Times of Waiting upon God—Various Years

Bias several years a few brethren in different parts of

the country had been in the habit of observing some day in each month (generally, though not always, the first Monday), as a day of special private prayer, that they might seek help and wisdom in ‘taking heed to themselves and to their ministry.’ The practice was suggested and begun by Robert M‘Cheyne; and each of us in turn wrote the monthly letter, reminding the brethren of the day, and noting thoughts and subjects that might seem particularly suitable. It was a happy bond; very pleasant to look back on, though many links are now broken, and nearly one half of the original members have left’us to be with the Lord. A few of these letters may be given.

The following is Mr. Milne’s circular, of date February 29, 1844 : —

‘My DEAR ANDREw, — I have been requested by Mr. Smeaton to write the circular for this month, putting the brethren in remembrance of our special season of prayer and fasting, on Tuesday the 5th of March. It is said, “When the poor and needy seek water, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear, I the God of Jacob will not forsake them.” I do not think we have yet been brought to this. Let us therefore next Tuesday meditate on the terribleness of a barren ministry, till our hearts are wrung and broken. See how Jeremiah speaks (Lam. iii. 49) of his feelings during the withdrawal of God’s power and favour. ‘Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not.’ And again, ‘ Mine eye affecteth mine heart.’ Oh, is it not affecting to see the people flocking to ordinances, and waiting so earnestly on the word, and yet so little of the power being present to heal them! I think I feel it beginning to humble me. The apostles gave themselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word, and that continually. Is it so with us? Let us examine if there is anything wanting in our prayers for the blessing. Are we frequent, constant, fervent, importunate, special, believing, humble in prayer? Is there anything defective in our ministry of the word? Do we seek the conversion of souls? Do we seek messages from God? Do we speak with authority, in the name and through the power of God? Do we set forth tremblingly, yet affectionately, the awful condition of unbelieving, unregenerate men? Do we in Christ’s stead beseech them, “Be ye reconciled to God?” Excuse me, dear brother. I trust this will reach you before Tuesday, and I shall rejoice to think we are bowing the knee before the same throne, though far separate. Write me a word or two, that I may tell our people next Thursday. I went out to Collace on the Wednesday; but, walking out, was tired, and I fear had little life in speaking. On Thursday I rode over to Newtyle, walking the pony all the way, and sometimes walking with it. I hope there might be some good done. I saw manifest tokens of the Lord having been there. I was at Auchterarder on Sabbath. We had a refreshing season. I had to walk on Saturday all the way, it being impossible for horse or vehicle to go, from the depth of the snow. I felt it good to be toiling through. Write me. William Burns is gone to Kilsyth. Grace and peace be with you.’

Of the same date, and for the same purpose, we have another letter, addressed to Mr. Somerville. I give it, partly to show the great fertility and versatility of the writer. Most of us, in writing these monthly circulars, used to send the same letter to each of the brethren. But Mr. Milne seems to have written a different one to each. He was very ready with his pen in such things; and his heart

was full.

‘My DEAR BROTHER, — I have been asked to send the circular for this month, to put the brethren in remembrance of our special season for prayer and fasting, on Tuesday next, sth March. I am satisfied that some such exercise is seasonable at present, and must be profitable. What is the cause of this almost universal and protracted withdrawal of divine power from our ministrations? “The Lord’s hand is not shortened.” Where does the sin, that grieves and lets, lie? Is it in the people, or is it in us? The people wait continually on ordinances, and listen heedfully to the word; and it iS affecting to think that, when they so willingly receive the word, there should be so little grace and power present to bless them. Let us begin at the sanctuary. The apostles, at the time of their success, gave themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

‘Ts it so with us? Is there anything wanting in our prayers for the blessing? Are we frequent, constant, special, fervent, believing in prayer? Do we honour the work of Jesus by the largeness and confidence of our requests? Is there anything faulty in our ministry? Is the matter the whole counsel of God? Is it gotten by prayer, and followed by prayer? Is the manner that of ambassadors of God, standing in the stead of Christ? Are we aiming at the conversion of souls, and do we tremble at the thought of a barren ministry?

‘The best symptom I see at present is, that some are beginning to feel and lay to heart our deserted condition. May this feeling grow and deepen, till our hearts are wrung and broken. What are we if our Master is not with us? The godly will mourn, and the wretched will contemn. What are ordinances, if the Lord is not there? Dry breasts, empty ceremonies. Let us stir one another up faithfully and affectionately to wrestle for the blessing. I have been a different man since I was with you. The people seem to have been quite aware of it the first Sabbath after my return. I got, somehow, a new view of the free grace of God. In our backslidings, as well as at our conversion, the first movement is on His side. You brought this out in the end of your action sermon. I have had more satisfaction in my ministry since then than I had had for months before. I have been eight days in the country, preaching round; being able to get away, from Wm. Burns being with me. I think things are looking more hopeful. There is an evident work of God at a small village, Newtyle, if curious people do not mar it by blazing it abroad.’

It may be well to give here one or two more of these reminding circulars from other brethren. They may quicken to faith, and prayer, and zeal. They may suggest similar unions, or prayer-circles, among those who have not yet tried them. We do need some such divine stimulant now; something that will bring us into closer connection with the great Fountain of all power and blessing; something that will enrich our poverty and replenish our emptiness. For certainly it is not eloquence, nor argument, nor vehemence, nor ‘fresh thought,’ nor the enticing words of man’s wisdom that we need for the revivification of our ministry; but the power of the Holy Ghost.

Here is Professor Smeaton’s circular : —

‘My DEAR BROTHER, — As subjects to spread before the

Lord, the approaching Assembly suggests itself, together with G the removal of some of our most honoured witnesses; another call, surely, from the Lord of Hosts to “weeping and to mourning” (Isa. xxii. 12). But without assuming the office of addressing you in my own words, though the occasion of your permission might supply the warrant, it gives me more pleasure to quote a sentence or two from the recently published memoir of our late holy missionary, Mr. M‘Donald: “I am every year feeling myself to be a less important and more insignificant being in God’s world, in Christ’s Church, in man’s affairs.” “Down, down; bring me down, O God.” “My desire is to be breathed upon and quickened dy the Spirit from on high, that, being delivered from animal excitement, fleshly confidence, and spiritual pride, I may devote myself, in heart and soul, to my Lord Himself in my work. It is only of late that my eyes have been opened on what has made my knees feeble and my hands to hang down, even che lack of the Spirit’s — power within me.” “It seems to me that, in a country where you have all so large a field of concert and co-operation as in Scotland, you ought all to agree to devote a month or two, in common concert of all ministers, to preach entirely on the work of the Holy Spirit in its essential relations to the Church, and the salvation of sinners. The subject is not sufficiently taught nor understood, save by a few men in a few places; and who can tell what good might come, when the blessed Agent is thus glorified, and the multitude of minds thus set in order and prepared for His return? For my part, my only comfort in my Indian work is the thought of the Holy Spirit; and I wish I

could infect every mind around me with my feelings on that subject.”’

Here is another, dated ‘ Collace, Feb. 26, 1849:’ —

‘ MY DEAR BROTHER, — Might I suggest for special meditation, in order to put an edge on our spirit on Saturday, that passage in Lam. iii. 48-51, and, indeed, jeremiah’s character in general? Let us ask from Him who wept over Jerusalem, and of whom the people said, “He is Jeremiah,” such a really tender, pitiful, and compassionate frame of soul; nay, habet of soul. Yet, after all, this is but one of a thousand wants. Dear brother, remember our account, Heb. xiii. 17. Remember also our crowz, 1 Pet. v. 4. But, besides all that concerns us personally, remember souls, perishing souls. Who is sufficient for these things? But let us call on the Lord with one accord, and think on Jer. xxxili. 3.’

Here is another from the Rev. J. Y. Walker of Perth, that honoured servant of Christ, whose name has been, with not a few of us, associated with quiet zeal, sound doctrine, and prayerful devotedness to the Master and the Master’s work for many a year. It is addressed to Mr. Milne, and has a singular title, ‘ Prayer for the dead;’ and thus proceeds : —

‘ Perth, 1st Oct. 1849. — DEAR BROTHER, — Are we buckling on the, armour of God for this gloomy day? For it is a gloomy day; such a day as we have not yet had. The prophet’s complaint may well be ours, “Lord, who hath believed our report?” But, dear brother, why is it thus with us? Let there be heart-searching here. There is ever a cause. See Hosea v. 15. What may the offence be? The Lord give us light to discern it, and grace to acknowledge it! I need not say, as I have been saying to the other brethren, “Remember us in Perth.” Are we not in the very midst of death? But that is a small matter. The dead are dying, — dying to die. Oh for bowels of compassion here! I fear we seldom realize what it is to pray for the dead of our congregation, and to pray for them as dead. We feel we can pray for them when there is some little life among them. But when there is no life, as it seems to be at present, to pray for them then, that is gospel-like. It is a praying in faith, apart from all fleshly feelings. Would there were more such prayer! It would be life from the dead among all our congregations. We look for life, and complain that there is none, Well; but are we really praying for our people as having no life? In praying for the dead, we have much need to be always crying, “Lord, increase our faith.” It is no easy matter to pray for the dead of our congregations. There are mountains of unbelief to be bounded over; and how? The Lord help us to this thing as He helped the blessed Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. Ponder this well; and may the Lord the Spirit, the alone Quickener of dead souls, be with your spirit and mine, that we may, all of us, be enabled on Wednesday to pray for the dead, as we have never yet done.’

We surely do not err in ascribing much of the blessing of these years to the many ‘concerts for prayer’ of various kinds, public and private, composed of lesser or larger circles, which then existed. The streams that turn the great mill-wheels of our manufactories have their sources in the far-up, quiet glens of our land; and so the great motive-power of these times was to be found in the closet or the prayer-meeting hall, to which faith, not ‘lifting up its voice in the street,’ retired as into its stronghold, there to set in motion the divine machinery by which the real good was done in the earth.

There was in this something quite different from mere work. The work was the pipe, but the pipe could not fill itself. The best laid system of pipes could not create the water. That must come from another quarter. The men were but the wires, the electricity must come from heaven; and, without it, the most complete array of wires was useless.

In the constant and combined prayer then made, there was the recognition of a motive-power beyond all human agency; something supernatural, without which the most

THE SUPERHUMAN. + IOt

compact organizations were useless. Confidence in this invisible strength is the secret of power to the worker; and when this confidence in the invisible is supplanted by confidence in the visible, then effort becomes a failure; the machine keeps going, but without producing any results beyond motion and noise.

When brought face to face with human evil, we feel our helplessness. It is too great for us. Outward remedies do not reach the seat of the disease. Laws restrain it; walls hide it; prisons silence it; civilisation refines it; education teaches it to keep within bounds. But there it is, notwithstanding all these appliances, its real nature untouched by either magistrate or minister. We are helpless before the evil of ‘this present evil world.’

Be it so. We fall back on God. We ask Him to energize the word; to clothe the speaker of it with superhuman power; to do the work which He alone can do, and for the doing of which He will be entreated of us. Sword and spear and armour may have been in vain. We have still the sling and the stone.

In reference to this it was that Mr. Milne wrote, about

this time, to Mr. Somerville : —

‘There are some tokens that the Lord is near us, and I labour in more than hope. My heart rejoices and feels confident with the thought of your being with me. I have had no news from the Assembly; but I have been longing that there may be much of the Spirit with the brethren. I preached on Sabbath on Acts i. 8, 14: “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. ... These all continued in prayer.” What constitutes the power of the ministry? It is not personal qualification. This they had in a good degree already. They knew the facts of Christ’s history; they had understanding in the Old Testament; they had the determination to go on with their work; they had commission or authority; they had a pledge of divine guidance and help, “Lo, I am with you.” And yet, after all this, “Ye shall receive POWER.” What? Ability actually to accomplish the ends of the ministry in converting sinners and edifying saints.’

What Mr. Milne felt so strongly, both at this time and afterwards, was the need of the Holy Spirit for the ministry and the minister, and the certain failure of all work in the Church without Him; the uselessness of the best ecclesiastical organizations or congregational machinery, or even pastoral work, apart from the direct divine energy of that mighty Spirit that wrought wonders at Pentecost, and is ready still to work wonders as great in these latter days. ‘Wells without water’ will furnish no refreshment; and lamps without oil will give out no light. The Church’s danger ever has been to substitute a ministry of the intellect for a ministry of the Spirit; to confide in the human instead of the superhuman; and the indication that she is entangled in this snare is the feeling, conscious or unconscious, that she can do with less prayer now than formerly, on account of the progress of the age, — an age which is supposed not to require the supernatural helps that other ages did.

Thus Mr. Milne wrote to a friend some years after : — ‘I suspect that much of the religion you will meet with has more of the flesh than of the spirit; more of self than of Christ; more of the world than of the closet 3 More of working than what is more humbling — meek, patient, waiting on the Lord.’ And at another time he says: ‘ Perhaps working is more dangerous than wadting, though both have their snares.’

The stress which he laid on prayer is well shown in the following anecdote, which, though relating to a subsequent period, fits in here. ‘We went -up the hill,’ writes he, ‘and through the garden. The gardener was working beside the summer-house. JI said, “This is a morning to your mind.” “Yes,” he said; “but oh, sir, there has been frost; the strawberries were white.” I said, “You have always a wf. Have you been praying for a good season?” “I have been doing what I can,” said he; “but I know it is not so much as I should.” So we went into the summer-house and prayed.’

He undertook nothing without prayer. He never went out or came in without prayer. Whatever he spoke or wrote, it was with prayer. He felt that the greatest favour he could do for a friend was to pray for him. His desire was, as the Perth conferences show, to stir up the Church of God to prayer. He understood more than most of us these words of the prophet (Hos. xii. 3) —

‘He had POWER with God!
Yea, he had POWER over the angel;
Yea, he prevailed,
He wept and made supplication unto Him.’

The following letter, written in his later years, will show how he maintained the same spirit of intercession throughout his ministry; that as he had begun, so he went on; going constantly, and exhorting others to go with him to the one fountainhead of blessing, the one source of ministerial strength. It is dated, ‘Jee S?. Leonard’s Manse,

Perth, 22d Feb. 1863.’ It was printed and circulated largely : —

‘My DEAR FRIEND, — We are arranging, God willing, for a short series of evangelistic meetings in the City Hall here, from Sabbath 8th to Tuesday 17th February inclusive, that is, ten successive nights. We expect to have some of those with us whom God has used and honoured in this kind of work. But our hope is in the Lord Himself, who alone can give the increase, and who, we have reason to believe from several indications, is at this time very near at hand. We earnestly solicit your prayers, both before the meetings and during their continuance. Pray that those employed may be endued with power from on high, that they may forget themselves, and care only for the things of Christ. Pray that there may be a wide, deep interest excited, and that many may at this time pass into the kingdom of God. Pray that our town may at this season be blessed, and that, through it, the blessing may spread all around. Look at Ezek. xxxiv. 26. Take hold of the Lord and constrain Him. You know that He loves holy, filial boldness and importunity, and complains of the want of it. Think of the preciousness of souls, their.imminent danger, the Lord’s joy When poor, heavy laden ones come to Him. Think of the influence it would have on the whole year, if there were at this time a very marked, decided work of God; and as you think, let your heart burn, let your desires be stirred, and so let fervent, effectual supplication flow forth. — Believe me very affectionately yours, — J. M.’

It was fower that he sought; power with God for the sake of men. He desired influence; but it was influence with God, and, as the result of that, influence with the souls of men. Other power and other influence he cared nothing for. ‘I think,’ he says, ‘I feel the want of power to speak to men as sinners; to convince them of their lost estate. O my Lord, let not my ministry be a

Mee ae al A Se eee useless, ineffectual one! Let me not be the dumb dog that cannot bark.’ And again: ‘I see that useful power in dealing with souls can only be through the Holy Ghost operating upon them. O Peace of our peace, Life of our life, Light of our light, BE WITH ME!’

It was thus that these men, in that critical time, waited on God for His Spirit. They kept in mind the Master’s words, ‘Ye shall be endued with powErR from on high’ (Luke xxiv. 49); ‘ye shall receive PowER, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you’ (Acts i. 8).

I find, some years after this, the following prayer in one of Mr. Milne’s diaries : —

‘I pray for a far more energetic thankfulness; to be a whole and a continual burnt-cffering. Let all false fire die; but let the flame of love, through the Holy Ghost, keep me spending and bein spent. Renew my spiritual strength, O Lord.... I see some whose heart seems to be right with God, and yet they do not receive much blessing on their work. Perhaps they are not seeking themselves; but are they honouring the Lord by faith? The soul that is lifted up is not upright; it is cleaving to self instead of God; it is trying to rise by building a Babel instead of taking hold of the Almighty. But there is a dishonouring of the Lord by the want of a large, joyful, practical expectation that goes on in His strength, and surely prevails. Moses had not this at the commencement of his enterprise, but got it afterwards. Many seem never to get it, and to drudge on in an unprofitable routine.’

It may not be out of place to mention here, though it might have been noticed earlier, that it was by this waiting on God that both Mr. Burns and Mr. Milne became what they were. Up till the memorable Kilsyth Communion in 1839, Mr. Burns had not been remarkye ae RE SE me able as a preacher. But those who knew him can tell how, like the disciples before Pentecost, he continued in prayer; and so he ‘received the power’ which was afterwards so striking in his ministry; the power described by a contemporary writer as possessed by old Henry Venn when ‘men fell before him like slaked lime.’ So was it with Mr. Milne. His first sermons showed nothing remarkable. But when the great work began in 1839, he himself was brought under its power; he rose up to another level both in life and service. From that time he started on a new course, in which he held on to the last. Other ministers at such times have been stirred, and then gone back. He never from that day looked back. His whole after life took its tone from the first months of his ministry.

Having felt what it was to be ‘revived,’ he spoke freely to others. At an interview between himself anda brother minister, the latter had expressed himself strongly against ‘revivals.’ After a kindly talk, they parted with these words from Mr. Milne, ‘Take heed you don’t become an iceberg, fixed and frozen, while others are moving on in the warm Gulf stream.’

Though he had genuine talent, his ministry was not what is called ‘intellectual’ by those in whose reckoning goodness is identified with weakness, and zealous love treated as the offspring of a ‘soft theology,’ inconsistent with scholarship or manly breadth of mind. He sought to be ‘filled with the Spirit,’ and so to be a man of progress; for, as he wrote afterwards, ‘ work, success, praise, all seem dry and worthless, 1r THE SOUL IS LEAN.’

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