Milo

September 24

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7.)

WHAT a strange prohibition! These men were going into Bithynia just to do Christ’s work, and the door is shut against them by Christ’s own Spirit. I, too, have experienced this in certain moments. I have sometimes found myself interrupted in what seemed to me a career of usefulness. Opposition came and forced me to go back, or sickness came and compelled me to retire into a desert apart.
It was hard at such times to leave my work undone when I believed that work to be the service of the Spirit. But I came to remember that the Spirit has not only a service of work, but a service of waiting. I came to see that in the Kingdom of Christ there are not only times for action, but times in which to forbear acting. I came to learn that the desert place apart is often the most useful spot in the varied life of man—more rich in harvest than the seasons in which the corn and wine abounded. I have been taught to thank the blessed Spirit that many a darling Bithynia had to be left unvisited by me.
And so, Thou Divine Spirit, would I still be led by Thee. Still there come to me disappointed prospects of usefulness. Today the door seems to open into life and work for Thee; tomorrow it closes before me just as I am about to enter.
Teach me to see another door in the very inaction of the hour. Help me to find in the very prohibition thus to serve Thee, a new opening into Thy service. Inspire me with the knowledge that a man may at times be called to do his duty by doing nothing, to work by keeping still, to serve by waiting. When I remember the power of the “still small voice,” I shall not murmur that sometimes the Spirit suffers me not to go.
—George Matheson.

“When I cannot understand my Father’s leading,
And it seems to be but hard and cruel fate,
Still I hear that gentle whisper ever pleading,
God is working, God is faithful, ONLY WAIT.”

24 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED 22 SEPTEMBER 1782)

A nation’s secret strength

‘Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’ Judges 5:18
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Nehemiah 1:1–11

This war is complicated. Never before perhaps was the nation opposed by so powerful a combination of enemies—we feel the disparity and it is no dishonour in our situation to feel it. Except the Lord of hosts be on our side, there is but little hope of our standing long in so unequal a contest. We are brought to a crisis and our possessions, our civil and religious liberties, are all eminently at stake. Next to the prayers of those who fear God, our grand resource is in our fleets and armies. How desirable is it that the men to whom we commit our cause should be such as know to whom they should look for success. We may well wonder that the Lord of hosts should so often give us victory by such instruments as who, far from improving his blessing, or rendering him praise, disown his authority and in a manner defy him to his face. Could this insensibility and presumption be removed, we might hope that one might chase a thousand and five put ten thousand to flight—and that though millions were engaged against us, yet the Lord of hosts would be for us and preserve us. As things stand at present, they who really believe there is a God that governs the earth, can place but small dependence upon our warlike preparations when he is so little acknowledged either by those who plan our enterprises, or by those who undertake to carry them into execution. They know not what they do. Put the Bible into their hands, and who can tell but it may be in many instances the happy means of teaching them their sin, their dangers, their need of salvation and the worth of a Saviour. This would habituate them to obedience and subordination more than the strictest discipline without it. This will inspire them with a courage founded in principle; this would give strength to their arms and edge to their weapons, when lawfully called forth to plead the cause of their country.
FOR MEDITATION:
We now of fleets and armies vaunt,
Yet, Lord, we hope thou hast prepared
And ships and men prepare;
A hidden few today;
But men like Moses most we want,
(The nation’s secret strength and guard)
To save the state by prayer.
To weep, and mourn, and pray.

SERMON: JUDGES 5:18 [3/4] [FOR THE BIBLE SOCIETY AT ALDGATE]

September 23rd

The missionary’s goal

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Luke 18:31.

In the natural life our ambitions alter as we develop; in the Christian life the goal is given at the beginning, the beginning and the end are the same, viz., Our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him—“until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus,” not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he is useful and he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord.
In Our Lord’s life Jerusalem was the place where He reached the climax of His Father’s will upon the Cross, and unless we go with Jesus there, we shall have no companionship with Him. Nothing ever discouraged Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned Our Lord one hair’s breadth away from His purpose to go up to Jerusalem.
“The disciple is not above his Master.” The same things will happen to us on our way to our Jerusalem. There will be the works of God manifested through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude and the rest will show gross ingratitude, but nothing must deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.
“There they crucified Him.” That is what happened when Our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. The saints do not end in crucifixion: by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword is—I, too, go up to Jerusalem.

September 23

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38.)

SOME of us are shivering and wondering why the Holy Spirit does not fill us. We have plenty coming in, but we do not give it out. Give out the blessing that you have, start larger plans for service and blessing, and you will soon find that the Holy Ghost is before you, and He will present you with blessings for service, and give you all that He can trust you to give away to others.
There is a beautiful fact in nature which has its spiritual parallels. There is no music so heavenly as an Aeolian harp, and the Aeolian harp is nothing but a set of musical chords arranged in harmony, and then left to be touched by the unseen fingers of the wandering winds. And as the breath of heaven floats over the chords, it is said that notes almost Divine float out upon the air, as if a choir of angels were wandering around and touching the strings.
And so it is possible to keep our hearts so open to the touch of the Holy Spirit that He can play upon them at will, as we quietly wait in the pathway of His service.—Days of Heaven upon Earth.
When the apostles received the baptism with the Holy Ghost they did not rent the upper room and stay there to hold holiness meetings, but went everywhere preaching the gospel.
—Will Huff.

“If I have eaten my morsel alone,”
The patriarch spoke with scorn;
What would he think of the Church were he shown
Heathendom—huge, forlorn,
Godless, Christless, with soul unfed,
While the Church’s ailment is fullness of bread,
Eating her morsel alone?

“Freely ye have received, so give,”
He bade, who hath given us all.
How shall the soul in us longer live
Deaf to their starving call,
For whom the blood of the Lord was shed,
And His body broken to give them bread,
If we eat our morsel alone!”
—Archbishop Alexander.
“Where is Abel thy brother?” (Gen. 4:9.)

23 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED 22 SEPTEMBER 1782)

A claim on our gratitude

‘Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’ Judges 5:18
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 1:3–11

As it respects us, who under God owe our safety to the exertions of those who make jeopardy of their lives for us, I address your sensibility—perhaps you will allow me to say, your gratitude. Perhaps what is entreated of you as a favour might be justly claimed as a debt. In a state of war, at home we enjoy hitherto the same—the security, the blessings—as in a time of profound peace. We read indeed of abounding desolations and calamities which have overwhelmed multitudes of our fellow creatures, but we only hear of them, and therefore, alas, are too little affected by them, and therefore perhaps too faintly consider how much we are indebted to the bravery and the sufferings of those who hazard their lives for us.
Of the hardships and dangers peculiar to what we call the military line, I am no competent judge; of those to which our seamen in the King’s service are exposed, I know something more than I could have learnt merely from description. Both the one and the other are called to wake when we sleep, to hunger and thirst while we live in plenty, are separated from their families, relatives and homes, many of them to return no more. They endure hardships of which few of us can properly conceive, from the changes of climates and seasons, and such like; for us they receive wounds not to be healed without much pain and length of time, and often wounds which admit no cure. When a war is ended, how many do we see deeply scarred or grievously marred, and see them perhaps reduced to beg their bread, being disabled from procuring it by honest industry. But a large number never return to tell their mournful tale. We only hear of the event from the cries and distresses of their widows and orphans. Have not those who thus venture for us, a claim upon our sensibility and gratitude? All I ask for them is that they may be furnished.
FOR MEDITATION:
While Joshua led the armed bands
The armed bands had quickly failed,
Of Israel forth to war;
And perished in the fight;
Moses apart with lifted hands
If Moses’ prayer had not prevailed
Engaged in humble prayer.
To put the foes to flight.

SERMON: JUDGES 5:18 [2/4] [FOR THE BIBLE SOCIETY AT ALDGATE]