Miscellaneous Gatherings—Various Years
Hen the news of his death reached Perth, there
was Sorrow in many a heart. Men of all churches
and creeds felt the blow. Outside his own flock there
were many who loved him, and who had, in their hearts,
looked to him as the man to whom, above all Others, —
they could betake themselves in the day of sickness or
grief. His departure had suddenly made a blank in the city.;
Many were the testimonies which flowed in, respecting him; from the pulpit, the press, and the private letter. — These were so numerous that I shall not undertake to name them, far less to print them at length. I merely give one which strikes me most. It is from a London
friend, Mr. J. Calder Stuart, to his brother, of Scone, in Perthshire : —
‘Oh that I had fuller and more constant intercourse with you, my own beloved brother! But for you — and just one or two like-minded followers of our dear Master, whom I occasionally meet in the city, I can open my heart to — I should really feel as if dwelling in Mesech, and sojourning in the tents of Kedar. All “the good people” I have to do with seem to be satisfied with the discharge of their outward services, which are of undeniable importance; but I can’t win my way into anything like spiritual intimacy with any of them. Cold water — a chilling assent, even to a proposal of an occasional meeting in private for prayer, so that the idea drops lifeless! Isn’t that sad? I feel this just at this moment more acutely (or I would not hurt you by saying what I do) because I only learn now — to-day — the death of that precious man Mr. Milne. Your paper, with its touching tribute to his memory, reached me this morning, and gave me the first news of his death.
‘My opportunities of personal intercourse with that dear saint were comparatively few, u¢ each of them left on my inmost soul an abiding impression of the most elevating kind -a sacred and inexpressible exaltation of spirit into an upper, heavenly atmosphere, full-charged with all that could stimulate love and devoted perseverance in following the Lord, and serving Him.
‘ The very last time I saw dear Mr. Milne was at his lodgings in town here some years ago, when on a visit with his excellent wife, and her aunt, Mrs. Jackson. Very pleasant indeed was the converse (“Such as God approves.” — Cow/per) at the tea-table; and I remember perfectly some beautiful, and affecting words of his on the parable of the Prodigal Son. My time was limited, and I found it suddenly exceeded. I had, therefore, to leave abruptly. He showed me to the door; but, somehow, we could not part; and he ran back for his hat, and accompanied me out on my way home; but we turned back repeatedly, perhaps for an hour; and never have I in my life had such an hour of heavenly intercourse with any one. I remember perfectly saying to myself, when reaching home, “What a place must heaven be, when such blissful converse can be enjoyed on earth!”
‘ Some very remarkable thoughts of his are well remembered by me, with regard to the twofold work of the pastorate: some ministers gifted and appointed, as it were, by the Lord to the express work of winning souls to Him; others to the distinct work of edifying and building up the converted. He expanded the theme by showing its applicability to Christians, as zzdzvidual witnesses and labourers for extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom.’
Mr. Milne was content to be ‘a fool for Christ’s sake.’ His was a very unworldly course; and many had the impression that he was not at all a thinker or a scholar,
whereas he was both. His was a life of great intensity
and simplicity, yet full of cheerfulness and love. It was the life of one to whom the world to come was much; this world very little. Yet wherever he went or was, he made worldly men feel that he was a friend, that he loved their souls, and cared not what they might say or do to him, provided he could win them to the Lord. ‘ Not soon angry,’ never ruffled, careless of praise or blame, he went about upon his work, taking an interest in every being he met with, man or child. Some of the things which looked peculiar in him, were the doings of a humble and unselfish man, who thought himself almost unfit for any service, and would, therefore, throw himself into work which others might think beneath their dignity; for he was always willing to take the lowest place and to do the hardest work. Both at home and in India we find the same consistent, unworldly, unconventional life; the life of one ‘not conformed to this world.’ ‘We try,’ he writes from India, “to live separate from the world; and yet we seek to gather round us those who fear and seek the Lord. This is a very worldly place; and it is a blessed, though a difficult work to live holily and self-deniedly.... Dinner here is late, about eight o’clock; but we never go to dinner parties. I laid down the rule from the first, and stated it openly, in answer to two or three early invitations; and so we are now free from that danger of distraction and worldliness.”
He often said that he thought Luke xiv. 12 was quite opposed to the party-giving and feasting of the present day, even among Christians; not merely because the luxury of the table has become so excessive, but because the Lord here points to something else than personal gratification in such cases. As the thirteenth verse could not easily be carried out in its literality, he sought to act upon its spirit by giving gifts at the New Year, and such times, to those whose means shut them out from such comforts. He was often saddened by hearing of some, whom he believed to be Christians, going to the world for amusement and relaxation. The enjoyment of the good things of this world did not seem to him the same as joy in God. ‘The true human side of Christianity to him was that in which he could follow the man Christ Jesus, denying self and bearing the cross. He did not need the world to fill up any void in his being. The length to which the luxuries of dress, and food, and furniture are carried, he felt to be inconsistent with Christian simplicity and self-
1 Facile contemnitur clericus, qui, saepe vocatus ad prandium, ire non recusat. Nunquam petentes, raro accipiamus rogati. — Hieronym. ad Nepotianum. We remember a minister, called ‘ evangelical,’ above forty years ago, whose accepted dinner invitations averaged five a week; and another, respecting whom it was said, ‘If you want a
visit from him, you will have to ask him to dinner.’ 2¢ denial. In the midst of these the salt loses its savour, the witness for God becomes dumb, and the ambassador of Christ returns home with a heavy heart, feeling that he has not been able to let his light shine, or win a hearing for his Master.;
Yet he was a thoroughly social man, and could not find himself near a single human being without entering into pleasant talk. The society of Christians he delighted in; Christian conversation in company he tried always to cultivate; and he succeeded in this above most. Hence: he felt the difference between Calcutta and Perth. ‘I think,’ he writes from India, ‘the feeling of isolation here makes me think more of the family of God, — the Church militant throughout the earth, sometimes also of the Church triumphant. One in this way gets into a large place, away from the coldness, indifference, defects, and often follies of those near us. It helps one also to bear the slow progress of God’s work in our particular neighbourhood, when we think it may be going on prosperously elsewhere, and that God has His hidden ones whom He can at any time bring to light.’
He was afraid of too much religious work, too many religious engagements, too much religious bustle. Societies committees, ‘social meetings,’ Bible-readings, are good things, but they may be unduly multiplied. ‘I should like to get nearer the Lord, he says. ‘I feel the danger of becoming absorbed by religious as well as worldly work. - Nothing can make up for the withdrawal of God’s gracious presence. His favour is life. How kind is it of the Lord to restore us from time to time! Without this we should go down altogether. I am quite sure that it is indispensable to spiritual health to maintain a thankful, hopeful, cheerful spirit in all circumstances.’ And again: ‘I should like to shut the eyes of sense, and to cut the sinews of carnal feeling, and try to be wholly the Lord’s. Why do we allow anything to vex us that would not vex Him, or to please us that would not please Him? When shall we be able to say, in regard to all connected with ‘our fallen estate, I am dead, nevertheless I live? How would He feel, act, and speak, if He were where we are, and as we are?’
His desires after higher attainments thus get vent to themselves: ‘I long to be holy, and to see others holy. We must live nearer the Lord. Nothing will compensate for intercourse with Him; and yet we daily barter it for things of nought. We must try to cultivate a/tachment to Christ. It may be cultivated, it may grow; and then our religion would be a more living, happy, actual thing.’ — Again: ‘Oh that we had more nearness to Him, more full and manifest communications of His glorious grace, both in private and public! Tell me something about your own soul, and your flock, and also what you are thinking of our prospects at present. If we could boldly say the mighty God is on our side, we should not heed the rising storms; but I fear our heart in many things condemns us.”*
His teachableness and readiness to judge himself by what he saw in others, thus show themselves in another note to the same: ‘I have just been at a meeting of my Sabbath-school teachers. I wish you would tell me what
1 Letter to Mr. Somerville.
a —
you do to encourage and strengthen the hands of yours. When do you meet with them, and what do you do on these occasions? I am going to be a great deal more amiable, since I saw your affectionateness with your flock. “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines.” Do you find use for this prayer? I shall remember you to-night, and find good in doing so.’
His constant, child-like reference to God in everything, was remarkable. In going out and coming in, he consulted his heavenly Father. If some blessing had come, he would at once give thanks. If some difficulty had occurred, he would turn to those who were with him, and join in seeking higher counsel. Few realized so fully these words of grace and duty, ‘In everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God.’? In private, his prayers were
1 Here is a remarkable letter to Mrs. Sandeman, regarding the list of girls for whom and with whom she had prayed, dated December 1865 : — ‘I was much affected by that list of hundreds of names, It seems to mea very solemn and encouraging document. How many souls we have all met with in the course of a few years! How have we felt for each of them? What have we done for each of them? What influence have we exerted over each of them? Few of us, I fear, know; few of us have kept any count. You have; and there is your register. How many of these were never spoken to, prayed with and for, till you did it! Thank God for it all. It is very encouraging, for it shows the truth of that word, ‘‘To him that hath shall be given;” and if we try to enter in at the open door, it will be opened wider, and no one can shut it. Sow on, pray on, love on, and soon the harvest will come, and the crown. You speak of being solitary. Iknowit. So was the Master, so was Paul 3 he says: ‘*I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” But
SPIRIT OF INTERCESSION. 405 a
striking for their minuteness of detail; they took in everything, great or small. Even in public this was carried out by Mr. Milne to an extent which few are able to do. His ready sympathies, his quick apprehension of the case, his easy, natural language, enabled him to give utterance, before God, to feelings which all assembled shared in, but which hardly another man could have expressed. So irrepressible was this spirit of intercession and consultation, that it came out in strange places and circumstances; on the road as well as in the room, in the railway carriage or the waiting-room, yet always without obtrusion or ostentation. He felt deeply when he saw or heard of brethren deliberating or planning without this. {n one of his notes to Mr. Somerville, this sentence occurs: ‘I was surprised and grieved, on Tuesday night, at the strange difference of opinion that existed; and perhaps, also, that there was so little desire to look up for counsel.’
there is sympathy in heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with ministering angels, and with the redeemed, who now know the value of souls and the Saviour’s love in a way they never did on earth. — Very affectionately yours, ‘JoHN MILNE.’
1 There are one or two very brief notes to Mr. Cormick of Kirriemuir, referring to the state of religion at that time, which may be here introduced, though a little out of place : — ‘I feel much as you do with regard to the state of religion. The fault lies a good deal with ourselves. Who shall raise up Jacob, for he is low? The Lord seems to have poured on us a spirit of deep sleep, and we are willing to have it so. How many means the Lord has used to prevent this! but when all fails, He at length says, “Sleep on now, and take your rest.” Which of us is not meriting the rebuke, ‘‘ What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” I find help in my ministry, and a considerable degree of peace in my mind, and a few tokens that the Lord still is working some souls, and not leaving Himself without a witness. But sy
Samuel Rutherford, and the men of his day, both in Scotland and England, frequently, in subscribing their letters to friends, added an expression significant of the conscious common bond between them and their correspondents. Whitefield and his followers did the same. In Robert M‘Cheyne’s letters. this was frequent, though not invariable, — as, ‘ Yours till glory dawn;’ or ‘Ever yours. till Jesus come;’ or ‘Ever yours in the gospel;’ or ‘ Ever yours in Jesus.’ Generally his letters ended with ‘Yours affectionately,’ or ‘Yours faithfully, in the usual way. In William Burns’ letters we find more of this ‘ peculiarity.’ Here are some signatures from his old letters, now lying before us: ‘Yours in the Beloved;’ ‘Wishing you conformity to the Son of God, yours always;’ ‘Yours always with brotherly love;’ ‘Yours in haste, with the affectionate desires of a cold heart;’ ‘Yours in Emmanuel.’ A letter to me, dated June 9, 1847, off Portsmouth, on board the ‘Mary,’ for Hong Kong, ends with ‘Yours ever in JESUS our hope.’
For this ‘ peculiarity,’ Mr. Burns was called to account by some of the members of the Aberdeen Presbytery in 1841, when the committee, appointed by that Presbytery, examined him as a witness in reference to the revivals of that period. The matter is thus put before him: ‘Do you not think, with reference to this letter, and another tu the convener, dated April 13, 1841, that signing letters “Yours in the Lord,” and “Your humble servant in the
my heart fails when I think of the general appearance of things.
There seems a great and growing backsliding, and I don’t know where it is to end,’
cold SR a as a SS ea eee gospel,” thus introducing sacred words and names, contrary to common usage, and in connection with words which in themselves are not matter of fact, but are notoriously matter of mere compliment, does not tend to edification?’ Mr. Burns’ answer to this interrogation is as follows: ‘I do not use the words, “your humble servant,” to which you allude when you say “words of mere compliment,” in the manner which you here suppose; and as to the expressions, “in the gospel,” “in the Lord,” I may just say, that though these expressions are not in general use, yet they have been, and still are not unfrequently used by the ministers and people of God; and though there is undoubtedly a great danger of our using them without good ground, or if on good ground, yet with formality and lightness, still I do conceive that their use cannot be universally condemned.’
These expressions Mr. Milne seldom used. His letters, long or short, generally ended with ‘ Yours faithfully,’ or ‘Yours affectionately,’ or some such natural utterance of warm love to the friend he was writing to.
His thoughts were those of a fresh and ever-working mind; but, still more, of a spirit in continual fellowship with God, and sympathy with His word. They were thoroughly artless, without effort, without desire to say a striking thing, or to win praise for himself. His conversation was most lively and genial; no frivolity, yet no moroseness; always attractive, often quite original; full of interesting illustrations, both of story and of figure, interspersed with choice adaptations of Scripture to the points conversed over.
Sometimes he would advance an opinion, or state a case, quite expecting your concurrence. You differed from him very decidedly, and could give good reasons for differing. He would not argue nor resist.. He was not in the least ashamed to give way. He listened to you; gave the due force to your statement; and in his own quick, decisive way, said, ‘You’re right, you’re right, my dear friend; I see that I was wrong.’ How pleasant the memory of these conversations, ended generally with prayer, and carried on with such ease and frankness!
One night (many years ago) we drove together from Perth to Collace, about seven miles. It was dark, but the stars were bright above us. He spoke of their beauty, and wondered how any one could doubt that they were inhabited. He was asked for proof, and he gave for this the simple fact that they existed, asking, what was their meaning if there were no dwellers. On the road we passed several houses; and without referring directly to the previous part of the conversation, he was asked whether these houses were inhabited. He replied, that he did not know. ‘What is their use, then?’ he was asked. He saw at once the point of the question, and acknowledged the difference between the ‘inhabited’ and the ‘inhabitable.’ The stars were ‘habitable’ in all likelihood 3 but are they now inhabited? We did not attempt to settle the question; content to set it on its legitimate basis, and to use it as the subject of some pleasant mirth in after days, and other walks or drives. No one entered more heartily into such pleasantry than he, whether to take, or to give the retort.
One communion Sabbath he preached on Elijah’s despondency (zr Kings xix. 4), a most solemn discourse throughout, but without that exhibition of the grace of God at the close, which was fitted to meet such a case. The brother who assisted thought he saw a deficiency, and in his table service ventured to supplement at some length what had been left out, trusting to the well-known frankness and forbearance of the minister, with whom he had taken such a liberty in his own church, and before his own people. He had not sat down before Mr. Milne grasped his hand, and exclaimed, in no undertone, ‘ Thank you, thank you; you’re right; I was wrong.’ Not one minister out of a thousand would have borne such supplementing, however needful, or would have so cordially thanked the supplementer. Often, in after days, did he refer to that scene, and repeat his thanks. So little did he seek himself; so desirous was he of being set right; so devoid was he of that pride that leads many of us to defend a false position, or at least to be anxious about being let down softly.
During the last six months of his life, when laid aside from public service, he felt very deeply the trial of not being permitted to speak or work. And yet, instead of envying his stronger brethren, who were still toiling in the field, he rejoiced unfeignedly in them and in their work. Any work that he heard of done by others, when he was thus laid aside, cheered him, though it sometimes called forth a sigh, Every word he was himself enabled to speak, every tract he gave, every letter he wrote, helped to cheer him, as making him not feel wholly useless. The proposal to publish the volume of ‘Gatherings’ was a gleam of sunshine to him; and his ‘notes’ on the inside of the envelopes, as he returned the proof-sheets to me every second day, showed that he was cheered as he went along. Here is one of these many envelope snatches: ‘ Thank you very much. I thank the Lord often for the large door he has set before you. I find it good to try to rejoice in the prosperity of others. It is the Master’s joy, and should be mine.’ — (March 13, 1868.) Inside the envelopes in which his sermons for the Christian Treasury used to come to me, there was not only some loving word, but some line of hesitancy or fear: “Do I bother you with my sermons?’ ‘Am I not writing too much?’ ‘Tell me if I should stop” ‘Do you think I am doing any good?’ ‘Shall I send you any more?’ Such were the messages that used to come from month to month; thoroughly characteristic of the writer, and expressive of the feelings of the moment. His childlike happiness on being told of good done by these sermons, or on approbation being expressed by Christian friends, was no less characteristic. It was not elation nor vanity; it was not any idea of the excellence of what he had written; it was the pure joy of having written something that God had owned, of having been made the channel of conveying a drop of living water to thirsty lips). Many were the letters which he got, thanking him for his words in season, and great was his gladness in receiving these; nor in that gladness did there mingle any element of vain-glory. Besides these, he has left in several note-books fragmentary remarks, criticisms, and imperfect jottings. They are set down in no order; some at the end, some at the
NOTE-BOOKS AND LETTERS. 4il
beginning of a book; some in ink, some in pencil; some fairly written, some crossed and almost illegible. They are very like what used to come out in conversation; never tame or stiff, often happy and suggestive; seldom in the line of other people’s thoughts, even when not striking.
We number them for the sake of order; but they are gathered from a score of different manuscripts and letters, unclassified, and generally undated, often but broken snatches of thought : —
1. To see the eternal across the temporary! Live on; pray on; hard by Jordan.
2, ‘What a view! God hanging on a cross. Hating sin, loving sinners.
3. ‘Submission to the will of God is the end or object of repentance. If the sinner, by the power of the awakening Spirit, reaches that point in five minutes, he is ready just then to receive mercy, as much as if a law-work of five years had gone before.
4. ‘We can only get Christ’s grace by getting Himself. He and His benefits are never separated.
5. ‘ We are hindered by the leaven of self-dependence. We put vows and resolutions in the place of believing.
6. ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive. But we grudge God the blessedness of giving. We want to put Him in our debt by bustling and running to and fro, There are hundreds of Marthas for one Mary.
7. ‘How much (the name) “Son of God” implied, may be learned from the hatred and opposition which it excited in the scribes and Pharisees,
8. ‘He (Christ) is the meeting-place of heaven and earth (Eph. i. 10; Col. i, 20). They were to be no longer two, as sin had made them, separated and estranged; but friendly, in loving intercourse. This was to go on from age to age. Children of men, yet citizens of heaven. Prayers and answers, graces, blessings, gifts, heavenly help — these make up Christ’s golden clasp that binds all together.
9. ‘Joseph and Christ (Matt. i. 19). Joseph fancies, Christ knows. Joseph would not expose, Christ hides for ever and takes away. Joseph purposed to put away; Christ says, Return again tome. Joseph is betrothed, Christ married; the Lamb’s wife.
to. ‘The seventy return (Luke x. 17), saying, “Even the devils are subject unto us.” They were sent to heal; but even in efforts beyond their commission succeeded. There was exultation, yet peril in this. Nothing is more perilous for a man than his discovery that spiritual powers wait upon his beck. Therefore they are warned. There is a safer and truer joy; without self-satisfaction and self-elation.
11. ‘When weak, then is the need of divine help; when weak, Satan tempts; when weak, God is very present.
12. ‘ The “fearful” (Rev. xxi. 8), or “cowards,” are not those who fear to come short (Heb. iv. 1), or who Jear to disbelieve (Heb. xi. 7); or who fear to be too bold or presuming (Mark v. 33). But those who dare nothing for Christ; not valiant in fight; who fear them that kill the body; who sway with the times; afraid to fight against lust, and to deny the flesh. There is the fear of the evil servant (Matt. xxv. 25); of those who are lazy in holy duties; who see a lion in the way; who will not venture to suffer anything for Christ. The “unbelieving” are not those who are weak in faith, but who never believed at all; who never closed with Christ’s offers. Y
13. ‘They shall “see His face” (Rev. xxii. 4); Moses saw only His back parts (Ex. xxxiii. 23).
14. “Walking one day, I saw an aged person. I asked, “Is Christ yours?” She hesitated. I said, “Here is a tractsy offer it, give it. Is it yours yet?” “N 0, for I have not yet taken it.” She then stretched out her hand, and took it. “Now it is mine,” she said, shedding tears. See here why so many gospel hearers are unsaved. Salvation is offered, given, pressed; but ever taken, and so does not become theirs. What I did to that woman, I am doing here in God’s name to-night. As a fellow-worker, I deseech (2 Cor. v.). I show you the grace of God; tell you of peace with God. He has made it, and offers it to you. Be reconciled. Look no longer at your sins. Believe; become friends; come join hands. Do it zow. Put away doubts, fears, suspicions; become a child, a friend of God. Receive not the grace of God in vain.
15. ‘Let us put away our own ideas and plans, and let the Lord work when and how He will. Let us look away from difficulties, unlikelihoods, impossibilities, and rest simply on the Lord. This honours Him; and He will honour us. How much has faith done! How much it still will do!
16. ‘ They constrained Him (Luke xxiv. 29); they took hold of Him. Yet this would not have done it. But their heart took hold of Him, clung to Him. So we love, value, find blessing; want more. Stay with us, we say, and complete what Thou hast begun. This prevailed then, and it always will. The Lord wishes to be loved, valued, needed, held fast. So He blessed them, and sent them to bless others.
17. ‘Supplies of animal spirits or intellectual vigour will not do; it must be spiritual strength to do and suffer; constant and seasonable; the flesh swallowed up by the Spirit. This. leads to heavenly promotion (2 Cor. iv. 17); brings into sympathy with Christ; fellowship of suffering; makes us able to bear the weight of glory. Less of glory on earth; more of glory in heaven.
18. ‘The Holy Spirit is not intermittent; not limited to revival seasons. Parents give good gifts at all times; and more so God. We are commanded to do all duties in the Spirit; to live, walk, pray, work in the Spirit. We should not be blamed for sloth and carnality if the Spirit were not always attainable, God is not impoverished by the abundance of bestowment. Like the sun, He is never exhausted.
19. ‘I have hope that the Lord will so show us the worthiness of His Son, that we shall ask, expect, and receive greater things than we have yet known. I feel as if I had been an
4u4 LIFE OF REV. ¥OHN MILNE.
idler. We should try to keep up the continuity of grace. Our good frames are usually like spring-tides, that swell high for a season, and then shrink back, leaving our deformity and fruitlessness to appear.
20. ‘I have a growing impression that we do not lean enough on the Lord while we are preaching. We are apt to trust to our sword and our bow. Of course it would be folly to go to the field with an inefficient sword or bow; but even when the weapons are at the best, they do not form the chief or essential element of success.
21. ‘Why are we poor and needy, when He who came to seek and save us is rich and bountiful? Are we enough alone? Do divine things get time to soak into our souls, and get at the roots and principles of our life?
22. ‘I wish you would teach me how to feed constantly on the hidden manna; but flesh and blood cannot reveal. Why are we weak and empty, when Jesus is entered into His rest, and is ever overflowing?
23. ‘I enjoyed preaching last Sabbath on Popery very much. It is a controversy into which, I think, I shall be enabled to go with all my heart and strength. It is no fragmentary, corner question that is mooted; but life or death, Christ or Satan. I should like to wear out in the storm, rather than rot in the stagnant calm. Only the Spirit lift up the standard.
24. ‘I give you a text: “Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” How humble, and yet how bold; how weak, and yet how strong, we should be if we could act on this principle! These, I suppose, are the wings that make the “liers among the pots” “mount up like eagles.”
25. ‘ Our sins hinder us from seeing the glory of God.
26. ‘We see how any supposed or real offence mars and hinders intercourse with one another. What, then, must it be when sin comes between us and God? How vain our attempts to be as before! Let us hasten to the Advocate and the blood.
27. ‘I desire to humble myself to Thy will, and to be crushed and broken at every hand.
28. ‘ How dreadful if sin went unpunished!
29. ‘I was daily His delight.” Let not this slip from my mind. Oh how blind and wicked I have been, in seeking or making vain substitutes for this blessed portion both of God and man!
30. ‘ God’s service is ‘honour, blessedness, true liberty.
31. ‘He redeems with His blood. He became a sacrifice, a curse; was made under the law. What should I be for Him; and what should I be willing to do and suffer for His elect’s sake, which is the Church?
32. ‘Let me know Thy love, in its reality, tenderness, sweetness, more and more from day to day.
33. ‘ Lev. xxv. 36-38. The redemption from Egypt is given as a reason for the willing performance of difficult duties. Lord, keep me ever under the power of Thy dying love.
34. ‘It does not matter much, whether it be the work of the world or the work of God in which we are busy. Se/fcan be as active, and perhaps more secure in the one, than in the other, O Lord, save me from this leprosy!
35. ‘1 never noticed till to-day, the zegatzve character of the commands regarding the Holy Ghost. Resist of, quench not; vex not; grieve not; seeming to imply, that if we do not restrain and force Him away, it is His blessed dispositién to abide, and spring up as a well of living water.
36. ‘I accept my punishment in the cross of my Lord, and desire now to fill up the measure of my afflictions.
37. ‘Fudge angels! Do we not do this already, when we examine Satan’s suggestions, and resist, and reject them? Is not the daily life of the thriving child of God, a judging of the god of this world, and condemning him?
38. ‘Hold up, hold on, hold out; the longest earthly trial will come to an end.
39. ‘When we try to please men, we fall into a snare; but when we please our blessed Lord, all goes well.
go. ‘Living near the Lord is the secret of peace. Why should we walk among briers, and get entangled and torn, when we might mount as on eagle’s wing? Sometimes we have not the wing, and then it is sad enough. But I believe that if we wait quietly and thankfully on the Lord, He will soon pity us, and send from above, and take us, and draw us out of all our troubles.
Al. ‘It is a duty to cultivate a holy cheerfulness, hopefulness, and trustfulness. It is not easy, and it is not common among good people. But it is surely right, and it is possible. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: that, I suppose, is the joy of the humble, yet hearty believer.
42. ‘Letters from home. Thankful for manifold expressions of kindness from afar; but, Lord, Thou alone art my portion. Weary, yet seek to fall back on my heavenly, never-failing Friend.
43. ‘Compare the end of Ps. ii. and Rev. ii, and Ps. cx. and Isa. lxii., and one cannot help feeling that there is a more than possibility that the millenarian view is right. Let me search and wait and pray. Be Thou my teacher, and let me not, from a desire to escape from the burden of an unconverted world too easily, receive a system which, if it is true, helps to explain the present state of things. Our supineness, unbelief, selfishness, miserable divisions, account for the little progress in spreading the gospel. But a universal preaching of the gospel would not amount to what is promised. Christendom is not Christian.
44. ‘In a little while the wickedness of the wicked and the follies of the righteous will come to an end. The first will pass away, and the latter will be made straight. Should it be according to our mind?
45. ‘Let us brace ourselves for trials. I see they are unavoidable here. The fickleness, the ceaseless change, the gathering and scattering, must be a constant trial. I see no hope of rest but in the crucifixion of the flesh, the ceasing from pride and self-will, and learning meekness and lowliness as the yoke-fellows of Christ. The Lord has been taking us apart to train us Himself. Let us learn Jast, that our task may be the sooner done.
Sr EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
46. ‘ Our own soul is our worst counsellor, and our own heart our worst comforter.
47. ‘I was much struck to-day with the morning light. A cloud suddenly broke in the east, and there was in a moment a glorious burst of radiance. So, sometimes, the truth works quietly in the heart, and then suddenly breaks forth, and the happy man knows that the kingdom of God has come. So it will be with the Beloved. Sometime, when all seems dark, the heavens will rend, and the sign of the Son of man will appear. May we, in coming joy and sorrow, be able always to say, Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus!
48. ‘Why are we cast down at the indifference and hostility that prevail to the kingdom of our Lord? The real truth is that HE REIGNS! He has many loyal subjects. He has a dominion on high. Why do we not rather rejoice that we belong to such a glorious, mighty, prevailing, and everlasting kingdom? We must not stand, shamefaced and craven, like Israel before the vaunting Goliath; but rather go like David, rejoicing in our glorious Lord, and speaking of the greatness of His kingdom, and the might of His power. Do you think we live on earth as citizens of the new Jerusalem?
49. ‘I have been thinking of the necessity of havitig a thorough bent to good. No one can do good to his fellows without it. I suspect those who are to be of large usefulness, must get that bent early, and cherish it, and strengthen it.
50. ‘I am.so accustomed to realize the minute providence of God, that I think I see His finger in the minutest matter — a look, a word, a manifestation of temper. But I have not often, I fear, the comfort of this, just because I do not pray enough to this all-ordering Lord.
51. ‘May the Lord take the guidance of our affections, as of all else!
52. ‘Don’t you think we need to bring our highest principles and motives to bear on hourly little things?
53. ‘Our great business should be to keep up the life of God in the soul.
ZW
54. ‘How sad that it should ever. be an act of violence to ourselves, to come near to God! yet we should be oftener doing this violence.
55. ‘Let me in all things take up the cross.
56. ‘A little trial; but it passed away. How wrong it is, at the appearance of every little cloud, to cry, A storm! a storm! Let me ever see the rainbow in the cloud.
57. ‘My sun and shield, the lifter up of my head, I feel some longing to be with Thee!
58. ‘Prosperity leads to pride, and trouble to heartlessness. In every way there is sin. But in Thy presence is purity and peace.
59. ‘Help me to think more of those who are eee the pleasant land.
60. ‘There must be clouds and darkness; but the Sun of Righteousness is above them all.
61. ‘I see that nothing is really terrible but the wrath of God. Other troubles can be borne, triumphed over, and made to work for good; but the wrath of God withers and destroys. Who can bear it?
62. ‘When Satan sifts, he raises such a commotion that nothing is seen but the dust and chaff.
63. I wish we were home, when the members, as well as the head, will be able to say of one another, “Thou art all fair.”
64. ‘This is not our rest. “Thy will be done,” is the thing that comes next to it.
65. ‘I see it would be the highest wisdom to let all go to wreck and be lost, a thousand times, rather than commit a single sin.
66. ‘Submission and patience is the way of peace. 67. §To look forward to the Lord’s coming, when He will rest from His labours, be fully glorified, fully gladdened, when the whole body will be gathered in, — that is the true Christian spirit.
68. ‘I have been thinking of the Lion, Ox, Eagle, and Man. How all meet in Christ! Dignified, diligent, disinterested, divine! How much we fail in one or other, and too often in all!
69. ‘ Look at Ezek. xxix. 16. There are some sins which, if we fall into them, bring all past sins up again into the memory of God.
70. * There are but two great springs of action in the world, — selfishness and love. How very much of our life has sprung from the former, and so is sin, and therefore worthless!
71. ‘I think one great want — the want of the age — is a deep and real persuasion of the punitive judgment of God.
72. ‘The godly man’s darkness is better than the worldly man’s sparks and fires.
73. ‘Human temporary ties are of little value anywhere; but we see this here specially. Yet God is forming a body for His dear Son, and none of the members thereof shall perish.
74. ‘The close of a year is like the deathbed of a benefactor. A friend, who has been long with us, and brought us many mercies and opportunities, is going away.
75. ‘I have been thinking that the Lord’s coming is strangely overlooked by most. It seems as if Satan contrived to spike the battery.
76. ‘If we could cease from self and outward things, we should always have comfort in the Lord. Food in our hunger, strength in our weakness, and hope in our darkness.
77. ‘Accepted in the Beloved, we have only to try to do God’s will on earth, as they do it in heaven, not as servants, but as dear children.
78, ‘“I will come again”sooner than the world wishes, but not too soon for those who love His appearing.
79. ‘Injuries and wrongs God is using to detach our hearts from the world, and to loosen the roots which bind affections to earth.
80. ‘God is striving to make the inheritance meet for us. How sad that we should be so loath to be made meet for the
inheritance! 8x. ‘I have been thinking of that verse, “His fruit was sweet to my-taste.”. Don’t we try to live on our fruit, instead of getting life, strength, and joy from the tree of immortality?
82. ‘I think Satan hates peculiarly Messiah’s CROWN. “Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.”
83. ‘I desire especially to put myself into Thy hand for guidance, in regard to the way of conducting my work.
84. ‘I am aware that I would fain live low, and walk by sense. Lord, make me willing to be trained to a higher life.
85. ‘May love to Thee kill discontentment, ambition, and unbelief.
86. ‘I find it easier to count all loss, than to be counted loss.
87. ‘ How easy it would be to walk through the shadows, if we kept the eye fixed on the opening door, and the coming glory!
88. “I think I should like to bein a multitude, clapping their hands to God with the voice of trumpet; and yet there might be a great deal of mere sympathy in this, and carnal feeling.
89. ‘I can sympathize with those who cry, “Lord Jesus, come!” Oh, quickly come, and take the kingdom to Thyself.
go. ‘Trials should only exercise love, and make it grow. I feel this, and really wish that each day I might become brimful of grace and kindness, and forget myself altogether, and go about seeking to do good. Let us try to be cheerful, and thankful, and loving to all, and to bound over obstacles, and smooth over asperities.
gi. ‘I have been at a funeral. It was a most dreary morning. I think one would almost like the sun to shine upon one’s grave.
92. ‘I am persuaded that unbelief is she root of bitterness, There are others, doubtless; but that is the root of all evil. Even the love of money springs from this; for if we had faith in God, we should not care for a stock of our own, but would. be content to leave all in the hands of God.
93. ‘ We should be thankful for trials. What should we be without them? There may be peeple that do not require them. I am not of that number.
94. ‘We should make a distinction between being faithful and loving; but I doubt if they can be separated. If love is wanting, it is bitterness, not faithfulness.
95. ‘I long for the purged conscience, the #ef¢ heart, the humble mind, the girded loins, the crucified flesh, and the lip and life of truth.
96. ‘To hold habitually any truth which is above nature, and. above the state of mind of those with whom we mix, requires increasing watchfulness, self-recollection, and prayer.
97. ‘1 fear few can habitually say they possess and enjoy the better part. Now and then I see some who seem to do it. You know it by their meekness and quietness of spirit under all trials.
98. ‘I have been thinking of the high state of a man in Christ. Everything that lights upon him really lights upon Christ, and he may well let it pass, assured that the Lord will take it up in due time. I think this is the secret of Christian, meekness, and almost indifference to the mockings of the Ishmaelites of this world.
99. ‘If we had a better idea of the evil of sin, and how deeply and strongly it is rooted in our nature, we should be less surprised at the frequency and severity, and sometimes singularity of our trials.
too. ‘God makes His people’s sins work for the advancement of His work in one another; just as He makes Satan and his seed the Gibeonites in His temple. But no thanks to them for this; the glory be to the Lord.
tor. ‘We need much grace to be able to see the kingdom of God, where man sees it not. Christ goes down into His garden, and He finds wonders there — the patience of Job, the Canaanite’s great faith, the Magdalene’s much love, and He is satisfied; but nature is like the Pharisee — “This poor publican;” or like Simon, “If He had been a prophet,” etc. And so, till we have the mind of Christ, and only so long as we have: it, do we see the beauty and value of grace. LAeegte
102. ‘ Faith is a paradoxical creature; so strong that he can pull the treasures of heaven down, and yet so weak that a little of earth’s dross can quite crush him.
103. “Iam more and more persuaded that holy love is the very element.of true blessedness. I wish we could live in this frame, excluding selfishness, both in its religious and its sinful forms. Have you not often noticed how we can, as it were, form for ourselves a kind of new creation? If we are ina dissatisfied, selfish spirit, we see only what is dark and faulty; but in a thankful, cheerful spirit, we see only what is bright, and cast a kind of robe of beauty over all we meet.
104. ‘A weak faith cannot do much, but it can receive a whole Christ.
105. ‘ Christ’s smile is better than all knowledge or self-work.
106. ‘I am sure that to keep near the Lord is better than all other knowledge; but it is necessary to keep pace with what is doing in the work of God.
107. ‘Satan will try by bad things, and, if that fails, by good things, to turn us away from the Lord,
108. ‘I feel so strongly that, no work stands but God’s; that one word spoken in His Spirit is worth ten thousand of our own; and that the little finger, when He wields it, can do more than ten thousand men without Him,
109. ‘I have been noticing how easily our vain minds are diverted away from Christ, even while we are endeavouring to hold communion with Him. Surely we do lightly esteem Him, when every trifle can draw us away. But He has those in the world who do cleave to Him with full purpose of heart, and count all besides, in comparison, dross and dung,
110, ‘ Mercy and judgment are twin sisters, that came hand in hand, and hitherto have continued walking together, or if one sometimes goes before, the other speedily overtakes. The finishing of the mystery will terminate this sisterhood; for heaven will not need, and hell shall not enjoy them, ct
111. ‘ The best way of winning souls, is not by trying to get
people’s love and confidence for ourselves, but trying to ‘lead them to give their love and confidence to Christ; trying of to get them to attach themselves to us, but to lead them to attach themselves to Christ; trying zof to, get them to think well, of us, but putting ourselves out of sight, to lead them to think Christ the chiefest among ten thousand. This seems a roundabout way, but it is the true way, for the souls we bring to the Lord become ours by a tender and everlasting bond. 112. ‘I wish we could be so zz Him that self would be forgotten, and we should not think of what we do.or suffer. Could we become as the blind that see not, and the deaf that hear not. We have been long thus insensible to the things of God; would it not be a blessed revenge to crucify the flesh, and now be as insensible to all its corrupt affections and passions?
113. ‘How can we think anything that befalls ws hard or strange, after the manacled hands, and the smitten, insulted face of the Lord of glory? Isn’t it a beautiful little trait of ‘John that, when he tells how the caitiff struck the Lord, he adds, “Now Annas had sent Him bound,’ etc. So that Jesus was defenceless, and this struck the disciple as a touching aggravation of the foul deed.
114. ‘ How adorable and admirable was Christ’s human life! The constant self-possession, the readiness to meet and go successfully through every little emergency, the hearty, earnest entering into the little details of each passing hour, His tender sympathy for the afflicted, His reproof and warning of the proud and worldly, His stedfast ongoing amid difficulty and discouragement, His frequent retirement and prayer. Why do we not love and glorify Him more, as the chiefest among ten thousand, the perfect Man, and the everlasting God?
115. ‘Don’t wonder at occasional castings down. The Bible would not be so full of “Comfort ye’s,” and “Fear not’s,” if God’s dearest did not need it.
116. ‘Did not get near God in the morning, having to go out; so failed all the day.
117. “When shall I have an entire, loving faith, that will construe all God’s dealings kindly and favourably?
118. ‘Some trials, but scarce worth the name. If I were more meek and poor in spirit, I should not feel them.
119. ‘What I need is more living on Christ.
120, ‘ Men are everywhere fearfully turned away from God. Lord, save and deliver!
121. Hold me zz; hold me uw, hold me back, and grant me this day to see the dead hearing the voice of the Son of God.
122. ‘Resting on Christ; His work, His care, His government, His grace.
123. ‘ Fill me with the Holy Ghost to-day.;
124. ‘Watching unto prayer; with thoughts of Him and His coming.
125. ‘ Draw me, keep me, possess meé, and be my all in all.
126. ‘ Keep me this day feeding on Thy fulness and glory.
127. ‘Trust in Him, my soul, with all Thy might.
128. “Keep me from every earthly selfish impulse, waiting quietly on Thee, of whom and through whom are all things,
129. ‘I desire to dwell this day among the eternal things.
130. ‘Jesus in greatest darkness saw the coming glory. His holding (Luke xxii. 63) is ourfreedom. His blindfolding is our light. He held us, though storms blew. Let us hold Him through tribulation. He held us amid mockery and spitting. Let us hold Him amid shame and contempt.
131. “When I would see myself by nature, I would look to the garden, judgment hall, Calvary; when I would see myself in grace, I would look to God’s right hand.
132. ‘ Obedience can only be known through suffering, If what we have to do is altogether agreeable to us, then we may do it, not so much from a regard to the will of another, as to our own, Selfishness may have place in such a case, We may be doing things to gratify ourselves, not to please or serve another. But when we do things irksome, humbling, painful, this is obedience.:
133. ‘In seeking some recommendation.in yourselves to come to God, you are dishonouring His justice in thinking you have anything fit for its acceptance, dishonouring His grace in thinking He cannot love and save freely, and dishonouring His Son’s blood in thinking it cannot cleanse from all iniquity and make a full atonement.
134. ‘ Apostles stand amazed at the greatness of salvation; they do not attempt to tell how great; but simply say, “So great salvation,’ “What manner of love!” “So loved.”
135. ‘More consciences are slurred with flagrant sin than we know of, and the stain remains within when it is blotted from the book of heaven. But the sad memory is a cure for worse things than itself, a perpetual antidote to pride, an ever-ready reproof to discontent, a good help to patience and self-renunciation, and makes the heart run over with thankfulness.
136. ‘It is our pride, our delicacy, our earthly-mindedness that are anxious. God has not promised to provide for them, and therefore we cannot trust Him with their concerns.
137. ‘“Hethat made me whole, the same said,” etc. I never questioned, but believed it right. He is a God tome; what He says I unhesitatingly do.
138. ‘ What have they seen in thy house? Silver and gold — natural; it isa King’s house. But what have they seen? A lately endangered, delivered man. Have they seen the records of thy thankfulness for divine mercy? They have seen ostentatious display of earth’s grandeur; they would see that at home. What is seen in my house? When a stranger comes, what does he see? Where is thy God, thy religion, thy peace? Unseen.
139. ‘Earth’s best unions and fellowships are poor, shadowy, and unsubstantial in comparison with that which the gospel introduces.
140. ‘The Holy Ghost so works in us that He works by us. If we do nothing, He does nothing. “Go,” He says, “and I go with you.”
*
1%) Sop ia i SS a RCD Cece
141. ‘ Christ is the King excluded from His dominion while a usurper occupies “His throne. The believer is a loyalist in the kingdom during the usurpation. What can he join with in the world? His heart is with his absent King, his hopes all centred in His return. The whole course of the kingdom has but one character in his eyes, as not knowing Him whose right it is.
142. ‘A walk by faith seems to the world void of common sense.
143. ‘Col. ii. 3. Secular as well as divine. Satan seeks to separate knowledge from Christ its Source, and then to set it in antagonism to Him. He calls the laws of nature, God. Every new discovery in science of heavenly or earthly things is put in the witness-box of infidelity, as an evidence against revealed religion.
144. ‘Seek such light and faith that you may see as clearly the folly and absurdity of going contrary to moral as well as to natural laws. We see the folly of walking on water or through fire; but should we not also see the madness of transgressing any of God’s laws? God can contravene physical laws; say to fire, Burn not; water, Drown not. But He cannot say to sin, Hurt not; bring not desert of death.
145. ‘Death through sin is dreadful, here and hereafter. Death to sin, blessed, holiness. Death from sin, everlasting rest.
146. ‘When we are at the lowest, His help is nearest.
147. ‘ Broken volcanic mountain-ranges tell of physical convulsions; fortresses and defences tell of political; denominations and sects tell of moral and religious.
148. ‘The green leaf, full of sap, displays little of the skill and care of God, compared with the same leaf when withered and turned into the skeleton of its former self.
149. ‘ Grace and corruption, love of Christ and love of the world, are the centripetal and centrifugal forces acting on the child of God, and their relative force determines his place and conduct,
150. ‘What portion is best? That which induces a habit of daily dependence, and an exercise of daily faith in the Author of every good and perfect gift.
151. ‘Sinners returning to the Lord are like lines converging from the circumference to the centre; they not only meet with God, but also with one another. Near to Christ, near to one another.;
152. ‘ Years are the waves of Time’s tide.
153. ‘There is a cataract in the eye of unrenewed nature, and God alone can couch it.
154. ‘God has prepared magazines for His army on the road. Hagar’s bottle of water is spent; but God’s fountain comes to view. Light against the time of darkness. In a railway carriage, we scarce observe the lighted lamp in the roof, feebly twinkling. But all at once the whistle sounds; and in the darkness of the tunnel we rejoice in the considerate provision which cheers us, until we again emerge into light of heaven.
155. ‘Matt. xiv. 5. Herod. Those who are kept back from - evil only by outward restraints, will, ere long, break through. The fire burns, grows; and some new fuel throws down the barrier.
156. ‘Popery and Puseyism both claim a monopoly of the water of heaven; but they cannot prevent the rain from falling where God will.
157. ‘What we need is pointed, penetrating, discriminating application. Argument breaches the wall; application storms it.
158. ‘ Discharge your gun among a Covey, and you probably kill none. Aim at one after another, — insulate, — and you probably get all.
159. ‘The earth has internal heat, whence come volcanoes, earthquakes. It receives heat from above; hence life and fertility; flesh and sfzrzt.
160. ‘One earnest Christian in a place is like a pebble thrown into water; the circle widens, and includes many.
161. ‘In the experience and actings of a Christian, everything depends upon the place which God occupies in the
heart. If our thoughts of God are low, the standard of judgment and conduct will be low.
162. ‘ We do not sufficiently live in the atmosphere of God’s holiness and grace. Our conflicts, sorrows, and experiences come between us and God, and shut Him out of our mind; and then we lapse into legalism and religiousness of nature, or worldliness and moral evil.
163. ‘ He only can bear to know all that is in his heart who can say, “Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.” When thus prepared, the nearer we approach to the knowledge of our all, the nearer we come to the knowledge of God’s all.
164. ‘We are like the king who smote thrice and stopped.
We do not know the value of prayer.
165. ‘Hezekiah. The king of Assyria, with an army, was overcome. The king of Babylon, with a present, overcame. Hezekiah was off his guard. The plausible Gibeonite is more dangerous than the rugged sons of Anak. He had much to tell about God, but he only speaks of himself.
166. ‘From the first moment of spiritual awakening to the close, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Our power to refresh and gladden the mind of Jesus is fully, freely owned in God’s word. But the affection that can be gratified may also be wounded.
167. ‘It is humbling to know that the heart left to itself cares not for the Lord or His glory. It sold Him for a mess of pottage, for a herd of swine, for thirty pieces of silver; and would still for anything,
168. ‘As a general rule, the more deeply religious men become, the calmer and more stedfast they grow. Joy of feeling is direct, but often turbid, temporary. Joy of calm, stedfast doing is safer; steals gently in, and is “I am with theer.
169. ‘There have been Great Discoverers. — Christ brought life and immortality to light by the gospel. Great C, onquerors. — Christ spoiled principalities and powers. Some have left their high state to do good to others. Christ left the throne of glory and took the form of a servant. Gveat Sacrifices. — Christ died on the cross. Great Architects. — Christ made all things.
17o. ‘ Can J thank God heartily when, in His sovereign grace, He pleases to use another in His service, my inferior in standing, in talent, in intelligence?
171. ‘ Diversity of opinions, and mutual kindly expression of them, is the sifting or ventilation that elicits truth.
172. ‘The smallest thought of good, such as, This is sinful, This is selfish, is the Potter’s hand touching you, to break you off the lump. If you persist in going on, in what He has begun to convince you is sin, or folly, or even not quite right, then you resist. Refuse not.
173. ‘Suppose Barabbas had said, “It is impossible that these tidings can refer to such a criminal as I. It is absurd.” Or, “I will not leave my prison till I become another man, and prove my repentance.”
174. ‘A young Christian thinks that he knows everything. He advances a little way, and finds that he knows not the half of what he thought he knew. At last he says, “I know nothing as I ought to know.” He begins to fight with the idea that nothing can overcome him. He ends with the conviction that anything will throw him down without Christ’s grace.
175. ‘ Finite being has no peace to enjoy or to confer; it is the gift of the Father, the purchase of the Son, the creation of the Holy Ghost.
176. ‘Fear not to meet the assembly of the first-born; they are little children, humble and loving.
177. ‘Habits go with us to eternity.
178. ‘2 Tim. ii. 10. Prayer is one of the ways of enduring hardness. ‘We need self-denial and resolute effort to get even time for prayer; and we must endure conflict with Satan and self ere we are able to continue in prayer. Away from company, from books, from study, from work, let us give ourselves to prayer far oftener than we have done. Let us be prepared to meet with few sympathizers. Though the labour of the mind may find many to appreciate it, yet the labour of the heart — FPrayer, who will regard this? Let us endure this disregard.
179. ‘Knowledge of God. Works help; the word more, but Christ most. If an angel came to earth when first created, what would he have looked at to know God? Not sun, sky, garden, but man — this His image, His likeness. So Christ is the image of invisible God.
180. ‘Titus i. 2. In hope of eternal life. Thinking of my own habitual state of mind, I am grieved to observe how little this great object is present and influential on my mind. I seem to live in and for present things, the daily duties, occurrences, and trials of life. But I feel that the future life should be the great object in my heart, and that the thought of it should stimulate, comfort, support, and guide me.
181. ‘Titus i. 7. The steward of God. I feel as if I had not sufficiently thought of my office in this aspect of it. What has the Lord committed to me? What conscious possession have I of the unsearchable riches? And what am I dispensing? whom am I feeding? and with what? I think my mind fixes more upon the idea of the Shepherd, and only on one branch of this, the literally pastoral, dealing with individuals, following and exerting a somewhat mechanical influence over them. Lord, help me to think of my office in all its length and breadth, and manifold ministrations and responsibilities.
182. ‘If we are prepared to shine, God will find the candlestick; if we are prepared to work, God will find us something to do. Only be ready and willing for anything,
183. ‘The baptism of fire would recall Abraham’s smoking furnace, the burning bush, pillar of fire, shekinah, coal of fire on Isaiah’s lips, Ezekiel’s visions, and teach the approach of a new manifestation of the power and presence of God,
184. ‘The spring of the clock represents the inner life; the pendulum, outer life. The pendulum will not go without the spring, and yet the spring will go to wreck without the pendulum.
185. ‘When my body, that played so great a part in my temptation, sin, and shame, and was the busy and eager servant of my depraved spirit, is restored to me incorruptible, what a triumphant proof that I am wholly redeemed!
186. ‘God takes our Christian friends; but He will give them back, after a season, worthier than before.
187. ‘Do you not observe exuberance and overflowing in some of God’s gifts? Light for all, though blind; for those who close their eyes, and live in deep mines, and never benefit
‘by it. Yet there it is, if they would use. So fulness in Christ, though multitudes never avail themselves of it. Free to all, sufficient for all.
188. ‘I feel that it is only by being full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, that I can hope to hold on with any comfort.
189. ‘I long for more of direct, conscious, happy fellowship with the Lord. I know that this can only be by faith. i
190. ‘Gave way in the morning to unbelief, as if the Lord could not keep and prosper me, notwithstanding obstacles and enemies. I suffered, in consequence, all the day, going haltingly, and easily overcome. Help!
191. ‘A quiet day, yet feeling ungirded, and in danger.
192 ‘ Past suffering is a possession.
193. ‘When so fully as when we see Him as He is, shall we mourn the pierced one? Happiness is not exclusive of sorrow.
194. ‘Trials were once stumbling-blocks; now a causeway to heaven.
195. ‘I am my own night. Christ is my day. When I walk in the day (in Christ), 1 stumble not. When I walk in the night (in self), I fall.
196. ‘I ought to hate sin; all my experiences should make me hate it; but I have no true hatred of it, but what I get from God. I seek to live in communion with Him /or this, as well as for peace and joy.
197. ‘Work, Lord, in and by and around me.
198. ‘Amazed at the extent of human depravity, the weight of divine wrath, and the intensity of Satan’s malice.
199. ‘ Unbelief cannot sleep; nor self-will; nor love of earthly things. God gives His beloved sleep. 200. ‘ No thorns on the rose of Sharon.’
These unstudied fragments may fitly close the life of one whose mission was to work and to speak, more than to write; whose ministerial course developed an originality, a uniqueness, such as makes us, now that he is gone, ask, Who shall step into his place, or do that peculiar work which he did so well?! ‘By the grace of God he was
y While correcting this sheet for the press, a letter has come in, which must not be omitted. It comes from a Free Church manse: — ‘From an early period my only desire as to a profession was that I might be permitted to serve God in the gospel ministry; and I do not remember anything which led me to think of even reconsidering that choice until the month of April 1853, when I was seventeen years of age. At the close of the session of the Edinburgh University in that month, I was fortunate enough to receive three prizes, — the second in the Senior Greek, the first in Sir William Hamilton’s Logic, and the gold medal in the Natural Philosophy; and on the day on which I brought them home I was strongly tempted to abandon the purpose of preparing for the ministry, by the thought that in so doing I must forego both the exclusive pursuit of studies in which I found singular enjoyment, and the possible attainment of distinction, which I coveted with ardent ambition. After spending the day in perplexity, by reason of the conflict between newly awakened feelings and former resolutions, I went in the evening to Free St. Luke’s Church to hear Mr. Milne, who was then about to leave for Calcutta in a few days.... The text on which the discourse was based, was the language of Saul of Tarsus when Jesus met him on his way to Damascus, ‘‘Lord, what wilt Zhou have me to do?” To me it was ‘‘a word in season.” The question which had agitated my mind during the day I was now brought to consider in the right frame of spirit, submitting the decision of it absolutely to the Lord; and when the claims of Christ on the service of His people, the necessities of perishing sinners, and the happiness and what he was;’ and anxiously do we look for another to fill up the blank. His life would take up large room in true Church-history, though his name may be unnamed in the annals of a world which chronicles, not the harvests and the calms, but the famines and the convulsions of earth.
Yet it is the wvsensational that is the effective and the abiding. For as days are not measured by the number of storms or rainbows, but by the still hours that go by unheeded; so the life of a divine workman, quietly busy at his immortal work from hour to hour, is to be estimated, not by the modern rules of sensation, and show, and bustle, but by its silent activities, and their everlasting, though at present invisible, results,
honour of labouring in the ministry of reconciliation, were set forth with a fervour and eloquence doubly impressive because of the circumstances of the speaker, so soon to bid farewell to his native land, I felt constrained to give myself anew and unreservedly to the Lord, and came home freed from every doubt as to the path of duty, and from every desire to do otherwise than devote my life to the blessed work of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. I have seldom read or heard the name of Mr. Milne since that time without recalling, more or less vividly, the critical occasion on which his preaching was so blessed to my soul.’