Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested.
It is regrettable to see the work of some good men, though it is not ours to judge them, how very pretentious, but how very unreal it is. It is really shocking to think how some men pretend to build up a church in the course of two or three services. They will report, in the newspapers, that there were forty-three persons convicted of sin, and forty-six justified, and sometimes thirty-eight sanctified; I don’t know what other evidence besides their wonderful statistics they can give as to all that is accomplished. I have observed congregations that have been quickly gathered together, and great additions have been made to the church all of a sudden. And what has become of them? Where are those churches at the present moment? The dreariest deserts in Christendom are those places that were fertilized by the obvious manures of certain revivalists. The whole church seemed to have spent its strength in one rush and effort after something, and it ended in nothing at all. They built their wooden house, and piled up the hay, and made a steeple of stubble that seemed to reach to the heavens, and there fell one spark, and it all went up in smoke; and he that came to labor next time - the successor of the great builder - had to get the ashes swept away before he could do any good. The prayer of every one that serves God should be, “Oh that  you would bless me!” 