Milo

September 17

“It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” (1 Sam. 3:18.)

SEE God in everything, and God will calm and color all that thou dost see!” It may be that the circumstances of our sorrows will not be removed, their condition will remain unchanged; but if Christ, as Lord and Master of our life, is brought into our grief and gloom, “HE will compass us about with songs of deliverance.” To see HIM, and to be sure that His wisdom cannot err, His power cannot fail, His love can never change; to know that even His direst dealings with us are for our deepest spiritual gain, is to be able to say, in the midst of bereavement, sorrow, pain, and loss, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Nothing else but seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes toward us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.—H. W. Smith.

“Give me a new idea,” I said,
While musing on a sleepless bed;
“A new idea that’ll bring to earth
A balm for souls of priceless worth;
That’ll give men thoughts of things above,
And teach them how to serve and love,
That’ll banish every selfish thought,
And rid men of the sins they’ve fought.”

The new thought came, just how, I’ll tell:
’Twas when on bended knee I fell,
And sought from HIM who knows full well
The way our sorrow to expel.
SEE GOD IN ALL THINGS, great and small,
And give HIM praise whate’er befall,
In life or death, in pain or woe,
See God, and overcome thy foe.

I saw HIM in the morning light,
HE made the day shine clear and bright;
I saw HIM in the noontide hour,
And gained from HIM refreshing shower.
At eventide, when worn and sad,
HE gave me help, and made me glad.
At midnight, when on tossing bed
My weary soul to sleep HE led.

I saw HIM when great losses came,
And found HE loved me just the same.
When heavy loads I had to bear,
I found HE lightened every care.
By sickness, sorrow, sore distress,
HE calmed my mind and gave me rest.
HE’S filled my heart with gladsome praise
Since I gave HIM the upward gaze.

’Twas new to me, yet old to some,
This thought that to me has become
A revelation of the way
We all should live throughout the day;
For as each day unfolds its light,
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight.
Life will, indeed, a blessing bring,
If we SEE GOD IN EVERYTHING.”
—A. E. Finn.

17 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED OLNEY FAIR DAY)

The awesome Judge

‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’ Revelation 20:12
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 21:25–36

There is something awful and solemn in a day of Assize. The news of the judge coming to town awakens a general concern for the unhappy prisoners who are to stand their trial. But especially the prisoners themselves, those who have been guilty of some capital crime and know that the law is against them. How are they affected! How dejected do they appear in earnest—they know their facts will be proved and that the forms of law to which they must be present will issue in their condemnation. The concourse of people, too, adds something to their distress, but especially when they hear their sentence read, how do their hearts fail, their limbs fail, and their eyes flow—they cry for mercy, but in vain. The judge cannot, the law will not, afford it, and the small remainder of life is spent in a comfortless expectation of their sentence. Most of the circumstances I have hinted at are borrowed in Scripture to remind us of the great and terrible day of the Lord, when all who ever lived upon the face of the earth shall stand before the Judge, the One Lawgiver who alone is able to save and to destroy. But the concourse, the solemnity, the event of the most important cases that come before a human judicature, are mere shadows and children’s sports compared to that tremendous judgement which we must see and hear, each one for ourselves.

FOR MEDITATION: I visited the prisoners under sentence of death on Friday morning and again on Saturday. I spoke amongst them with all the earnestness and affection that I could—told them my own story, and that I was sent to them as a proof that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Poor men! I suppose this morning launched them into an eternal unchangeable state. The wealthy, the proud, the gay, and even many who are benevolent and useful in their connections, are likewise to be pitied. Some, because though they have a religious character, and are in some respects exemplary, they do not effectually receive the record which God has given of his Son.
John Newton to William Wilberforce, 1 July 1789

SERMON: REVELATION 20:11–12 [2/6] [EASTER MONDAY EVENING]

September 16th

The divine region of religion

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Matthew 6:6.

The main idea in the region of religion is—Your eyes upon God, not on men. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Get an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door and talk to God in secret. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer:
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions.…” (v. 7). God is never impressed by our earnestness. He does not hear us because we are in earnest, but only on the ground of Redemption. Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is an initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray.
“Everyone that asketh receiveth.” We pray pious blether, our will is not in it, and then we say God does not answer; we never asked for anything. “Ye shall ask what ye will,” said Jesus. Asking means our will is in it. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He put it with the grand simplicity of a child; we bring in our critical temper and say—‘Yes, but …’ Jesus said—“Ask.” But remember that we have to ask of God things that are in keeping with the God Whom Jesus Christ revealed.

September 16

“Hide thyself by the brook Cherith.” (1 Kings 17:3.)

GOD’S servants must be taught the value of the hidden life. The man who is to take a high place before his fellows must take a low place before his God. We must not be surprised if sometimes our Father says: “There, child, thou hast had enough of this hurry, and publicity, and excitement; get thee hence, and hide thyself by the brook—hide thyself in the Cherith of the sick chamber, or in the Cherith of bereavement, or in some solitude from which the crowds have ebbed away.”
Happy is he who can reply, “This Thy will is also mine; I flee unto Thee to hide me. Hide me in the secret of Thy tabernacle, and beneath the covert of Thy wings”
Every saintly soul that would wield great power with men must win it in some hidden Cherith. The acquisition of spiritual power is impossible, unless we can hide ourselves from men and from ourselves in some deep gorge where we may absorb the power of the eternal God; as vegetation through long ages absorbed these qualities of sunshine, which it now gives back through burning coal.
Bishop Andrews had his Cherith, in which he spent five hours every day in prayer and devotion. John Welsh had it—who thought the day ill spent which did not witness eight or ten hours of closet communion. David Brainerd had it in the woods of North America. Christmas Evans had it in his long and lonely journeys amid the hills of Wales.
Or, passing back to the blessed age from which we date the centuries: Patmos, the seclusion of the Roman prisons, the Arabian desert, the hills and vales of Palestine, are forever memorable as the Cheriths of those who have made our modern world.
Our Lord found His Cherith at Nazareth, and in the wilderness of Judea; amid the olives of Bethany, and the solitude of Gadara. None of us, therefore, can dispense with some Cherith where the sounds of human voices are exchanged for the waters of quietness which are fed from the throne; and where we may taste the sweets and imbibe the power of a life hidden with Christ.—Elijah, by Meyer.

16 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED OLNEY FAIR DAY)

Make him your fear and dread

‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’ Revelation 20:11–12
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Revelation 20:1–15

The vanity and weakness of man is remarkably manifested by comparing the fears he is most frequently perplexed with, with their proper grounds and causes. There are very few who are not troubled with some fear or other which the slightest reasoning will show to be unnecessary and vain. Some who are bold and daring enough when in company (as if numbers could protect them from the deserts of their sins) yet tremble at the thoughts of being alone. Some are courageous in the daytime, but cannot bear the thoughts of being in the dark. Some are all life and spirits in settled weather, but a single clap of thunder at a distance will damp their mirth and spoil their spirits at once. Some can brave it out in noise and riot in a public house and yet dare not set their foot in a churchyard after dark. Some are afraid of seeing a spirit, yet are not alarmed at the thought that they must enter into the world of spirit. In a word, many who are ready to start at their own shadows or the fall of a leaf, can hear without concern of the great solemnity my text speaks of, though they profess to believe that it will certainly be so, and they are deeply interested in the consequences. May the Lord help you to improve [make good use of] the subject now before us, to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, to make him your fear and your dread. So shall you be delivered from the vain fears which have hitherto detained you and be enabled to stand before him with boldness in the great day of his appearing.
FOR MEDITATION:
John in vision saw the day
Dead and living, small and great,
When the Judge will hasten down;
Raised from the earth and sea;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
At his bar shall hear their fate,
From the terror of his frown:
What will then become of me?

SERMON: REVELATION 20:11–12 [1/6] [EASTER MONDAY EVENING]