Milo

December 11

“Ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.” (Psalm 134:1, 3.)

STRANGE time for adoration, you say, to stand in God’s house by night, to worship in the depth of sorrow—it is indeed an arduous thing. Yes, and therein lies the blessing; it is the test of perfect faith. If I would know the love of my friend I must see what it can do in the winter. So with the Divine love. It is easy for me to worship in the summer sunshine when the melodies of life are in the air and the fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease and the fruit of the tree fall, and will my heart still go on to sing? Will I stand in God’s house by night? Will I love Him in His own night? Will I watch with Him even one hour in His Gethsemane? Will I help to bear His cross up the dolorous way? Will I stand beside Him in His dying moments with Mary and the beloved disciple? Will I be able with Nicodemus to take up the dead Christ? Then is my worship complete and my blessing glorious. My love has come to Him in His humiliation. My faith has found Him in His lowliness. My heart has recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last that I desire not the gift but the Giver. When I can stand in His house by night I have accepted Him for Himself alone.—George Matheson.

“My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His—
‘At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!’

“So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

“No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be ofttimes great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be straight.

“One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my Great Reward.”

11 DECEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Spiritual pride: fuel to the fire

‘And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ Mark 9:9–10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 8:9–24

There is reason for enjoining secrecy: on their own account. Such a favour as they had lately received was very likely to open a door to spiritual pride, and if they had been suffered to speak of it, it would have been like adding fuel to fire. We know their graces were but weak. Now our Lord, by enjoining them silence, preserved them from a snare. It is right and our duty to declare upon proper occasions and within the bounds of prudence what God has done for our souls, but if he is pleased to lead us in an extraordinary way and to favour us with peculiar comforts, it is not always easy to preserve a right spirit where self is closely concerned.

Diary, 4 August 1789
[birthday and anniversary of dedication to the ministry, 1758]:
Thirty-one years have today elapsed since thou didst draw my heart solemnly to devote myself to thy public service. There was then but little visible probability that such an unworthy creature would ever be employed in thy vineyard. But in thy best times, mountains became plain—the door which to appearance was fast barred and bolted, flew open. Thou hast honoured me. Thou hast given me a tongue and a pen, many friends, hast made me extensively known among thy people, and, I have reason to hope, useful to many by my preaching and writings. Totum muneris hoc tui est. It is of thine own that I can serve thee. And if others speak well of me, I have no cause to speak well of myself. They see only my outward walk—to thee I appear as I am. In thy sight I am a poor, unworthy, unfaithful, inconsistent creature. There is pride in my humiliation, in my repentance; self in my most spiritual desires—all is wrong, but thou art gracious.339

FOR MEDITATION: ‘But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19).

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 13 [3/4]

December 10th

The offering of the natural

Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. Gal. 4:22.

Paul is not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the actual life. Why should God ordain the natural to be sacrificed? God did not. It is not God’s order, but His permissive will. God’s order was that the natural should be transformed into the spiritual by obedience; it is sin that made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.
Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac. Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way in which we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Sanctification means more than deliverance from sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved, to God, and I do not care what it costs.
If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will mock at the life of the Son of God in us and produce a continual swither. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves, physically, morally or mentally. ‘I wasn’t disciplined when I was a child.’ You must discipline yourself now. If you do not, you will ruin the whole of your personal life for God.
God is not with our natural life while we pamper it; but when we put it out in the desert and resolutely keep it under, then God will be with it; and He will open up wells and oases, and fulfil all His promises for the natural.

December 10

“If I am in distress, it is in the interests of your comfort, which is effective as it nerves you to endure the same sufferings as I suffered myself. Hence my hope for you is well-founded, since I know that as you share the sufferings you share the comfort also.” (2 Cor. 1:6, 7.)

ARE there not some in your circle to whom you naturally betake yourself in times of trial and sorrow? They always seem to speak the right word, to give the very counsel you are longing for; you do not realize, how ever the cost which they had to pay ere they became so skillful in binding up the gaping wounds and drying tears. But if you were to investigate their past history you would find that they have suffered more than most. They have watched the slow untwisting of some silver cord on which the lamp of life hung. They have seen the golden bowl of joy dashed to their feet, and its contents spilt. They have stood by ebbing tides, and drooping gourds, and noon sunsets; but all this has been necessary to make them the nurses, the physicians, the priests of men. The boxes that come from foreign climes are clumsy enough; but they contain spices which scent the air with the fragrance of the Orient. So suffering is rough and hard to bear; but it hides beneath it discipline, education, possibilities, which not only leave us nobler, but perfect us to help others. Do not fret, or set your teeth, or wait doggedly for the suffering to pass; but get out of it all you can, both for yourself and for your service to your generation, according to the will of God.—Selected.

Once I heard a song of sweetness,
  As it cleft the morning air,
Sounding in its blest completeness,
  Like a tender, pleading prayer;
And I sought to find the singer,
  Whence the wondrous song was borne;
And I found a bird, sore wounded,
  Pinioned by a cruel thorn.

I have seen a soul in sadness,
  While its wings with pain were furl’d,
Giving hope, and cheer and gladness
  That should bless a weeping world;
And I knew that life of sweetness,
  Was of pain and sorrow borne,
And a stricken soul was singing,
  With its heart against a thorn.

Ye are told of One who loved you,
  Of a Saviour crucified,
Ye are told of nails that pinioned,
  And a spear that pierced His side;
Ye are told of cruel scourging,
  Of a Saviour bearing scorn,
And He died for your salvation,
  With His brow against a thorn.

Ye “are not above the Master.”
  Will you breathe a sweet refrain?
And His grace will be sufficient,
  When your heart is pierced with pain.
Will you live to bless His loved ones,
  Tho’ your life be bruised and torn,
Like the bird that sang so sweetly,
  With its heart against a thorn?

—Selected.

10 DECEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Caution in speaking of experiences

‘And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ Mark 9:9–10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Mark 9:33–37

One reason for secrecy is on account of their fellow disciples, lest they should be grieved and discouraged, as they probably would have been, for they, as well as we, had a mixture of self and were often contending who should be the greatest. I have found such an evil in my heart, that when persons on whom I could depend have been speaking of comforts and manifestations beyond the line of my experience, I have felt for the time an anger and enmity against them, and a repining of spirit against the Lord. Besides, I knew not but they would have absolutely disbelieved the relation. It was perhaps upon one or both these accounts, that when St Paul had been caught up into the third heavens, he kept it a secret in his own breast for fourteen years, and it would probably have died with him, if he had not seen his duty to mention it for the sake of the Corinthians. We have cause to be glad that their conduct made it necessary for him to relate it. From whence I would observe in general that there is a wisdom and caution to be used in speaking of our experiences—perhaps not all things, nor to all persons. We should endeavour to suit what we tell them of ourselves to what we judge is their state and attainment, lest we discourage when we would comfort and offend when we would instruct. So there are depths of Satan in a way of temptation which are not so fit to be told to young converts, unless we know they are led something in the same way.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak’ (1 Corinthians 8:9).

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 13 [2/4]