Another cause for concern among God's people is exaggeration in the reports. It's good to report the results of a campaign for the glory of God and the encouragement of believers, but one must be careful and cautious - all is not gold that glitters. All that appears on the surface at the moment may not be so glorious 12 months hence. Time is always a revealing factor. Every discerning pastor knows that during the years hardly five per cent of the fruit remains out of the huge figures published to be the results of great campaigns. Mr. Spurgeon, lecturing to his student-pastors, counseled them as follows:

You may say to yourself at the close of the service, "Here is a splendid haul of fish." Remember the Savior's words, "The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered every kind … which, when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away." If God enables you to catch fish, don't number your fish before they are broiled nor count your converts before they're tested and tried. This process may make your work somewhat slow, but then, Brethren, it will be sure. Do your work steadily and well, so that those who come after you may not have to clear the church of those who ought never to have been omitted."

May God deliver us from immodest and sensational publicity! As Dan Crawford said: What opportunity Moses and Paul had for breathtaking publicity! Think of the mighty apostle … what wonderful newspaper copy he had. God had heavenly transactions with him. He was 'caught up to the third heaven.' He heard amazing words. He held sacred intercourse with God as did Moses in the Mount. Did he allow any words to be written concerning this mighty experience? No! No! A thousand times, no! His lips were forever sealed by God. Learn this lesson from the remarkable life of Paul. Glorious messenger that he was, they never knew the best about him. He was under oath to God. He says, 'not lawful … to utter' (II Cor. 12:4). Broken down before God in blessed humility and awe, he speaks in the third person concerning a vague old friend of 14 years ago. What blessed reticence!

Our urgent prayer
We need to pray for meekness like that of Moses, who, though his face was radiant with the glory of Jehovah in Whose presence he had been, yet "wist not that the skin of his face shone" (Ex. 34:29). William C. Burns was characterized by such meekness, but even so, his friend Robert Murray McCheyne didn't think it out of place to send him this brotherly warning during a time of revival blessing in Scotland, "Now remember that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone. Looking at our own shining face is the bane of our own spiritual life and of the ministry. Of, for closest communion with God, til soul and body, head and face and heart shine with divine brilliancy! But, oh, for a holy ignorance of our shining!"

A certain preacher shone brilliantly in the pulpit and eclipsed the glory of Christ. One Sunday morning he found on the pulpit desk a little note in pencil which said, "Sir, we would see Jesus." This sent the preacher to his knees, and henceforth, Christ was magnified by his utterances. Shortly afterwards, there lay on his desk a penciled note in the same handwriting. It read, "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord."

May God keep us low at His feet and deliver us from perverted publicity. Oh, let us never forget that we must stand before the "Bema" of Christ and give an account for the motives of our ministry and the means we use. It isn't the quantity God desires so much as quality. Amen and amen!

This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath!, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.