I have read and reread Ravenhill’s book many times. When I have taught in Bible colleges I said (and still say) that this is a must read for anyone who believes they are called to preach!
This book is as old as I am as it was published in the same year that I was born (I know you never dreamed I was that old). However, it is still up-to-date, just change his references of “Communists” to “Islamic terrorists” and it’s timely.
Consider some of these quotes from Why Revival Terries:
On prayer he writes: “Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound…a Niagara of burning words does not mean God is either impressed or moved.”( p-24) ” We may preach and perish but we cannot pray and perish” (p-20).
On Spiritual warfare: “Do we count in hell? I mean would demons ever say, ’Jesus I know and Pastor ______ I know!’ Or, as we preach do they say, ‘But who are ye?’” (p-50). “The Word, Like the Lord, was immutable. Paul’s anchor was cast in the depths of God’s faithfulness. His battleaxe was the Word of the Lord; his strength was faith in that Word. So the Spirit alerted Paul to the coming strategy of the devil. Paul was not ignorant of his devices; therefore hell suffered.” (p-164). Unfortunately I fear most Christians today ARE ignorant of Satan’s devices (schemes/plots) and want to remain so!
Writing to preachers, Ravenhill says, “Brethren, if we will do God’s work in God’s way at God’s time with God’s power, we shall have God’s blessing and the devil’s curses. When God opens the windows of heaven to bless us, the devil will open the door of hell to blast us…Mere preachers may help anybody and hurt nobody; but prophets will stir everybody and madden somebody. The preacher may go with the crowd; the prophet goes against it. A man freed, fired, and filled with God will branded unpatriotic because he speaks against the nation’s sins; unkind because his tongue is a two-edged sword; unbalanced because the weight of preaching opinion is against him. The preacher will be heralded; the prophet hounded.” (p-39) Writing of the preaching of the Apostle Paul he says, “He upset synagogues, had revivals and riots—either one or the other, sometimes both. (We seem to have neither.) “(p-119).
After mentioning briefly about “…the evil geniuses of Moscow…” (Here replace this with “Islamic Terrorism”) Ravenhill continues: “Behind follows the purple pageantry of Papal Rome. Moreover, the devil has substituted reincarnation for regeneration, familiar spirits for the Holy Spirit, Christian Science for divine healing, the Antichrist for the true Christ, and the Church of Rome for the true Church. Against the twin evils of Communism (terrorism?) and Romanism, what has the Church to offer? Where is the supernatural?… Even Rome does not call us Protestants anymore; we have just the juiceless name of non-Catholics! Significant, isn’t it? Hell hath no fury like that of this “Mother of Harlots” when she is stirred. But who now “earnestly contends for the faith once delivered to the saints?’ “(p-20).
Let me share two more choice quotes from this incredible book: “We must alter the altar, for the altar is a place to die on. Let those who will not pay this price leave it alone!” (p-58) In a chapter called AS THE CHURCH GOES, SO GOES THE WORLD he writes, “The church began with these men in the ‘upper room’ agonizing—today it is ending with men in the supper room organizing. The church began in revival; we are ending in ritual. We started virile; we are ending sterile. ”
In this 168-page book published in 1959 at Bethany House, it seems to me that Ravenhill asks and answers Why Revival Tarries.
Pastor Ty