A Deep and Serious Malady of the Soul

"the idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old has now no place in our total religious picture. it is too slow, too common. we now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. a generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. we have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. we read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

"the tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul."

- a.w. tozer, the pursuit of God