Revival—Absence and Presence of – Charles Spurgeon

The decline of a revival is a great testing season. It discovers the true believers by chilling the false. A frosty night or two suffices to nip all the exotic plants of a garden; but the hardy shrubs, the true natives of the soil, live on even in the severest cold. Converts raised in the hotbed of excitement soon droop and die if the spiritual temperature of the church falls below summer heat: what is this worth compared with the hardy children of divine grace, whose inward life will continue in enduring vigor when all around is dead! Yet we do not desire to see the revival spirit droop among us, for even the evergreens of our garden delight in a warmer season, for then they send forth their shoots and clothe themselves with new leaves; and thus, it will be seen that the best of the saints is all the better for the holy glow of the “times of refreshing.