Revival must begin with the pulpit
April 16, 2023•171 words
The Christian profession is sinking in its personal piety; the line of separation between the church and the world becomes less and less perceptible: and this is taking place, less through the elevation of the world, than through the depression of the church. The character of genuine Christianity, as expounded from pulpits, and delineated in books, has too rare a counterpart in the lives and spirit of its professors.
How is this to be remedied, and by what means is the spirit of piety to be revived? May we not ask a previous question—How came this spirit of slumber over the church? Was it not from the pulpit? And if a revival is to take place in the former, must it not begin in the latter? Is the ministry of the present day in that state of earnest piety which is likely to originate and sustain an earnest style of preaching, and to revive the luke-warmness of our flocks?
—John Angell James, 'An Earnest Ministry: The Want of the Times', 58–59