Milo

May 30th

“Yes—But …!”

Lord, I will follow Thee; but … Luke 9:61.

Supposing God tells you to do something which is an enormous test to your common sense, what are you going to do? Hang back? If you get into the habit of doing a thing in the physical domain, you will do it every time until you break the habit determinedly; and the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will get up to what Jesus Christ wants, and every time you will turn back when it comes to the point, until you abandon resolutely. ‘Yes, but—supposing I do obey God in this matter, what about …?’ ‘Yes, I will obey God if He will let me use my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.’ Jesus Christ demands of the man who trusts Him the same reckless sporting spirit that the natural man exhibits. If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap, and in the spiritual domain Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold by common sense and leap into what He says, and immediately you do, you find that what He says fits on as solidly as common sense. At the bar of common sense Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad; but bring them to the bar of faith, and you begin to find with awestruck spirit that they are the words of God. Trust entirely in God, and when He brings you to the venture, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God.

May 30

“And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” (Rev. 14:3)

THERE are songs which can only be learned in the valley. No art can teach them; no rules of voice can make them perfectly sung. Their music is in the heart. They are songs of memory, of personal experience. They bring out their burden from the shadow of the past; they mount on the wings of yesterday.
St. John says that even in Heaven there will be a song that can only be fully sung by the sons of earth—the strain of redemption. Doubtless it is a song of triumph, a hymn of victory to the Christ who made us free. But the sense of triumph must come from the memory of the chain.
No angel, no archangel can sing it so sweetly as I can. To sing it as I sing it, they must pass through my exile, and this they cannot do. None can learn it but the children of the Cross.
And so, my soul, thou art receiving a music lesson from thy Father. Thou art being educated for the choir invisible. There are parts of the symphony that none can take but thee.
There are chords too minor for the angels. There may be heights in the symphony which are beyond the scale—heights which angels alone can reach; but there are depths which belong to thee, and can only be touched by thee.
Thy Father is training thee for the part the angels cannot sing; and the school is sorrow. I have heard many say that He sends sorrow to prove thee; nay, He sends sorrow to educate thee, to train thee for the choir invisible.
In the night He is preparing thy song. In the valley He is tuning thy voice. In the cloud He is deepening thy chords. In the rain He is sweetening thy melody. In the cold He is moulding thy expression. In the transition from hope to fear He is perfecting thy lights.

Despise not thy school of sorrow, O my soul; it will give thee a unique part in the universal song.—George Matheson.

“Is the midnight closing round you?
  Are the shadows dark and long?
Ask Him to come close beside you,
  And He’ll give you a new, sweet song.
He’ll give it and sing it with you;
  And when weakness lets it down,
He’ll take up the broken cadence,
  And blend it with His own.

“And many a rapturous minstrel
  Among those sons of light,
Will say of His sweetest music
  ‘I learned it in the night.’
And many a rolling anthem,
  That fills the Father’s home,
Sobbed out its first rehearsal,
  In the shade of a darkened room.”

30 MAY (PREACHED 25 AUGUST 1776)

Trifling with God’s majesty

‘Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.’ Exodus 20:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Revelation 11:15–19; 19:11–16

The foundation of true religion is laid in a right knowledge of God and ourselves. How deficient we are in each of these, how far fallen from original righteousness, is strongly implied in this prohibition, which would be altogether unnecessary were we not altogether sunk in stupidity and wickedness. That such worms should be liable to trifle with the majesty whose presence fills heaven and earth, before whom the angels hide their faces—that such frail, dependent creatures have need to be cautioned that we do not profane the name of the God in whom we live, move and have our being—is as striking an instance of our depravity as our daring to break through this caution, and slighting the awful threatenings with which it is closed, is a dreadful aggravation of our guilt.
These words were first delivered in flames and thunder. Such a scene, or rather infinitely more dreadful, shall hereafter take place when the Lord shall again descend and be revealed in flaming fire to take vengeance. Then shall sinners be convinced not only of their ungodly deeds, but their hard speeches—and shall know the meaning of that terrible exception I have read: He will not hold them guiltless.

FOR MEDITATION: … foolish and perverse again. What can I say? But that I am vile beyond expression—weak as water and wilful as an ass’s colt. Silly creature to trifle with thee and to wound myself, and that for a mere nothing. Lord, humble and strengthen me. Let me plead thy blood, thy promise. Let me again see I have an Advocate with the Father, and enable me to come to thee in faith, that I may obtain and find grace to help in time of need.
Diary, 7 July 1776

SERMON: EXODUS 20:7 [1/3]

May 29th

Undisturbed relationship

At that day ye shall ask in My name … The Father Himself loveth you. John 16:26, 27.

“At that day ye shall ask in My name,” i.e., in My nature. Not—‘You shall use My name as a magic word,’ but—‘You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.’ “That day” is not a day hereafter, but a day meant for here and now. “The Father Himself loveth you”—the union is so complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that life will be free from external perplexities but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, so by the baptism of the Holy Ghost He can lift us into the heavenly places where He can reveal the counsels of God to us.
“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name …” “That day” is a day of undisturbed relationship between God and the saint. Just as Jesus stood unsullied in the presence of His Father, so by the mighty efficacy of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we can be lifted into that relationship—“that they may be one, even as We are one.”
“He will give it you.” Jesus says that God will recognize our prayers. What a challenge! By the Resurrection and Ascension power of Jesus, by the sent-down Holy Ghost, we can be lifted into such a relationship with the Father that we are at one with the perfect sovereign will of God by our free choice even as Jesus was. In that wonderful position, placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in His name, in His nature, which is gifted to us by the Holy Ghost, and Jesus says—“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested by His own statements.

May 29

“I have called you friends.” (John 15:15)

YEARS ago there was an old German professor whose beautiful life was a marvel to his students. Some of them resolved to know the secret of it; so one of their number hid in the study where the old professor spent his evenings.
It was late when the teacher came in. He was very tired, but he sat down and spent an hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his head in secret prayer; and finally closing the Book of books, he said,
“Well, Lord Jesus, we’re on the same old terms.”
To know Him is life’s highest attainment; and at all costs, every Christian should strive to be “on the same old terms with Him.”
The reality of Jesus comes as a result of secret prayer, and a personal study of the Bible that is devotional and sympathetic. Christ becomes more real to the one who persists in the cultivation of His presence.

Speak thou to Him for He heareth,
  And spirit with spirit will meet!
Nearer is He than breathing,
  Nearer than hands and feet.

—Maltbie D. Babcock.