I was sent this in a e-mail and it seemed quite "heart-provoking". Does it challenge you? I am afraid I fall quite short of the mark! JLT
We wish to affirm, too, that we can entertain no hope of a mighty,
globe-encircling Holy Spirit revival without there being first a back to
the Bible movement. The Author of the Bible is being greatly dishonoured
these days by the doubt cast upon His Word. It must, indeed, be a cause
of intense grief to Him that the Book which alone testifies of the Lord
Jesus should be so lightly esteemed by man. Unless the Bible is to us in
very truth the Word of God, our prayers can be naught but sheer mockery.
There never has been a revival except where there have been Christian
men and women thoroughly believing in and wholeheartedly pleading the
promises of God.
The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the only weapon
which has ever been mightily used in revival. Where it has been given
for what it claims to be, the Word of God has always been like a sharp,
two edged sword, like fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces. ..
During my student days in Toronto my one weapon, in the jails and slums,
was the Bible. In China I have often given from thirty-five to forty
addresses in a week, practically all of them being simply Bible
rehearsals. In fact, I think I can safely say that, during the forty-one
years that I have been on the foreign field, I have never once addressed
a Chinese audience without an open Bible in my hand, from which I could
say, “Thus saith the Lord!” I have always taken it for granted that the
simple preaching of the Word would bring men to Christ. It has never
failed me yet. My Chinese pastor, one of the most consecrated men I have
ever met, was saved from a life of shame and vice by the first Gospel
address which he ever heard me give.
My deepest regret, on reaching threescore years and ten, is that I have
not devoted more time to the study of the Bible. Still, in less than
nineteen years I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese
fifty-five times. That prince of Bible teachers, Dr. Campbell Morgan,
has declared that he would not attempt to teach any book in the Bible
unless he had first read it over at least fifty times. Some years ago, I
understand, a gentleman attended the English Keswick and was so fired
with a zeal for the Bible that in three years he read it through twelve
times. One would imagine, of course, that he belonged to the leisured
class. On the contrary, however, he began his day’s work at the
Motherwell steel plant at 5:30 a. m.
The Bible was not so neglected a Book when the great revivals of 1857-59
swept over the United States and Great Britain. Neither was it so
neglected in Moody’s time. During the late Manchu dynasty, scholars were
expected to know the classics of their sages off by heart. How do the
scholars of so-called Christian lands measure up to that standard as
regards the “World’s Great Classic”? It is nothing short of pathetic how
so many, who come professedly to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in
China, know so little of His Word. Thirty years ago the missionary ideal
was to know the Bible so well that one would not have to carry around a
concordance. Is the indifference to the Bible today on the part of so
many missionaries due to the fact, perhaps, that they have discovered
some better means with which to meet the needs of a sin sick world?
Finally, the call to revival must be a call to exalt Jesus Christ in our
hearts as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is like an Everest peak,
rising from the level plain. There must be room only for Him, if we
would have Him dwell with us at all. Every idol must be smashed; every
darling Isaac laid on the altar; every urge of self denied. Then, and
then only, can we expect the larger fields to open before us. ..
Was there ever such an incomparable opportunity for Christian leaders to
get rid of their ecclesiastical idols and bring themselves into heart
contact with the unsearchable riches of Christ as at the Missionary
Conference in Edinburgh in 1910? There has been no Church gathering in
modern times around which such expectations have centred. Missionary
leaders had come from all parts of the world. It was the confident hope
of many that a new era in missions had dawned. The subject for the last
day was -- “The Home Base.” It provoked visions of endless
possibilities. The home churches, empowered by a mighty Holy Ghost
Revival, would send out men fitted as were Paul and Barnabas. With their
enormous resources in men and means the world would be evangelized in a
generation.
Alas! it was only a dream. Never have I experienced such keen pain and
disappointment as I did that day. Of the many who addressed that great
missionary gathering, not more than three emphasized God the Holy Spirit
as the one essential factor in world evangelization. Listening to the
addresses that day, one could not but conclude that the giving of the
Gospel to lost mankind was largely a matter of better organization,
better equipment, more men and women. Symptoms, indeed, were not lacking
that a few more sparks might have precipitated an explosion. But no, the
dethronement of the idol of ecclesiastical self-sufficiency was
apparently too great a price to pay.
But, brethren, the Spirit of God is with us still. Pentecost is yet
within our grasp. If revival is being withheld from us it is because
some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing
our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the
unchangeable truth that “it is not by might, but BY MY SPIRIT.”
globe-encircling Holy Spirit revival without there being first a back to
the Bible movement. The Author of the Bible is being greatly dishonoured
these days by the doubt cast upon His Word. It must, indeed, be a cause
of intense grief to Him that the Book which alone testifies of the Lord
Jesus should be so lightly esteemed by man. Unless the Bible is to us in
very truth the Word of God, our prayers can be naught but sheer mockery.
There never has been a revival except where there have been Christian
men and women thoroughly believing in and wholeheartedly pleading the
promises of God.
The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the only weapon
which has ever been mightily used in revival. Where it has been given
for what it claims to be, the Word of God has always been like a sharp,
two edged sword, like fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in
pieces. ..
During my student days in Toronto my one weapon, in the jails and slums,
was the Bible. In China I have often given from thirty-five to forty
addresses in a week, practically all of them being simply Bible
rehearsals. In fact, I think I can safely say that, during the forty-one
years that I have been on the foreign field, I have never once addressed
a Chinese audience without an open Bible in my hand, from which I could
say, “Thus saith the Lord!” I have always taken it for granted that the
simple preaching of the Word would bring men to Christ. It has never
failed me yet. My Chinese pastor, one of the most consecrated men I have
ever met, was saved from a life of shame and vice by the first Gospel
address which he ever heard me give.
My deepest regret, on reaching threescore years and ten, is that I have
not devoted more time to the study of the Bible. Still, in less than
nineteen years I have gone through the New Testament in Chinese
fifty-five times. That prince of Bible teachers, Dr. Campbell Morgan,
has declared that he would not attempt to teach any book in the Bible
unless he had first read it over at least fifty times. Some years ago, I
understand, a gentleman attended the English Keswick and was so fired
with a zeal for the Bible that in three years he read it through twelve
times. One would imagine, of course, that he belonged to the leisured
class. On the contrary, however, he began his day’s work at the
Motherwell steel plant at 5:30 a. m.
The Bible was not so neglected a Book when the great revivals of 1857-59
swept over the United States and Great Britain. Neither was it so
neglected in Moody’s time. During the late Manchu dynasty, scholars were
expected to know the classics of their sages off by heart. How do the
scholars of so-called Christian lands measure up to that standard as
regards the “World’s Great Classic”? It is nothing short of pathetic how
so many, who come professedly to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in
China, know so little of His Word. Thirty years ago the missionary ideal
was to know the Bible so well that one would not have to carry around a
concordance. Is the indifference to the Bible today on the part of so
many missionaries due to the fact, perhaps, that they have discovered
some better means with which to meet the needs of a sin sick world?
Finally, the call to revival must be a call to exalt Jesus Christ in our
hearts as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is like an Everest peak,
rising from the level plain. There must be room only for Him, if we
would have Him dwell with us at all. Every idol must be smashed; every
darling Isaac laid on the altar; every urge of self denied. Then, and
then only, can we expect the larger fields to open before us. ..
Was there ever such an incomparable opportunity for Christian leaders to
get rid of their ecclesiastical idols and bring themselves into heart
contact with the unsearchable riches of Christ as at the Missionary
Conference in Edinburgh in 1910? There has been no Church gathering in
modern times around which such expectations have centred. Missionary
leaders had come from all parts of the world. It was the confident hope
of many that a new era in missions had dawned. The subject for the last
day was -- “The Home Base.” It provoked visions of endless
possibilities. The home churches, empowered by a mighty Holy Ghost
Revival, would send out men fitted as were Paul and Barnabas. With their
enormous resources in men and means the world would be evangelized in a
generation.
Alas! it was only a dream. Never have I experienced such keen pain and
disappointment as I did that day. Of the many who addressed that great
missionary gathering, not more than three emphasized God the Holy Spirit
as the one essential factor in world evangelization. Listening to the
addresses that day, one could not but conclude that the giving of the
Gospel to lost mankind was largely a matter of better organization,
better equipment, more men and women. Symptoms, indeed, were not lacking
that a few more sparks might have precipitated an explosion. But no, the
dethronement of the idol of ecclesiastical self-sufficiency was
apparently too great a price to pay.
But, brethren, the Spirit of God is with us still. Pentecost is yet
within our grasp. If revival is being withheld from us it is because
some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing
our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the
unchangeable truth that “it is not by might, but BY MY SPIRIT.”
- Jonathon Goforth
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