A true revival is pre-eminently the work of the Holy Spirit, and the depth and magnitude of the work wrought depends largely on the number of agents who are in perfect union with the Holy Spirit, and through whom he can pour his convicting and saving power. In times of revival all spiritual forces come to a crisis, both good and bad. Satan is on hand to muster all his children against a thorough work of grace. He will also be busy in society, devising all sorts of social matters against the meeting. Then he will influence all weak, half-hearted believers in every way against a thorough work. Then he will do everything to discourage the workers, either to make them sick or cripple their zeal, or tempt them in some way to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is more frequently grieved by hidden things than by these things which are outward and visible. In times of revival it is almost impossible to get six persons out of a large community, who are really in heart perfectly agreed. There may be an outward profession of unity, and no one may detect any definite sign of disharmony, yet the human heart is so deceitful, and the interior conditions of perfect harmony require such utter unselfishness and transparency of spirit, that very few persons ever comply with them in the sight of God. The following are some of the things that grieve the Holy Spirit and hinder him in revivals:

1. A critical spirit. I do not mean the open rebuke of sin, for this is commanded in God's Word. Neither does it include a judicious rebuke of ill-behaved persons in a meeting, for this is a necessity, and no company of worshipers, where they have the protection of civil law, should allow the meeting to be disturbed by rowdy conduct. But I mean if those who claim to be in sympathy with God's work, and who profess to be helping it on -- if they have a critical spirit against the leaders of the meeting, or the methods of work that may be adopted, even though this criticism is not outspoken, it greatly hinders the Holy Ghost.

There is often in religious meetings a whimsical fastidiousness, a fault-finding disposition, a watching for defects among God's children, a picking out of blemishes in the singing, or the praying, or the preaching, or the mode of altar work, or inquiry-room work. All this whole business forms an enormous barrier to the flow of the Holy Spirit. Such persons are deceitful, hard to please, and whatever excellencies they may have they are a positive hindrance to God's work.

There is always a company of evil spirits that cluster around such persons to neutralize all the good they attempt to do.

2. The spirit of fear. Timidity, moral cowardice, the fear of public opinion, the fear of relatives and friends, which prevents persons from taking a bold, decisive part in the meeting, which prevents them from leading in prayer, or giving public testimony, or speaking to souls on personal salvation, all this fearfulness of spirit greatly grieves the Holy Ghost.

Some are afraid that God will overburden them with work, or make demands of consecration beyond their strength, and so they fail to yield themselves fully to the Lord; and while they may try to busy themselves in the meeting and think they are helping wonderfully, yet by that hidden, miserable fearfulness of heart, which is the very essence of disobedience in the sight of God, are great hindrances to the power of the Spirit.

3. Self-opinion greatly grieves the Spirit. Many a revival is utterly prevented because prominent ones in the meeting stubbornly hold on to a wrong education, or to old theological notions, some anti-scriptural view concerning inbred sin, or growth into heart purity, or the annihilation of the wicked, or some prejudice against the manifestations of the Spirit, or divine healing, or the holding to an old theological notion through the mere pride of education; these things are unseen hindrances to the operation of the Spirit.

Teachableness of mind, a perfect willingness to have only scriptural views, is a requisite condition for the descent of the power of God.

4. A spirit of reserve with God is another grief to the Holy Ghost. In every revival meeting there are so many whose inner nature is tied up with a cautious conservatism, that persistently holds them back from a full abandonment to God and his work. They will express express themselves as wanting such wonderfully great things, yet there is an unexpressed unwillingness to be all the Lord wants them to be, or to do all the Lord wants them to do, or to suffer all the Lord wants them to suffer. They are consciously holding themselves back, lest they should slide down some steep place and get drowned in the ocean of God's will. This internal checking of themselves not only prevents their own full salvation, but hinders the Spirit from using them for the blessing of others.

5. Self-planning as to God's work. At the beginning of most every revival, it is almost a universal thing for those who are most interested to form some plan in their own mind as to how God ought to come and how the work ought to be done. Each one forms a standard as to who should lead the work or how it ought to be conducted, or what divine demonstrations should occur, and so there are a large number of mental schedules which are invisible to mortal eyes, but which bristle like antagonistic bayonets before the all-seeing eye, and the blessed Holy Ghost who reads the thoughts and interests of the mind, finds himself dictated to by the very people who outwardly profess that they want God to have his way.

6. The Spirit is grieved by our having limited views as to blessing for ourselves. Oftentimes God wants to begin with the leaders of a meeting and lead them into a wideness of blessing or a baptism of fire or into a depth of annihilation beyond anything in their past; but their rigid and narrow views of God's saving grace is a positive hindrance to the Spirit's power. And then the people who attend the meetings -- each one who claims to want any blessing brings before the Lord a certain mental conception of his needs and the extent of his desired blessing.

Oftentimes this mental conception of needed grace is almost infinitely below what God wants to give. Many times persons will use big words as to what great things they want, but when they are thoroughly sifted as to what they really expect from God, it is found to be contemptibly small. Many have measured out a fanciful blessing of a mere pathetic, ephemeral sort, without ever dreaming of going to the substratum of their nature, and having the miserable self -life destroyed, and the whole being emancipated and flooded with divine love. In spite of the largest preaching that can be done, the people will have little, narrow views of grace.

7. He is often grieved by the stinginess of those who ought to support the meeting with their money. Is there any one sin on earth more universal than stinginess with God? So few of God's people really give him one-tenth of what they receive. Many who pretend to want to give money to help on the work will put off giving to the very last, to see if some one else will not make up the amount, they hoping thereby to have no need of giving. It is impossible for the Holy Spirit to work in some places because of the penuriousness of the people.

8. The Spirit is often grieved in a meeting because some one or more persons are brought to a test on some point of obedience, and they fail to obey God, and the work is checked. It may be a question of restitution or reconciliation, or the confession of a backslidden state, or the giving up of some indulgence. There have been meetings where two or three conspicuous persons utterly failed to obey God on some test point, and the work was a failure, the Spirit grieved away, and Satan and his black angels triumphed and the work of God put back for years.

9. The Spirit is often grieved by our unwillingness to go beyond others. God often wants some of us to go out into his will on lines of prayer and faith and obedience, even beyond what other professors of holiness will consent to; and when he thus calls, if we stop to measure ourselves with others, and compare ourselves among ourselves we may greatly hinder a work of grace. God can surmount the open and recognized hindrances to his work a great deal easier than he can the hidden barriers in the hearts of his people.