Milo

December 22

“Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.” (Gen. 15:12.)

THE sun at last went down, and the swift, eastern night cast its heavy veil over the scene. Worn out with the mental conflict, the watchings, and the exertions of the day, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and in that sleep his soul was oppressed with a dense and dreadful darkness, such as almost stifled him, and lay like a night mare upon his heart. Do you understand something of the horror of that darkness? When some terrible sorrow which seems so hard to reconcile with perfect love, crushes down upon the soul, wringing from it all its peaceful rest in the pitifulness of God, and launching it on a sea unlit by a ray of hope; when unkindness, and cruelty maltreat the trusting heart, till it begins to doubt whether there be a God overhead who can see and still permit—these know something of the “horror of great darkness.” It is thus that human life is made up; brightness and gloom; shadow and sun; long tracks of cloud, succeeded by brilliant glints of light, and amid all Divine justice is working out its own schemes, affecting others equally with the individual soul which seems the subject of special discipline. O ye who are filled with the horror of great darkness because of God’s dealings with mankind, learn to trust that infallible wisdom, which is co-assessor with immutable justice; and know that He who passed through the horror of the darkness of Calvary, with the cry of forsakenness, is ready to bear you company through the valley of the shadow of death till you see the sun shining upon its further side. Let us, by our Fore-runner, send forward our anchor, Hope, within the veil that parts us from the unseen; where it will grapple in ground and will not yield, but hold until the day dawns, and we follow it into the haven guaranteed to us by God’s immutable counsel.
—F. B. Meyer.
The disciples thought that that angry sea separated them from Jesus. Nay, some of them thought worse than that; they thought that the trouble that had come upon them was a sign that Jesus had forgotten all about them, and did not care for them. Oh, dear friend, that is when troubles have a sting, when the devil whispers, “God has forgotten you; God has forsaken you”; when your unbelieving heart cries as Gideon cried, “If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” The evil has come upon you to bring the Lord nearer to you. The evil has not come upon you to separate you from Jesus, but to make you cling to Him more faithfully, more tenaciously, more simply.—F. S. Webster, M. A.
Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness.

Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
  When defeat seems strangely near!
Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
  Into victory’s ringing cheer—
Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear.

—Herbert Booth.

22 DECEMBER (POSSIBLY PREACHED JANUARY 1768)

The shadow of a great Rock

‘And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’ Isaiah 32:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 25:1–8

This text is a comment upon Christ is all in all [Colossians 3:11]. In him his people find a hiding place where they cannot be found, a foundation from which they cannot be shaken off, streams of life and refreshment which cannot be dried up, and a sweet repose when everything is unquiet about them.
The shadow of a great rock. The allusion seems to travelling or toiling in the heat of the sun—a welcome shadow to such who are faint and weary. The believer has many weary hours—weary of himself, of the world, of affliction, especially when afflictions are many, sharp, long-continued. Indeed this heat would be insupportable without a shade. But Jesus is a great rock through which the sun’s beams cannot pierce—hence called a shield. But how?
(i) By the knowledge he gives of himself, in his characters and relations.
(ii) By putting power with the promises.
(iii) By sanctifying afflictions so that though not joyous but grievous, they yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
(iv) By enabling them to look forward to the end, as Revelation 2:10.
Now this [man] is compared to the shadow of a rock to show its closeness. In other respects he is compared to a tree, affording not only shade, but fruit (Song of Solomon 2:[3]). Those who dwell under this shadow shall revive.
Unbelievers are exposed to the heat. Their troubles meet them without support and leave them without a blessing, therefore miserable here, and lost hereafter—when the heat of the Lord’s anger shall be as a burning oven.
FOR MEDITATION: The Refuge, River, and Rock of the Church
This land, through which his pilgrims go,
When troubles, like a burning sun,
Is desolate and dry;
Beat heavy on their head;
But streams of grace from him o’erflow
To this almighty Rock they run,
Their thirst to satisfy.
And find a pleasing shade.

SERMON SERIES: ISAIAH 32:2, NO. 4 [1/1]

December 21st

Experience or revelation

We have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Cor. 2:12.

Reality is Redemption, not my experience of Redemption; but Redemption has no meaning for me until it speaks the language of my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me right out of myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left with my experiences, my experiences have not been produced by Redemption. The proof that they are produced by Redemption is that I am led out of myself all the time; I no longer pay any attention to my experiences as the ground of Reality, but only to the Reality which produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source, Jesus Christ.
If you try to dam up the Holy Spirit in you to produce subjective experiences, you will find that He will burst all bounds and take you back again to the historic Christ. Never nourish an experience which has not God as its Source, and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you try to lord it over Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? He must be Lord over you, and you must not pay attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. There comes a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience—‘I do not care what I experience; I am sure of Him.’
Be ruthless with yourself if you are given to talking about the experiences you have had. Faith that is sure of itself is not faith; faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.

December 21

“To him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon … because he hath wholly followed the Lord.” (Deut. 1:36.)

EVERY hard duty that lies in your path, that you would rather not do, that it will cost you pain and struggle or sore effort to do, has a blessing in it. Not to do it, at whatever cost, is to miss the blessing.
Every hard piece of road on which you see the Master’s shoe-prints and along which He bids you follow Him, surely leads to blessing, which you cannot get if you cannot go over the steep, thorny path.
Every point of battle to which you come, where you must draw your sword and fight the enemy, has a possible victory which will prove a rich blessing to your life. Every heavy load that you are called to lift hides in itself some strange secret of strength.—J. R. Miller.

“I cannot do it alone;
  The waves run fast and high,
And the fogs close all around,
  The light goes out in the sky;
But I know that we two
  Shall win in the end,
  Jesus and I.

“Coward and wayward and weak,
  I change with the changing sky;
Today so eager and bright,
  Tomorrow too weak to try;
But He never gives in,
  So we two shall win,
  Jesus and I.

“I could not guide it myself,
  My boat on life’s wild sea;
There’s One who sits by my side,
  Who pulls and steers with me.
And I know that we two
  Shall safe enter port,
  Jesus and I.”

21 DECEMBER (PREACHED 20 DECEMBER 1767)

A refreshing stream

‘And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’ Isaiah 32:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 35:1–10

Why is he compared to rivers of water? The knowledge of Jesus produces a change as if one could turn [divert] a river of water into a wilderness; then the desert begins to flourish and blossom like the rose. It puts a new face upon the world, gives a sunshine, as it were, to every object, sanctifies and spiritualizes common employments, gives a double relish to every comfort, and even sweetens the bitter cup of affliction. Then we see the directing, disposing hand of our Redeemer at every turn. We have a friend near to help us in trouble, and act and suffer in a new manner when we are taught to do everything as for him who loved us. And so it is written in the heart. The knowledge of Jesus and communion with him is a refreshing stream, by which comfort will flow in spite of awkward things. This healing, fertilizing, life-giving stream is communicated in the means of grace. These are as pipes through which the water is received: promises, ordinances, prayer. The promises are such channels, when opened and applied by the Spirit. How do they revive in the time of drought! The ordinances: when all has been barren and discouraging within and without, how sweet to have the heart opened and watered by a blessing on the preaching. So at times in prayer. Perhaps by one hour’s secret waiting upon God, yea, a few minutes, there is a change like from the depth of winter to the height of summer.
This knowledge of Jesus is compared to water on account of its refreshing qualities: because it is necessary (no life or growth without it) and because it is cheap (wine and milk must be bought but water is free. Isaiah 55:1). It is compared to a river because it is full and always flowing. A summer’s brook may fail, but rivers are abiding. Such a river is Jesus.
FOR MEDITATION: [for Easter Day, 16 April 1775]
See! the streams of living waters
Who can faint while such a river
Springing from eternal love;
Ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
Grace, which like the LORD, the giver,
And all fear of want remove:
Never fails from age to age.

SERMON SERIES: ISAIAH 32:2, NO. 3 [2/2]