Devotionals By J.R. Miller, 1895

March 19.

"And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses." Exodus 4:30

One of the excuses Moses offered when God bade him go to be the deliverer of his people—was that he was not a good speaker. God met his difficulty by telling him that he would provide a speaker. Aaron would be his mouthpiece. So all along the history, Moses is a silent man, and Aaron's is the voice we hear. Each did his own part.

It is just in this way that God's work is always to be done. No one person has universal gifts. One man is a poor talker—but has brains and heart, and can make plans, and impart energy and inspiration. Another is an eloquent speaker—but lacks in the very points in which the first excels. Put the two together, and they can achieve great results.

In a church, some can sing well; some cannot sing—but can teach; some can do neither—but can carry comfort to the sick; some can manage business affairs; some can make money—and give it. There is a diversity of gifts, no two having the same; but if all work together, each doing his own part, the church is not only a power—but there is no necessary work which is not done. Never worry because you have not the gift some other one has; you have some gift, and that is the one God wants you to use!

March 20.

"Moses made an end of speaking." Deuteronomy 32:45

So we all shall do some day. Moses knew it was the end for him; we may not know when our end is at hand. Any word of ours, spoken amid glee and merriment, may be our last!! If we always thought of this—would it not make us more careful? Would we ever say an unkind word to a friend, if we felt that we may never have an opportunity to unsay it or repent of it? Would we ever utter an angry, untrue, or unclean word—if we only remembered that it may be the last utterance our lips shall give forth?

We want to have beautiful endings to our life, to leave sweet memories behind us in the hearts of those who love us. We want our names to be fragrant in the homes on whose thresholds our footfalls are accustomed to be heard. We want the memory of our last words in our friends' ears—to live as a tender joy with them as the days pass away. We can be sure of all this—only by making every word we speak beautiful enough to be a last word. For with any sentence—we may come to the end of our speaking.

March 21.

"On that same day the Lord spoke to Moses—Go up Mount Nebo . . . You must die there on the mountain" Deuteronomy 32:48-50

To each of us the summons will sometime come: "Go away from your farm, your store, your desk, your books, your pleasure, into the silence of your own room—and die." We may not hear the voice, when we lay down our work at nightfall, nor be conscious that we are going away to die; but this will not alter the fact. We will come to our last hour—when the voice none can resist will call us from earth.

Moses was to die alone. None of the people accompanied him. Every one of us really has to die alone. Our friends may gather around us; they may hold our hand; they may sing or pray with us; they may drop their tears on our cold cheek, and print hot kisses of farewell on our lips—yet we must die alone. No one can accompany us beyond the foot of the mountain. This is a point at which the tenderest affection can give no help. It is like one going out on the sea in a ship. Friends come to the shore and wave their farewells as we go out—but not one of them goes with us. We must die alone!

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there . . . just as the Lord had said." Deuteronomy 34:5

March 22.

"After the death of Moses the LORD's servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant. He said—Now that my servant Moses is dead—you must lead my people across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them." Joshua 1:1-2

Sorrow came to you yesterday—and emptied your home. Your first impulse now is to give up and sit down in despair amid the wrecks of your hopes. But you dare not do it. You are in the line of battle, and the crisis is at hand. To falter a moment, would be to imperil some holy interest. Other lives would be harmed by your pausing. Holy interests would suffer—should your hands be folded. You must not linger even to indulge your grief. Sorrows are but incidents in life, and must not interrupt us. We must leave them behind, while we press on to the things that are before.

Then God has so ordered, too, that in pressing on in duty—we shall find the truest, richest comfort for ourselves. Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the darkness deepens about us and creeps into our heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the tasks and duties to which God calls us—the light will come again and we shall grow stronger!

March 23.

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." John 17:15

Christ does not wish that we shall be kept from suffering—but that in our suffering, we shall not sin. He does not wish that we may never have sickness—but that in our sickness, we may not fail of patience, sweetness, and trust. He does not wish that we may have no trials or struggles—but that in our trials and struggles, we may not be overcome and our lives hurt or marred.

There is only one evil in the world—SIN, and it lurks everywhere! It comes even in our purest joys; we may forget God in them. The happiest home may become a place of peril to us, leading us to self-indulgence, love of ease, forgetfulness of the world's need and sorrow, neglect of duties, even to forgetfulness of God.

There is no sin in our being hated by the world, in our being wronged or injured by others; but if we endure the hatred and the wrong resentfully, if we grow angry and seek to avenge ourselves—we have sinned. There is no sin in our being assailed by temptations, we cannot live a day without being tempted—but the moment we yield to the temptation, we have sinned. There is no sin in our suffering adversity, disappointment, loss, need; but the moment that in any such experience we repine, doubt God, or rebel against his will—we have done evil and sinned.

March 24.

"Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is!" 1 John 3:2

Think of the possibilities of man, in the light of the revealings of Christianity. You know what the Christ says of the future of everyone who believes in him—but have you ever thought deeply about it?

Have you ever thought seriously about the word 'eternity', as a definition of the duration of your own life? Jesus tells us we shall have eternal life, and that means not endless existence only—but endless growth, development, progress. The New Testament tells us that we know now only in part, only little fragments of any knowledge—but that some day we shall know perfectly. It tells us also that there will be the most wondrous moral development in these lives of ours.

There is a glory in the Christian's soul, which is not yet revealed. The Bible lifts the veil, and shows us a glimpse of our eternal stat, "We shall be like Him!" I cannot explain that. It is too high for any human thought to comprehend it. But surely it tells of marvelous possibilities in men. That is the future of every one who will link his life to the life of Christ.

March 25.

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." 2 Corinthians 4:5

It is said of a great artist, that when painting his immortal pictures on the ceiling of St. Peter's Cathedral, he carried a little lamp fastened to his cap on his forehead, so that no shadow of himself should fall on his work. It would be well if we should learn always so to carry the light by which we work, that SELF shall never in any way come between our lamp and our work. We should so relate our own personality to our serving—that it shall never cast a shadow on the things we are doing for Christ.

It is not easy so to move through life that no mood or feeling of our own, shall ever affect our spirit or temper as we go on with our duty. Ofttimes the temptation is strong. Things do not go altogether to our mind. Other people do not accord to us the honor or respect we think we deserve. The tendency is to feel hurt, and then to allow our hurt consciousness to affect our interest in the work or our relations with our fellow-workers. But this is not the Christian way—not the way Jesus would act. No apparent or real slighting of us—should make us less faithful. Touchiness is not among the fruits of the Spirit.

March 26.

"You wicked servant! I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" Matthew 18:32-33

Though the servant had been forgiven all his vast debt, he had not been willing to forgive a fellow servant a mere trifle of debt.

No Christian precept is urged more repeatedly and more earnestly than this. In the form of prayer which our Lord taught his disciples, he linked together divine and human forgiveness: "Forgive us our debts—as we forgive our debtors." Then he added a clear and unmistakable word, emphasizing the lesson: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Paul enjoins, "Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." This is but one of many repetitions of the solemn lesson. If we are not ready to forgive those who do us little injuries—it is proof that we ourselves are not forgiven of God. If there be not in the heart the spirit of forgiveness, evidently it has not yet experienced the mercy of God.

It was said of one: "His heart was as great as the world—but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong."

March 27.

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

We are always coming to points we have never passed before. Every new temptation is such a point. We cannot get through it unless we have a guide.

Some of you know how dark and strange it seemed to you, the first time you had to enter the valley of sorrow. A godly man says: "I shall never forget, while memory lasts, the strangeness of the experience through which I passed, when first the reaper whose name is Death came into my home, and with his sickle keen cut down at one thrust, two of my children! The stroke blinded me for the moment; but when at length I opened my eyes, I saw the ark in the river, and that instantly steadied me. I knew then where I was."

Every new duty brings us also to a way we know not. Every fresh responsibility calls us to walk in an unfamiliar road. All of life is untrodden, and we cannot find the way ourselves.

Then there is that last walk on earth—into the valley of shadows. We never can get any experience in dying; for no feet ever walk twice on that way, nor has any friend ever come back to tell us what it is like. When we come to die, we shall find ourselves in an experience we have never known before. If we have not Christ in the strange, unfamiliar path, we shall not find the way.

March 28.

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." John 9:2-3

Are troubles sent to punish us for our sins? The people in Christ's day thought so. But Jesus gave a different explanation. He said the man was blind—that the works of God should be displayed in his life. His blindness led him into contact with Jesus—and thus brought him a double blessing, the opening of his natural eyes, and the opening of his soul's eyes. Probably he would never have met Jesus—but for his misfortune of blindness. If he had not been blind, this miracle of his healing would never have been wrought!

A great many revealings and blessings come through troubles. Jesus said the sickness of Lazarus was for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. No doubt every sickness is an opportunity for a blessing of some kind, both to the person who is sick and to his friends. Every loss we have, is meant to be the revealing to us of a gain which would more than make compensation. Every disappointment in our life, is intended to give us a better thing than that which we have failed to get.

March 29.

"Be imitators of me—even as I also am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1

You may think you have no influence over any other lives—but you have. There are those who will do what you do, and be what you are. If you are reverent, they will be reverent; if you are false, they are false. Your influence touches many other lives, and leaves either blessing or curse.

A gentleman told the story of his conversion to Christ: "If I had been going to damnation alone," he said, "I would have gone on. But one night I came in from the wine-table, and looked at my sleeping babes as they lay in their holy innocence amid the snowy pillows. I held the lamp so that its beams fell full upon their sweet faces. As I stood there in the awful silence, unbroken, save by the ticking of the clock on the mantel, and the soft breathing of my little ones, there arose a terrifying vision before my eyes. I saw myself sweeping down toward perdition, and these, my precious children, clinging to my garments. I could not stand that. I could go to ruin myself—but to drag my angel babes there with me oh, I could not do that! So right there beside the crib, I fell on my knees before God, and asked him to save me for my children's sake."

Few motives in life could be stronger than the consciousness that the career and destiny of other lives will depend on what we do with our own life! We should be able always to say, "Imitate me—and you will live nobly!"

March 30.

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42

We never can know what the full outcome of our simplest kindnesses will be. We speak a cheerful word to one who is discouraged. We pass on, scarcely giving another thought to the matter. Yet perhaps our word has saved a life from despair, helped a fainting robin back unto its nest again, or changed a destiny from darkness to light.

Nor can we know how far the influence of our word shall extend. A pebble dropped into the sea, starts wavelets which go around and around the world. A word spoken into the air, goes pulsating in the atmosphere forever. So it is with the things we do for Christ. We cannot follow them, to trace their story; but their blessing shall never cease from the world's life. There will be many surprises in heaven, when we learn the effects of our words and deeds of love.

March 31.

"Having loved His own who were in the world—He loved them to the end." John 13:1

Follower of Jesus—you may write your own name into this verse, and it will be as true as it was of the company at the table that night! Having loved you—Jesus loves you unto the end!

It was the night before Jesus died. He was with His disciples at the Passover. Holy memories filled His mind. But amid these, His love for His own people lost none of its warmth. His "hour" of sorrow and shame was come. But with all this before Him, He did not forget "His own." He gathered them about Him, and spent the last evening with them. He had no thought for Himself; He thought only of "His own." His personal grief and bitterness were kept in His own heart, while He gave them joy. His love over-mastered His sorrow.

Then there was something else. The words read: "His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father." So there was glory for him beyond His cross! There were a few hours of darkness, woe, and anguish—and then He would leave this world and be at home again! His heart must have been full of rapture and expectancy as He looked forward, knowing that He would shortly be home with His Father. Yet even this blessed consciousness did not make him forget His friends. "Having loved His own who were in the world—He loved them to the end."

APRIL

April 1.

"She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial." Mark 14:8

Many people would have kept the jar of perfume until Jesus was dead, and would then have broken it to anoint his cold body. At least, that is the way too many of us do in these days. We wait until our friend dies—and then send our flowers and speak our words of appreciation. Should we not learn a lesson from Mary? The kind words we mean to speak when our friends are dead—let us speak while they can hear them! The flowers we mean to send for their coffin—let us send to brighten the rough paths for their feet. The epitaphs we mean to put upon white marble—let us carve in deeds of gentle love while our friends are with us. Words of cheer today—are what people crave.

"Withhold all eulogies when I am dead,
All noisy sorrow;
Give me the tender word today
Instead of tears tomorrow."

April 2.

"Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." Isaiah 53:4

Whatever the cause of grief may be, there is rich comfort in the remembrance of the sorrows of Christ. It assures us that Christ understands our pain. In the garden he went a stone's cast farther than any of his disciples went. The picture is a parable to us. It is always so. Wherever you bow in the deep shadows of grief, you have but to lift up your eyes, and you will see Jesus in still deeper shadows—a stone's cast beyond you. His sorrow was sorer than yours.

There is comfort also in the remembrance that blessing comes out of suffering patiently endured. All the world's peace and hope, and all heaven's joy and glory—are fruits of a great sorrow—the sorrow of Christ. Blessing will come always out of sorrow, if we but accept it submissively and reverently.

While we think of the sufferings of Christ, we must remember also that he came from them all unharmed, his life shining in divine radiance, lifted to glory, too, as a fruit of his suffering. This reminds sorrowing believers, that they too shall pass through their time of tribulation, that no scars and no manner of hurt shall be upon their souls because of their sufferings—but that they shall shine in fairer beauty and diviner glory, and shall be lifted up to higher honor, because of what they have suffered with Christ.

April 3.

"Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." I Corinthians 15:3

There have been great days in the history of the human race, days of triumph whose victories have enriched the world; days of honor whose brightness has made the world lighter; days of great deeds which have lifted man to loftier, diviner heights; days of heroic, self-forgetful love which has made the air sweeter with its odorous perfumes. But the day of all days in fruit of blessing and good in the world's story, was that holy Friday when the Son of man gave his life on the cross to save men!

There could have been no rising again, without the dying on the cross. Christ must die—before he could offer deathless life to every man. The touch of the cross is on every hope of Christian faith. The light that shines in soft luster throughout all the world—streams from the cross. The sorrow of Calvary is that which is softening all human hearts, and making all life gentler and sweeter. The power that is drawing all men upward—is the Christ lifted up.

April 4.

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!" Matthew 27:46

There is a picture which represents the after-scenes on that day of the crucifixion. It is all over. The crowds have gone away. The evening sun is shining out again on Calvary. The body of the Savior has been borne to the sepulcher. The cross has been taken down, and lies on the ground. A company of little children, bright with the glow of childhood's innocence, led to the place by accident or curiosity, are seen bending over the signs of the day's terrible work. One of the children holds in his hand a nail which a little time before, had pierced a hand or a foot of the patient Sufferer, and stands spellbound with horror as he gazes at it. His gentle heart is shocked at sin's dreadful work! On all the children's faces, the same expression of horror is depicted.

No one with pure and gentle heart, can ever look at the death of Christ on the cross—with any but feelings of amazement and horror at sin's awfulness!

It was sin that nailed Jesus on the cross!

It was sin that wreathed the circlet of thorns for his brow!

We say the Jews crucified Christ; yes—but WE helped to do it!

Our sins drove the nails!

Would you see what sin is? Stand by the cross and ponder its terrible work, there in the death of the Redeemer. See what it cost the Lamb of God, to take away sin!

April 5.

"He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:4

If your faith stops at the cross—it misses the blessing of the fullest revealing of Christ!

You need a Savior who not merely two thousand years ago went to death to redeem you—but one who also is alive to walk by your side in loving companionship.

You need a Savior who can hear your prayers, to whose feet you can creep in penitence when you have sinned, to whom you can call for help when the battle is going against you.

You need a Savior who is interested in all the affairs of your common life, and who can assist you in every time of need.

You need a Christ who can be a real friend—loving you, keeping close beside you, able to sympathize with your weaknesses.

You need a Savior who will come into your life, and will save you, not by one great act of centuries past—but by a life warm and throbbing with love today, and living again in you.

It is for love that our hearts hunger. The bread that will satisfy us, is not the bread of memorial merely—the memory of a great devotion of love long, long since—but the bread of love—living, present, warm and throbbing! Nothing less than a LIVING Christ will do for us!

And that is the Christ the gospel brings to us: one who was dead—and is now alive for evermore!

"I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" Revelation 1:18

April 5.

"He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:4

If your faith stops at the cross—it misses the blessing of the fullest revealing of Christ!

You need a Savior who not merely two thousand years ago went to death to redeem you—but one who also is alive to walk by your side in loving companionship.

You need a Savior who can hear your prayers, to whose feet you can creep in penitence when you have sinned, to whom you can call for help when the battle is going against you.

You need a Savior who is interested in all the affairs of your common life, and who can assist you in every time of need.

You need a Christ who can be a real friend—loving you, keeping close beside you, able to sympathize with your weaknesses.

You need a Savior who will come into your life, and will save you, not by one great act of centuries past—but by a life warm and throbbing with love today, and living again in you.

It is for love that our hearts hunger. The bread that will satisfy us, is not the bread of memorial merely—the memory of a great devotion of love long, long since—but the bread of love—living, present, warm and throbbing! Nothing less than a LIVING Christ will do for us!

And that is the Christ the gospel brings to us: one who was dead—and is now alive for evermore!

"I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" Revelation 1:18

April 6.

"Why do you seek the living—among the dead?" Luke 24:5

A DYING Christ alone, will not satisfy your heart. While you praise the love that was crucified for you—you crave love from a Savior who lives. Memories of a friend who has died, may be very sweet. The fragrance of 'departed love' stays in a home, like the perfume of sweet flowers, when the flowers have been borne away. But how unsatisfying are the mere memories of your friend—when your heart hungers for love's real presence, and touch and tenderness! No more will the mere memories of the Love that died on the cross for you—satisfy your cravings for Christ. You must have the living One for your friend!

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God!" cried the psalmist, and cries every redeemed soul. It is only as we realize the truth of a living Christ—that our hearts are satisfied. We crave love—a bosom to lean upon, a hand to touch ours, a heart whose beatings we can feel, a personal friendship that will come into our life with its sympathy, its inspiration, its companionship, its shelter, its life, its comfort. All this, the living Christ is to us, if we but learn the blessed truth of his resurrection. "I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" Revelation 1:18