He preached from the bloody tree!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news" Isaiah 61:1

"I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." Luke 4:43

We may profitably note how earnestly our Lord kept to His work. It was His business to preach, and He did preach — He was always preaching!

Even His miracles were sermons; they were acted discourses, full of instruction.

All of His actions were sermons — He preached by every movement.

He preached when He did not speak — His silence was as eloquent as His words! He preached from the bloody tree! With hands and feet fastened there, He delivered the most wonderful discourse . . .
  on divine justice and on love,
  on divine vengeance and on grace,
  on death and on life,
  on damnation and on salvation —
which was ever preached in this poor world!

Oh, yes, He preached — He was always preaching; with all His heart and soul He preached. He wept in secret, that He might the more compassionately preach the gospel which wipes men's tears and sins away. As He walked the streets, He preached as He went along. This was His one calling; and this one calling, He pursued in the power of the eternal Spirit.

As our Lord ascended He said, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." His charge in brief was — preach, preach even as I have done before you!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

You have not passed this way before!

(J.R. Miller, "The Shining Light" 1911)

"You have not passed this way before!" Joshua 3:4

All of life is new. There is not a step of it of which it may not be said to us: "You have not passed this way before." Every day's path is new to each one of us.

We say that our life is only dull routine. We rise each morning to go through the same round we went through yesterday. We walk along the same roads every day for years. Life seems to us to have no variety.

Yet really each day is new and peculiar. We do not know what experiences it will bring to us . . .
  what new joys or sorrows,
  what new struggles,
  what new responsibilities,
  what new revealings,
  what new duties.

Each morning the voice of God whispers to us: "You have not passed this way before!"

"So teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

"His winnowing fan is in His hand!" Matthew 3:12

The Hour of Silence

By Alexander Smellie, 1899

"His winnowing fan is in His hand!" Matthew 3:12

The words are not words of terror alone. They do not tell me simply that He will separate false souls from true at last, those who have merely a name to live — from those within whom the power of godliness dwells and advances. That is solemn fact which I have need to lay to heart; but there is much more than that.

The words are words of richest comfort also. For the wheat and the chaff are within the same life of each of the redeemed — the life which the Savior is sanctifying from day to day.

Is this life mine? Then in my history, He will employ His winnowing and cleansing fan.

It is the winnowing fan of His testing and purifying providence.

It is the winnowing fan of His teaching and purging Word.

It is the winnowing fan of His sifting and sanctifying Spirit.

Through one agency and through another — He will busy Himself winnowing me, until all that is worthless and all that is evil have gone from me completely and forever!

He can be satisfied with nothing short of my absolute and stainless perfection.

It will mean a long, long patient process on His part.

It will mean an arduous and sometimes an agonizing discipline for me.

But by and by, the chaff will have disappeared from my soul. By and by, I shall be pure and ripe and precious wheat, which, in His great harvest — He will carry with joy into His heavenly garner!

It is a hope which may bring tears of gladness to my eyes!

It is an expectation to fill my heart with melody and music!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Night after night my feet are begrimed and soiled!

Night after night my feet are begrimed and soiled!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)

"A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet" John 13:10

Every disciple of Christ walks through the hot and dusty ways of this world. I spend my Christian life in hostile surroundings. When saved, I do not go at once to be with my Lord in heavenly glory. He leaves me here on earth for my own discipline, and for the benefit of others around me. So I wrestle on against storm and wind and tide!

Every disciple contracts defilement in his walk through the world. I am readily beguiled. My firmest purposes are shaken. Along the road, there are innumerable obstacles and relentless enemies. Night after night my feet are begrimed and soiled!Am I to despair then?

No, for Christ will cleanse His disciples. I have been bathed in the morning of my new life — I have passed through the great spiritual change — I have been fully forgiven.

But I need still to have my feet washed. When I come in at night from the fierce sun, and the dusty highway, and the jostling crowd, with mind chafed and disturbed — He waits to lead me into His secret place and to refresh and heal me.

Ah, I scarcely can tell which I should admire most:
  Jesus' passion for me — or His patience with me;
  His suffering for me — or His longsuffering with me!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A truly thoughtful person

(J. R. Miller, "The Grace of Thoughtfulness" 1896)

Some people seem to have a genius for making others miserable! They are continually touching sensitive hearts, so as to cause pain. They are always saying things which sting and irritate. If you have any bodily defect, they never see you without in some crude way, making you conscious of it. If any relative or friend of yours has done some dishonorable thing, they seem to take a cruel delight in constantly referring to it when speaking with you. They lack all delicacy of feeling, having no eye for the sensitive things in others, which demand gentleness of treatment.

Thoughtfulness is the reverse of all this. It simply does not do the things which thoughtlessness does. It avoids the painful subject. It never alludes to a man's clubfoot or humpback, nor ever casts an eye at the defect, nor does anything to direct attention to it or to make the man conscious of it. It respects your sorrow--and refrains from harshly touching your wound. It has the utmost kindliness of feeling and expression. A truly thoughtful person, is one who never needlessly gives pain to another.

Thoughtfulness does not merely keep one from doing thoughtless things; it also leads to continued acts of kindness and good will. It ever watches for opportunities to give pleasure and happiness. It does not wait to be asked for sympathy or help--but has eyes of its own, and sees every need, and supplies it unsolicited. When a friend is in sorrow, the thoughtful man is ready with his offer of comfort. He does not come the next day, when the need is past--but is prompt with his kindness, when kindness means something.

Thoughtfulness is always doing little kindnesses. It has an instinct for seeing the little things that need to be done, and then for doingthem!

There are some rare Christians who seem born for thoughtfulness. They have a genius for sympathy. Instinctively they seem to understand the experiences of pain in others, and from their heart, there flows a blessing of tenderness which is full of healing. This is the highest and holiest ministry of love. It is not softness nor weakness; it is strength--but strength enriched by divine gentleness.

Thoughtfulness is one of the truest and best tests of a noble Christian character. It is love working in all delicate ways. It is unselfishness which forgets self, and thinks only of others. It is love which demands not to be served, to be honored, to be helped--but thinks continually of serving and honoring others. He who has a truly gentle heart, cannot but be thoughtful. Love is always thoughtful.

RESTRAINING GRACE

(John MacDuff, "The Faithful Promiser")

"Satan has desired to have you — that he may sift you as wheat.
 But I have prayed for you — that your faith may not fail." Luke 22:31, 32

What a scene does this unfold!
Satan tempting — Jesus praying!
Satan sifting — Jesus pleading!
"The strong man assailing" — "the stronger than the strong" beating him back!

Believer! here is the past history and present secret of your safety in the midst of temptation! An interceding Savior was at your side, saying to every threatening wave, "Thus far shall you go — and no farther!" God often permits His people to be on the veryverge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness; but never farther than the brink! The restraining hand and grace of Omnipotence is ready to rescue them, "Although he stumbles — yet he shall not be utterly cast down." And why? "For the Lord upholds him with His right hand!"

The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do, when the almighty Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that "neither slumbers nor sleeps!"

Who cannot subscribe to the testimony, "When my foot slipped, Your mercy, O Lord, held me up!" Who can look back on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with Ebenezers, with this inscription: "You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling!" My soul, where would you have been this day — had you not been "kept" by the power of God?

"Hold me up — and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

True consecration

(J.R. Miller, "The Shining Light" 1911)

"It is the Lord's will. Let Him do what He thinks best." 1 Samuel 3:18

The heart of consecration is not devotion to this or that kind of service for Christ — but devotion to the Divine will, whatever God may ordain. It may not be any form of activity — sometimes it is quiet waiting. Consecration is not bringing a great many souls to Christ, attending a great many religious meetings, or teaching or preaching. 

Some weary one, shut away in the darkness, in the chamber of pain, may be illustrating true consecration far more beautifully than those whose hands are fullest of Christian activities in the bustling world. 

Consecration is devotion to the will of God. It is readiness to do, not what we want to do in His service — but what He gives us to do. 

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away! Blessed be the name of the LORD!" Job 1:21 

"Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Nevertheless, I want Your will to be done, not Mine!"Luke 22:42 

"Let the Lord's will be done!" Acts 21:14 

Your way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be,
Lead me by Your own hand, 
Choose out the path for me.

I dare not choose my lot,
I would not, if I might;
Choose for me, my God;
So shall I walk aright!
Horatius Bonar

God's ideal for His children

(J.R. Miller, "The Secret of Gladness")

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 

For most of us it is not easy to be always joyful; yet we should learn our lesson so well that whether amid circumstances of sorrow or of gladness — our song shall never be interrupted.

Joy is God's ideal for His children. He means for them to be sunny-faced and happy-hearted. He does not wish them to be heavy-hearted and sad. He has made the world full of beauty and full of music. The mission of the gospel is to start songs wherever it goes. Its keynote is joy — good tidings of great joy to all people. We are commanded to rejoice always.

This does not mean that the Christian's life is exempt from trouble, pain, and sorrow. The gospel does not give us a new set of conditions with the hard things left out. The Christian's home is not sheltered from life's storms — any more than the worldly man's home is. Sickness enters the circle where the voice of prayer is heard, with its hot breath — as well as the home where no heart adores and no knee bends before God. In the holiest home sanctuary, the loving group gathers about the bed of death, and there is sorrow of bereavement.

Nor is grief less poignant in the believer's case, than in that of the man who knows not Christ. Grace does not make . . .
  love less tender, 
  the pang of affliction less sharp, 
  the sense of loss less keen, or 
  the feeling of loneliness less deep. 

God does not give joy to His children by making them incapable of suffering. Divine grace makes the heart all the more tender, and the capacity for loving all the deeper; hence it increases rather than lessens the measure of sorrow when afflictions come.

But the joy of the Christian is something which lies too deep to be disturbed by the waves and tides of earthly trouble. It has its source in the very heart of God. Sorrow is not prevented by grace, but is swallowed up in the floods of heavenly joy. That was what Jesus meant when He talked to His disciples of joy just as He was about to go out to Gethsemane. He said their sorrow would be turned into joy, and that they would have a joy which the world could not take from them; that is, a joy which earth's deepest darkness could not put out. God's joy is not the absence of sorrow, but divine comfort overcoming sorrow — sunshine striking through the black clouds, transfiguring them!

"You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy!" John 16:20