Vance Havner

The church suffers today from a saddening lack of old-fashioned, simple-hearted, overflowing, Christian joy. We have plenty of knowledge, plenty of enthusiasm and denominational zeal, but Christians and churches that started out in revival fires are living in the smoke, and the “amens” and “hallelujahs” have gone from most assemblies of the saints. When one recalls that we are to rejoice in the Lord always – and then looks in on the average Sunday congregation, he realizes that something has happened to us since Pentecost. We meet on the Lord’s day more as though we had assembled to mourn a defeat than to celebrate a victory. Although...