Milo

April 10

“Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” (Job 10:2)

PERHAPS, O tried soul, the Lord is doing this to develop thy graces. There are some of thy graces which would never have been discovered if it were not for the trials. Dost thou not know that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too oft like a glowworm, showing but little light except it be in the midst of surrounding darkness. Hope itself is like a star—not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black folds in which God doth set the jewels of His children’s graces, to make them shine the better.

It was but a little while ago that, on thy knees, thou wast saying, “Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith.”

Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously, praying for trials?—for how canst thou know that thou hast faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it. God often sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we may be certified of their existence. Besides, it is not merely discovery; real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials.

God trains His soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers and climb mountains, and walk many a weary mile with heavy knapsacks on their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the troubles through which you are passing? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you?—C. H. Spurgeon.

To be left unmolested by Satan is no evidence of blessing.

10 APRIL

A distinguishing savour

‘Thy name is as ointment poured forth.’ Song of Solomon 1:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 61:1–3

Ointments were used in feasts (Luke 7:46; hence Psalm 23:5), and the name of Jesus is a precious banquet to the believing soul. This fills him as with marrow and fatness; this puts an honour and a beauty upon him; therefore (verse 4) more than wine.
Precious ointments have a savour, a perfumed smell, which distinguishes the person that bears them. So this ointment of the name of Jesus, when poured into a believer’s heart, it makes him smell as a field which the Lord has blessed. It is this communication of grace and holiness which they have received from their beloved which makes them known to each other and distinguishes them from the world.
Who have a right to the bread and wine? Even all those who see the value and long to know more of the virtue of this ointment. Fear not, ye who seek Jesus, but come. Are you wounded? Are you fainting? Let not this keep you away, but rather constrain you. You cannot do without it.

FOR MEDITATION:
By Thee my prayers acceptance gain
Although with sin defiled;
Satan accuses me in vain
And I am owned a child.

Yes, dear Mrs Barham is gone home. She lived honourably and died peaceably. Were I to preach a funeral sermon, I should say but little about her; but I would make the people stare, if I could, by telling them what a wonderful Friend she had; one who paid all her debts, and was so attentive to her that his eye was never off her by night or day for a long number of years; one who, by looking at her, could sweeten her pains, renew her strength, and fill her with wisdom, grace and peace. She is gone to see her best Friend; and I hope, one day to see her with him.92
John Newton to William Bull, 13 October 1781

SERMON: SONG OF SOLOMON 1:3 [3/5]

April 9th

Have I seen Him?

After that He appeared in another form unto two of them. Mark 16:12.

Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many are partakers of God’s grace who have never seen Jesus. When once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to do:
Always distinguish between what you see Jesus to be, and what He has done for you. If you only know what He has done for you, you have not a big enough God; but if you have had a vision of Jesus as He is, experiences can come and go, you will endure, “as seeing Him Who is invisible.” The man blind from his birth did not know Who Jesus was until He appeared and revealed Himself to him. Jesus appears to those for whom he has done something; but we cannot dictate when He will come. Suddenly at any turn He may come—‘Now I see Him!’
Jesus must appear to your friend as well as to you; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. Severance takes place where one and not the other has seen Jesus. You cannot bring your friend unless God brings him. Have you seen Jesus? Then you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.” You must tell, although they do not believe.

‘O could I tell, ye surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can ye receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?’

April 9

“All these things are against me.” (Gen. 42:36.) “All things work together for good to them that love God.” (Rom. 8:28)

MANY people are wanting power. Now how is power produced? The other day we passed the great works where the trolley engines are supplied with electricity. We heard the hum and roar of the countless wheels, and we asked our friend,

“How do they make the power?”

“Why,” he said, “just by the revolution of those wheels and the friction they produce. The rubbing creates the electric current.”

And so, when God wants to bring more power into your life, He brings more pressure. He is generating spiritual force by hard rubbing. Some do not like it and try to run away from the pressure, instead of getting the power and using it to rise above the painful causes.

Opposition is essential to a true equilibrium of forces. The centripetal and centrifugal forces acting in opposition to each other keep our planet in her orbit. The one propelling, and the other repelling, so act and re-act, that instead of sweeping off into space in a pathway of desolation, she pursues her even orbit around her solar centre.

So God guides our lives. It is not enough to have an impelling force—we need just as much a repelling force, and so He holds us back by the testing ordeals of life, by the pressure of temptation and trial, by the things that seem against us, but really are furthering our way and establishing our goings.

Let us thank Him for both, let us take the weights as well as the wings, and thus divinely impelled, let us press on with faith and patience in our high and heavenly calling.
—A. B. Simpson.
In a factory building there are wheels and gearings,
There are cranks and pulleys, beltings tight or slack—
Some are whirling swiftly, some are turning slowly,
Some are thrusting forward, some are pulling back;
Some are smooth and silent, some are rough and noisy,
Pounding, rattling, clanking, moving with a jerk;

In a wild confusion in a seeming chaos,
Lifting, pushing, driving—but they do their work.
From the mightiest lever to the tiniest pinion,
All things move together for the purpose planned;
And behind the working is a mind controlling,
And a force directing, and a guiding hand.

So all things are working for the Lord’s beloved;
Some things might be hurtful if alone they stood;
Some might seem to hinder; some might draw us backward;
But they work together, and they work for good,
All the thwarted longings, all the stern denials,
All the contradictions, hard to understand.
And the force that holds them, speeds them and retards them,
Stops and starts and guides them—is our Father’s hand.
—Annie Johnson Flint.

9 APRIL

His name like ointment

‘Thy name is as ointment poured forth.’ Song of Solomon 1:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 10:29–37

This name is compared to ointment. These were more frequent in use, and many of more costly composition, than common amongst us.
Some were healing, applied to wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Now the sinner, when he is awakened and comes to himself, finds himself like the man (Luke 10) stripped and wounded and half dead. Jesus, like the good Samaritan, comes with an eye of pity to pour in the ointment of his name. This is a certain and the only cure for the wounds of sin. Many can witness to this. How, when they began to feel their misery and see their danger, they made use of many means, but found them all physicians of no value. Like the woman in the Gospel, when they had spent all their time and strength in this way, they were no better but rather grew worse. But this ointment made them whole.
Some were cordial and reviving. The believing soul is subject to fainting—it has but little strength and meets many discouragements—but is relieved from time to time by the good savour of this ointment. The name of Christ refreshes it with new strength under the remains of sin, assaults of Satan and troubles of life.

FOR MEDITATION: O the name of Jesus—indeed it is as ointment poured forth.
[John Newton to Thomas Haweis, Liverpool, May 1763]

How sweet the name of JESUS sounds
It makes the wounded spirit whole,
In a believer’s ear!
And calms the troubled breast;
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And drives away his fear.
And to the weary rest.

SERMON: SONG OF SOLOMON 1:3 [2/5]