Milo

August 15

“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22.)

THE best things of life come out of wounding. Wheat is crushed before it becomes bread. Incense must be cast upon the fire before its odors are set free. The ground must be broken with the sharp plough before it is ready to receive the seed. It is the broken heart that pleases God. The sweetest joys in life are the fruits of sorrow. Human nature seems to need suffering to fit it for being a blessing to the world.

“Beside my cottage door it grows,
The loveliest, daintiest flower that blows,
A sweetbriar rose.

“At dewy morn or twilight’s close,
The rarest perfume from it flows,
This strange wild rose.

“But when the rain-drops on it beat,
Ah, then, its odors grow more sweet,
About my feet.

“Ofttimes with loving tenderness,
Its soft green leaves I gently press,
In sweet caress.

“A still more wondrous fragrance flows
The more my fingers close
And crush the rose.

“Dear Lord, oh, let my life be so
Its perfume when tempests blow,
The sweeter flow

“And should it be Thy blessed will,
With crushing grief my soul to fill,
Press harder still.

“And while its dying fragrance flows
I’ll whisper low, ‘He loves and knows
  His crushed briar rose.’ ”

If you aspire to be a son of consolation; if you would partake of the priestly gift of sympathy; if you would pour something beyond commonplace consolation into a tempted heart; if you would pass through the intercourse of daily life with the delicate tact that never inflicts pain; you must be content to pay the price of a costly education—like Him, you must suffer.
—F. W. Robertson.

15 AUGUST

Heaven as your home

‘O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.’ Psalm 43:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 27:1–14

Let them lead me. The question is asked somewhere, Who shall lead me into the strong city? [Psalm 60:9]. And here the soul is taught an answer—I indeed am dark and weak, I cannot see my way, nor walk in it by my own strength, but let the truth of God support me and his light shine upon my paths and I shall go on well.

And bring me. Here is the humble confidence of faith—that what God begins shall not miscarry and those whom he leads shall not be lost. I know that my path is full of snares and dangers—if left to myself I should soon stumble and fall and be snared and broken—but thy light and truth shall lead me in safety to the end. I am faint and apt to tire, but these shall revive me in the way and at length bring me to the end, and in safety.
To thy holy hill. The soul is sick of earth and longs for heaven; this is the place where it would be. It is described:
(i) as a hill, in allusion to Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1): perhaps to signify the difficulty of the way (it is an uphill road)—the security and safety (it is high out of the reach of all enemies)—and its eminence (it cannot be hid: it is set on a hill and attracts the hearts and views of all the children of God. They are all looking to this prize of their calling).
(ii) as a holy hill. No unclean thing shall enter. When the everlasting gates are lifted up to receive my poor unworthy soul, I shall leave all my sins and sorrows behind me.
(iii) thy tabernacles. This is the crowning circumstance: our Lord Jesus dwells on this holy hill. There we shall see him as he is and love him as we ought. There we shall cast our crowns at his feet. We shall go up to his altar with exceeding joy, to sing his praise on harps of gold for ever.

FOR MEDITATION: If you choose heaven as your home, and God’s light and truth as your way, your prayer shall be answered. Fight against your unbelief as David does in verse 5: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

SERMON: PSALM 43:3 [5/5]

August 14th

Chastening

Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him. Hebrews 12:5.

It is very easy to quench the Spirit; we do it by despising the chastening of the Lord, by fainting when we are rebuked by Him. If we have only a shallow experience of sanctification, we mistake the shadow for the reality, and when the Spirit of God begins to check, we say—‘Oh, that must be the devil.’
Never quench the Spirit, and do not despise Him when He says to you—‘Don’t be blind on this point any more; you are not where you thought you were. Up to the present, I have not been able to reveal it to you, but I reveal it now.’ When the Lord chastens you like that, let Him have His way. Let Him relate you rightly to God.
“Nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” We get into sulks with God and say—‘Oh well, I can’t help it; I did pray and things did not turn out right, and I am going to give it all up.’ Think what would happen if we talked like this in any other domain of life!
Am I prepared to let God grip me by His power and do a work in me that is worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me, and He has to get me into the attitude of mind and spirit where at any cost I will let Him sanctify me wholly.

August 14

“Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” (John 19:11.)

NOTHING that is not God’s will can come into the life of one who trusts and obeys God. This fact is enough to make our life one of ceaseless thanksgiving and joy. For “God’s will is the one hopeful, glad, and glorious thing in the world”; and it is working in the omnipotence for us all the time, with nothing to prevent it if we are surrendered and believing.
One who was passing through deep waters of affliction wrote to a friend: “Is it not a glorious thing to know that, no difference how unjust a thing may be, or how absolutely it may seem to be from Satan, by the time it reaches us it is God’s will for us, and will work for good to us? For all things work together for good to us who love God. And even of the betrayal, Christ said, “The cup which my Father gave me, shall I not drink it?” We live charmed lives if we are living in the center of God’s will. All the attacks that Satan, through others’ sin, can hurl against us are not only powerless to harm us, but are turned into blessings on the way.—H. W. S.

In the center of the circle
  Of the Will of God I stand:
There can come no second causes,
  All must come from His dear hand.
All is well! for ’tis my Father
  Who my life hath planned.

Shall I pass through waves of sorrow?
  Then I know it will be best;
Though I cannot tell the reason,
  I can trust, and so am blest.
God is Love, and God is faithful,
  So in perfect Peace I rest.

With the shade and with the sunshine,
  With the joy and with the pain,
Lord, I trust Thee! both are needed,
  Each Thy wayward child to train,
Earthly loss, did we but know it,
  Often means our heavenly gain.

—I. G. W

14 AUGUST

Send forth thy light and thy truth

‘O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.’ Psalm 43:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 7:37–44

What is expressed: every word is emphatical and full of meaning.
Send forth. From whence? From Jesus. He is the Fountain, the Sun, the Treasury of all grace. This sending forth is the fruit of his intercession. He has received gifts, even the Holy Spirit, to teach, comfort and seal every seeking soul.
Thy light. All light and knowledge is from God, but natural and common light, the light of reason, books, or education, will not do—therefore the soul prays thy light, that which is peculiarly thine, and which none partake of but by special favour. Light signifies knowledge, as in Psalm 119:130, and comfort, as in Micah 7:9. Both these, the heart which God has touched seeks from him alone.
And thy truth. This is already revealed or sent forth in the Word, but the meaning of the prayer is that the promises, which are true in themselves, may be sent forth in their power and sweetness and applied to the heart. Two things the soul wants to know of God’s truths: their extensive meaning and fullness and its own interest in them.

FOR MEDITATION: I labour under a thousand difficulties in my ways to goodness, my heart is wicked and deceitful, my affections corrupted, my hopes and fears misplaced, and all my faculties unhappily bent toward evil; the world, the flesh and the devil in many different forms and circumstances strive to draw me from my duty. These things are to me insuperable but they are not so to thee. If thou but speak the word, all obstacles shall vanish. That powerful word which cleansed the lepers and raised the dead can in one moment purge my soul from all the defilements it has contracted and raise me up to newness of life. Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief, for thy name’s sake, for thy promise’ sake, for the sake of that precious sacrifice thou didst once offer up for all.
Diary, 1 July 1752

SERMON: PSALM 43:3 [4/5]