e former will lose itself in a happy
self-gratulation, as it rejoices in its zeal and diligence and apparent
success, and never see the need of confession and great striving in
prayer, ere we are prepared to meet and conquer the hosts of darkness.
The latter virtually gives over the world to Satan, and almost prays and
rejoices to see things get worse, to hasten the coming of Him who is to
put all right. May God keep us from either error, and fulfil the
promise, "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the
way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to
the left." Let us listen to the lessons suggested by the passages we
have quoted; they may help us to pray the prayer aright: "Revive Thy
work, O Lord!"

1. "_Revive Thy work, O Lord!_"--Read again the passages of Scripture,
and see how they all contain the one thought: Revival is God's work; He
alone can give it; it must come from above. We are frequently in danger
of looking to what God has done and is doing, and to count on that as
the pledge that He will at once do more. And all the time it may be true
that He is blessing us up to the measure of our faith or self-sacrifice,
and cannot give larger measure, until there has been a new discovery and
confession of what is hindering Him. Or we may be looking to all the
signs of life and good around us, and congratulating ourselves on all
the organisations and agencies that are being created, while the need of
God's mighty and direct interposition is not rightly felt, and the
entire dependence upon Him not cultivated. Regeneration, the giving of
Divine life, we all acknowledge to be God's act, a miracle of His power.
The restoring or reviving of the Divine life, in a soul or a Church, is
as much a supernatural work. To have the spiritual discernment that can
understand the signs of the heavens, and prognosticate the coming
revival, we need to enter deep into God's mind and will as to its
conditions, and the preparedness of those who pray for it or are to be
used to bring it about. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He
revealeth His secret unto his servants the prophets." It is God who is
to give the revival; it is God who reveals His secret; it is the spirit
of absolute dependence upon God, giving Him the honour and the glory,
that will prepare for it.

2. "_Revive Thy work, O Lord!_"--A second lesson suggested is, that the
revival God is to give will be given in answer to p