SOME fifty years ago a very little boy was taken by his father and mother some miles out of London to see his uncle’s mill which stood in a wide meadow, at a place called Upminster, not far from the left bank of the Thames. The picture will give you a very good idea of a windmill with its “sails,” which the wind turns to grind the corn, but the mill I speak of was much larger, and had a gallery round the outside where the sacks of corn and flour were raised from, or lowered into the wagons, when they came to bring the grain or fetch away the flour. It had several windows and doors, and was very lofty too, so that when the little boy went close up to it, the mill looked to him like a great mountain. I happen to know that its enormous sails made a great impression on his mind, as they went round and round with the wind, and swept within a foot or two of his face.
There was such a look of power about those great sails as if nothing could resist them. Have you ever stood close, very close to a lofty mill towering above your head, while the sails went round and round with a creak and a jerk as if they would sweep you away with a touch? If you have, you will know what I mean by power. The great sails I speak of were moved by the wind on that summer’s day fifty years ago, and moved too with all the ease in the world, for it hardly seemed to be blowing at all, and yet it had the power to turn those great sails round about with such force that had one of them touched the boy he would have been brushed out of the way as you would brush a fly off your hand. The power, you see, was in the wind, and if its strength was so great when blowing gently on a warm summer’s day, what must it be when it roars and rushes wildly along, as it sometimes does on the ocean, till by its mighty strength it raises the waters into great mountains, and overwhelms the stoutest vessel that ever sailed! What a poor weak creature man is when he has to contend against the power of the wind! he cannot see it, and yet its strength is perfectly resistless; he may use it for his own benefit, as the mill-owner used it to turn the sails of his mill, but if he has to meet its power, he is swept away, as I have said, like a fly brushed off your hand.
And this makes one think of the power of Him who createth the wind (Amos 4:1313For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name. (Amos 4:13)), and who can stay its force by a word (Matt. 8:2626And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (Matthew 8:26)). What will it be to have to meet that terrible power in judgment! “Power belongeth unto God” (Psa. 62:1111God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. (Psalm 62:11)), power to save and power to destroy, and one or the other all must have to do with. Either you must have and enjoy God’s power to SAVE, or you must meet his power to DESTROY. Have you ever thought of that? If the little boy had had to meet the power of the wind in the sails of the mill where would he have been? But to the owner inside the mill it was quite different. The very same power which would have destroyed anyone against whom it came WAS ON HIS SIDE. It did him good, for it ground his corn, you know, to flour, and then the flour, sold to his advantage and profit, was made into bread for thousands, and thus you may say he lived by the power of the wind. What a blessed thing to have God’s power on your side, His power to save, don’t you think so? And that you can have by believing in Jesus, for does not the Word of God say that the “Gospel of Christ is THE POWER OF GOD unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)), and “Believe on the Lord. Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Have you really believed that Christ has borne your sins “in His own body on the tree,” because God says so? If you have, then you “have redemption through His blood even the forgiveness of sins;” and beside all the blessings this brings to you for time and eternity, you have THE POWER OF GOD on your side—God for you—all through your wilderness journey (Rom. 8). But I must tell you more about the old mill. On one side of this fine large mill stood the stables for the horses, and on the other side was an engine-house. “What was that for?” you will ask. Well, you see when there was no wind blowing at all, the sails would not work, so that at such times the mill would have been useless if it had not been for the steam-engine in the engine-house by its side. The fact is that although this mill was a very fine one, well-built, round like a tower, lofty and picturesque to look at, it had no power of its own, it could do just nothing at all unless it had help, and that help must come from outside itself, for of course you know that the wind was not inside the mill, neither was the steam-engine, although the last was close at hand. Now, when the wind did not blow on the sails the steam was raised in the engine, and that by its power turned the machinery and set the mill a-going to grind the corn. You and I are just like the old mill, we have no power of our own, all must come from God. This is true of all men alike, high and low, learned and ignorant, wise and simple; all the glory of their salvation, if they are to be saved at all, belongs to God. But as the engine was close to the mill ready to act in a moment, so is the power of God ever ready and at hand to help the helpless, and all they have to do is to turn to it. Do you say “I want to be saved, but I have no power even to believe “God’s Word replies,” Whosoever shall CALL on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10). Now, whose fault will it be if any who hear this are lost? For God is willing for all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:44Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)). Then there is another thing about this old mill worthy of notice. You see the engine stood always near,— always at hand to turn the machinery of the mill at any time when power was wanted; but if there had happened to be something wrong with the mill’s machinery, so that it would not turn, what do you suppose would have happened? Why the power of the steam-engine would have smashed the mill machinery to pieces, and the mill would have been wrecked by the very same power which, if all had been right, would have helped it. So it is, and will be with every sinner that will not take the grace God offers. Thus you see we may learn some useful lessons from the old mill, and some solemn ones too. I have reason to know that the little boy enjoyed his visit to his uncle’s very much. Beside the old mill, at some distance stood the white gate leading into the lane all bright with midsummer’s growth of grass and wild flowers. To him, because he was so little, the five-barred gate seemed very high, and it was fun to climb upon it, and have a ride as the gate swung to and fro. Then on the hill, where growing corn stretched far and wide, he had a walk with his father and uncle, and remembers well that the corn stood so high that he could not look over it, and while his uncle was pointing out the beautiful prospect to his father, and explaining this and that far distant object, he seemed to be all the time in a green cage, and could only see down the alleys of corn where the little birds walk and hide, and where the wild rabbits gambol in safety all unseen by the eye of man. I fancy he enjoyed being in that corn-held even more than they did, for they were tall and had to look down upon it, but he was in the midst of it all, and while they were looking at other and distant objects he was peering into all the little sly and shady nooks that opened up on either hand, and made him feel as if he walked in a forest of green where the chequered shade fell, and the sunlight danced with every motion of the summer wind as it moved the rustling leaves of the ripening wheat. He has thought since that perhaps the lowly enjoy much of that which the lofty overlook; at all events, he certainly felt very snug down there among the corn, and has never, since he grew bigger, enjoyed a wheat field half so much. In the evening he had a walk down the green lane that skirted the meadow where the old mill stood, and the high leafy hedges were decked with wild roses which seemed to nod to him as he passed, while bright daisies looked up from the long grass as if they wondered to see a little London boy wandering there so far from the smoke and turmoil of the great city. It is not unlikely that in the course of so many years the whole scene may have become entirely changed. The smooth green meadow, the white gate, the wheat field on the hill, the pleasant lane may exist no more; the ruthless hand of time may have swept away even the old mill itself but if the lessons gathered from it should remain and bear fruit in your heart, it will not have swung its ponderous sails in the summer wind in vain, and you will have cause to remember THE OLD MILL AT UPMINSTER.