The churches are becoming empty: I am alluding to what is common and current around us; that is to say, apostasy is at work, most deplorably so. One has no pleasure at all in the churches, so called, becoming empty, because one knows such emptying is simply apostasy, the devil’s work. But what about the house of God? Is it not being added to? It is, indeed; and that is the positive thing to which one turns with the deepest satisfaction, that the matter is proceeding, the house is being filled with people, but not with such as are unsuitable. Let us never be deceived by the thought of mere numbers. Not that we should not be ashamed of very small numbers where there might be larger ones: for the truth is that small numbers are often due to want of evangelical activity
Whilst we say rightly that it is “the day of small things” Zechariah 4: 10, let us remember and own that our laziness, our indolence, our want of evangelical activity, is the cause of the smallness of numbers in many cases. Let us take this to heart; for this is a great evangelical chapter, and also the next one (Luke 15).
Ministry of J Taylor Volume 47 p 357-358