Milo

August 26

“It is not in me.” (Job 28:14.)

IREMEMBER a summer in which I said, “It is the ocean I need,” and I went to the ocean; but it seemed to say “It is not in me!” The ocean did not do for me what I thought it would. Then I said, “The mountains will rest me,” and I went to the mountains, and when I awoke in the morning there stood the grand mountain that I had wanted so much to see; but it said, “It is not in me!” It did not satisfy. Ah! I needed the ocean of His love, and the high mountains of His truth within. It was wisdom that the “depths” said they did not contain, and that could not be compared with jewels or gold or precious stones. Christ is wisdom and our deepest need. Our restlessness within can only be met by the revelation of His eternal friendship and love for us.—Margaret Bottome.

“My heart is there!

Where, on eternal hills, my loved one dwells
Among the lilies and asphodels;
Clad in the brightness of the Great White Throne,
Glad in the smile of Him who sits thereon,
The glory gilding all His wealth of hair
And making His immortal face more fair—
THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.

“My heart is there!

With Him who made all earthly life so sweet,
So fit to live, and yet to die so meet;
So mild, so grand, so gentle and so brave,
So ready to forgive, so strong to save.
His fair, pure Spirit makes the Heavens more fair,
And thither rises all my longing prayer—
THERE IS MY TREASURE and my heart is there.”
—Favorite poem of the late Chas. E. Cowman.
You cannot detain the eagle in the forest. You may gather around him a chorus of the choicest birds; you may give him a perch on the goodliest pine; you may charge winged messengers to bring him choicest dainties; but he will spurn them all. Spreading his lofty wings, and with his eye on the Alpine cliff, he will soar away to his own ancestral halls amid the munition of rocks and the wild music of tempest and waterfall.
The soul of man, in its eagle soarings, will rest with nothing short of the Rock of Ages. Its ancestral halls are the halls of Heaven. Its munitions of rocks are the attributes of God. The sweep of its majestic flight is Eternity! “Lord, THOU hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”—Macduff.

“My Home is God Himself”; Christ brought me there.
I laid me down within His mighty arms;
He took me up, and safe from all alarms
He bore me “where no foot but His hath trod,”
Within the holiest at Home with God,
And bade me dwell in Him, rejoicing there.
O Holy Place! O Home divinely fair!
And we, God’s little ones, abiding there.

“My Home is God Himself”; it was not so!
A long, long road I traveled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way,
Aught I could do, or feel to bring me near;
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way,
That I must come to Him and in Him stay,
And God had told me so.

And now “my Home is God,” and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O Wondrous Place! O Home divinely fair!
And I, God’s little one, safe hidden there.
Lord, as I dwell in Thee and Thou in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my Home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see
My God in everything and everywhere;
My Home is God.

—Author Unknown.

26 AUGUST

Bound to obey

‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.’ Ephesians 6:1–3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Proverbs 4:1–27

The duty and obligation of children is to obey and honour. This is a precept of the moral law, and the first, and indeed the only, command to which there is a special promise annexed. It partly is founded upon natural obligation. We came into the world in a helpless, pitiable state; and what would become of us in infancy when our wants are so many, when we occasion so much trouble, if God had not put a natural affection into our parents? Though a child is brought into the world with pain and danger to the mother, yet as soon as it is born she forgetteth her sorrow for joy that she is the mother of a living child. And an affection which is quite a new feeling takes place in the father also. And what care have parents while their offspring are in a state of childhood, and afterwards for their comfortable settlement in life. Thankful as they are if the Lord has quickened their own souls, they know not how to be satisfied unless their children are saved too. They tremble at the thought of seeing them hereafter at the left hand of the judgement seat. It shall be no trouble to them then, yet they know not how to think of it now. On these accounts children are surely bound to love and obey their parents.

FOR MEDITATION: It is more than sixty years since my mother died. I was then younger than you are now, but I can still remember that some people stroked my head and said, Poor child, he does not know what he has lost! Indeed I could not know the value of a good mama at that time, but I felt the want of her afterwards. For, Miss Jean, we are all such creatures, even when we are young, that we find it difficult to learn what is good; but that which is evil and wicked is so well suited to our inclinations, that we can learn it quickly, even without a teacher. Remember, my dear, in the first place, to love and honour your parents. If you do your utmost, you can never fully requite your obligations to them. You are bound to show your gratitude to them by your love, respect and obedience in all things.
John Newton to Jean Coffin (aged 10), 28 September 1792

SERMON SERIES: RELATIVE DUTIES, NO. 3 [1/5], EPHESIANS 6:1–3

August 25th

The fruitfulness of friendship

I have called you friends. John 15:15.

We never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we abandon in every particular. Self-surrender is the most difficult thing—‘I will if …!’ ‘Oh well, I suppose I must devote my life to God.’ There is none of the joy of self-sacrifice in that.
As soon as we do abandon, the Holy Ghost gives us an intimation of the joy of Jesus. The final aim of self-sacrifice is laying down our lives for our Friend. When the Holy Ghost comes in, the great desire is to lay down the life for Jesus; the thought of sacrifice never touches us because sacrifice is the love passion of the Holy Ghost.
Our Lord is our example in the life of self-sacrifice—“I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” He went on with His sacrifice with exuberant joy. Have I ever yielded in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If Jesus Christ is not the lodestar, there is no benefit in the sacrifice; but when the sacrifice is made with the eyes on Him, slowly and surely the moulding influence begins to tell.
Beware of letting natural affinities hinder your walk in love. One of the most cruel ways of killing natural love is by disdain built on natural affinities. The affinity of the saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not sentimental; to love as God loves is the most practical thing for the saint.
“I have called you friends.” It is a friendship based on the new life created in us, which has no affinity with our old life, but only with the life of God. It is unutterably humble, unsulliedly pure, and absolutely devoted to God.

August 25

“Shut up to faith.” (Gal. 3:23.)

GOD, in olden time suffered man to be kept in ward by the law that he might learn the more excellent way of faith. For by the law he would see God’s holy standard and by the law he would see his own utter helplessness; then he would be glad to learn God’s way of faith.
God still shuts us up to faith. Our natures, our circumstances, trials, disappointments, all serve to shut us up and keep us in ward till we see that the only way out is God’s way of faith. Moses tried by self-effort, by personal influence, even by violence, to bring about the deliverance of his people. God had to shut him up forty years in the wilderness before he was prepared for God’s work.
Paul and Silas were bidden of God to preach the Gospel in Europe. They landed and proceeded to Philippi. They were flogged, they were shut up in prison, their feet were put fast in the stocks. They were shut up to faith. They trusted God. They sang praises to Him in the darkest hour, and God wrought deliverance and salvation.
John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. He was shut up to faith. Had he not been so shut up, he would never have seen such glorious visions of God.
Dear reader, are you in some great trouble? Have you had some great disappointment, have you met some sorrow, some unspeakable loss? Are you in a hard place? Cheer up! You are shut up to faith. Take your trouble the right way. Commit it to God. Praise Him that He maketh “all things work together for good,” and that “God worketh for him that waiteth for him.” There will be blessings, help and revelations of God that will come to you that never could otherwise have come; and many besides yourself will receive great light and blessing because you were shut up to faith.—C. H. P.

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
These are not done by jostling in the street.”

25 AUGUST (PREACHED 20 JANUARY 1767 & 30 MAY 1779)

The brightest rainbow on the darkest cloud

‘And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.’ Genesis 9:14
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Genesis 9:8–17

The rainbow is promised in the cloud and in due time it shall appear. This may signify:
(i) that their troubles shall be moderated. ‘I will correct thee in measure, but will not make a full end of thee.’ The degree and the duration of their trials are limited and have bounds beyond which they cannot pass. He remembers their frame and considers they are but dust.
(ii) they are supported. They wonder how it is possible, but they find they do hold out. Had they been told what they were to go through, they would have sunk at the thought, but they are brought through the storm, because, though his face may be hid, his arm is underneath them.
(iii) they are at last comforted. The rainbow does not usually appear in the cloud at first, but rather when the rain is going off. And as the brightest rainbow is painted upon the darkest cloud, so their greatest distresses are often accompanied or succeeded by their brightest and sweetest consolations.
Remember therefore when you see the rainbow, that it is a witness for the truth of God’s promise—that he will not contend for ever, that all shall work together for good, that though weeping may endure for a night, joy shall come in the morning. But to sinners, out of Christ, the rainbow gives you but small comfort as a pledge that you shall not be destroyed by a deluge. Yet the rainbow signifies to you that the day of God’s grace and patience is not yet ended; it encourages you to seek him for pardon and salvation.
FOR MEDITATION:
When the sun, with cheerful beams,
Thus the Lord’s supporting power
Smiles upon a lowering sky;
Brightest to his saints appears,
Soon its aspect softened seems,
When affliction’s threatening hour
And a rainbow meets the eye:
Fills their sky with clouds and fears:
While the sky remains serene,
He can wonders then perform,
This bright arch is never seen.
Paint a rainbow on the storm.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 20 [1/1], GENESIS 9:14