Milo

March 26

“Look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. (Gen. 13:14, 15)

NO instinct can be put in you by the Holy Ghost but He purposes to fulfill. Let your faith then rise and soar away and claim all the land you can discover.”—S. A. Keen.

All you can apprehend in the vision of faith is your own. Look as far as you can, for it is all yours. All that you long to be as a Christian, all that you long to do for God, are within the possibilities of faith. Then come, still closer, and with your Bible before you, and your soul open to all the influences of the Spirit, let your whole being receive the baptism of His presence; and as He opens your understanding to see all His fulness, believe He has it all for you. Accept for yourself all the promises of His word, all the desires He awakens within you, all the possibilities of what you may be as a follower of Jesus. All the land you see is given to you.

The actual provisions of His grace come from the inner vision. He who puts the instinct in the bosom of yonder bird to cross the continent in search of summer sunshine in the Southern clime is too good to deceive it, and just as surely as He has put the instinct in its breast, so has He also put the balmy breezes and the vernal sunshine yonder to meet it when it arrives.

He who breathes into our hearts the heavenly hope, will not deceive or fail us when we press forward to its realization.
—Selected.

“And they found as he had said unto them.” (Luke 22:13)

31 MARCH (PREACHED 25 MARCH 1787)

Especially to the young people

‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Proverbs 14:34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Exodus 1:22–2:10; Hebrews 11:23–29

If some, if but a few, if even but one of the children [of the Charity School] before you, besides being put in the path of honest industry, should be partakers of that righteousness which I have described, it will compensate for the expense. Who that had seen Moses cast out upon the water, would have expected that he would one day become the deliverer and leader of Israel? I would animate you with the hope that amongst these children there may be some who in future life will appear in a very different situation, and by the providence and grace of God be qualified for great usefulness in society—patterns and promoters of that righteousness that exalteth a nation. May God so enthuse the hearts of this assembly, and so direct you to improve the talents he has entrusted you with, that in the great day of his appearance you may be found in the number of those who have been instrumental in turning many to righteousness, and who shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and like the stars for ever and ever. Amen.

FOR MEDITATION: Now I look to thee for strength and for a blessing this evening. I am going to speak in thy name, and especially to the young people. May I carry thy message. May thy power apply it. May thy voice be heard, thy presence felt, thy glory seen amongst us. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be abundantly known tonight, and may some good work be wrought which may be recorded to thy praise in the annuls of eternity.
Diary, 1 January 1783

SERMON: PROVERBS 14:34 [7/7] [FOR THE ANNUAL CHARITY SERMON]

30 MARCH (PREACHED 25 MARCH 1787)

Stretch out a friendly hand

‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Proverbs 14:34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Amos 5:4–15

Much may be done by the united efforts of persons of character and influence to enforce the laws of the land. The gross and shameful profanation of the Lord’s Day, the multitudes of unhappy prostitutes who throng our streets to ensnare the unwary, the many vile prints and pamphlets exposed to sale which are calculated to excite and disseminate lewdness, are no less contrary to law and sound policy than to religion. They are a disgrace to our police, and though tolerated with impunity in a land called Christian, would not, I am persuaded, have been permitted under the ancient heathen governments of Greece and Rome. How many are the snares spread for unexperienced youth, which too frequently counteract the advantages of education and good example. But the children of the poor, destitute of these advantages, many of them without advice and without restraint if no friendly hand is stretched out for their relief, are peculiarly exposed. It is a subject of lamentation, rather than wonder, that numbers grow up in the habits of idleness, drunkenness and dishonesty, that they are bold in the way of evil and neither fear God nor regard man, that from smaller they proceed to greater wickedness, that beggars and thieves abound everywhere, that neither our persons nor our property, nor dwellings, are safe, and that so many are brought to an untimely end at every sessions and assize. Who can say how many of these evils are prevented by the charitable institutions and support of schools for poor and otherwise friendless children?

FOR MEDITATION: I spoke to them of the love of Jesus in submitting to all these indignities for our sakes, of the wickedness of man in treating him who did nothing but good in this manner. I made them observe progress in wickedness. These ungodly men who crucified Christ were once children—began with little things, and so grew hardened as they grew old—from hence I showed them the necessity of praying to God to keep us, for if he should leave us to ourselves, we know not what we may come to.
Journal of children’s meetings at Olney, 24 January 1765

SERMON: PROVERBS 14:34 [6/7] [FOR THE ANNUAL CHARITY SERMON]

29 MARCH (PREACHED 25 MARCH 1787)

Contribute to our national honour

‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Proverbs 14:34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 17:16–34

Whether we are a people exalted by the love and practice of righteousness, or whether sin, enormous sin, be our reproach, and a just cause for fear lest it involve us in ruin, I leave to your observation and to your consciences. I hope there are amongst you many righteous persons, and many more who feel some concern for the wickedness and misery around you. May God enable you, according to your several opportunities, to contribute to our national honour and to the removal of our reproach by joining heartily in the cause of righteousness, and by discountenancing sin.
This will lead you to countenance the preaching of the gospel, which is the appointment and power of God to salvation through faith in this name. The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. The glorious gospel of Christ is like the sun: when this light shines and is perceived, the darkness of iniquity and misery flee before it.

FOR MEDITATION: Let those lament the speed of time whose hearts and hopes are confined to the present world! I trust we may rejoice that our complete, full salvation is much nearer than when we first believed, and is still advancing apace. Months that are gone, are gone for ever, and have borne away each its own load. Our chief concern with the flight of time is to endeavour to make the most of it as it passes and to work while it is day, for the night cometh. Considered as an opportunity, which, if let slip, can never be recalled, life is precious. It is here only, that we can bear testimony to the grace of God in the midst of sinners and improve our talents and influence, be they more or less, to alleviate the miseries or to promote the welfare of our fellow creatures.
John Newton to William Wilberforce, 22 December 1795

SERMON: PROVERBS 14:34 [5/7] [FOR THE ANNUAL CHARITY SERMON]

28 MARCH (PREACHED 25 MARCH 1787)

Left to ourselves, ruin is certain

‘Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.’ Proverbs 14:34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Daniel 9:1–19

I think it undeniable that if this righteousness were diffused among all ranks and orders of men, there would be reason to say, happy are the people that are in such a state. Discord, envy, hatred, prodigality, covetousness, sensuality and a long train of evils which fill the world with woe, would be banished from among them. Each one in his sphere would contribute to the good of the whole, and God thus served, and thus honoured, would be their bulwark and shield, a wall of fire round about them and a glory in the midst of them. But where sin, the neglect of God and of his laws, prevail—it is a present reproach—it will prove them a foolish and unwise, an ungrateful and base spirited people. A want of public spirit in superiors, a readiness to sacrifice every valuable consideration to the selfish calls of ambition or interest—and, in the inferior [socially lower] classes, impatience of subordination, licentiousness under the pretence of liberty, the indulgence of hurtful passions—in general: dissensions, riots, weak counsels, rash enterprises, ruined fortunes and constitutions, distracted families, tyrannical masters, treacherous servants, bankruptcies, robberies, rapes and murders, crowded jails and places of worship almost empty, would mark the character of the nation and of the times. And these things would in their own nature, not only be a reproach, but tend to the ruin of the people.

FOR MEDITATION: God has sometimes shown his displeasure against sin by public and severe judgements—thus he brought a flood upon the old world and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire. But if he only leaves a people to themselves, their ruin will be equally certain, and perhaps equally terrible. He inflicted no heavier punishment than this upon the Jews after they had filled up the measure of their iniquities by crucifying the Son of God. He did not visit them with earthquakes or hurricanes, but he gave them up to the way of their own hearts. Their ruin quickly followed; they brought it upon themselves, with such a complicated concurrence of calamities as were never suffered by any other people upon earth.

SERMON: PROVERBS 14:34 [4/7] [FOR THE ANNUAL CHARITY SERMON]