Milo

December 25

“His name shall be called Emmanuel. …God with us.” (Matt. 1:23.) “The Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6.)

“There’s a song in the air!
  There’s a star in the sky!
There’s a mother’s deep prayer,
  And a baby’s low cry!
And the star rains its fire
  While the beautiful sing,

For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King.”

A FEW years ago a striking Christmas card was published, with the title, “If Christ had not come.” It was founded upon our Saviour’s words, “If I had not come.” The card represented a clergyman falling into a short sleep in his study on Christmas morning and dreaming of a world into which Jesus had never come.
In his dream he found himself looking through his home, but there were no little stockings in the chimney corner, no Christmas bells or wreaths of holly, and no Christ to comfort, gladden and save. He walked out on the public street, but there was no church with its spire pointing to Heaven. He came back and sat down in his library, but every book about the Saviour had disappeared.
A ring at the door-bell, and a messenger asked him to visit a poor dying mother. He hastened with the weeping child and as he reached the home he sat down and said, “I have something here that will comfort you.” He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended at Malachi, and there was no gospel and no promise of hope and salvation, and he could only bow his head and weep with her in bitter despair.
Two days afterward he stood beside her coffin and conducted the funeral service, but there was no message of consolation, no word of a glorious resurrection, no open Heaven, but only “dust to dust, ashes to ashes,” and one long eternal farewell. He realized at length that “He had not come,” and burst into tears and bitter weeping in his sorrowful dream.
Suddenly he woke with a start, and a great shout of joy and praise burst from his lips as he heard his choir singing in his church close by:

“O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels,
O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”

Let us be glad and rejoice today, because “He has come.” And let us remember the annunciation of the angel, “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10, 11.)

“He comes to make His blessing flow,
  Far as the curse is found.”

May our hearts go out to the people in heathen lands who have no blessed Christmas day. “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and SEND PORTIONS TO THEM FOR WHOM NOTHING IS PREPARED.” (Neh. 8:10.)

25 DECEMBER (PREACHED CHRISTMAS DAY 1777)

Born King

‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.’ Matthew 2:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:16–21

The Lord knows his people and will find means that they, however circumstanced, shall come to know him. Jesus is a King, King of all, and especially King of the Jews—the true Israel (Romans 2:29)—born a King by an original right, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, before his birth—and came to his own (John 1:11).
The enquirers: wise men of the East—at a great distance, probably like those called Chaldeans in Daniel—we might say, philosophers. A principal study in the East was astronomy, but without this one star, the knowledge of all the rest would have left them miserable.
Their guidance: no common star, neither fixed star or planet—a light, in appearance a star, which they saw in their own country, and again at Bethlehem leading them to the very house. But there was more than this: certainly a divine revelation to their mind. How else should the sight of a new star lead their thoughts to Jesus? Here is an emblem of the work of grace: a light is seen, the heart drawn. This light is the gospel, written or preached—the Word is a light in a dark place—and the Holy Spirit.
Note their declaration, we have seen, expressing their own certainty to excite the attention of others, expecting information from a people who had the Scriptures—might they not wonder they went forward by themselves?
Their design: to worship. Jesus the proper object of worship, of admiration, praise, profession, love, trust and service. Are these your views of worship (Psalm 45:11)?
They are come. They who are apprised of his glory will come, will use diligence, wait, read, pray, hear. These came a long journey. Enquiring souls are busy in earnest.

FOR MEDITATION: Shall these wise men condemn us in judgement? You have seen the star, heard the message. Do you yet sit still? You that are indeed come to worship, admire his love, approach his table. He who once lay in the manger will be there.

SERMON: MATTHEW 2:2 [1/1]

December 24th

The hidden life

Your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3:3.

The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple, almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God, and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God’s warnings and keep in the light.
When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say—‘Oh, but I could never live up there!’ But when we do get there by God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.”
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says—“Let not your heart be troubled,” if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give unto you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.

December 24

“And Isaac went out to meditate in the fields at eventide.” (Gen. 24:63.)

WE should be better Christians if we were more alone; we should do more if we attempted less, and spent more time in retirement, and quiet waiting upon God. The world is too much with us; we are afflicted with the idea that we are doing nothing unless we are fussily running to and fro; we do not believe in “the calm retreat, the silent shade.” As a people, we are of a very practical turn of mind; “we believe,” as someone has said, “in having all our irons in the fire, and consider the time not spent between the anvil and the fire as lost, or much the same as lost.” Yet no time is more profitably spent than that which is set apart for quiet musing, for talking with God, for looking up to Heaven. We cannot have too many of these open spaces in life, hours in which the soul is left accessible to any sweet thought or influence it may please God to send.

“Reverie,” it has been said, “is the Sunday of the mind.” Let us often in these days give our mind a “Sunday,” in which it will do no manner of work but simply lie still, and look upward, and spread itself out before the Lord like Gideon’s fleece, to be soaked and moistened with the dews of Heaven. Let there be intervals when we shall do nothing, think nothing, plan nothing, but just lay ourselves on the green lap of nature and “rest awhile.”

Time so spent is not lost time. The fisherman cannot be said to be losing time when he is mending his nets, nor the mower when he takes a few minutes to sharpen his scythe at the top of the ridge. City men cannot do better than follow the example of Isaac, and, as often as they can, get away from the fret and fever of life into fields. Wearied with the heat and din, the noise and bustle, communion with nature is very grateful; it will have a calming, healing influence. A walk through the fields, a saunter by the seashore or across the daisy-sprinkled meadows, will purge your life from sordidness, and make the heart beat with new joy and hope.

“The little cares that fretted me,
I lost them yesterday,
…………
Out in the fields with God.”

Christmas Eve

BELLS ACROSS THE SNOW

O Christmas, merry Christmas,
  Is it really come again,
With its memories and greetings,
  With its joy and with its pain!
There’s a minor in the carol
  And a shadow in the light,
And a spray of cypress twining
  With the holly wreath tonight.
And the hush is never broken
  By laughter light and low,
As we listen in the starlight
  To the “bells across the snow.”

O Christmas, merry Christmas,
  ’Tis not so very long
Since other voices blended
  With the carol and the song!
If we could but hear them singing,
  As they are singing now,
If we could but see the radiance
  Of the crown on each dear brow,
There would be no sigh to smother,
  No hidden tear to flow,
As we listen in the starlight
  To the “bells across the snow.”

O Christmas, merry Christmas,
  This never more can be;
We cannot bring again the days
  Of our unshadowed glee,
But Christmas, happy Christmas,
  Sweet herald, of good will,
With holy songs of glory
  Brings holy gladness still.
For peace and hope may brighten,
  And patient love may glow,
As we listen in the starlight
  To the “bells across the snow.”

—Frances Ridley Havergal.

24 DECEMBER

God with us

‘Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’ Isaiah 7:14
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 20:24–31

As fallen creatures, God is against us and we are against him. But in the Messiah he is reconciled—God with us. He is God in our nature still. He suffered as a man, and as a man he now reigns on the throne of glory, exercises all power and receives all spiritual worship both in heaven and upon earth. He is the head of principalities and powers, thrones and dominions, and has a name above every name [Philippians 2:9]. Thus man is not only saved but enabled, brought into the nearest relation to him that sitteth upon the throne, and can say, He is our Lord, our Shepherd, our Saviour, our Friend, Emmanuel, God with us.
What a cold assent is paid to this doctrine by many who profess to receive it as a truth! What a strong foundation for the faith and hope of those who have put their trust in him. How awful the state of those who reject him and say in their hearts, We will not have this man to reign over us [Luke 19:14]. He is now manifested as a Saviour—hereafter he will appear as a Judge. Embrace his golden sceptre, lest you are broken by his rod of iron!
FOR MEDITATION:
Sweeter sounds than music knows
Did the Lord a man become
Charm me, in Emmanuel’s name;
That he might the law fulfil,
All her hopes my spirit owes
Bleed and suffer in my room,
To his birth, and cross, and shame.
And canst thou, my tongue, be still?

When he came the angels sung
No, I must my praises bring,
‘Glory be to God on high’,
Though they worthless are, and weak;
Lord, unloose my stammering tongue,
For should I refuse to sing
Who should louder sing than I?
Sure the very stones would speak.

         O my Saviour, Shield, and Sun,
         Shepherd, Brother, Husband, Friend,
         Every precious name in one;
         I will love thee without end.

SERMON SERIES: MESSIAH, NO. 5 [6/6], ISAIAH 7:14