Goodbye to Glory

. . . a church deserves to have Ichabod written from its lowest cellar step to the sky-touching point of its steeple which prefers the adulation of saints to ardent anxieties concerning lost sinners as well as abhorrence of that which is evil. Glory yields up its scepter - when the fancies of literary notables have place along with the facts of the gospel, when there is the frivolity of the flesh instead of the fervor of the spiritual in serving the Lord - godliness in form only instead of glorying in the cross of Christ - a groping after eternal verities - and a guessing that only borders on godliness as to the certainties of God's promises instead of a guidance of others into paths of righteousness. Glory "packs its baggage for a one-way trip" when in the church people are noted for faultfinding instead of being notable for forgiveness - when offense is quickly taken and there is overlordism instead of the offering of self for lowly service - when the making of money means more than the mastery of money. ~R. G. Lee, Goodbye to Glory-Ichabod

A. W. Tozer

The world is evil, the times are waxing late, and the glory of God has departed from the church as the fiery cloud once lifted from the door of the Temple in the sight of Ezekiel the prophet.

  The God of Abraham has withdrawn His conscious Presence from us, and another God whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us.  This God we have made and because we have made him we can understand him; because we have created him he can never surprise us, never overwhelm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us.

 The God of glory sometimes revealed Himself like a sun to warm and bless, indeed, but often to astonish, overwhelm, and blind before He healed and bested permanent sight.  This God of our fathers wills to be the God of their succeeding race.  We have only to prepare Him a habitation in love and faith and humility.  We have but to want Him badly enough, and He will come manifest Himself to us. ~A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, Ch 8