Milo

Born

April 8, 1847

Died

March 28, 1929

Biography

Frederick Brotherton Meyer was born in London. He attended Brighton College and graduated from the University of London in 1869. He studied theology at Regent’s Park College, Oxford and began pastoring churches in 1870. His first pastorate was at Pembroke Baptist Chapel in Liverpool. In 1872 he pastored Priory Street Baptist Church in York. While he was there he met the American evangelist Dwight L. Moody, whom he introduced to other churches in England. The two preachers became lifelong friends.

Other churches he pastored were Victoria Road Church in Leicester (1874-1878), Melbourne Hall in Leicester (1878- 1888) and Regent’s Park Chapel in London (1888-1892). In 1895 Meyer went to Christ Church in Lambeth. At the time only 100 people attended the church, but within two years over 2,000 were regularly attending. He stayed there for fifteen years, and then began traveling to preach at conferences and evangelistic services. His evangelistic tours included South Africa and Asia. He also visited the United States and Canada several times.He spent the last few years of his life working as a pastor in England’s churches, but still made trips to North America, including one he made at age 80.

Meyer was part of the Higher Life Movement and was known as a crusader against immorality. He preached against drunkenness and prostitution. He is said to have brought about the closing of hundreds of saloons and brothels.

Meyer wrote over 40 books, including Christian biographies and devotional commentaries on the Bible. He, along with seven other clergymen, was also a signatory to the London Manifesto asserting that the Second Coming was imminent in 1918. His works include The Way Into the Holiest:, Expositions on the Epistle to the Hebrews (1893) ,The Secret of Guidance, Our Daily Homily and Christian Living.

April 15th

The relapse of concentration

But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 2 Chron. 15:17.

Asa was incomplete in his external obedience, he was right in the main but not entirely right. Beware of the thing of which you say—‘Oh, that does not matter much.’ The fact that it does not matter much to you may mean that it matters a very great deal to God. Nothing is a light matter with a child of God. How much longer are some of us going to keep God trying to teach us one thing? He never loses patience. You say—‘I know I am right with God’; but still the “high places” remain, there is something over which you have not obeyed. Are you protesting that your heart is right with God, and yet is there something in your life about which He has caused you to doubt? Whenever there is doubt, quit immediately, no matter what it is. Nothing is a mere detail.
Are there some things in connection with your bodily life, your intellectual life, upon which you are not concentrating at all? You are all right in the main, but you are slipshod; there is a relapse on the line of concentration. You no more need a holiday from spiritual concentration than your heart needs a holiday from beating. You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to “clear the numberless ascensions” in about two minutes.

April 15

“I trust in thy word.” (Psa. 119:42)

JUST in proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak. Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances. If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

God delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without. But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. When trials come, we should say: “My Heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards.”
Trials are the food of faith. Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father! It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with God, that He is a lovely Being? If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask God to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of God to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us. And when trial comes, we shall say:

“I will wait and see what good God will do to me by it, assured He will do it.” Thus we shall bear an honorable testimony before the world, and thus we shall strengthen the hands of others.—George Mueller.

15 APRIL (PREACHED EASTER DAY, 15 APRIL 1770)

The capital point

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.’ 1 Peter 1:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Corinthians 15:1–11

Great is the difference between the notion and experience of divine truths. When they are truly known, they warm the heart and put life into our words. The Apostle was a poor and afflicted man. He wrote to a scattered and afflicted people. Yet see how he begins. They who can make these words their own may be joyful in tribulation.
The way in which believers have a right to the inheritance:
(i) They are begotten again. They have it as children, not by nature—Ephesians 2:3 … and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others—but by grace and adoption, born of the incorruptible seed of the word, quickened by the Spirit—an adoption accompanied with a real change: by the former a right, by the latter a suitability.
(ii) The ground or cause: abundant mercy, considering the objects (sinners), the greatness of the blessings, the procuring cause (John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life).
(iii) The great means—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the capital point in which all gospel truths centre. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins’ (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).
FOR MEDITATION:
‘I Am,’ saith CHRIST our glorious head,
Thy power and mercy first prevailed
(May we attention give)
From death to set us free;
‘The resurrection of the dead,
And often since our life had failed,
The life of all that live.
If not renewed by thee.

By faith in me, the soul receives
To thee we look, to thee we bow;
New life, though dead before;
To thee, for help, we call;
And he that in my name believes,
Our life and resurrection thou,
Shall live, to die no more.’
Our hope, our joy, our all.

SERMON: 1 PETER 1:3 [1/2]

You Are There

Read Psalm 139:7-12

Bible Thought: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7, NIV)

David, in speaking to God, says, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” These statements seem to convey the message that David felt a comfort in knowing that God was always there. No matter where David was, physically or spiritually, God was there.

When we behold majestic snow-capped mountains, deep blue lakes and foamy ocean waves, or fluffy cotton clouds in motion, we feel awed–and we say to God–“You are there.” When faced with life’s daily stresses, or perhaps financial loss or moves to another city, it may not be as easy to say to God, “You are there.”

David’s words remind us that whether we are experiencing events that elate us to the heights or we are in the depths of despair, whether we are anticipating a move across the continent or making a critical decision, we can trust Him to guide us and hold us. In the brightness of day or in the shadows of night, we can say with confidence, “God, I know you are there.”

Hymn: “It Is Well With My Soul”

Lord, help us to feel Your loving arms of comfort enfolding us wherever we are and whatever we are doing. Grant us peace and comfort in knowing You are there. In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

Sue Latham, Antelope, California