Milo

May 2

“The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” (Psa. 103:19)

SOME time since, in the early spring, I was going out at my door when round the corner came a blast of east wind—defiant and pitiless, fierce and withering—sending a cloud of dust before it.
I was just taking the latchkey from the door as I said, half impatiently, “I wish the wind would”—I was going to say change; but the word was checked, and the sentence was never finished.
As I went on my way, the incident became a parable to me. There came an angel holding out a key; and he said:
“My Master sends thee His love, and bids me give you this.”
“What is it?” I asked, wondering. “The key of the winds,” said the angel, and disappeared.
Now indeed should I be happy. I hurried away up into the heights whence the winds came, and stood amongst the caves. “I will have done with the east wind at any rate—and that shall plague us no more,” I cried; and calling in that friendless wind, I closed the door, and heard the echoes ringing in the hollow places. I turned the key triumphantly. “There,” I said, “now we have done with that.”
“What shall I choose in its place?” I asked myself, looking about me. “The south wind is pleasant”; and I thought of the lambs, and the young life on every hand, and the flowers that had begun to deck the hedgerows. But as I set the key within the door, it began to burn my hand.
“What am I doing?” I cried; “who knows what mischief I may bring about? How do I know what the fields want! Ten thousand things of ill may come of this foolish wish of mine.”
Bewildered and ashamed, I looked up and prayed that the Lord would send His angel yet again to take the key; and for my part I promised that I would never want to have it any more.
But lo, the Lord Himself stood by me. He reached His hand to take the key; and as I laid it down, I saw that it rested against the sacred wound-print.
It hurt me indeed that I could ever have murmured against anything wrought by Him who bare such sacred tokens of His love. Then He took the key and hung it on His girdle.
“Dost THOU keep the key of the winds?” I asked.
“I do, my child,” He answered graciously.
And lo, I looked again and there hung all the keys of all my life. He saw my look of amazement, and asked, “Didst thou not know, my child, that my kingdom ruleth over all?”
“Over all, my Lord!” I answered; “then it is not safe for me to murmur at anything?” Then did He lay His hand upon me tenderly. “My child,” He said, “thy only safety is, in everything, to love and trust and praise.”—Mark Guy Pearse.

2 MAY

His surpassing glory

‘For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.’ Haggai 2:6–7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Exodus 3:10–13

The Jews, on their return from the captivity, met with many discouragements in their attempts to rebuild the temple—not only from the opposition and arts of their enemies, who prevailed for a time to compel them to desist from their work, but from the comparison which some of the old men were led to make between the magnificence of the first temple and the expectation they formed of the utmost they should be able to perform in the building of the second (verse 3 compared with Ezra 3:12–13). In these circumstances the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were sent to animate the people by a promise that, mean and poor as the second temple might appear compared with the first, the glory of the latter house should be greater than that of the former. Had this depended upon a profusion of silver and gold, the Lord could have provided it. But the glory spoken of was of a different kind and would be abundantly verified by the personal appearance of the Messiah. His presence in the second temple would confer honour and glory upon it far surpassing the external pomp of the temple of Solomon, and would be attended with greater consequences than when he appeared on Mount Sinai. Then he only shook the earth, but under the latter temple he would shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, to introduce the Messiah who should thus fill the house with his glory.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp’ (Revelation 21:22–23, NIV).

SERMON SERIES: MESSIAH, NO. 3 [2/5], HAGGAI 2:6–7

May 1st

Insight not emotion

I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing Him. 2 Cor. 5:7. (Moffatt.)

For a time we are conscious of God’s attentions, then, when God begins to use us in His enterprises, we take on a pathetic look and talk of the trials and the difficulties, and all the time God is trying to make us do our duty as obscure people. None of us would be obscure spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our duty when God has shut up heaven? Some of us always want to be illuminated saints with golden haloes and the flush of inspiration, and to have the saints of God dealing with us all the time. A gilt-edged saint is no good, he is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and altogether unlike God. We are here as men and women, not as half-fledged angels, to do the work of the world, and to do it with an infinitely greater power to stand the turmoil because we have been born from above.
If we try to re-introduce the rare moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are making a fetish of the moments when God did come and speak, and insisting that He must do it again; whereas what God wants us to do is to walk by faith. How many of us have laid ourselves by, as it were, and said—‘I cannot do any more until God appears to me.’ He never will, and without any inspiration, without any sudden touch of God, we will have to get up. Then comes the surprise—‘Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!’ Never live for the rare moments, they are surprises. God will give us touches of inspiration when He sees we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never make our moments of inspiration our standard; our standard is our duty.

May 1

“God that cannot lie promised.” (Titus 1:2)

FAITH is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.
Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.—Days of Heaven upon Earth.

I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.
Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it,” but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for me.”
Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more closely.—Phillips Brooks.

“The Shepherd does not ask of thee
  Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him;
And this He meant in saying, ‘Come to me.’
  In light or darkness seek to do His will,
  And leave the work of faith to Jesus still.”

1 MAY (PREACHED 30 APRIL 1775)

Fixed on an immovable rock

‘Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.’ 2 Samuel 23:5
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 71:1–24

Some, I doubt not, have their desires to this covenant, but guilt and fear keep them. Satan says as Jehu [2 Kings 9:18], ‘What hast thou to do with peace? If the covenant blessings were for you, the Lord would not let you wait so long without comfort.’ O resist that enemy. Put yourself into the hands of Jesus; his compassions are infinite, and he shall exalt you in due time. Did you ever hear of any who trusted in him and perished? How could you ever have had a desire towards him unless he had put it into your hearts?
Believers—rejoice in this covenant. Walk about this Sion, consider her foundations and all the towers thereof and mark well the bulwark. See how it is fixed upon an immovable rock, guarded by almighty power, encompassed with infinite love, and enriched with all desirable blessings, and then with a holy indifference to all the trials of the present hour, rejoice and say: Although my house be not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and sure.…

FOR MEDITATION: [for Easter Sunday 16 April 1775]
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our GOD!
He, whose word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for his own abode:
On the rock of ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

SERMON SERIES: 2 SAMUEL 23:5, NO. 2 [2/2]