Milo

December 26

“Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.” (Matt. 26:36.)

IT is a hard thing to be kept in the background at a time of crisis. In the Garden of Gethsemane eight of the eleven disciples were left to do nothing. Jesus went to the front to pray; Peter, James and John went to the middle to watch; the rest sat down in the rear to wait. Methinks that party in the rear must have murmured. They were in the garden, but that was all; they had no share in the cultivation of its flowers. It was a time of crisis, a time of storm and stress; and yet they were not suffered to work.
You and I have often felt that experience, that disappointment. There has arisen, mayhap a great opportunity for Christian service. Some are sent to the front; some are sent to the middle. But we are made to lie down in the rear. Perhaps sickness has come; perhaps poverty has come; perhaps obloquy has come; in any case we are hindered and we feel sore. We do not see why we should be excluded from a part in the Christian life. It seems like an unjust thing that, seeing we have been allowed to enter the garden, no path should be assigned to us there.
Be still, my soul, it is not as thou deemest! Thou art not excluded from a part of the Christian life. Thinkest thou that the garden of the Lord has only a place for those who walk and for those who stand! Nay, it has a spot consecrated to those who are compelled to sit. There are three voices in a verb—active, passive and neuter. So, too, there are three voices in Christ’s verb “to live.” There are the active, watching souls, who go to the front, and struggle till the breaking of the day. There are the passive, watching souls, who stand in the middle, and report to others the progress of the fight. But there are also the neuter souls—those who can neither fight, nor be spectators of the fight, but have simply to lie down.
When that experience comes to thee, remember, thou are not shunted. Remember it is Christ that says, “Sit ye here.” Thy spot in the garden has also been, consecrated. It has a special name. It is not “the place of wrestling,” nor “the place of watching,” but “the place of waiting.” There are lives that come into this world neither to do great work nor to bear great burdens, but simply to be; they are the neuter verbs. They are the flowers of the garden which have had no active mission. They have wreathed no chaplet; they have graced no table; they have escaped the eye of Peter and James and John. But they have gladdened the sight of Jesus. By their mere perfume, by their mere beauty, they have brought Him joy; by the very preservation of their loveliness in the valley they have lifted the Master’s heart. Thou needst not murmur shouldst thou be one of these flowers!—Selected.

26 DECEMBER (PREACHED NEW YEAR’S EVENING 1774)

An appeal from the heart

‘They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.’ Jeremiah 50:5
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Thessalonians 2:1–16

If ever a sense of the worth of souls is impressed upon my heart (and I hope it sometimes is), if ever I find myself willing to spend and be spent for you, if I can ever adopt with sincerity the Apostle’s words, and say, Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us [1 Thessalonians 2:8], it is peculiarly so at the return of this opportunity. To the most of you, I preach frequently and I have no new tricks to set before you now. Why then is my heart engaged on a New Year’s evening more than at other times? Why do I stand up at these times with a solicitude as if I had never preached before, or as if I expected never to preach again? I have frequently entertained a hope upon this account, that my concern was a token for good, a token that the Lord was about to do great things for us, and that the seed I endeavour to sow among the young people should, in the course of the year, spring up abundantly and give us the prospect of a plentiful harvest. Painful experience has taught me my own insufficiency, that though I should address you with the greatest earnestness, though I should accompany every word with tears, though I could even weep blood, all my earnestness will be in vain, unless the Lord himself is pleased to take the work into his own hands and apply the word by his own power to your hearts. This has been my prayer, and from entreating the Lord, I now come to entreat and beseech you, that you would hear with attention and receive with meekness the word which, by his blessing, is able to save your souls—that I may not have to return again and say, Lord, who hath believed our report? [John 12:38].
FOR MEDITATION: [written to be sung before this sermon]
Now may fervent prayer arise
Bless, O LORD, the opening year
Winged with faith, and pierce the skies;
To each soul assembled here;
Fervent prayer shall bring us down
Clothe thy word with power divine,
Gracious answers from the throne.
Make us willing to be thine.

SERMON: JEREMIAH 50:5 [1/7] [TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE]

December 25th

His birth and our new birth

Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Isaiah 7:14 (R.V.).

His Birth in History. “Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest, entering in at the lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent.
His Birth in Me. “Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a ‘Bethlehem’ for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. “Ye must be born again.” This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.
God manifest in the flesh—that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

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]