D. L. Moody once said the following in a sermon on Charity:
"Go into a church that is all aglow with love, and into another where there is a lack, and mark the difference. In the latter the people get as far away from the pulpit as possible; and mark the coldness, and see how quick they get out of the church. Their hearts are cold to one another, and they have no sympathy. But when their hearts are all aglo they crowd round and are genial toward one another, and God bless the sermon, however poor the minister who preaches. The reason we have so many poor ministers is because we have so few praying people. Look at Joshua, while he was fighting for the Lord, Moses was up on the mountain praying. So we want everyone to pray for their ministers while they are fighting for the Lord. When a man comes to me and grumbles and complains about his minister, I ask him, "Do you ever pray for your minister?" He runs away. He spikes his guns. They do not work with the minister: never think of praying for him. We want to see every man red hot for the Saviour, and he will wake up the church. If he had got his heart red hot, sparks will kindle the little circle, and the whole church will be ablaze. Every soul will be filled with the glory of Christ. There is not a man in Chicago -- I do not care what he is; he may be an Athiest, a Pantheist, a drunkard, or a gambler -- I do not believe that a man's heart is so hard but that God can break it."
Perhaps the reason why the church is dying is because we have let the fire of love one to another, almost go out! |
