Category: A Day of Small Things

Why I have set up Adoss – Sosthenes

C H Mackintosh – Never speak of a man’s virtues to his face, or of his faults behind his back.

C.H.Mackintosh

“I am determined” said an old saint, “never to speak of a man’s virtues to his face, or of his faults behind his back.”  Noble determination!  But, alas! alas! how little it is acted upon.  We generally reverse the order; we flatter people to their face and blacken them behind their back.  The Lord deliver us from this sinful and shameful practice!  It is most assuredly of the devil.  We want to be more faithful in speaking to people—more gracious in speaking of them.  If we see anything wrong in a person let us go directly to him and speak plainly; and if we have nothing good to say of him, let us graciously draw the curtain of silence around him.  This would save a world of mischief; it would prevent untold sorrow and heart-burning.  “Speak not evil one of another, brethren” (James 4:11)

(C H Mackintosh)

Golden Nugget Number 357 

 

 

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Joseph Revell – The Overcomer

The overcomer gains victory over the prevailing state of things

The overcomer is one who gains victory over the prevailing state of things.  If then, lack of first love is prevalent, he cannot acquiesce in this, contenting himself with mere outward activity, but in a broken spirit he seeks the Lord, and the Lord is graciously found of him.  Nothing is to him like the Lord’s company, as Mary sat at the Lord’s feet in the days of His flesh, and heard His word.  Then it is a great joy to know that whatever the darkness around, this “good part” shall not be taken away. Like John, in the night of the Lord’s betrayal, the overcomer is in the consciousness of being loved and nestles in the hiding-place of that love. There alone is responsive affection kindled and nourished. 

Golden Nugget Number 355

(Joseph Revell, The Victor’s Portion)

 

 

 

 
Jpseph Revell (1852-1900)

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C A Coates – How much do we know of God when we are tested? 

Charles Coates

We come to this, — How much do we know of God when we are tested?  There is an exercise that the soul has to go through in order to get every element of disquietude stilled in the soul.  There may be a good many elements of disquietude even where there is peace of conscience.  Psalm 32 would establish us in peace of conscience; every moral question settled and God known as an available source.  It is one thing to know God as an available resource—we should all know that—but have we really got the living God?  That is very experimental.  This exercise has to be faced as to whether we have found such a satisfaction in God that all disquietude of soul is quelled.

In Psalm 42 you read of a man who can remember how he went to the house of God with the festive multitude and the voice of joy and praise.  In matters of privilege you can go on with meetings and with the festive character of what goes on in the house of God you can have spiritual pleasure in that, but John and Paul both lost this privilege.  Have you enough to go on with even if you lost it?  I do not think any of us could say that we have not had some disquietude of soul when tested in this way.

 

(C A Coates, The Maschil Psalms, page 11.  Nugget suggested by an English subscriber)

Golden Nugget Number 353 

 

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F W Trussler – All we like Sheep have gone Astray

We have another thing brought forward in Isaiah 53: “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way”.  What a multitude of ways are represented here.  We had all taken our own way.  He [the Lord Jesus] never took His own way; He was the only One who had a right to take His own way because of who He was in His Person, but in the dependence and subjection of manhood He went God’s way.  He never went astray, never once in that life, whether early or advanced, whether in private life or home life or ministry.  What a life that was for God, treasured up for God! It was a life spotless, pure and blameless, a life that never went astray, whatever the circumstances were – and they were never rosy, but were always hard and difficult and led through the way of suffering – yet He never went His own way.  Alas, every one of us has gone our own way.  “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way”.  That is responsibility; you cannot evade it, I cannot evade it.  We have turned everyone to his own way; the element of responsibility is in that verse and no one can exclude themselves from it.  Yet He never went His own way.  He said, “Not my will but thine be done”.  Every morning He received the divine word as to the way He should go, the way mapped put for Him in the divine mind and will for every day, yet in His Person, God.  What an adorable mystery that He was God here in the form of a Man, as Man in the way of dependence, waiting on God for guidance in the way He should go! 

(F W Trussler,  Croydon 1959)

 

Golden Nugget Number 351

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C H Mackintosh – What Christ Builds, and what Man Builds.

 

C.H.Mackintosh

It is of the utmost importance to distinguish between what Christ builds, and what man builds. The “gates of hell” will assuredly prevail against all that is merely of man; and hence it would be a fatal mistake to apply to man’s building words that only apply to Christ’s. Man may build with “wood, hay stubble,” alas! He does – but all that our Lord Christ builds shall stand for ever. The stamp of eternity is upon every work of His hand. All praise to His glorious name.

(C H Mackintosh.  Nugget suggested by an English subscriber.)

Golden Nugget Number 348

 

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C A Coates – The Malefactor who Justified Jesus

Charles Coates

This man [the malefactor, Luke 23], who was a reviler stands forth now amid the scenes of Calvary as giving a divine interpretation of all that was going on.  He is one of the most remarkable men in Scripture.  He came forward to declare Christ’s generation.  There was no uncertainty or ambiguity about his own state; he judges that perfectly, for he says, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense for what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss.”  That must have been divinely given.  Everything that the Lord did was amiss in the estimation of the scribes and Pharisees, but the malefactor justifies the Lord in every way; to his soul He was the Christ, the chosen of God, and if He was in the place of judgment it must be in grace.  The thief interpreted it perfectly.  He felt that, if the One who was to have the kingdom was on the cross in grace, he could count on grace toward himself.  He had light on the whole situation; he was in the light of the person.  He was in the light of His death, of His resurrection, of His ascension, His kingdom and His coming again in glory.  The eleven apostles might have sat at his feet and learned wonders!  It reminds me of the Lord’s own words, “the last shall be first.”

(C A Coates, Outline of Luke’s Gospel, pp290-291)

(Suggested by a subscriber.  The Editor recommends reading the whole chapter on Luke 23 in the Outline.)

Golden Nugget Number 347  

 

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John Nelson Darby – God thinks of us

                                                                                                                         

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882)

What a comfort it is to know that God thinks of us, and arranges all for us, though we fail to think of Him! There is not a day, not a moment, but God is thinking of us, and He is above all the plotting of Satan. He will take care of His people. Do they want food? He sends them manna. Guidance? There is the pillar going before them. Do they come to the Jordan? There is the ark there. Have they enemies in the land? There is Joshua to overcome for them. He deals with them in the way of discipline when they need it, as He did with Jacob. He humbled him, but gave him the blessing in the end. What a thought this ought to give us of the love of God, when we thus see His activity in goodness to us all the way through! What comfort to know He is for us, out of the spring and principle of His own love.

(J N Darby, Collected Writings vol.27, p.29)

Golden Nugget Number 345                          

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Brian Deck – Follow the Master

 If I can find another who is following the Master we will walk together

   …I am assured that one thing alone will keep us in these closing moments of testimony; it is our attachment to the Person of Jesus who is the Son of God (Follow the Master); I am convinced of it. Oh let those committals deepen today…may lead you to follow Him. That possibly is the last scripture written, “Follow thou me”, John 21: 23.  You need not look over your shoulder to John or anybody else; my obligation, love’s obligation, is to follow the Master. If I walk alone, I will follow the Master.  If I can find another who is following the Master we will walk together; it is as simple as that, but it is profound.

(B M Deck, Redbridge, 1983)

                                                 Golden Nugget Number 341

 

 

         

 

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Fred Trussler – The Sorrows on Humanity are very Severe

The circumstances through (then WW2, now Covid 19) which men are passing are very acute.  Christians have passed through them too, but the sorrows of humanity are very severe to-day, so in Matthew and Luke it is said of the Lord that He is “a friend of publicans and sinners”, and He did not refuse the title.  He is accessible to men and they can say what they like to Him.  I believe that in times such as these we should be available to men in this manner.  How blessedly it shone in Jesus, “a friend of publicans and sinners”!  Not that He loved sin, neither do we; but He was a friend of publicans and sinners, those who felt their sinnership.

Present circumstances are, I doubt not, ordered of God to bring about conviction in the consciences of men.  Men are drifting away from God; the profession is drifting away rapidly too.  God has ordered the present circumstances, not only in view of His people, but that many might be brought to know Him.  Who is going to be available?  Am I characterised like Jesus?  Can anyone come and open out his heart to me?  Have I, in any way, assumed to be self-righteous? That would put men away from me.  They would say, perhaps: I must not come near to him because I am a sinner.  Am I like God?  Am I like Christ?  Anyone who felt he was a sinner could open out his heart to Jesus.  The woman in Luke 7 could pour it out in tears, and there was also the woman in John 4.  If I have the privilege of being the friend of God and of Christ, am I available to sinners in need?

(F W Trustler, Putney, London 1942.  Editor:  Just as relevant to 2020?) 

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The late Mark Lemon, Stone Publishing Trust, said of Mr. Trussler, “I remember him as a man who had an unusual way of presenting things. I suspect that he spent a great deal of time meditating on the Scriptures and on the things of the Lord

  • “I have not been able to get a great deal of information about our brother except that he was converted during the 1st World War. He worked as a woodman and then in a saw mill.
  • “He was taken to be with the Lord in 1968 when he was in his 80s.” – Source: My Brethren
  • My recollection – A brother was enthusiastically expounding on the thoughts of Jim Taylor and the Exclusive Brethren.  Mr Trussler’s reply: ‘Silly, in’t it!’.- Sosthenes

                                                                       

Wm Johnson- The Bond, Boundary and Power of Fellowship

 

William Johnson (1850-1921)

TThe bond of fellowship is the Lord; the boundary is the death of Christ; the power is in the Spirit. What lies at the heart of the whole matter and what properly leads to fellowship is appreciation of Christ.

William Johnson (1850-1921)

Golden Nugget Number 335

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