Millicent Baptist Church

02/09/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 30 August 2026

Some classic one-liners from G.K. Chesterton,
posted by Bill Muehlenberg in “The Daily Declaration”

Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

If there were not God, there would be no atheists.

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.

One problem with being an atheist is that when something good happens, there is no one to thank.

The Church is always defending on behalf of humanity, what the world at the moment is stupidly attacking.

There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.

These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.

A nation that has nothing but its amusements will not be amused for very long.

If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.

A dead thing can go with the stream but only a living thing can go against it.

Fallacies do not cease to become fallacies when they become fashions.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

31/08/2026

Please join us this Sunday at 10am to hear Ian Brown from Mount Gambier Baptist Church bring us the word.

16/08/2026

13/08/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 16 August 2026.
From “Anecdotes, Incidents and Illustrations” by D. L. Moody

He Honoured the Emperor

It is said that Alexander the Great had a favourite general to whom he had given permission to draw upon the royal treasury for any amount. On one occasion this general had made a draft for such an enormous sum that the treasurer refused to honour it until he consulted the emperor. So he went into his presence and told him what the general had done.

“Did you not honour the draft?” said the emperor.

“No; I refused until I had seen your majesty, because the amount was so great.”

The emperor was indignant. His treasurer said that he was afraid of offending him if he had paid the amount.

“Do you not know,” replied the emperor, “that he honours me and my kingdom by making a large draft?”

Whether the story be authentic or not, it is true that we honour God when we ask for great things.

13/08/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 9 August 2026.
Both stories from “Anecdotes, Incidents and Illustrations” by D. L. Moody

It Took Two

A Scotsman was once asked how many it took to convert him.
“Two,” he replied.
“Two! How was that? Didn’t God do it all?”
“The Almighty and myself converted me,” he said. “I did all I could against it, and the Almighty did all He could for it, and He was victorious.”

Thank God for the Resurrection

At the battle of Inkerman a soldier was just able to crawl to his tent after he was struck down. When found, he was lying upon his face, his open Bible before him, his hand glued fast to the page by his life-blood which covered it. Then his hand was lifted, the letters of the printed page were clearly traced upon it, and with the ever-living promise in and on his hand, they laid him in a soldier’s grave. The words were:
“I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

I want a religion that can comfort even in death, that can unite me with my loved ones. Oh, what gloom and darkness would settle upon this world if it was not for the glorious doctrine of the resurrection! Thank God, the glorious morning will soon break. For a little while God asks us to be on the watch-tower, faithful to Him and waiting for the summons. Soon our Lord will come to receive His own, whether they be living or dead.

13/08/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 2 August 2026.
From “Streams in the Desert” C. E. Cowman (1925)
I am jealous over you with God’s own jealousy. (2 Corinthians 11:2)

How an old harper dotes on his harp! How he fondles and caresses it, as a child resting on his bosom! His life is bound up in it. But, see him tuning it. He grasps it firmly, strikes a chord with a sharp, quick blow; and while it quivers as if in pain, he leans over intently to catch the first note that rises. He strains the chord with the torturing thumb-screw; and though it seems ready to snap with the tension, he strikes it again, bending down to listen softly as before, till at length you see a smile on his face as the first true tone trembles upward.

So it may be that God is dealing with you. Loving you better than any harper loves his harp, He finds you a mass of jarring discords. He wrings your heartstrings with some torturing anguish; He bends over you tenderly, striking and listening; and, hearing only a harsh murmur, strikes you again, while His heart bleeds for you, anxiously waiting for that strain – “Not my will, but Thine be done: - which is melody sweet to His ear as angels’ songs. Nor will He cease to strike until your chastened soul shall blend with all the pure and infinite harmonies of His own being.

Oh, the sweetness that dwells in a harp of many stings,
While each, all vocal with love in a tuneful harmony rings!
But, oh, the wail and the discord, when one and another is rent,
Tensionless, broken and lost, from the cherished instrument.

For rapture of love is linked with the pain or fear of loss,
And the hand that takes the crown, must ache with many a cross;
Yet he who hath never a conflict, hath never a victor’s palm,
And only the toilers know the sweetness of rest and calm.

Only between the storms can the Alpine traveller know,
Transcendent glory of clearness, marvels of gleam and glow;
Had he the brightness unbroken of cloudless summer days,
This had been dimmed by the dust and the veil of a brooding haze.

Who would dare the choice, neither or both to know,
The finest quiver of joy or the agony thrill of woe!
Never the exquisite pain, then never the exquisite bliss,
For the heart that is dull to that can never be strung to this.

23/07/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 26 July 2026
From “Streams in the Desert” by C. E. Cowman

“He giveth quietness” Job 34:20
Quietness amid the dash of the storm. We sail the lake with Him still; and as we reach its middle waters, far from land, under midnight skies, suddenly a great storm sweeps down. Earth and hell seem arrayed against us, and each billow threatens to overwhelm. Then He arises from His sleep, and rebukes the wind and the waves; His hand waves benediction and repose over the rage of the tempestuous elements. His voice is heard above the scream of the wind in the cordage and the conflict of the billows, “Peace, be still!” Can you not hear it? And there is instantly a great calm. “He giveth quietness.” Quietness amid the loss of inward consolations. He sometimes withdraws these, because we make too much of them. We are tempted to look at our joy, our ecstasies, our transports, or our visions, with too great complacency. Then love for love’s sake, withdraws them. But, by His grace, He leads us to distinguish between them and Himself. He draws nigh, and whispers the assurance of His presence. Thus an infinite calm comes to keep our heart and mind. “He giveth quietness.”
“He giveth quietness.” O Elder Brother,
Whose homeless feet have pressed our path of pain,
Whose hands have borne the burden of our sorrow,
That in our losses we might find our gain.

Of all Thy gifts and infinite consolings,
I ask but this: in every troubled hour
To hear Thy voice through all the tumults stealing,
And rest serene beneath its tranquil power.

Cares cannot fret me if my soul be dwelling
In the still air of faith’s untroubled day;
Grief cannot shake me if I walk beside Thee
My hand in Thine along the darkening way.

Content to know there comes a radiant morning
When from all shadows I shall find release;
Serene to wait the rapture of its dawning -
Who can make trouble when Thou sendest peace?

23/07/2026

The Back page for Newsletter 19 July 2026
From “Streams in the Desert” by C. E. Cowman
“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Philippians 4:11)

Paul, denied of every comfort, wrote the above words in his dungeon. A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found everything withered and dying. He asked the oak that stood near the gate what the trouble was. He found it was sick of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was all out of heart because it could not bear grapes, like the vine. The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine a fruit as the peach tree. The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac; and so on all through the garden. Coming to a heart’s-ease, he found its bright face lifted as cheery as ever. “Well, heart’s-ease, I’m glad, amidst all this discouragement, to find one brave little flower. You do not seem to be the least disheartened.” “No, I am not of much account, but I thought that if you wanted an oak, or a pine, or a peach tree, or a lilac, you would have planted one; but as I know you wanted a heart’s-ease, I am determined to be the best little heart’s-ease that I can.”

Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God’s heritage
Can do it as well as you.

They who are God’s without reserve, are in every state content; for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored an hundred-fold.

23/07/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 12 July 2026
From “One Hundred Great Texts and Their Treatment” (1914) by Rev. J. D. Jones

Christ Attracts the Best
It would be a real difficulty in the way of accepting Christianity, says Dr. Gwatkin, if it did not attract the best men of every time. But it does! It had a Paul and an Origen and an Athanasius and an Augustine in the early days; it has had a Newton and a Kepler and a Faraday and a Kelvin in these days of ours. The mightiest minds find in Christ their Master. And at the end of the procession of the gifted and learned who own Christ as Lord is the great teacher of Israel who came to Jesus by night.

Our Lord satisfies the highest as well as the humblest. We are sundered from one another by great chasms of difference. We are rich and poor; we are gifted and commonplace; we are learned and ignorant. But, whatever our condition, Christ is our sufficiency. He meets every need. He satisfies every want. He answers every aspiration. He stoops to the lowest. He is mightier than the mightiest. If only we come to Him, as Nicodemus came to Him, we shall be constrained exultingly to say-
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find.”

23/07/2026

The Back Page for Newsletter 5/7/26

From “One Hundred Great Texts and Their Treatment” by F. M. Barton

The Burden Bearer
In the summer of 1878 I descended the Rigi [a Swiss mountain] with one of the most faithful of the old Swiss guides, who gave me unconsciously a lesson for life. His first care was to put my wraps [outer garments for warmth] and other burdens upon his shoulders. He asked for all; but I chose to keep back a few for special care. I soon found them no little hindrance to the freedom of my movements, but still I would not give them up until my guide, returning to me where I sat resting a moment, kindly but firmly demanded that I should give him everything but my alpenstock [a long wooden pole with a metal spike at one end]. Putting them with the utmost care upon his shoulders, he again led the way. And now I found I could make a double speed with double safety. Then a voice spoke inwardly: “Oh, foolish, willful heart, hast thou indeed given up thy last burden? Thou hast no need to carry them, nor even the right.” Then, as I leaped lightly from rock to rock down the steep mountain-side, I said within myself; “And even thus will I follow Jesus, my Guide, my Burden-bearer. I will cast all my care upon Him, for He careth for me.”