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F.B. Meyer
Frederick Brotherton Meyer (1847 - 1929). English Baptist pastor, author, and evangelist born in London. Converted at eight, he studied at Regent’s Park College and graduated from London University in 1869. Ordained in 1870, he pastored in Liverpool, York, and London, notably at Christ Church, Lambeth, and Regent’s Park Chapel, growing congregations through accessible preaching. A key figure in the Keswick Convention’s holiness movement, he emphasized deeper spiritual life and social reform, advocating for the poor and prisoners. Meyer wrote over 75 books, including The Secret of Guidance (1896) and Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ, with millions of copies sold globally. He traveled to North America, Asia, and South Africa, influencing figures like D.L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon. Married twice—first to Jane Elder in 1874, then Lucy Holloway in 1898—he had one daughter. His temperance work led to 500 pub closures in York. Meyer’s devotional writings and Bible studies remain influential in evangelical circles.
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Sermon Summary
F.B. Meyer reflects on the theme of divine intervention in our lives, using the metaphor of sparrows trapped in a vestry to illustrate how God sometimes disrupts our comfort for our ultimate freedom and growth. Just as the sparrows were unaware that the verger and Meyer were trying to help them escape, we often fail to recognize that God's breaking of our ease is rooted in His love and desire for us to experience true liberty. Meyer draws parallels to Job's suffering, suggesting that God breaks up our complacency to lead us into a deeper relationship with Him and a fuller life. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's unchanging nature amidst life's changes and challenges.
I Was at Ease, and He Brake Me Asunder.
I was at ease, and He brake me asunder. Job xvi. 12 (R.V.). THE other day, it was the Lord's Day morning, two sparrows fell from the leads of my church into the vestry, which has a lofty glass skylight. As soon as they had recovered from their astonishment at finding themselves prisoners, they flew up against this skylight as though to break through it to the open heaven, and then round and round the room. They were desperately afraid of myself and the verger, whom I had called, not realizing that we were as anxious as they to get them out again into the air. The only thing we could do to help them was to keep them from alighting to rest; so with long brooms and soft missiles we constantly drove them from every cornice and picture‑frame on which they alighted, till they fell exhausted, and with panting breasts, to the ground. Then we captured them and set them free. They might have said many a time, in the course of that encounter, "We were at case, and they brake us asunder; they also set us up for their mark." But if they could review that episode now, they would doubtless see that it was love which forbade them to rest anywhere in the vestry, because it desired to give them their fullest liberty. So with Job. God would not allow him to rest in anything short of the best, and therefore He broke up his nest. Is not this the key to his dealings with you? Oh, believe that behind the perpetual change and displacement of your life God is leading you into the glorious liberty of his children! "Therefore to whom turn I but Thee, the ineffable Name? Builder and Maker Thou of houses not made with hands! What? have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same? Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands? There shall never be one lost good."
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Frederick Brotherton Meyer (1847 - 1929). English Baptist pastor, author, and evangelist born in London. Converted at eight, he studied at Regent’s Park College and graduated from London University in 1869. Ordained in 1870, he pastored in Liverpool, York, and London, notably at Christ Church, Lambeth, and Regent’s Park Chapel, growing congregations through accessible preaching. A key figure in the Keswick Convention’s holiness movement, he emphasized deeper spiritual life and social reform, advocating for the poor and prisoners. Meyer wrote over 75 books, including The Secret of Guidance (1896) and Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ, with millions of copies sold globally. He traveled to North America, Asia, and South Africa, influencing figures like D.L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon. Married twice—first to Jane Elder in 1874, then Lucy Holloway in 1898—he had one daughter. His temperance work led to 500 pub closures in York. Meyer’s devotional writings and Bible studies remain influential in evangelical circles.