effect and sent souls by the millions trooping into hell. This generation of saints are responsible for this generation of sinners. Let us put self on the Cross, and Christ on the throne of our being.
Neglect of Bible
We have not duly studied and honoured the Word of God. We have given a greater prominence to man ' s writings, man ' s opinions, man ' s systems in our studies than to the Word of God( Isa 8:20; 1 Thess 2:13). We have drunk more out of human cisterns than divine. We have held more communion with man than with God. Hence the mould and fashion of our spirits, our lives, our words have been derived more from man than from God. We must study the Bible more. We must steep our souls in it. We must not only lay it up within us, but transfuse it through the whole texture of the soul.
Prayerlessness
We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us. The closet has been too little frequented and delighted in. We have allowed business, study or active labour to interfere with our closet-hours. Sleep, company, idle visiting, foolish talking and jesting, idle reading, unprofitable occupations engross time that should be redeemed, for prayer and soulwinning. Let ' s answer these questions-
Why is there so little anxiety to get time to pray?
Why is there so little forethought in the laying out of time and employment so as to secure a large portion of each day for prayer?
Why is there so much speaking, yet so little prayer?
Why is there so much running to and fro to meetings, conventions, fellowship and yet so little time for prayer?
Why so many meetings with our fellowmen and so few meetings with God?
Why so little being alone with God, so little thirsting of the soul for the calm, sweet hours of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold close fellowship together as if they could never part?
In one single, quiet hour of prayer, a believer will often make more progress than in years of ' meetings ' and ' gatherings.' It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest. So with the soul. Our life has not been a laying-in-wait for the voice of God,“ Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth”- has not been the attitude of our souls, the guiding principle of our lives( 1 Sam 3:9,10). Hence our example has been powerless, our labours unsuccessful, our sermons so meagre, our whole ministry so fruitless and feeble.
No Christlikeness
We have had little of the mind of Christ. We have come far short of the example of the apostles, much more of the example of Christ. We are far behind the servants, farther behind the Master. We have had little of the grace, compassion, the meekness, the lowliness, the love of God ' s eternal Son. His weeping over Jerusalem is a feeling in which we have but little heartfelt sympathy. His“ seeking of the lost” is little imitated( Mt 23:37; Lk 19:10; Mt 20:28; Lk 19:28,41- 44; 5:27).
His unwearing teaching of the multitudes- we shrink from, as too much for flesh and blood. His days of fasting, His nights of watchfulness, and prayer- are not fully appropriated as modes for us to copy. His counting not His life dear unto Him that He might glorify the Father and finish the work given Him to do, is but little remembered by us as the principle on which we are to act. The under-shepherd is to be what the Chief Shepherd was. We must not seek rest or ease in a world where He whom we love sought none.
' Lord, forgive us!'
We have thus grieved the Spirit of God by our inconsistent walk, by our want of circumspection, by our worldly- mindedness, by our unholiness, by our prayerlessness, by our unfaithfulness, our want of solemnity, by a life and conversation so little in conformity with the character of a disciple or the office of an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ( 2 Cor 5:17- 20).
“ O Lord, we have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled... O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive!”( Dan 9:5,19).
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