Milo

April 3

“Glorify ye the Lord in the fires.” (Isa. 24:15)

MARK the little word “in”! We are to honor Him in the trial—in that which is an affliction indeed and though there have been cases where God did not let His saints feel the fire, yet, ordinarily, fire hurts.
But just here we are to glorify Him by our perfect faith in His goodness and love that has permitted all this to come upon us.
And more than that, we are to believe that out of this is coming something more for His praise than could have come but for this fiery trial.
We can only go through some fires with a large faith; little faith will fail. We must have the victory in the furnace.
—Margaret Bottome.

A man has as much religion as he can show in times of trouble. The men who were cast into the fiery furnace came out as they went in—except their bonds.
How often in some furnace of affliction God strikes them off! Their bodies were unhurt—their skin not even blistered. Their hair was unsinged, their garments not scorched, and even the smell of fire had not passed upon them. And that is the way Christians should come out of furnace trials—liberated from their bonds, but untouched by the flames.
“Triumphing over them in it.” (Col. 2:15.)
That is the real triumph—triumphing over sickness, in it; triumphing over death, dying; triumphing over adverse circumstances, in them. Oh, believe me, there is a power that can make us victors in the strife. There are heights to be reached where we can look down and over the way we have come, and sing our song of triumph on this side of Heaven. We can make others regard us as rich, while we are poor, and make many rich in our poverty. Our triumph is to be in it. Christ’s triumph was in His humiliation. Possibly our triumph, also, is to be made manifest in what seems to others humiliation.
—Margaret Bottome.

Is there not something captivating in the sight of a man or a woman burdened with many tribulations and yet carrying a heart as sound as a bell? Is there not something contagiously valorous in the vision of one who is greatly tempted, but is more than conqueror? Is it not heartening to see some pilgrim who is broken in body, but who retains the splendor of an unbroken patience? What a witness all this offers to the enduement of His grace!—J. H. Jowett.

“When each earthly prop gives under,
  And life seems a restless sea,
Are you then a God-kept wonder,
  Satisfied and calm and free?”

April 2

“They looked … and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” (Exod. 16:10)

GET into the habit of looking for the silver lining of the cloud and when you have found it, continue to look at it, rather than at the leaden gray in the middle.

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how sorely pressed or beset you may be. A discouraged soul is helpless. He can neither resist the wiles of the enemy himself, while in this state, nor can he prevail in prayer for others.
Flee from every symptom of this deadly foe as you would flee from a viper. And be not slow in turning your back on it, unless you want to bite the dust in bitter defeat.
Search out God’s promises and say aloud of each one: “This promise is mine.” If you still experience a feeling of doubt and discouragement, pour out your heart to God and ask Him to rebuke the adversary who is so mercilessly nagging you.
The very instant you whole-heartedly turn away from every symptom of distrust and discouragement, the blessed Holy Spirit will quicken your faith and inbreathe Divine strength into your soul.
At first you may not be conscious of this, still as you resolutely and uncompromisingly “snub” every tendency toward doubt and depression that assails you, you will soon be made aware that the powers of darkness are falling back.
Oh, if our eyes could only behold the solid phalanx of strength, of power, that is ever behind every turning away from the hosts of darkness, God-ward, what scant heed would be given to the effort of the wily foe to distress, depress, discourage us!
All the marvelous attributes of the Godhead are on the side of the weakest believer, who in the name of Christ, and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance.—Selected.
On a day in the autumn, I saw a prairie eagle mortally wounded by a rifle shot. His eye still gleamed like a circle of light. Then he slowly turned his head, and gave one more searching and longing look at the sky. He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings. The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle’s domain. A thousand times he had exploited there his splendid strength. In those far away heights he had played with the lightnings, and raced with the winds, and now, so far away from home, the eagle lay dying, done to the death, because for once he forgot and flew too low. The soul is that eagle. This is not its home. It must not lose the skyward look. We must keep faith, we must keep hope, we must keep courage, we must keep Christ. We would better creep away from the battlefield at once if we are not going to be brave. There is no time for the soul to stampede. Keep the skyward look, my soul; keep the skyward look!

  “Keep looking up—
The waves that roar around thy feet,
Jehovah-Jireh will defeat
  When looking up.

  “Keep looking up—
Though darkness seems to wrap thy soul;
The Light of Light shall fill thy soul
  When looking up.

  “Keep looking up—
When worn, distracted with the fight;
Your Captain gives you conquering might
  When you look up.”

We can never see the sun rise by looking into the west.
—Japanese Proverb.

3 APRIL

Self on the throne

‘And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top “may reach” unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ Genesis 11:4
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 8:1–20

Note their aim and design. This was to keep together in a large body and to get themselves a name, that they might have their own wills, their own ways, and be admired or feared by others. The spirit of self-seeking and applause which set the builders of Babel to work, is natural of every man since the Fall. This is the essence of our departure from God. His throne in the heart is usurped by self. Every one of us has attempted to build some Babel to our own praise and advantage. Forgetfulness of God puts sinners upon such attempts as lead to their own confusion. What they design for their name, shall prove to their shame, and what they propose comfort from, will lead to torment. Upon this ground, I would preach Jesus, as the deliverer from self and sin.
[Newton subsequently added a note in the margin: ‘Almost silenced in the delivery of this discourse and did not finish the subject.’]
FOR MEDITATION:
Can they whom pride and passion sway,
True faith unites to CHRIST the root,
Who Mammon and the world obey,
By him producing holy fruit;
In envy or contention live,
And they who no such fruit can show,
Presume that they indeed believe?
Still on the stock of nature grow.

         LORD, let thy word effectual prove,
         To work in us obedient love!
         And may each one who hears it dread
         A name to live; and yet be dead.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 21 [3/3], GENESIS 11:1ff.

2 APRIL

Hold on to the truth

‘And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top “may reach” unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ Genesis 11:4
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Joshua 24:1–24

Note their attempt to build a city and a tower: a city for residence and a tower for worship—this seems the meaning of the expression ‘whose top—to the heavens’ [verse 4]. The words ‘may reach’ are in italics [in the AV], as not belonging to the Hebrew, and therefore only express the private judgement of the translator. It is not probable they thought to reach heaven. And if they had intended it as a refuge in case of another flood, they would have rather built upon a mountain than in a plain. At most the expression is hyperbolical, to signify a very high tower. But some supply the words, ‘whose top shall be sacred to the heavens’. This seems to have been the first open establishment of idolatry and the tower designed for a temple, dedicated to the worship of the host of heaven—that is the sun, moon and stars. Man, considered as a member of society, is naturally disposed for religious worship and there has no nation so distant or barbarous been found, but pays some acknowledgement to superior powers—excepting only in places where the light of the gospel has been resisted (in that case, a few have been so hardened and given up to a reprobate mind, as to renounce all thoughts of religion). Man—as a fallen creature—though he will have a religion, will always incline to and take up with a false one, if not prevented by grace. And mankind are disposed to relinquish the truth when they have known it. These were the descendants of Noah who worshipped the true God, and yet soon became idolaters. And human nature is the same still—prone to leave the truth and to follow after vanity.

FOR MEDITATION: Parents: endeavour to inculcate the truths of the gospel upon your children and pray to the Lord to open their hearts. Or else, like the family of Noah, they will surely forsake their parents’ God.
Children: think not to say, We have Abraham for our father [John 8:39]. Trust not to notions and the restraints of a religious education. If you do not attain to an experimental hold of the truth, you will not hold it long.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 21 [2/3], GENESIS 11:1ff.

April 1st

Heartiness v. heartlessness towards others

It is Christ … who also maketh intercession for us … The Spirit … maketh intercession for the saints. Romans 8:34, 27.

Do we need any more argument than this to become intercessors—that Christ “ever liveth to make intercession”; that the Holy Spirit “maketh intercession for the saints”? Are we living in such vital relationship to our fellow men that we do the work of intercession as the Spirit-taught children of God? Begin with the circumstances we are in—our homes, our business, our country, the present crisis as it touches us and others—are these things crushing us? Are they badgering us out of the presence of God and leaving us no time for worship? Then let us call a halt, and get into such living relationship with God that our relationship to others may be maintained on the line of intercession whereby God works His marvels.
Beware of outstripping God by your very longing to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, consequently we get so burdened with persons and with difficulties that we do not worship God, we do not intercede. If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshipping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people for whom we have no affinity, and unless we are worshipping God, the most natural thing to do is to treat them heartlessly, to give them a text like the jab of a spear, or leave them with a rapped-out counsel of God and go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to Our Lord.
Are we in the direct line of the intercession of our Lord and of the Holy Spirit?