Milo

October 25th

The external crush of things

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 1 Cor. 9:22.

A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s noble man or woman amid a crowd of ignoble things. Never make this plea—‘If only I were somewhere else!’ All God’s men are ordinary men made extraordinary by the matter He has given them. Unless we have the right matter in our minds intellectually and in our hearts affectionately, we will be hustled out of usefulness to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no matter in them of God’s almighty grace, no matter of His mighty word. Paul’s whole heart and mind and soul were taken up with the great matter of what Jesus Christ came to do, he never lost sight of that one thing. We have to face ourselves with the one central fact—Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. Here, in this College, God is at work, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as He chooses. Why He is doing it, we do not know; He is doing it for one purpose only—that He may be able to say, ‘This is My man, My woman.’ We have to be in God’s hand so that He can plant men on the Rock as He has planted us.
Never choose to be a worker, but when God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right hand or to the left. He will do with you what He never did with you before the call came; He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

October 25

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24.)

DURING the Civil War, a man had an only son who enlisted in the armies of the Union. The father was a banker and, although he consented to his son’s going, it seemed as if it would break his heart to let him go.
He became deeply interested in the soldier boys, and whenever he saw a uniform, his heart went out as he thought of his own dear boy. He spent his time, neglected his business, gave his money to caring for the soldiers who came home invalid. His friends remonstrated with him, saying he had no right to neglect his business and spend so much thought upon the soldiers, so he fully decided to give it all up.
After he had come to this decision, there stepped into his bank one day a private soldier in a faded, worn uniform, who showed in his face and hands the marks of the hospital.
The poor fellow was fumbling in his pocket to get something or other, when the banker saw him and, perceiving his purpose, said to him:
“My dear fellow, I cannot do anything for you today. I am extremely busy. You will have to go to your headquarters; the officers there will look after you.”
Still the poor convalescent stood, not seeming to fully understand what was said to him. Still he fumbled in his pockets and, by and by, drew out a scrap of dirty paper, on which there were a few lines written with a pencil, and laid this soiled sheet before the banker. On it he found these words:
“Dear Father: “This is one of my comrades who was wounded in the last fight, and has been in the hospital. Please receive him as myself.—Charlie.”
In a moment all the resolutions of indifference which this man made, flew away. He took the boy to his palatial home, put him in Charlie’s room, gave him Charlie’s seat at the table, kept him until food and rest and love had brought him back to health, and then sent him back again to imperil his life for the flag.
—Selected.
“Now shalt thou SEE what I will do.” (Exod. 6:1.)

25 OCTOBER (PREACHED NEW YEAR’S EVENING 1785)

A heart to know me

‘And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.’ Jeremiah 24:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Jeremiah 24:1–10

This was an encouraging word concerning the people that should return from Babylon—but not confined to them. It is repeated within some variety of expression more than once by this prophet, by Ezekiel, and applied by the Apostle to the Hebrews as a summary of the blessings of the New Testament dispensation. It is an encouraging word likewise to me and my hearers. I am to speak more especially to young people. Many of you are yet unsettled, undetermined. How can I expect to prevail on you, or what can you expect from me? But the gospel I preach is a gospel of grace. The Lord undertakes to do all. It is a word of sovereignty and power—they shall, and I will. However, he that does all, works by means. The means of his own appointments to which he has annexed his blessing, are now in our hands. He will do it, but he will be enquired of by us to do it for us. I therefore enter upon the service with hope, with a cheerful expectation that neither my preaching nor your hearing shall be in vain. I mean not to be large in what is usually called a doctrinal way. Young persons have usually warm passions, lively imaginations. The world is opening upon them with pleasing prospects—and this word of experience makes them too ready to mistake its shadows and delusions for realities. I must endeavour, if you will allow the expression, to outbid the world. This I shall effectually do if the Lord the Spirit is pleased to enable me to open the meaning of this promise, and to accompany what I shall say, with the life, light and influence of his Spirit.

FOR MEDITATION: I will give them a heart to know me—this is all that is wanting. Lord give them this, and the rest will follow. Ignorance of God is the root of every sin, and is the source of every misery.

SERMON: JEREMIAH 24:7 [1/4] [FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE]

October 24th

The viewpoint

Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. 2 Cor. 2:14.

The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God’s point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don’t think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.
The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ’s triumphs. We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are—‘I am standing alone battling for Jesus’; ‘I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him.’ Paul says—‘I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.’ Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for. Paul’s joy was to be a captive of the Lord, he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. The Victor ought to have got us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.” We are enwheeled with the odour of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

October 24

“I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument.” (Isa. 41:15.)

ABAR of steel worth five dollars, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars; if into springs for watches it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.
May this parable help us to be silent, still, and longsuffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others.—Selected.

“Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still,
  And bear Thy will;
Courage to venture wholly on the arm
  That will not harm;
The wisdom that will never let me stray
  Out of my way;
The love that, now afflicting, knoweth best
  When I should rest.”

Life is very mysterious. Indeed it would be inexplicable unless we believed that God was preparing us for scenes and ministries that lie beyond the veil of sense in the eternal world, where highly-tempered spirits will be required for special service.
“The turning-lathe that has the sharpest knives produces the finest work.”