hidden part of our own souls. I am sure that it is true with the church at large. We need to pray earnestly, O Lord, revive thy work. There comes every now and then a mighty stir in our churches. God sends a George Whitfield 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 comes 50 more years of laziness and dullness in the church. 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 have been quenched and the glory to have departed. It strikes me that right now, we are somewhere between the two great waves. We need to pray earnestly, O Lord, revive thy work. Now, I will not try to speak too harshly, but look at our churches. You will see almost everywhere a coldness which should cause us to have great sorrow. Just now, there is a little awakening. Some of our ministers are finding out that they have tongues, and they are beginning to speak to the common people, speaking also in good, old-fashioned language. They have begun to find out that if they would become 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 sermons with them and stand droning in the pulpit for an hour or so. 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 or woman considers the signs of the times, they will admit that the doctrine of the text is a doctrine of fact, and that the church often needs reviving, and that she will always need to be renewed. The third truth taught in our text is that no one can revive God's work but God himself. I will soon give an earnest exhortation, but first I need to give just a word on this doctrine that is included in my text. O Lord, revive thy work. I do not have the slightest amount of faith in any man-generated professional revivals. I have never seen any real good come of it. This I have seen, while the professional 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 great wound has been left on those churches for years to come, and an injury has been done to them from which there seems never to be a recovery. A man-originated revival is a sort of spiritual intoxication, producing a kind of arousing of men and women, yet really leaving them colder 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 a prominent feature, that they are most visibly and eminently of God. In the great revival of New England, it was 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 out his sermons, and he read them. And he was by no means a mighty speaker. So he took out his manuscript, held it up close to his eye, and stood still, almost without motion, except now and then he would lift his hand. Thus, he read his sermon through from beginning to end. The Lord seemed to move among the assembly of people. A mysterious influence entered into every heart. Men returned to their homes, and they told of the great things they had heard and experienced within their own hearts. 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 all of 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 wall of fire, which spread throughout the land like a consuming flame that sweeps over the prairie. So today, in America's present revival, the same fact must be noticed. There are no great revivalists in America right now who are causing any wonderful awakening of the souls. God just sent them somewhere else to get them out of the way and said, now 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 of 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 Thy work. We must pray the revival down from heaven. We have the freedom to use all proper means, methods, and approaches. But we must always remember that all the strength and all the might and all the success must come from on high, 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 is a genuine work of God, a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, then neither death nor hell can ever destroy God's own work. It must stand and it will prevail. Oh Lord, revive thy work. Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Thus, my friends, 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 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 implore you men, women, brethren, and fathers, strive with God both day and night for a revival of Christianity in our midst. My first argument is this. You may be urged to pray earnestly when you consider some of the effects of true revival. When revivals come to a church, they make a great stir and affect 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 week long in trying to pick out long words of many syllables and thrusting them into his sermons, because as there are hard seeds in fruit, he thought so there ought to be hard words in sermons. Very seldom had he ever gotten excited in his pulpit. He had been in the same old rut for 20 years. But then there came a revival. He did not at first know what to make of it. But somehow or other, he brushed himself off, brought his energy into play, and it is currently declared the next Sunday he actually included an illustration in his sermon. He finds a tear unintentionally come into his eye, and he does not know exactly why it is. But the people actually seem to understand his words. The next Sunday, and the man becomes even more earnest, and the good old woman in the balcony, who had never been disturbed in her seat before, asks the question, what has come over our minister? It was said by some that he was growing young again, but the fact was, the dear man was growing good again, and God was pouring out his Holy Spirit into his heart. He put all of his old sermons away and set to work to find a few good, simple thoughts that he might earnestly speak to the people. His congregation were overwhelmed and could not understand what was happening. Before he was so dull and drowsy, and now he is so different. But Monday night comes, and with it comes the prayer meeting. Never were there so many people present before. The church was half full. How wonderful. And the Monday after, better still, the church was almost full of people. But the best of it was yet to come. In time, they had to put the overflow of people into the chapel because of the lack of room in the main church building. And what was almost regarded as a miracle, the old senior deacon, who used to begin his prayer in such a boring manner and drift into idle talk for 20 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 Christ. And then the effects of the revival spread everywhere. The members of the church began to attend more regularly, and they not only came to both morning and evening services on Sunday, but they actually showed up 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 for a special evangelistic meeting for the unsaved. And oh, such a large number came, so large that the minister was caused to say, where did they all come from? But the most gratifying thing of all was that those whom the Lord added to the church stood firm. They were faithful in their attendance at all of our services. It was God's revival. and God's revivals are genuine. 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 went into foreign lands to preach among the heathen the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, how I would like to see such revivals as these in your churches. Some of our churches in London have never done anything, I do believe, for the last 50 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, Wednesday is the big market day, and it would be such a great interference with business. Then a third chimes in, no, we'd rather not. There are too many meetings already. They are all 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 old deacons and church members everywhere to be found who, if more than one candidate a month presented himself for church membership, they would exclaim, surely they can't be truly saved. 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 quickly say to him, see, you are not up to the mark and 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 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 Christian 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 guardians 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 more mighty, that he, God, would prove himself almighty. Remember how your time is flying. You can only do a little for Christ, even if you would be allowed to live to 80 years of age. What are 80 years? How little time to spend for Him who gave His life for us. Oh, when we think of how little we can do, it should stir us to do all that we can and to ask that God, if he will not lengthen our years, may double their effect by making us twice as diligent and twice as useful. Remember, too, that while time is flying, men are dying. Souls are being lost. Sinners are being hurried away to the bottomless pit. Doesn't 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 in the fires of hell? And some of these whom you might seek to save are your own sons and daughters, your own flesh and blood. You have every reason 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 have caused 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. As an illustration, I must tell you that not many months ago, I met with a very happy woman, a widowed mother who had two sons who were nearly full-grown men. They had been excellent children in their childhood, 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 decided that she would shut herself up in the house and pray for her son's conversions. The very night she had set apart for prayer on their behalf, the older son came to her and said this, I am going to hear the minister that preaches down Southwork Way. I am told he is a very 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, go. He added, my brother is going with me. Their mother stayed at home and earnestly prayed for her sons. Those two 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 hugged her, 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 for a minute and then said, I know it, my son. I know it. Tonight I have had great 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 life 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 conversions of my two sons. I have never been baptized before, but now I see it to be the Lord's command. I will be baptized with my children." It was my joy to lead all three down into the water and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Why shouldn't this be true in your case also? If God should send a revival of Christianity in the midst of your church, you may have 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 at you and he says, sinner, I am burying 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 with a sincere desire to serve Him now. What can I? What will I? What will I do for Jesus Christ, my Lord?

One of you says, I will give my money for Christ. Amen. Another says, I will use my pen for Christ. Amen to you. Another cries, I will give my all to Christ. All that I am and all that I have will be hereafter and forever yours, my Savior. Amen and amen. Practice your resolves. Go and live in the world, but no longer as one of the world, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. May God grant that such a great revival will spring up in our land. Oh, Lord, revive thy work.

Now, I will conclude by trying to show you how, as Christians, you can, each one of you, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, promote a revival. Dear friends, it is hard to tell what is the best thing that a man can do for 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 in Rhode Island in the United States, and he was staying 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. Now Whitfield was always accustomed to speak to the persons where he stayed and to warn them to flee from the wrath to come. But this captain was a man so respectable that George 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 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 the days go by and did not say anything to the captain, his wife, or his family.

Finally, the last night came, and George Whitfield went to bed with an aching heart, for his conscience said to him, You have not done all that you could for the salvation of this family, and therefore, you are guilty." The flesh said, no, no, Whitfield, you do a great deal of other good work. God will excuse you letting this one family alone. Again, the Holy Spirit said, not so, not so, Whitfield, you must say something. Well, poor George, He did not know what to do, for he felt that he could not summon up enough 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. Finally, this thought struck him. He had a diamond ring on his finger. Now, I never knew what those things were used for until I heard this story. Anyway, he went to the window, and he etched these words on the glass. And these are the words. One thing you lack. One thing you lack. Then Whitfield went on his way. That was all he did. And his heart still ached, for he felt sure he had not done all that 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 want to look at the bed where this holy man slept. The writing on the windowpane at once caught his eye. He stood and looked, and looked, and he wept, and he wept again. He then went to the head of the stairs and said, wife, come up here. She came, and he, pointing to the windowpane, 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. So they called them upstairs and said to them, look there, read that. They read it, and there and then the Spirit of God convinced them of their sin and led them all to Christ.

I know the person who now has in her possession the pane of glass bearing this very writing cut with a diamond, and it is kept by the family as a most sacred memento. Who can tell how much good can be done by such a little thing? 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 this, first of all, meet together for prayer. Meet together 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 say it at just the right time. Sometimes a man hears something preached that makes him respond, amen, amen. He cannot help himself. I once attended a prayer meeting where a good brother was intent in praying. So they said to him, plead the blood, plead the blood, brother. The poor man did plead the blood of Jesus, and we had a most blessed prayer meeting. What we need is more life and earnestness in all of our prayer meetings, briefer, more fervent, burning, believing prayers. 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 would have good prayer meetings. Some of our brethren evidently have an idea that they must keep up to the Orthodox 20 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 from his longcomings. He kept praying for such a long time 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. Whoever else may be absent, they must be there. If they do not lead in attendance at all public services on Sunday and on weeknights, how can we expect the members to be present? The prayers must be real prayers, five minutes apiece, 10 at the outside, and those who do pray must be earnest. One cold prayer dampens and spoils the whole prayer meeting. Then again, if revivals are to be more numerous, we must become more consistent. We have rich men who are members of our churches taking advantage 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 construct a great cooking pot into which they are always ready to throw in their poor clerks and working people, along with their wives and children, saying, never mind them, do not trouble yourself about their comfort. And thus they go on until curses follow them as they walk down the streets. They seem to say, Boil them. Oh, by the way, let us go and receive the Lord's supper at church. Detestable hypocrisy. And you, shopkeepers, when the poor come to your shops, you are sure to charge them the highest prices for everything that they buy. If you must sell at a large profit, do it. That's the way the world does it. People say, well, I have to make enough money to live. I wonder. if they have forgotten that they also must die.

We cannot expect to have God's blessings until merchants, salesmen, employers, employees feel that the Holy One Jesus Christ is their master and that they are all brethren. Some men who are members in our churches are as bad as their employers. They merely put in their time at their jobs. Some people think it is very wrong that a boss oppresses his workers, but it is equally wrong for a worker to cheat his boss. There are some men who pray most solemnly, but I would not give them six pennies a day for their work. They don't mind eating other people's bread, but they never know what it is to earn their own. The commandment in the Bible is, six days you will labor and do all your work. Some people make a big deal 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 something for everyone. And if a shoe fits anybody, let him wear it to his heart's content and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Some time ago, I was preaching in the shoe manufacturing area when shoes were being sold for six pennies per shoe, and the workers applauded me. So I said a few more things, and they applauded me again. And then when I tried to talk directly to the workers, then the management began to applaud. I have tonight said something for all of you. For it seems that we 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. Yet the Bible says, 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 employer loving the employee and the mistress loving 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 10 times more cheerfully if they could only feel that their employers loved them and took an interest in them. and the employers would be better served. When this comes to pass, then we will see a great revival of Christianity. But the present clashing of interests, the knocking of one against the other, prevents the growth of Christianity. The poor working man says, I will not go to church. Look at that deacon over there. He is such a harsh man. then there is the church where most of the members are of the poor working class. And their employer says, I will 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 for each other. We must try to set this matter straight, and then God will quickly bless us.

Let us go to our pulpits, my brethren in the ministry. Let us pray 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 you, you who are unconverted, remember it is for your sake that 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 in all. If you are able to say that from the heart, believe in wholly and entirely on the 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 sway, 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, command 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 used for my own soul's conversion. It is a Baptist text, it is an independent text, and it is an evangelical text. We may not always 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. No one but Jesus, no one but Jesus can do helpless sinner any 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.