PREACHERS NEED REVIVAL

Robert Murray M’Cheyne:

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6 ESV)

Ministers are naturally hard-hearted and unbelieving as other men (Mark 6:14), so that Christ has often to unbraid them. Their faith is all from above. They must receive from God all that they give. In order to speak the truth with power, they need a personal grasp of it. It is impossible to speak with power from mere head knowledge, or even from past experience. If we would speak with energy, it must be from present feeling of the truth as it is in Jesus. We cannot speak of the hidden manna unless we have the taste of it on our mouth. We cannot speak of the living water unless it be springing up within us. Like John the Baptist, we must see Jesus coming, and say; “Behold the Lamb of God.” We must speak with Christ in our eye, as Stephen did. “I see Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” We must speak from a present sense of pardon and access to God, or our words will be cold and lifeless. But how can we do this if we are not quickened from above. Ministers are far more exposed to be cast down than other men; they are standard bearers, and Satan loves when a standard-bearer faints. Oh, what need of full supplies out of Christ’s fullness! Pray, beloved, that it may be so. “Wilt thou not revive us again?” (“The Cry for Revival”)