[b]More CHALLENGING QUOTES:[/b]

“If missions languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is
feeble. The command to go everywhere and preach to everybody
is un-obeyed, until the will is lost by self-surrender in the will of
God. There is little right giving because there is little right living...”
–- Arthur T. Pierson.

“A mighty spiritual revival in the Church is the fundamental need
of the hour; it is the only thing that will avail…” - Robert Hall Glover.

”Whenever, in any century, whether in a single heart or in a
company of believers, there has been a fresh effusion of the Spirit,
there has followed inevitably a fresh endeavor in the work of
evangelizing the world.” -- A. J.Gordon.

“There is need of a great revival of spiritual life, of truly fervent
devotion to our Lord Jesus, of entire consecration to His service.
It is only in a church in which this spirit of revival has at least
begun, that there is any hope of radical change in the relation of
the majority of our Christian people to mission work.” -- Andrew
Murray (1900).

“Awakenings resulted from revivals as the Church moved powerfully
into the world in evangelism, social transformation, and mission…
The two cannot be separated.” -- Paul E. Pierson.

“The first work of the Spirit of God was to convince men anew of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come…” –- J. P. Lilley.

“The Church today needs a revival…There is plenty of missionary
sentiment; but little of that practical self-denial and burning zeal
which impelled the Moravians to go forth without script or purse,
to carry the banner of the Cross to the dark places of the earth.”
–- Edwin Hodder.

Gene Edwards-
"...It is my studied judgement that some future generation will
deem this to be the darkest century, in spiritual depth and
spiritual experience, in church history - that is, unless something
very radical happens along...soon."

"More corrupt than the dark days before Luther; more impotently
intellectual than during the heyday of Calvinism; more financially
perverted than the days that caused John the Baptist to explode;
more intoxicated with the drive for spiritual power than any age,
yet exercising that outward power with less internal transformation
than anyone since King Saul; enamored with the gifts, yet hardly
knowing the Giver, our age has produced the most commercial,
materialistic, fad-oriented people ever to claim His name.

"Is this assessment a little too harsh? I would respond to you by
pointing to one last trophy this age may win: We seem to be more
totally blind to the deprivation of our spiritual depth than all other
centuries lumped together.

"It is true we have built more buildings and founded more religious
organizations than all the past eras combined. It is true that
today's Christianity has won more men to Christ than all other
ages combined, but it is also just as true that those converts have
set new records for the short length of time they have followed the
Lord with abandoned devotion.

"If past church history is any guide, we can optimistically look for
some sort of a turnaround. Spiritual depth is due for a return!...
May God see fit to so bless us in an age of such spiritual
shallowness." -- Gene Edwards.

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon