Today in our Christian ministry man has dared to rob God of His glory. In our work today too much praise and glory is given to Christian leaders. Page after page is written about the instrument while scarcely a word is written about the Blesser Himself. Magazines that write of men and movements have a large circulation while those which write mainly of the Person of Christ, giving God the glory, can hardly keep going for lack of support. When unusual blessing occurs, the evangelistic party gets so much publicity from the Christian press that God is robbed of His glory.

If the work has been a true movement of the Spirit of Pentecost and we can truly testify, “It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes,” then how can we give glory to man? The Welsh revival of 1904 has a solemn message for all revival seekers today. Set Joshua, whom God used as a leader in that mighty movement, speak with characteristic insight of one of the disappointing features of that time:

“The Welsh revival was the product of much soul agony. In its stages, the production retained its bloom, as when a peach is carefully plucked from a tree. It lost this, however, when human fingers played with it. The newspapers reported every odd thing for the sake of circulation among people who desired the human side of the revival made public. Reports threw light on the human side of things and the divine side was forgotten.”

In this day of evangelistic glamour it is almost amusing to read of the saintly George Mueller in 1876 apologizing for a facsimile of his autograph and photograph, which appeared in a book of his sermons:

“During the last thirty years I have been asked both verbally and in writing for my likeness, but my reply has invariably been ‘As I do not wish to direct attention to myself but to my Lord and Master, I must decline to comply with your request. Twenty years ago I was offered 500 pounds sterling if I would allow it to be published, but the offer was declined for the reason already given.”

A.W. Tozer has warned us. “It is our belief that the evangelical movement will continue to drift farther and farther from the New Testament position until its leadership passes from the self-effacing saint to the modern religious star. Within the last quarter of a century we have actually seen a major shift in beliefs and practices of Evangelicals so radical as to amount to a complete sell-out, and all this behind the cloak of fervent orthodoxy.

“Until such self-effacing men return again to spiritual leadership, we may expect a progressive deterioration in the quality of popular Christianity year after year till we reach the point where the Holy Spirit withdraws like the “Shekinah” from the Temple. It is open question whether or not the Evangelical Movement has sinned too long and departed too far from God to return again to spiritual sanity.”

The Shekinah cannot be manifested unless God gets all the glory in our ministry. God will not send revival in order that men and movements many be magnified. The crowning ministry of the Holy Spirit is to exalt the glorious Redeemer: “He shall glorify Me.” God has said “My glory will I not give to another.”